The Widening Gender Gap in Opposition to Pornography, 1975–2012

Abstract

In the last several decades pornography in the U.S. has become more mainstream, more accessible, more phallocentric and more degrading to women. Further, consumption of pornography remains a major difference in the sexual experiences of men and women. Yet research has not addressed how opposition to pornography has changed over the this period, despite shifts in the accessibility and visibility of pornography as well as new cultural and legal issues presented by the advent of Internet pornography. We examine gender differences in opposition to pornography from 1975 to 2012, measured by support for legal censorship of pornography in the General Social Survey. Results show that both men's and women's opposition to pornography have decreased significantly over the past 40 years, suggesting a cultural shift toward "pornographication" affecting attitudes. However, women remain more opposed to pornography than men, and men's opposition has declined faster, so the gender gap in opposition to pornography has widened, indicating further divergence of men's and women's sexual attitudes over time. This is consistent with the increasingly normative nature of pornography consumption for men, increases over time in men's actual consumption of pornography, and its increasingly degrading depiction of women.

Are the Sanctified Becoming the Pornified? Religious Conservatism, Commitment, and Pornography Use, 1984–2016*

“…The GSS is a nationally representative survey of the noninstitutionalized adult population in the United States. Since 1984, the GSS asked a series of questions concerning religious belief, practice, and belonging and the variables are often used to isolate conservative Christians (Lykke and Cohen, 2015;Patterson and Price, 2012;Sherkat and Ellison, 1997). Coupled with the information the GSS has collected concerning pornography viewership, these data allow us to track trends in pornography consumption over the past three decades.…”

“…This relative avoidance of pornography among devout, conservative Christians was understandable since, before the Internet, viewing pornography would require venturing to an adult bookstore or theater and putting oneself at risk for being discovered (Thomas, 2016). And while numerous studies since then have considered conservative Christians' attitudes toward pornography (e.g., Jelen, 1986;Lykke and Cohen, 2015;Sherkat and Ellison, 1997), it was not until after the Internet became available in the early 1990s that studies began to reconsider the porn viewing practices of devout, conservative Christians. Findings on that issue have been somewhat mixed depending on the samples and measurements used.…”

“…Pornography use in the United States has grown considerably in the past four decades (Perry and Schleifer, 2018;Price et al, 2016). Most agree that this is due to a combination of pornography becoming more culturally mainstream (Lykke and Cohen, 2015;McNair, 2013) and, most particularly, the greater accessibility, anonymity, and affordability provided by the Internet and smartphone technology Regnerus, Gordon, and Price, 2016). Despite these broader trends, conservative Christians-and most prominently evangelical Protestants-have staunchly opposed pornography's growing acceptability and viewership (Lykke and Cohen, 2015;Patterson and Price, 2012;Perry, 2018;Sherkat and Ellison, 1997).…”

“…Most agree that this is due to a combination of pornography becoming more culturally mainstream (Lykke and Cohen, 2015;McNair, 2013) and, most particularly, the greater accessibility, anonymity, and affordability provided by the Internet and smartphone technology Regnerus, Gordon, and Price, 2016). Despite these broader trends, conservative Christians-and most prominently evangelical Protestants-have staunchly opposed pornography's growing acceptability and viewership (Lykke and Cohen, 2015;Patterson and Price, 2012;Perry, 2018;Sherkat and Ellison, 1997). For conservative Christians, pornography represents a clear violation of biblical mandates to avoid nonmarital sexual desire or "lust," encouraging solo-masturbation and fornication, at best, and at worst contributing to homosexuality, rape, venereal disease, and child molesting (see these claims made in Barna Group, 2016;Driscoll, 2009;LaHaye, 1985).…”

Pornography use and marital quality: Testing the moral incongruence hypothesis

“…While pornography use in general predicts lower marital quality later on regardless of whether the users are violating their own moral views, viewing pornography at higher frequencies while contradicting one's moral values may potentially take a toll on relationship quality. As attitudes toward pornography become more accepting in the United States (Lykke & Cohen, 2015;Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016), it is possible that any moderating effect of moral incongruence will be attenuated. Conversely, if the attitudes of young Americans toward pornography are not changing tremendously (see Price et al, 2016) even as pornography use continues to increase, it may be that more Americans will find themselves in the situation where they are violating their own consciences in viewing pornography, thus holding greater consequences for mental health (Grubbs, Stauner, et al, 2015;Perry, 2017b) or intimate relationships.…”