Is Watching Porn Good

Is Watching Porn Good

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Is watching porn bad for your health? We asked 5 experts

Published: July 8, 2020 9.46pm CEST

Chris Rissel is a Friend of The Conversation.

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Deputy Politics Editor, The Conversation Australia

ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in Sex & Sexuality, La Trobe University

Senior Research Fellow, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University

Head of Young People's Health Research

Professor, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, The University of Melbourne

Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology

Let’s be honest: during coronavirus lockdown it was hard to resist the allure of internet intimacy. Rates of watching porn skyrocketed in Australia during isolation.
But have you ever wondered what effects consuming adult content can have on your health?
We asked five experts whether watching porn is bad for our health.
Their main concerns were about the creation of unrealistic expectations, links with gender-based violence, and the potential for addiction.
But some suggested education can help offset some of these possible harms, and porn can play a positive role for LGBTIQ+ young people.
Here are the experts’ detailed responses:
If you have a “ yes or no ” health question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: liam.petterson@theconversation.edu.au

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Published September 2, 2017 5:58AM (EDT)

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This article originally appeared on AlterNet
There’s no question that porn gets a lot of things wrong about sex . These days, we can’t throw a nipple clamp out of a window without it landing on a study claiming porn is ruining humanity in some way (and probably condemning you for littering). Perhaps a telling example of this is that I typed “porn is” into Google and this was the only suggestion:

Some say porn negatively affects men’s feelings toward women, leads to affairs and addiction, and can even adversely impact users’ attention span and memory.
It remains to be seen what kind of long-term impacts porn will have on us (and the upcoming smartphone generations who now have 24/7 access to porn), but little is said about porn’s redeeming benefits. What, if any, are the ways that porn is good for us?
Let’s, as they might say in a porn, go deep.
1. Does porn make men see women as objects?
Who knows? I’m just a table who somehow knows how to type.
I kid, I kid. But let’s not forget that we have treated women like objects for CENTURIES, long before cheerleaders began having frolicsome locker room orgies. Can we really say that porn is the cause of this objectification? Is it leading to more widespread abuse? Or is something deeper at play?
According to the Atlantic , the ubiquitousness of porn has correlated with a drastic decline in sexual abuse toward women. In fact, as pornography’s accessibility has exploded (from 1990 or so), sexual assault rates have gone down — by 55% in the last 20 years, according to the National Crime Victim Survey . “There is no more extreme or pernicious act of using and abusing women as sexual objects rather than treating them as humans. And to get rape rates as low as porn-saturated 2013 and 2014, you’ve got to go back to the 1970s.”
Furthermore, in a 2009 paper published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Milton Diamond reviewed a broad number of studies that have explored the supposed ill effects of pornography. He concluded, "If anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. . . . No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence."
2. Porn increases sexual and overall satisfaction.
This may sound simple, but watching porn tends to, well, make people feel good.
A 2008 study by researchers studying hardcore porn’s effects on Danish men and women found that “respondents construed the viewing of hardcore pornography as beneficial to their sex lives, their attitudes towards sex, their perceptions and attitudes towards members of the opposite sex, toward life in general, and overall.”
The paper’s abstract ends with: “We conclude that the overall findings suggest that many young Danish adults believe that pornography has had primarily a positive effect on various aspects of their lives.”
The next time anyone mentions “self-care” to you, perhaps you should consider increasing your life satisfaction by engaging in some hand-to-gland combat.
In spite of persistent myths and false information (blindness, hairy palms, etc.) research has consistently shown that masturbation is healthy , increases one’s fertility, and can even make us better partners (because people who masturbate are taking care of their own sexual needs). And what facilitates masturbation better than porn?
What about my rich, interior sexual imagination, you ask? That’s all well and good, but for the 99% of us who aren't Amélie , we need a little extra help.
Need more reasons? According to Planned Parenthood , masturbation releases sexual tension, reduces stress, helps you sleep better, improves your self-esteem and body image, helps treat sexual problems, relieves menstrual cramps and muscle tension, and strengthens muscle tone in your pelvic and anal areas, thus reducing women’s chances for UTIs, incontinence, and other fun things like “uterine prolapse.” In men, masturbation helps reduce the risk of prostate cancer .
Unlike physical sex, watching porn spreads no diseases, leads to zero pregnancies, and doesn’t engage with vicious judgments like slut-shaming (unless, you know, you’re into that). Plus, using porn to satisfy one’s sexual needs is safe, free-to-cheap, and convenient. And it can even be used as a sex aid for IRL sex, as many couples can attest.
“Porn can actually help foster emotional and sexual intimacy,” says psychologist David Schnarch , author of "Resurrecting Sex: Solving Sexual Problems and Revolutionizing Your Relationship." “A significant portion of our work in helping couples develop a deeper sexual connection is through erotic images. Erotica, as well as couples’ own masturbatory fantasies, can be useful tools for helping them develop as adults.”
Even if you’re not masturbating, simply watching porn or reading erotica helps alleviate stress. In possibly the best study in existence from Carnegie Mellon, researchers forced men to look at semi-erotic photos (think Victoria’s Secret catalogs) and then take a math test. Results showed that the men who looked at erotic photos actually did a lot better on the test than men who had, I guess, flipped through "Better Homes and Gardens."
Why? Looking at semi-erotic pictures reduced men’s cortisol (the stress hormone) by half. Lower stress = better concentration (and better mental performance in general). This is also true of women, so ladies, the next time you find yourself faced with a long division problem, perhaps you should pick up that "Fifty Shades of Grey" novel.
6. Porn helps to normalize desires.
Do you enjoy getting off to women farting on cakes? What about popping balloons between your legs? Dressing up as pandas? Harry Potter? Ronald McDonald? Do you like having sex with your car? If you can conceive of a desire, there’s an extremely good chance that internet porn exists to accommodate it.
This cornucopia of xxx-rated images and videos helps to eradicate sexual stigma and reduce shame by showing would-be-wankers that they aren’t alone, that they’re desires are legitimate, and that, while certain fetishes may not be as popular as others, they are out there, nevertheless, and this is a good thing.
7. Mainstream porn gave rise to awesome, queer, diverse, indie porn.
No one questions that mainstream porn has a lot of shortcomings — but one amazing upside of mainstream porn’s profound lack is that we now have tons of sex-positive, feminist, queer, indie, hairy, nonbinary, body-positive, and ethical porn to choose from. Sites like the Pink & White Productions , Indie Porn Revolution , Naughty Natural , FTM F**ker , and many others are changing the porn game, allowing new, diverse desires to be seen and enjoyed and wanked to.
Plus, as I have written before, DIY porn is also seeing its day in the sun, with directors like Madison Young urging folks to get behind (and in front of) the camera. "We can't wait for the mainstream to represent our stories and our sexuality in a way that is authentic and resonates with us," Young told me in a previous interview. “It's up to us — the artists, the activists, to care about and create change for the cultural advancement of our communities, and the way in which we are represented as individuals and sexual beings.”
There’s no better way I can think to stick it to the man than by sticking it to yourself and supporting indie artists and entrepreneurs.
8. Porn helps you figure out what turns you on.
How do sexual beings find out what they like in bed? Unless you are one of the few liars, excuse me, people who only jerk it while thinking of their monogamous partner, you’re probably getting your fantasy fodder from porn and erotica. It is, after all, like masturbation, one of the tools at our disposal to find out what turns us on.
This is especially true for folks with non-mainstream desires, like queer people, kinksters, and those into BDSM. Uninitiated masochists don’t just wake up one day, throw on a ball gag and a rodeo clown outfit, and head down to their local dungeon for some impact play and some needling. Porn is one of the ways we educate ourselves about ourselves, our desires, our hard-nos, our hard-ons, what delights us, what disgusts us, and what disgusts us in a way that actually maybe we might sort of like with the right person in the right circumstance.
It’s a safe, judgment-free way to explore, expand our horizontal horizons, and learn about the wild, wild world of arousal.
Without the existence of smut, this Tumblr of indifferent cats in amateur porn also would not exist. Is that really a world you want to live in?
And neither would “ safe for work ” porn, whereby porn stills are digitally altered to appear as if porn performers are, say, enjoying a cola, shaving a poodle, or helping Santa Claus deliver some presents.
Then there’s Blackboards in Porn , whereby a person analyzes the math equations, grammar lessons, and other writing on blackboards in the backgrounds of porn videos. E = MC BARED
And let’s not forget Just Another IKEA Catalog , a Tumblr dedicated to “Scandinavian modern style furniture and accessories in amateur pornography.” The list goes on and on.
@annapulley writes about sex and social media for SF Weekly, AlterNet, After Ellen and the Chicago Tribune. She's also attempting to lead a haiku revival on her blog, annapulley.com . Let her send you overly personal emails: http://tinyletter.com/ annapulley .
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*First Published: Jul 8, 2014, 12:00 pm CDT

Posted on Jul 8, 2014 Updated on Jul 16, 2020, 10:09 pm CDT
On the internet, it’s easier to find a screed about why you need to give up porn or why it’s ruining our kids , our relationships , and our lives than it is to read about potential benefits of porn. You can blame almost anything on porn, from the shortening of our attention spans to the rising divorce rates . Most recently, Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) called pornography a “root cause” of school shootings .
While pornography won’t be curing cancer anytime soon, it isn’t always as bad as the anti-porn frenzy would suggest (the internet’s version of Reefer Madness ) and, in fact, comes with surprising benefits for porn users. While we’ve also covered the very real dangers of porn addiction , there’s worth in discussing its benefits. To defend porn against its critics, three porn enthusiasts from the Daily Dot’s past and present—EJ Dickson, Nico Lang, and Kristen Hubby—are here to tell you some of the benefits of porn.
Despite the many , many , many studies claiming that porn is bad for your brain and your relationships , there are just as many studies saying that porn does not cause irrevocable harm to the brain or your sex life—in fact, it might even be kinda good for you . In a paper from 2008, two Danish researchers Gert Hald and Neil Malamuth concluded from a survey of 688 Danish adults that porn did not yield any negative mental or health effects . In fact, the researchers found a positive correlation between the subjects’ porn viewing and increased sexual satisfaction, as well as self-reported benefits in other areas of their lives.
And as for the old chestnut that too much porn viewing can lead to addiction ? The consensus is still pretty split on that one, but some sex researchers like Dr. Louanne Cole Weston believe it’s important to differentiate between an addiction and a compulsion, in the same vein as compulsive nail-biting.
“People who say pornography is an addiction, they tend to come from the addiction community and not always the field of mental health or sexuality,” Weston told me a few months ago. “They tend to say ‘This is dangerous, porn is fraught with danger. You better watch out, it’s a slippery slope.’ It was sort of the same as people in the drug addiction community saying if you smoke pot, you better watch out or you’ll be doing heroin.”
Translation: Porn is probs not gonna send you on the street, muttering to yourself about alien satellites in your brain with needles in both your arms. If anything, the only thing it’ll probably do is make your arm a little buffer. — EJ Dickson
Some nights you want to get dolled up, put on a freakum dress , and pretend to be someone who does not eat food out of the garbage long enough to trick a guy into having sex with you, but you don’t always want to put in the kind of effort that involves changing out of your pajama pants. In lieu of being able to have sex with your Netflix subscription (in which case no one would ever leave the house), free Internet porn is the next best thing.
Those who are anti-porn might suggest that you use your one-some time to create your own erotic fantasy, escaping into the vast Blue Lagoon-like garden of your sexual imagination, but that’s not really the point of pornography. Porn is great for when you want your fantasies created for you; because let’s be honest, we’re not always that creative. For someone who writes for a living, my erotic reveries are shockingly dull, displaying all the playful imagination of a golf match. You can only picture George Clooney being bent over a table so many times before you beg to change the channel. (Sorry, G-Cloo.)
I don’t think pornography is a replacement for the real thing, but research has shown that having a healthy masturbation schedule actually makes us better sex partners—and partners in general. While being good for your physical and mental health (as EJ mentioned), it’s a way to continue making sure that your own sexual needs are being met outside of the bedroom, which is likely why it’s so common, even for those in relationships.
“ Surveys show that anywhere from 70 to 95 percent of adult men and women get it on alone, and, yes, that includes people involved in monogamous relationships,” wrote The Frisky’s Erin Flaherty. “According to Kinsey research, 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women in relationships masturbate. A survey of Playboy readers found 72 percent of married men masturbate, and a similar Redbook survey found 68 percent of married women do it, too.”
As Flaherty argues, watching porn in a relationship isn’t cheating, just like watching it when you’re single doesn’t make you immoral or perpetuate our singledom. It’s a necessary part of self-love. Besides, if you’re worried that porn might be ruining your sexcapades or your relationships , perhaps they weren’t that good to begin with.
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