13 ms·

Porn use and men's and women's sexual performance

163 points by jinjin2 4y ago

superchroma 4y ago
"The results revealed a twofold phenomenon. Among men, a higher frequency of porn use and increased porn use over time were associated with lower levels of sexual self-competence, impaired sexual functioning, and decreased partner-reported sexual satisfaction. In contrast, among women, higher and increasing frequencies of porn use were associated with higher levels of sexual self-competence, improved sexual functioning, and enhanced partner-reported sexual satisfaction (for some aspects)."
- jinjin2 4y ago
  Interesting paradoxical conclusion: “The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience – is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives.”
  - matbatt38 4y ago
    If the metric is partner-reported sexual satisfaction, it seems more likely to me that women's porn consumption increases men's sex life. It stills works in that direction
  - what-imright 4y ago
    Yea that sentence shows a bias. Very shady
  - superb-owl 4y ago
    I think this actually makes a lot of sense. Porn is engineered to suit men's desires and tastes, rather than women's. Watching it teaches both groups to accept norms that are preferential to men. If you're a (hetero) man, this makes you a more selfish partner and vice versa for a woman.
    - fold3 4y ago
      Exactly my thoughts. Meanwhile, I think more straight cismen should read the sex section of women magazines (ELLE, Marie-Claire, etc) to get the basics of what women likes and wants.
    - canjobear 4y ago
      While this makes sense, it's not convincing to me because it seems that similar logic could be applied even if the observed results were the opposite. Ie if porn increased men's performance and decreased women's performance, that could also be explained from porn teaching norms that are preferential to men.
    - numpad0 4y ago
      Porn properly engineered to suit men’s desires suck. This is just my experience but they don’t work. Good porn has female audiences or are sometimes even authored by cis female person even when the product is classified as “for men”. I don’t know if opposite is true as well but this “porn is men’s thing made by men” don’t seem factual. Sorry if I’ll be somehow offending trans or cat people by saying this, but not everyone has a concrete gender identification above life and always prefixing their thoughts with that.
    - dehugger 4y ago
      I think this theory falls flat based on the conversations I've had with other women about this. I don't know a single woman that enjoys watching content geared towards heterosexual men. Of the ones that do watch (as opposed to reading erotica, which is far more prevalent) they almost exclusively go to niche sites/genres intended to appeal to women, or they watch amateur content.
  - numpad0 4y ago
    > a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience Or this isn't reflecting the reality as we would think it is
- User23 4y ago
  Let’s not forget that old arrow of causality. Perhaps men who are bad at sex are more likely to view porn rather than viewing porn making them bad at sex. Similarly maybe women who view porn are already sexually successful and are looking for ideas. Male and female sexual function aren’t particularly comparable either. If a man can’t get an erection then sexual intercourse just isn’t going to happen. There’s no hard analog for women. That’s just one example, there are many others. > and enhanced partner-reported sexual satisfaction (for some aspects)." I read this as something like: women who watch porn are more likely to perform fellatio well.
  - gizajob 4y ago
    In my experience, real-world fellatrices are either naturally good at it, or aren't. I don't think porn presents a good demonstration of competent technique or how to adapt one's style to changing circumstances.
  - derbOac 4y ago
    There's another issue with causality: maybe women who are disinterested in sex, for reasons that have nothing to do with their partner, are unfulfilling to their male partner, who starts to blame themselves and seek out porn? This is kind of a classic dead bedroom problem. Tellingly, as far as I can tell, they left out analyses of the relationship between self-reported sexual satisfaction with their partner and porn use. That is, how related is my sexual satisfaction with my partner to how often I seek out porn? Both of these types of processes play out in sex education and couples therapy settings: women who complain about men who have unrealistic ideas about sex due to porn, and don't seem to care about their satisfaction; but also men complaining about sexually cold female partners who aren't interested in sex, and so they find themselves interested in porn more as a result. It's hard to tell from the study results what's going on, or both.
tmsh 4y ago
This assumes sexual performance in a relationship is worth optimizing for. There may be many other factors at play. Reduction of time spent thinking sexual thoughts. Partner’s with a reduced sex drive or disability etc. Just worth bearing in mind the study (which is very useful/interesting) looks at just one objective. There’s also the degree and how long one looks at porn. And how that can free up time for other things that are attractive in relationships (financial security etc). As a hypothetical consider a person who looks at porn for 5min every two days, and stays very focused on accumulating wealth for a few years and then reduces this and focuses more on sexual performance.
- emptysongglass 4y ago
  > This assumes sexual performance in a relationship is worth optimizing for. I think this is sending the wrong signal to readers. Yes, ninety percent of the time it is worth optimizing for. It's literally what we're wired to do and your partner will appreciate it. That doesn't mean that that ten percent of an outlier doesn't exist but broadcasting doubt that it is worth optimizing for is not the wisdom most people need to hear.
  - schroeding 4y ago
    ... or just ask your partner and if it really is unsatisfactory, you can always buy a Hitachi or something and use that together. And maybe don't trust HN for relationship advise. :D Sorry. :P
emptysongglass 4y ago
Wife and I are in an open relationship, this is anecdotal: number of men she's hooked up with who get performance anxiety is massive like it's at least 60 to 70 percent of men who have a hard time getting and maintaining an erection.
- theplumber 4y ago
  - emptysongglass 4y ago
    Why would she be playing me? I often get videos with the men's consent (when she's found a guy who, ahem, functions) so I don't think there's anything to play me for.
    - theplumber 4y ago
      >> Why would she be playing me? To keep the status quo.
      - emptysongglass 4y ago
        What's the status quo, exactly? You seem to be pitching a whole lot of negative assumptions for someone who knows nothing about me.
        theplumber 4y ago
        >> What's the status quo, exactly? If your wife would tell you are mediocre compared with the guys she meets, would you still be "open" to the open relationship?
      - imbnwa 4y ago
        He already refuted your implicit gender assumption
superb-owl 4y ago
> The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience – is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives I wonder if the effect would hold if there were more porn that caters to women. Or if consumption of romance novels has a similar but inverted effect.
- standardUser 4y ago
  I know a lot of women who watch hardcore porn and no one who reads romance novels (that I know of!). I think there is plenty of room for more and better porn (for both women and men) but the idea that women don't want to see graphic sex is a myth.
  - superb-owl 4y ago
    To be clear - I'm not saying women don't watch porn. What I'm saying is that porn creators mainly optimize their product for a male audience. I imagine porn made "by women for women" would look quite different.
dundarious 4y ago
Sample collection was from solicitation by a YouTuber: > In June 2015, the French YouTuber Mathieu Sommet posted an online video that invited his followers to complete a questionnaire entitled ‘Sexual profile of adults’.^2 A total of 171 462 participants (18+ year-olds) started the questionnaire, and 101 572 finished it. There’s probably some value in the study, but it’s probably inappropriate to draw hard conclusions from it (pun not intended).
- stickfigure 4y ago
  > There’s probably some value in the study As a rough approximation, it's probably fair to assign it the same value as youtube comments.
Comevius 4y ago
This wasn't in the paper, but men in general tend to be geared toward non-emotional stimulus and action-oriented thinking. Their supernormal stimulus is hardcore and paraphilic porn for this reason, which then of course invokes unfavorable comparisons, because of how unrealistic they are. Women in general respond to emotional stimulus better. Their supernormal stimulus is erotic romance, also known to create unrealistic expectations, however these expectations are about men, not the readers themselves. I don't know porn much, but I know erotic romance, and it's central thesis is that it's a form of fantasy in which the MFC (main female character) is wanted by one, sometimes two (menage) and occasionally more (reverse harem) MMCs (main male characters). The allure is that she is the center of their world. HEA (happily ever after) is usually expected, especially for romance, and cheating is forbidden. Alpha males, billionaires, daddy and stepbrother types are the most popular MMCs, along with aliens and monsters. The pattern is being able to tame, or at least withstand or even enjoy something possessive, dominant and aggressive. Another pattern is being able to lay down the burden of having to be in control, or having adult responsibilities altogether. Women also enjoy reading about gay men, reportedly because they don't have to identify with an MFC. In romance it is important to create an emotional framework that explains why the characters want each other, and in erotic romance this can happen through sexual discovery. Being fated to be together is a popular, if lazy framework. Erotica without an emotional framework is much less popular and hard to monetize because the payment processors are squeamish of adult content in the first place and the readers tend to feel bad about just erotica, which is a recipe for disaster. Reportedly erotic romance actually helps women improve their sexual life, perhaps because it encourages sexual discovery.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  This strikes me as cultural. In the vein of "guys like drawing dicks on things". Not only do I not do that but I know few who do across many countries. This makes me think that this stuff is cultural mimicry resulting in conforming to local gender roles rather than a true gender divide. Happy to alter beliefs based on evidence that target this specific notion: that it is not subcultural.
  - peoplefromibiza 4y ago
zasdffaa 4y ago
A question. I've no problem with hardcore porn but I'm put off by badly by some of what I assume to be porn oriented at men; completely emotionless robotic banging. Porn for women is much more affectionate and for me that makes it so much more enjoyable. I really want to see people genuinely having a good time or (to me) what's the point. I don't know if I'm unusual in this but I'd like to know what other people think. I seriously wonder if a lot of porn produced is aimed at what the studios think the audience want rather than actually finding out if it is. I could well be wrong though. No judgement on anyone for liking what I don't, that's fine. So, is it just me?
- herbst 4y ago
- standardUser 4y ago
  I think the massive increase in amateur porn is filling this gap. Much of the content on PornHub is now amateur, and there are camming sites like Chaturbate that feature real couples having live sex, and of course OnlyFans. I think there are plenty of amazing "mainstream" porn scenes out there too, but they tend to get lost in an endless sea of repetitive sub-par pro porn.
- ldjb 4y ago
  Interesting question. A few thoughts: Obviously everyone's tastes are different but, broadly speaking, the most popular porn videos do not tend to be the most romantic or sensual. That said, there are many niches in porn, and videos made for women can be very successful within that niche. Producers are incentivised to create videos that will sell. It's not much good if a video is popular on free tube sites but nobody pays for it. There is evidence to suggest that women are a lot less likely to pay for porn than men are, and there is therefore a lot less of an incentive to create porn for that demographic. Creating romantic/passionate porn is not easy! The script and casting (amongst many other things) need to be just right for it to work. Therefore it's going to take more time and effort. So many studios will focus on mass producing videos. There's an obvious trade-off between quality and quantity, and many studios will have found that it's just more profitable to churn out videos as quickly as possible.
unknownsky 4y ago
I suspect this is because porn is usually (not always) made by men, for men. Women watching porn learn about what men like. Men watching porn get further entrenched in their own desires, and learn to expect that sex will play out in a way that they themselves prefer.
georgia_peach 4y ago
The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times Latest example: Taylorism, applied to the bedroom.
collegeburner 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- vonseel 4y ago
  People are always way less active today, which could explain some of the ED in 20-30 something range versus men that age 25+ years ago. I think people can be too quick to point at porn as causing ED when it could be any combination of things (obesity, poor cardio health, nutrition, etc)
  - collegeburner 4y ago
    most of my social circle is in very good shape so nah thats not it. and a bunch have tried dropping it for a few months and it partially went away.
- idrios 4y ago
  Don't mock the research if you agree with it. This research is absolutely necessary for awareness and advocacy. Now when you claim porn ruins young adults' sexual health, you can cite this article to back it up. But also take solace that this is becoming more common knowledge among young people anyway, despite older generations being in denial over it.
  - collegeburner 4y ago
    yeah fair ig i'm more trying to mock the people where u tell them and they're like "sHoW ME the STudiES". kinda frustrating that a bunch of people been saying this for years and got ignored and kinda frustrating everybody acting like this some huge revalation.
jquaint 4y ago
From the paper > Accordingly, and contrary to what is often suggested in popular books on the psychology of pornography (e.g. Zimbardo & Coulombe, Reference Zimbardo and Coulombe2015), men who face sexual problems and choose to terminate porn use may experience only marginal improvements in their sexual lives (assuming that we can draw causal inferences from our findings); similarly, women who face sexual problems might be well advised not to consider porn use to be a sexual panacea. This is interesting for sure but you can't draw sweeping conclusions from this research.
Ycombigatorz 4y ago
Porn's main customer historically has been men, so it predominantly has fulfilled male needs. In broad brush strokes : Women know what arouses men from watching porn. Men know what arouses themselves from watching porn.
throwaway81523 4y ago
Ok, I went and RTFA'd even though most of us probably want just 1 bit from the article (1=it helps 0=it hurts). Result (TLDR): for men, 0; for women, 1.
_8j50 4y ago
Porn alters how you see yourself and how you interact with others as a result.
tpoacher 4y ago
> The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry♧ that targets a male-dominated audience♤– is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives. Are ♧ and ♤ true? Or did the paper just make this factoid up on the spot? My gut feeling would have been that it's dominated by women instead, and that the audience skewness would be a reflection of that more than anything.

163 points by jinjin2 4y ago

"The results revealed a twofold phenomenon. Among men, a higher frequency of porn use and increased porn use over time were associated with lower levels of sexual self-competence, impaired sexual functioning, and decreased partner-reported sexual satisfaction. In contrast, among women, higher and increasing frequencies of porn use were associated with higher levels of sexual self-competence, improved sexual functioning, and enhanced partner-reported sexual satisfaction (for some aspects)."

jinjin2 4y ago
Interesting paradoxical conclusion: “The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience – is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives.”
- matbatt38 4y ago
  If the metric is partner-reported sexual satisfaction, it seems more likely to me that women's porn consumption increases men's sex life. It stills works in that direction
- what-imright 4y ago
  Yea that sentence shows a bias. Very shady
- superb-owl 4y ago
  I think this actually makes a lot of sense. Porn is engineered to suit men's desires and tastes, rather than women's. Watching it teaches both groups to accept norms that are preferential to men. If you're a (hetero) man, this makes you a more selfish partner and vice versa for a woman.
  - fold3 4y ago
    Exactly my thoughts. Meanwhile, I think more straight cismen should read the sex section of women magazines (ELLE, Marie-Claire, etc) to get the basics of what women likes and wants.
  - canjobear 4y ago
    While this makes sense, it's not convincing to me because it seems that similar logic could be applied even if the observed results were the opposite. Ie if porn increased men's performance and decreased women's performance, that could also be explained from porn teaching norms that are preferential to men.
  - numpad0 4y ago
    Porn properly engineered to suit men’s desires suck. This is just my experience but they don’t work. Good porn has female audiences or are sometimes even authored by cis female person even when the product is classified as “for men”. I don’t know if opposite is true as well but this “porn is men’s thing made by men” don’t seem factual. Sorry if I’ll be somehow offending trans or cat people by saying this, but not everyone has a concrete gender identification above life and always prefixing their thoughts with that.
  - dehugger 4y ago
    I think this theory falls flat based on the conversations I've had with other women about this. I don't know a single woman that enjoys watching content geared towards heterosexual men. Of the ones that do watch (as opposed to reading erotica, which is far more prevalent) they almost exclusively go to niche sites/genres intended to appeal to women, or they watch amateur content.
- numpad0 4y ago
  > a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience Or this isn't reflecting the reality as we would think it is
User23 4y ago
Let’s not forget that old arrow of causality. Perhaps men who are bad at sex are more likely to view porn rather than viewing porn making them bad at sex. Similarly maybe women who view porn are already sexually successful and are looking for ideas. Male and female sexual function aren’t particularly comparable either. If a man can’t get an erection then sexual intercourse just isn’t going to happen. There’s no hard analog for women. That’s just one example, there are many others. > and enhanced partner-reported sexual satisfaction (for some aspects)." I read this as something like: women who watch porn are more likely to perform fellatio well.
- gizajob 4y ago
  In my experience, real-world fellatrices are either naturally good at it, or aren't. I don't think porn presents a good demonstration of competent technique or how to adapt one's style to changing circumstances.
- derbOac 4y ago
  There's another issue with causality: maybe women who are disinterested in sex, for reasons that have nothing to do with their partner, are unfulfilling to their male partner, who starts to blame themselves and seek out porn? This is kind of a classic dead bedroom problem. Tellingly, as far as I can tell, they left out analyses of the relationship between self-reported sexual satisfaction with their partner and porn use. That is, how related is my sexual satisfaction with my partner to how often I seek out porn? Both of these types of processes play out in sex education and couples therapy settings: women who complain about men who have unrealistic ideas about sex due to porn, and don't seem to care about their satisfaction; but also men complaining about sexually cold female partners who aren't interested in sex, and so they find themselves interested in porn more as a result. It's hard to tell from the study results what's going on, or both.

tmsh 4y ago

This assumes sexual performance in a relationship is worth optimizing for. There may be many other factors at play. Reduction of time spent thinking sexual thoughts. Partner’s with a reduced sex drive or disability etc. Just worth bearing in mind the study (which is very useful/interesting) looks at just one objective. There’s also the degree and how long one looks at porn. And how that can free up time for other things that are attractive in relationships (financial security etc). As a hypothetical consider a person who looks at porn for 5min every two days, and stays very focused on accumulating wealth for a few years and then reduces this and focuses more on sexual performance.

emptysongglass 4y ago
> This assumes sexual performance in a relationship is worth optimizing for. I think this is sending the wrong signal to readers. Yes, ninety percent of the time it is worth optimizing for. It's literally what we're wired to do and your partner will appreciate it. That doesn't mean that that ten percent of an outlier doesn't exist but broadcasting doubt that it is worth optimizing for is not the wisdom most people need to hear.
- schroeding 4y ago
  ... or just ask your partner and if it really is unsatisfactory, you can always buy a Hitachi or something and use that together. And maybe don't trust HN for relationship advise. :D Sorry. :P

emptysongglass 4y ago

Wife and I are in an open relationship, this is anecdotal: number of men she's hooked up with who get performance anxiety is massive like it's at least 60 to 70 percent of men who have a hard time getting and maintaining an erection.

theplumber 4y ago
- emptysongglass 4y ago
  Why would she be playing me? I often get videos with the men's consent (when she's found a guy who, ahem, functions) so I don't think there's anything to play me for.
  - theplumber 4y ago
    >> Why would she be playing me? To keep the status quo.
    - emptysongglass 4y ago
      What's the status quo, exactly? You seem to be pitching a whole lot of negative assumptions for someone who knows nothing about me.
      - theplumber 4y ago
        >> What's the status quo, exactly? If your wife would tell you are mediocre compared with the guys she meets, would you still be "open" to the open relationship?
    - imbnwa 4y ago
      He already refuted your implicit gender assumption

superb-owl 4y ago

> The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry that targets a male-dominated audience – is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives I wonder if the effect would hold if there were more porn that caters to women. Or if consumption of romance novels has a similar but inverted effect.

standardUser 4y ago
I know a lot of women who watch hardcore porn and no one who reads romance novels (that I know of!). I think there is plenty of room for more and better porn (for both women and men) but the idea that women don't want to see graphic sex is a myth.
- superb-owl 4y ago
  To be clear - I'm not saying women don't watch porn. What I'm saying is that porn creators mainly optimize their product for a male audience. I imagine porn made "by women for women" would look quite different.

dundarious 4y ago

Sample collection was from solicitation by a YouTuber: > In June 2015, the French YouTuber Mathieu Sommet posted an online video that invited his followers to complete a questionnaire entitled ‘Sexual profile of adults’.^2 A total of 171 462 participants (18+ year-olds) started the questionnaire, and 101 572 finished it. There’s probably some value in the study, but it’s probably inappropriate to draw hard conclusions from it (pun not intended).

stickfigure 4y ago
> There’s probably some value in the study As a rough approximation, it's probably fair to assign it the same value as youtube comments.

Comevius 4y ago

This wasn't in the paper, but men in general tend to be geared toward non-emotional stimulus and action-oriented thinking. Their supernormal stimulus is hardcore and paraphilic porn for this reason, which then of course invokes unfavorable comparisons, because of how unrealistic they are. Women in general respond to emotional stimulus better. Their supernormal stimulus is erotic romance, also known to create unrealistic expectations, however these expectations are about men, not the readers themselves. I don't know porn much, but I know erotic romance, and it's central thesis is that it's a form of fantasy in which the MFC (main female character) is wanted by one, sometimes two (menage) and occasionally more (reverse harem) MMCs (main male characters). The allure is that she is the center of their world. HEA (happily ever after) is usually expected, especially for romance, and cheating is forbidden. Alpha males, billionaires, daddy and stepbrother types are the most popular MMCs, along with aliens and monsters. The pattern is being able to tame, or at least withstand or even enjoy something possessive, dominant and aggressive. Another pattern is being able to lay down the burden of having to be in control, or having adult responsibilities altogether. Women also enjoy reading about gay men, reportedly because they don't have to identify with an MFC. In romance it is important to create an emotional framework that explains why the characters want each other, and in erotic romance this can happen through sexual discovery. Being fated to be together is a popular, if lazy framework. Erotica without an emotional framework is much less popular and hard to monetize because the payment processors are squeamish of adult content in the first place and the readers tend to feel bad about just erotica, which is a recipe for disaster. Reportedly erotic romance actually helps women improve their sexual life, perhaps because it encourages sexual discovery.

renewiltord 4y ago
This strikes me as cultural. In the vein of "guys like drawing dicks on things". Not only do I not do that but I know few who do across many countries. This makes me think that this stuff is cultural mimicry resulting in conforming to local gender roles rather than a true gender divide. Happy to alter beliefs based on evidence that target this specific notion: that it is not subcultural.
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago

zasdffaa 4y ago

A question. I've no problem with hardcore porn but I'm put off by badly by some of what I assume to be porn oriented at men; completely emotionless robotic banging. Porn for women is much more affectionate and for me that makes it so much more enjoyable. I really want to see people genuinely having a good time or (to me) what's the point. I don't know if I'm unusual in this but I'd like to know what other people think. I seriously wonder if a lot of porn produced is aimed at what the studios think the audience want rather than actually finding out if it is. I could well be wrong though. No judgement on anyone for liking what I don't, that's fine. So, is it just me?

herbst 4y ago
standardUser 4y ago
I think the massive increase in amateur porn is filling this gap. Much of the content on PornHub is now amateur, and there are camming sites like Chaturbate that feature real couples having live sex, and of course OnlyFans. I think there are plenty of amazing "mainstream" porn scenes out there too, but they tend to get lost in an endless sea of repetitive sub-par pro porn.
ldjb 4y ago
Interesting question. A few thoughts: Obviously everyone's tastes are different but, broadly speaking, the most popular porn videos do not tend to be the most romantic or sensual. That said, there are many niches in porn, and videos made for women can be very successful within that niche. Producers are incentivised to create videos that will sell. It's not much good if a video is popular on free tube sites but nobody pays for it. There is evidence to suggest that women are a lot less likely to pay for porn than men are, and there is therefore a lot less of an incentive to create porn for that demographic. Creating romantic/passionate porn is not easy! The script and casting (amongst many other things) need to be just right for it to work. Therefore it's going to take more time and effort. So many studios will focus on mass producing videos. There's an obvious trade-off between quality and quantity, and many studios will have found that it's just more profitable to churn out videos as quickly as possible.

unknownsky 4y ago

I suspect this is because porn is usually (not always) made by men, for men. Women watching porn learn about what men like. Men watching porn get further entrenched in their own desires, and learn to expect that sex will play out in a way that they themselves prefer.

georgia_peach 4y ago

The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times Latest example: Taylorism, applied to the bedroom.

collegeburner 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
vonseel 4y ago
People are always way less active today, which could explain some of the ED in 20-30 something range versus men that age 25+ years ago. I think people can be too quick to point at porn as causing ED when it could be any combination of things (obesity, poor cardio health, nutrition, etc)
- collegeburner 4y ago
  most of my social circle is in very good shape so nah thats not it. and a bunch have tried dropping it for a few months and it partially went away.
idrios 4y ago
Don't mock the research if you agree with it. This research is absolutely necessary for awareness and advocacy. Now when you claim porn ruins young adults' sexual health, you can cite this article to back it up. But also take solace that this is becoming more common knowledge among young people anyway, despite older generations being in denial over it.
- collegeburner 4y ago
  yeah fair ig i'm more trying to mock the people where u tell them and they're like "sHoW ME the STudiES". kinda frustrating that a bunch of people been saying this for years and got ignored and kinda frustrating everybody acting like this some huge revalation.

jquaint 4y ago

From the paper > Accordingly, and contrary to what is often suggested in popular books on the psychology of pornography (e.g. Zimbardo & Coulombe, Reference Zimbardo and Coulombe2015), men who face sexual problems and choose to terminate porn use may experience only marginal improvements in their sexual lives (assuming that we can draw causal inferences from our findings); similarly, women who face sexual problems might be well advised not to consider porn use to be a sexual panacea. This is interesting for sure but you can't draw sweeping conclusions from this research.

Ycombigatorz 4y ago

Porn's main customer historically has been men, so it predominantly has fulfilled male needs. In broad brush strokes : Women know what arouses men from watching porn. Men know what arouses themselves from watching porn.

throwaway81523 4y ago

Ok, I went and RTFA'd even though most of us probably want just 1 bit from the article (1=it helps 0=it hurts). Result (TLDR): for men, 0; for women, 1.

_8j50 4y ago

Porn alters how you see yourself and how you interact with others as a result.

tpoacher 4y ago

> The findings reveal the irony that porn – a male-dominated industry♧ that targets a male-dominated audience♤– is associated with the erosion of the quality of men's sex lives and the improvement of women's sex lives. Are ♧ and ♤ true? Or did the paper just make this factoid up on the spot? My gut feeling would have been that it's dominated by women instead, and that the audience skewness would be a reflection of that more than anything.