Bleakley's study brings up an interesting alternative perspective on how being sexually active may encourage more consumption of sexual media. Usually the relationship is thought of as more causal with "exposure to sexual content" being the "precursor to sexual behavior," but what if the relationship was actually simultaneous and a two way street?
Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the ultimate alpha male in Don Jon, which introduces Joseph at the club, hooking up with any attractive girl he wants. He is on a streak, going home with women that he and his friends have rated at least an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale on consecutive nights. He then is blown away by Scarlett, who he calls a "dime." Initially, his only goal is to have sex with her, but he realizes that the only way that that will happen is if he makes her his girlfriend and they go for the long haul. During this time, Joseph falls in love with Scarlett and they start dating genuinely, but after the first night of sex, Scarlett catches Joseph watching porn. She is not satisfied by Joseph's explanation of "reading emails" and immediately becomes very upset, calling it the "most disgusting thing she has ever seen." She starts packing her stuff to leave, but Joseph persuades her that it was a "joke that a dumbass buddy sent to him." He even says, "Do you really think I'm the type of guy that watches porn? Cause effin losers watch porn--guys that can't get laid." Scarlett reluctantly agrees, but is convinced when Joseph tells her "he loves her." He then promises to never watch again. But what is interesting is that he only watches more and more as the movie progresses. Every week Joseph goes to confession and he reports how many times he watched porn. In the following break up scene, Scarlett tells Joseph that she looked through his browser history and found 46 visits to porn sites. This is interesting because there does exist a stigma around porn and that it is reserved for people that cannot "get the real thing" but clearly, that stigma is contradicted by both Bleakley's study and Joseph's actions. As Joseph becomes more and more sexually active, he is only more drawn to the graphic content. He starts watching it whenever possible, even watching during class on his phone.
So why does he watch so much of it? According to Joseph, porn offers an escape. "Once in a while, you find a clip that's so good, it's effin depressing. You think to yourself, why can't real pussy be like this? You know I smash new girls all the effin time but they are never this effin good." Because women in real life do not perform sexually the way they do in porn, Joseph needs to use porn to satiate himself sexually. In a way, this supports Bleakley's application of the "uses and gratifications model" with Joseph using the sexual content to "gratify his needs." This also supports Bleakley's claim that this relationship creates a vicious cycle where Joseph's porn usage teaches him what to expect from sex, encouraging him to pursue sexual partners to experience what he sees in porn, but because reality never quite lives up to the choreography of porn, Joseph has to keep watching porn in order to satisfy himself. This cycle actually exists outside of the movie, and there has been a growing movement against pornography because many feel that its unrealistic portrayals of intercourse prevent real couples from having fulfilling sexual lives.
As technology and the internet become more prevalent parts of our society and education, I don't doubt that pornography will become even more pervasive. Pornhub is known to be very disruptive in its marketing campaigns and recently they announced that they would be advertising on a billboard in Times Square. Everyone knows that pornography is degrading for women, but what about the women that make ridiculous amounts of money starring in the films? Are they gaining or losing?
Bleakley,A., Hennessy, M., Fishbein, M., &Jordan, A. (2008). It works both ways: The
relationship between exposure to sexual content in themedia and adolescent sexual
behavior.Media Psychology,11(4), 443-461. doi: 10.1080/15213260802491986
John, I think you made a very interesting connection between the Bleakley article and the Uses and Gratifications model. Just as in the study, it is difficult to differentiate whether Don's sexual activity effects how he consumes pornography or if that relationship is working in reverse. Along with the stigma of ‘porn is for people who can’t get the real thing’, I think that there also resides an attitude that porn is for male consumption.
I found this article http://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-relationships/reasons-guys-watch-porn from Women’s Health Magazine that talks about reasons why men like to watch porn. The list included: it is safer than sex with strangers, we are aroused by visual stimulation, it allows us to live vicariously, and it lets us be selfish. Wouldn’t all of those same reasons apply to females as well as males?
At the end of your post you mentioned how pornography is degrading to women and are the women starring in them ‘winning or losing’. I would like to reframe that question and ask couldn’t you ask the same about the men in the video? I agree that women are more obviously demeaned, but aren’t the men as well?
Thank you for your thought provoking post, Charlotte
I think this movie is really interesting and you bring up some good points. For instance, when you mentioned that porn is an unrealistic portrayal of sex for couples and can be detrimental to their relationships. I don't necessarily agree with this statement. Similar to what Charlotte mentions in her post about the celeb photo scandal and Jennifer Lawrence taking those pictures for her long distance boyfriend so he wouldn't feel that he needs to get sex from other places. I don't know if I'm just being naive or I don't know because I'm not a boy, but I really don't feel like porn is that horrible. I just don't think it would be that detrimental for someone in a relationship to watch porn, especially in a long distance relationship like Jennifer Lawrence. That could just be me though, just thought I'd share my thoughts on that.
To answer your question, if women are gaining or losing by participating in porn if they are making a lot of money and becoming widely known around the country, I think this is up for discussion. I don't think it's the norm to want to grow up and become a porn star but for whatever these people are willing to do so, and if this makes them feel good about themselves and they're happy then I guess they're winning in the end.
In relation to Charlotte's question, about men who star in porn winning or losing, they essentially are in the same boat as women. However, the difference here is that in most pornography, women tend to be the main focus and men the main audience. I would argue that there may be more instances of degrading images on women in porn while not as much of men especially if they're being seen as masculine and powerful in sexual situations.
John,
ReplyDeleteI think you made a very interesting connection between the Bleakley article and the Uses and Gratifications model. Just as in the study, it is difficult to differentiate whether Don's sexual activity effects how he consumes pornography or if that relationship is working in reverse. Along with the stigma of ‘porn is for people who can’t get the real thing’, I think that there also resides an attitude that porn is for male consumption.
I found this article http://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-relationships/reasons-guys-watch-porn from Women’s Health Magazine that talks about reasons why men like to watch porn. The list included: it is safer than sex with strangers, we are aroused by visual stimulation, it allows us to live vicariously, and it lets us be selfish. Wouldn’t all of those same reasons apply to females as well as males?
At the end of your post you mentioned how pornography is degrading to women and are the women starring in them ‘winning or losing’. I would like to reframe that question and ask couldn’t you ask the same about the men in the video? I agree that women are more obviously demeaned, but aren’t the men as well?
Thank you for your thought provoking post,
Charlotte
I think this movie is really interesting and you bring up some good points.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, when you mentioned that porn is an unrealistic portrayal of sex for couples and can be detrimental to their relationships. I don't necessarily agree with this statement. Similar to what Charlotte mentions in her post about the celeb photo scandal and Jennifer Lawrence taking those pictures for her long distance boyfriend so he wouldn't feel that he needs to get sex from other places. I don't know if I'm just being naive or I don't know because I'm not a boy, but I really don't feel like porn is that horrible. I just don't think it would be that detrimental for someone in a relationship to watch porn, especially in a long distance relationship like Jennifer Lawrence. That could just be me though, just thought I'd share my thoughts on that.
To answer your question, if women are gaining or losing by participating in porn if they are making a lot of money and becoming widely known around the country, I think this is up for discussion. I don't think it's the norm to want to grow up and become a porn star but for whatever these people are willing to do so, and if this makes them feel good about themselves and they're happy then I guess they're winning in the end.
In relation to Charlotte's question, about men who star in porn winning or losing, they essentially are in the same boat as women. However, the difference here is that in most pornography, women tend to be the main focus and men the main audience. I would argue that there may be more instances of degrading images on women in porn while not as much of men especially if they're being seen as masculine and powerful in sexual situations.