By MELISSA WELLHAM
What is porn good for? Aside from the – ahem – obvious.
Well, as it turns out… Straight men who watch pornography are more accepting of gay marriage.
Out of all the film genres, porn (does it count as a ‘genre’?) has perhaps the worst reputation. It’s more maligned than the garden-variety romantic-comedy; promoting an even more damaging stereotype of women than a Sarah Jessica Parker movie.
It portrays all men as terrifyingly endowed, relentlessly virile and more macho than Bruce Willis in Die Hard Whatever Number We’re Up To Now. And there are many out there who believe that porn is about as necessary as another Fast and the Furious flick.
However, putting aside the common criticisms frequently directed at porn – that it portrays an inaccurate male-centric version of female sexuality, that it teaches men to treat women as sex objects, and that it makes men lazy (because, you know, if a woman enjoy giving oral sex so much then there’s certainly no point in making sure she receives it) – there might be some positives to porn.
Namely, that heterosexual men who watch porn are more likely to support homosexual marriage. Seriously.
New research published in an American journal Communication Research, found that men who viewed more porn in 2008, were more likely to support same-sex marriage in 2010. But why?
Exposure to porn may cause heterosexual men to be more accepting of “non-traditional sexual situations.” As Wright explained to the Examiner, if people think “individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to have same-sex sex, they will also think that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to get married to a partner of the same-sex.”
The theory that porn causes men to favor marriage equality was also recently argued by University of Texas professor Mark Regnerus, who gained notoriety in 2012 for a now widely denounced study that found children of gay parents were worse off than those of straight parents.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the second explanation – from a man who argued that children of gay parents were worse off than children of straight parents – might be displaying some of his own biases in arguing that porn diminishes sex by removing it from its marital roots.
Which is perhaps the problem with any scientist specifically formulating a study to prove that watching porn makes heterosexual men more accepting of gay marriage. Was this study designed to raise porn as an ‘art form’ in the eyes of little-‘l’-liberals, who are also likely to support gay marriage? Or was it designed to diminish the concept of gay marriage?
Linking gay marriage to porn arguably degrades gay marriage. Just like the common (and bollocks) argument against gay marriage that “next The Gays will be able to marry their brothers. Who are also animals”. It makes homosexuality something deviant. Something wrong. Which is completely and utterly unfair.
But perhaps neither interpretation of the study is correct. Perhaps this study about two highly contentious topics – porn and gay marriage – is wholly objective, and untainted by bias. It could happen.
In any case, the final conclusion of the study was that, in general, men are still less likely to support marriage equality than women. No matter how much porn they watch.
Have you ever watched pornography? What do you think makes a person more likely to be accepting of gay marriage?
Top Comments
Porn is fun, it gives a bit of fun to the bedroom. Trying to do something they do! It allows people to learn stuff.
I am someone who is married, been with one person 12 yrs. and enjoy both guys & girls. It allows me to see what I like & hubby likes it. It's fun & so is a whip lol. People need to loosen up. Enjoy life
The link that is being presented is tenuous at best. To proclaim that the BEST thing about porn is that people will be more likely to embrace homosexuality? Please. That is a complete furphy and distracts from the real issue about dangers of the proliferation of (hard core) porn on the internet in the past 15-20 years.
What is not being talked about enough is how the consumption of internet pornography is re-wiring and distorting little boys sexual desires and brains and the impact that it will have on their future relationships. (To be fair, in this comment, I acknowledge that Mia has written about this a few times).
Studies are starting to show that 100% of boys, by the time they are 15, in countries such as Australia and the USA, have been exposed to internet pornography in some way, shape or form. Gone are the days where looking at some static pictures of women's breasts and possibly her vagina was the worst thing they saw when they were 12 years old and sexually curious.
I've seen what is on the "tame" porn websites and that frightens me. I'd hate to think what is on the actual hardcore ones. It makes me shudder to think what inhumane stuff must be out there for little boys to discover.
At this stage, I liken the levels of the consumption of hard core porn (and general acceptance of it) to smoking cigarrettes back in the olden days. It was something almost everyone did and accepted it on face value. It was barely questioned by society. It was something done regularly for relaxation and fun.
The tobacco industry for many many years was unregulated and exploited that to the maximum. Incidentally, it still isn't in countries such as Indonesia that had the 2 year old chain smoker that the world recoiled in horror when it saw the YouTube video. It wasn't until people that had been smoking for years that smoking started to present real issues with peoples physical health and western society finally did something about it.
As it stands today, the porn industry is, on the whole, very unregulated but yet it is one of the biggest industries in the world. It is a global profit driven machine with no regard whatsoever of the long term impacts that their product(s) may have on the mental health of it's users. The hard core stuff is just getting worse too.
I hope that one day, hard core porn will be consumed like cigarettes are. I hope that it becomes more of an actual choice (not necessarily a given), whereby the user is totally aware of the health risks involved of too much usage.
I find it disappointing how often critics of porn completely discount the possibility of female porn comsumers. "Oh no, the little boys have their view of sex distorted!" By the time I was 15 I had watched porn too, and continued to do so on a regular basis throughout my teens, because teenagers of any gender are hormonal and sex crazy, not only boys. It was then, and continues to be, disappointing to me that the industry seems to have a very archaic view of what it's audience actually is - I fancy watching women having sex with multiple men, because I find men attractive, and it's always disappointing when those films spend the whole time showing only a woman and not the men she's with.
And my view of sex wasn't skewed. I haven't gone on to be desperate for male approval, or tried to change the way I behave sexually to please men.
I lost my virginity at 20. I have had only 2 sexual partners, and am now at 25 engaged to the second. I have never had anal sex because I choose not to. And I also do not feel judgemental toward those who have had more sexual partners, or who enjoy sex acts that I don't.
My ideas about what is acceptable and not acceptable in personal sexual relationships was ultimately determined by the values my parents instilled in me, about respect for myself and my right to make my own choices.
Boys and men are not different. Their sexual expectations are not defined by their teenage porn habits, but by the environment and the values that surround them.
Banning porn will not make them have a better understanding of personal relationship development. The only thing that can do that is teaching them how to develop personal relationships in a meaningful and respectful way.
I think that is great that you enjoy porn and that you had parents that instilled strong values in you so that you could enjoy it within a context and understand the fantasy element to it. It would be great if every other person had the same perspective and experience as you.
I never said that porn should be banned. You are making an assumption that I am arguing that angle when that is not the case at all.
Scientists who study brain development will totally disagree with the assertion that boys and men's brains are the same.
Its really disappointing that when these types of discussions arise people take the issue personally and only think of their own experience.
I would like to hope that you havent totally dismissed the legitimate claim (that is starting to be made my scientists who study in this this field) that overuse of porn (and in particular hard core porn) may lead to less than ideal health consequences.
I love watching porn too, and do so regularly. But just because we enjoy something doesn't mean we can deny that it causes harm. Studies show that regular viewing of porn does rewire the brain to change attitudes about sex, power and genders. Multiple studies show it, in fact!
I'm glad you've had positive experiences with porn, but that doesn't mean it's not having an incidious effect on society we don't yet recognoise...probably because our norms are being changed by porn.