Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis

Abstract

The damaged goods hypothesis posits that female performers in the adult entertainment industry have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman. The present study compared the self-reports of 177 porn actresses to a sample of women matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status. Comparisons were conducted on sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use. Porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, first had sex at an earlier age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of CSA. In terms of psychological characteristics, porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group. Last, female performers were more likely to have ever used 10 different types of drugs compared to the comparison group. A discriminant function analysis was able to correctly classify 83% of the participants concerning whether they were a porn actress or member of the matched sample. These findings did not provide support for the damaged goods hypothesis.

Drug-related celebrity deaths: A cross-sectional study

“…wrestling, American football, rugby) seem to be a vulnerable group [18]. Furthermore, with 13.7% of the deceased actors in our study found to be in the pornographic film industry, our data support the findings of earlier authors who found an increased likelihood for drug abuse in male and female porn actors [19, 20]. …”

Student involvement in the UK sex industry: motivations and experiences

“…As sex work research tends to focus on the problematic aspects of it, these intrinsic motivations and positive experiences tend to stay under the radar. That sex work is not necessarily a negative experience is also suggested by a recent study with 177 porn actresses which found that these women did not report poorer well‐being compared to a matched comparison group (Griffith et al ). In our study a range of negative experiences were also mentioned, however, broadly covering the stressful nature of the work itself (potentially unpleasant customers, fear of violence), its psychological consequences (for self‐esteem and attitudes toward sex), its social consequences (the stigma attached to it which drives negative judgement from friends and family and concomitant secrecy) and the socio‐legal employment context within which the work is embedded (e.g.…”

The determinants of a pornography actress’s career life

“…Other studies related to pornographic films mostly focus on the explorations that viewers may have caused sexual risk behaviours (Tadesse & Yakob, 2015) and subsequent sexually transmitted diseases (Mahapatra & Saggurti, 2014). For pornography actress production, there are few studies addressing related issues, such as the effects of pornography consumption on U.S. males in Wright (2013) and on gender equality in Baron (1990), and the damaged goods hypothesis on female performers in Griffith, Mitchell, Hart, Adams, and Gu (2013). In an empirical study of the A.V.…”