Sex.co.nz

Gotta love those Canadians. Researchers at the University of Montreal have found that regularly watching porn has no ill effects on how a man views or interacts with the opposite sex.

Considering that organizations like Stop Porn Culture base their condemnation of porn on the basis that it reduces women to sex objects and encourages men to be “sexually callous,” this study has the potential to upend these judgments and usher in a new, more understanding view of porn as part of a sexually healthy lifestyle.

When you think about it, it’s obvious that porn can’t be as bad as its critics have portrayed. If pornography were a direct cause of violence against women, you’d expect to see an increase sexual violence. However, over the past ten years, rates of sexual violence have fallen in Australia (data unavailable for New Zealand). At the same time, access to and consumption of pornography has skyrocketed.

Interestingly, the study was funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, an organization that would have a strong motive to find links between porn and sexual violence.

Today, most men have access to porn and look at it on a regular basis, and the world hasn’t fallen to pieces. In fact, it could be argued that men are more aware than ever of the importance of respecting women.

The University of Montreal study originally aimed to compare porn users with men who’d never looked at porn. There was only one problem. Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse explains:

“We started our research seeking men in their twenties who had never consumed pornography. We couldn't find any.”

The study discovered that regular porn consumption, which was defined as 40 minutes three times a week for single men and 20 minutes just under twice a week for men in committed relationships, had no negative effects on a man’s sexual practices, relationship health, or views towards women.

Although the research subjects had been looking at porn since early adolescence (most boys seek out porn around 10 years of age to satisfy their curiosity about sex), Lajeunesse notes:

“Not one subject had a pathological sexuality. In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional.”

That’s good news for the porn industry, which has often been accused of corrupting the youth.

One criticism of the study has been its limited pool of subjects: the study surveyed just 20 male heterosexual university students. Hopefully, the study will expand to include a greater cross-section of the male population, including older men who grew up in an era when the only pornography available was in “girlie magazines.”

Porn industry leaders should also take note of the fact that 90% of the pornography that these college-age men consumed was online, and only 10% was from the video store. It appears that none of the interview subjects bought adult magazines.