Pornography and the Male Sexual Script

• In Event: 090 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Sex Work

Abstract

Pornography has become a primary source of sexual education. At the same time, mainstream
commercial pornography has coalesced around a relatively homogenous script involving
violence and female degradation. Yet little work has been done exploring the associations
between pornography and dyadic sexual encounters; what role does pornography play inside real
world sexual encounters between a man and a woman? Cognitive script theory argues media
scripts create a readily accessible heuristic model for decision-making. The more a user watches
a particular media script, the more embedded those codes of behavior become in their worldview
and the more likely they are to use those scripts to act upon real life experiences. We argue
pornography creates a sexual script that then guides sexual experiences. To test this, we surveyed
487 college men (ages 18-29 years) in the United States to compare their rate of pornography use
with sexual preferences and concerns. Results showed the more pornography a man watches, the
more likely he was to use it during sex, request particular pornographic sex acts of his partner,
deliberately conjure images of pornography during sex to maintain arousal, and have concerns
over his own sexual performance and body. Further, higher pornography use was negatively
associated with enjoying sexually intimate behaviors with a partner. We conclude that
pornography provides a powerful heuristic model which is implicated in men’s expectations and
behaviors during sexual encounters.

Author

• Jennifer A. Johnson, Virginia Commonwealth University