“Pornography has stepped in and taken over the narrative of what sex is”
An expert discusses the top reasons women watch porn and explains how it plays an important role in our society.
In the age of the internet, the vast majority of us will have consumed pornography at some point, as it has become more accessible than ever.
But this raises some obvious questions.
Singer Billie Eilish has previously spoken out about how porn “destroyed” her brain while she watched it since she was 11, while Kanye West spoke about his battle with porn addiction. Meanwhile, former porn star Lana Rhodes has been an outspoken critic of the porn industry, previously saying it should be “outlawed”.
However, watching porn is still seen as a quintessentially male activity, which means discussions about the impact of porn on women are often ignored.
To discuss this issue, PoliticsJOE's Oli Dugmore recently spoke with sociologist Dr. Fiona Vera-Gray, who has published her new book, Female Pornography: One Hundred Stories. An important conversation.
In a wide-ranging interview, the sociologist from City University London talks about the online porn industry, the social impact of porn, how it negatively affects perceptions of women, and the importance of regulating the porn industry.
As Dr. Vera-Grey points out, the prevalence of pornography in our society means that “no one can anymore say they have nothing to do with pornography.”
She continued: “Whether you use it yourself or not, you have a relationship with it because it dominates society, because your partner is using it, your friends are using it, your teachers, your children's Teachers and probably your friends are using it. Kids, your coworkers, the bus driver are seeing it.
“We're in a society where media is a huge part of consumption.”
While statistics show that the majority of people who watch porn are men, research shows that millions of women also watch porn.
Ofcom research conducted during the coronavirus pandemic found that 16% of women with internet access visited PornHub in September 2020. Among younger women, that number rises to one in three.
Dr. Vera-Grey said that in addition to the fairly obvious reasons for viewing, many women seek out adult content and learn about sex for practical reasons.
After speaking to 100 women about their experiences and interactions with pornography, she said the “number one” reason they viewed adult content was “things like mentorship.”
“One, women talk about watching porn for guidance and things like that, but that's not always a bad thing,” Dr. Vera-Grey said. “I want to know how to give oral sex, and I'm 16,” Dr. Vera-Grey said. , I've never done it and I'd like to know what it's like. “
“Watch porn to see what it would be like to do specific sex acts that you haven't done yourself because you want to test it out before doing it. So go ahead and look for guidance.
She explains that porn starts to do this to women, especially in the “lack of sex education that doesn't really talk to people about why people actually have sex.”
While mentorship is one of the main reasons women watch porn, another reason is “expectation.”
The academic revealed that women talked about the fact that “sometimes, they had watched a lot of porn before they had any kind of sexual interaction themselves.”
As a result, this sets up a “sexual script” in women's minds, especially those in their 20s, about “what sex is, how you do it, who does it to you, and what actions are pleasurable.”
She continued: “So I had some women talk about things like how it wasn’t until they were in their twenties that they felt like they could say they didn’t like having their hair pulled because boys pulled their hair all the time.
“They feel like there's something weird about them, and actually they don't like it because that's what happens in all the porn they see, and that's what boys see.
Addressing a general point about the social function that porn now fulfills, she said: “It's not necessarily 'monkey see monkey do', we're complex so it's not that simple. But we also can't say it doesn't fulfill a social function , this feature is needed because we live in a society surrounded by sex, but we don’t talk about it from a realistic perspective.
“There’s still such a stigma about talking about it that everyone is so far removed from the reality of actually talking about what they do, when and why. And then there’s the huge long-standing gap in educational work and a host of issues that mean pornography has stepped in , and sort of capture the narrative of what sex is, how it’s done and why it’s done.”
You can watch the full interview below, or on the PoliticsJOE YouTube channel here.
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