November 20, 2004

• A couple of weeks ago, 20/20 aired an interesting show on everyone's favorite topic called, "Sex: Myths, Lies & Straight Talk". 

  
  

  One of the "popular notions" blasted was the belief that women do not like porn.  20/20 cited a recent Stanford University study that found women in fact do get turned on after watching just a couple of minutes of an adult video.  Evolutionary Anthropologist Helen Fisher, a research professor at Rutgers University, also asserts that women do enjoy sexually explicit material with a context -- i.e. features with a plot like those produced by Vivid or Wicked.

  
  

  20/20 did not provide many details about the research, so I looked into it myself.  The study was performed by a team of medical doctors and Ph.D. researchers at Stanford's School of Medicine.   Twenty test subjects viewed a twenty-three minute "sequence of randomly ordered relaxation and erotic tapes both with and without [sound]."  The women were between the age of 20-30 and of a variety of races.  "The physiologic parameters of vaginal blood flow, galvanic skin resistance, respiration, pulse, and blood pressure, as well as self-reported level of arousal, were simultaneously recorded and correlated with video segments."  In other words, the researchers were looking for physically objective and subjective evidence that the women were "turned on." 

  
  

  The study concluded that watching the videos for two or more minutes was correlated with increased vaginal blood flow, increased respiration and pulse.  Interestingly, audio did not increase subjective arousal, which may not be a surprise to many porn viewers who have long suffered through countless scenes filled with fake moaning and/or cheesy music soundtracks.  The research was funded by Pfizer, Inc. (makers of Viagra) and the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources. 

  
  

  The research, titled "Female Sexual Arousal: A Behavioral Analysis" was published December 2003 in the well respected, serious medical journal, Fertility and Sterility (Volume 80, Issue 6).  An abstract of the study can be found here.  If you want to read the full text, a PDF version can be purchased for $30.

  
  

  ABC conducted an online poll after the show aired and asked the following:

  
  

  Do women like porn?

  
  

  Yes, it's as big a turn-on for women as it is for men.
  

  
  

  No, women find pornography degrading and distasteful.
  

  
  

  54.7% said YES
  

  
  

  45.3% said NO

  
  

  Other research also suggests that women enjoy adult material more than previously believed.  According to Nelson/NetRatings, "the industry standard for measuring online audiences", nearly one on three visitors to adult web sites are women.  These findings were the result of a study involving 40,000 panelists at home and work.  In September 2003, Nelson estimated that 9.3 million women in the United States accessed such sites.

  
  

  Who would have guessed?!

  
  

  -- Snowman

  
  

  For further reading:

  
  

  Porn Videos Arouse Women More Than Men (ANI article, Sify.com, 12.20.03)
  Women Account for Hefty Portion of Web Porn Viewing (Newhouse News Service, 10.31.03)

  • 4:53 pm
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