German Heterosexual Women’s Pornography Consumption and Sexual Behavior

Abstract

This study found that German heterosexual women's personal and partnered consumption of pornography were positively correlated with their desire to engage in or having previously engaged in submissive (but not dominant) sexual behaviors such as having their hair pulled, having their face ejaculated on, being spanked, choked, called names, slapped, and gagged. The association between women's partnered pornography consumption and submissive sexual behavior was strongest for women whose first exposure to pornography was at a young age. The findings also indicated that women's personal and partnered pornography consumption were uniquely related to their engagement in submissive sexual behavior. Public Health Significance Statement: This study suggests that greater exposure to pornography among heterosexual German women is associated with their desire to engage in or having previously engaged in submissive sexual behaviors but not dominant behaviors. This pattern of correlations aligns with sexual script theory and content analyses of dominance and submission and gender in pornography. It does not align with the perspective that measures of pornography consumption are simply proxies for factors such as a high sex drive or an adventurous approach to sex.

Feeling Scared During Sex: Findings From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women and Men Ages 14 to 60

“…Choking and other aggressive behaviors (such as hitting and forceful hair pulling) were also often described among the scary sexual experiences. Like anal sex, choking appears to have become more commonly portrayed in sexually explicit media and sexual choking behaviors (and interest in choking) are associated with pornography use (Bridges, Sun, Ezzell, & Johnson, 2016;Sun, Wright, & Steffen, 2017). In recent years, choking and various forms of breath restriction/ breath play have also become a part of nonsexual games that some adolescents engage in (Linkletter, Gordon, & Dooley, 2010).…”

Pornography and Sexual Behavior: Do Sexual Attitudes Mediate or Confound?

“…Previous studies of pornography consumption and more unrestricted, permissive sexual attitudes and behaviors have generally found similar associations for men and women (Carroll et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2017;Willoughby et al, 2014;. Zero-order correlations between the study's measures by gender are provided in Table 1.…”

“…As another example, although studies have tested whether pornography viewing correlates with gendered attitudes (J. D. Brown & L’Engle, 2009; Garcia, 1986) and predicts nonsexual gendered behavior (McKenzie-Mohr & Zanna, 1990; Mulac, Jansma, & Linz, 2002), the question of whether gendered attitudes confound or mediate the relationship between pornography viewing and gendered sexual behavior (e.g., Sun et al, 2017; Wright et al, 2015) is in need of address. Confidence in the role of attitudes as a confound or mediator will be bolstered if results converge across a variety of sociosexual contexts.…”

“…Alternatively, it may be the case that most users are uninfluenced while a minority of users are powerfully affected (e.g., Malamuth, Hald, & Koss, 2012). Or it may be the case that the likelihood of effects increases gradually as certain personal attributes or situational factors become correspondingly more or less present or active (e.g., Sun et al, 2017; Wright et al, 2015). Variables such as a belief in the social realism of pornography, an earlier age of first exposure to pornography, the perception that pornographic scripts have functional value, higher estimates of peer engagement in sex acts correspondent to pornography, identification with actors in pornography, and the use of intoxicants during sex are all factors that prior studies suggest may enhance the probability that pornography users will model what they see (Baams et al, 2015; Gottfried, Vaala, Bleakley, Hennessy, & Jordan, 2013; Moyer-Guse, Chung, & Jain, 2011; Peter & Valkenburg, 2010; Sun et al, 2017; Wright et al, 2015).…”

“…Many other studies have also correlated pornography consumption with various types of sexual behavior, controlling for demographic and other individual differences but not for attitudes toward the specific sexual behaviors under study (e.g., Bradley et al, 2016; Braun-Courville & Rojas, 2009; Hald, Kuyper, Adam, & Wit, 2013; Lo, Neilan, Sun, & Chiang, 1999; Lo & Wei, 2005; Morgan, 2011; Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004; Sun, Wright, & Steffen, 2017; Wright, Sun, Steffen, & Tokunaga, 2015). There is at least some preliminary evidence, however, that pornography-sexual behavior associations may maintain when sexual attitudes are controlled.…”