by Jason Stotts
There is a new study being done looking to understand how exactly real people use porn in their everyday lives. I want to encourage everyone to go and take the survey and be honest in your responses, even if you never use porn. This information could really help shed light on porn usage and show that porn won’t drive you to insanity. (H/t Tristan Taormino)
Thank you very much for your interest in our research. We want to emphasise from the outset that the research we are conducting is unlike almost all the previous research that has been conducted on pornography. In the past, pornography has overwhelmingly been assumed to be a ‘problem’, and the only really important questions to ask about it are – how much do people (and especially children) encounter it, and how great is the ‘harm’ that it does? This research is different.
Our project is concerned with the everyday uses of pornography, and how the people who use it feel it fits into their lives. Pornography is of course a highly topical issue, subject to many opposing views and ‘strong opinions’. And we are not saying that there are no moral or political issues. But we are saying that the voices of users and enjoyers have been swamped. In fact, there is very little research that engages with the users of pornography, asking how, when and why they turn to it.