It’s becoming increasingly apparent in the debates surrounding porn that statistics are being used like weapons. At the recent Cambridge debate, data, or the lack thereof, was an important factor in how points were presented. And dodgy statistics and studies about porn seem to be everywhere.
Now we have a chance to help create some unbiased research into the topic of how people use porn.
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Pornography Research Online wants to talk to porn users and get an idea of how people interact with porn. I’ll let them do the talking:
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.
At the Erotics Conference last week I was privileged to meet Clarissa Smith, the author of One For The Girls, a look at how UK women interacted with For Women magazine. We had a great chat about porn for women and she told me about the porn research project. I said I’d help get the word out.
So, here’s your chance to be heard. The survey may take half an hour of your time but it will be worth it. The result should be something that actually reflects our own experiences with porn, without the judgemental nonsense or “addiction” paradigms built in.