Internet pornography: a social psychological perspective on internet sexuality

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2001 by William A. Fisher, Azy Barak

Definitions of erotica, degrading pornography, and violent pornography can be problematic. A primary concern is that achieving agreement about whether sexually explicit materials--on or off the Internet--fall into the broad categories of erotica, degrading pornography, or violent pornography, remains an unrealized objective. Although researchers such as Barron and Kimmell (2000) and Cowan and Dunn (1994) have studied the reliability of judgments of degradation and violence in small fragments of sexually explicit materials (e.g., 5-minute clips from full-length videos, and individual scenes in magazines, videos, and stories), our ability to reliably categorize complex and intact sexually explicit offerings, in the units in which they are experienced and interpreted by users, remains to be established. Moreover, whether or not sexually explicit materials that are categorized as erotica or as degrading pornography or violent pornography are actually spontaneously perceived and interpreted as such by consumers of sexually explicit material remains an entirely unanswered empirical question. Is it the case that what the researcher designates as violent pornography is spontaneously perceived and interpreted by the average male as an endorsement of the utility and normativeness of violence against women? Is it the case that what the researcher designates as erotica is spontaneously perceived and interpreted by the average female as a nondegrading sexual portrayal?

What lessons can be taken from efforts to define sexually explicit materials and applied to inform research on Internet sexuality? We would suggest that concerns regarding reliability and validity of definitions of sexually explicit materials can and should be addressed empirically, in order to facilitate meaningful study of Internet sexuality. Research concerning categorization of sexually explicit materials, in the complex and intact forms in which they are experienced, can address reliability concerns in an ecologically valid fashion. Research concerning the crucial question of whether or not categorizations of erotica, degrading pornography, and violent pornography reflect spontaneous perceptions and interpretations of consumers of such material can address critical validity issues that have been raised. Until reliability and validity concerns about the definition of sexually explicit materials have been addressed, it will be difficult to map the content of Internet sexuality, to conceptualize or study effects of Internet sexually explicit materials, or to craft educational interventions or sociolegal policies concerning Internet sexuality.

What do We Know About the Prevalence of Sexually Explicit Materials?

Research interest in sexually explicit materials is historically associated with concern that such materials are enormously prevalent and are saturating society at an accelerating rate with each passing year (Fisher & Barak, 1991). During the 1980s, a time of intense research interest in sexually explicit materials, a report in the Psychology of Women Quarterly informed readers that X-rated materials in the U.S. represented "... an estimated $8 billion industry of misogyny per year" (Cowan, Lee, Levy, & Snyder, 1988, pp. 309-310) and the U.S. Attorney General's Commission reported that violent pornography was "... the most prevalent form" of sexually explicit material (U.S. Attorney General's Commission, 1986, p. 323). At the same time, a best-selling human sexuality textbook speculated that $1 billion per year of the U.S. sexually explicit media industry involved sales of child pornography (Hyde, 1986) and the important antipornography documentary film, Not a Love Story, informed its viewers that the sexually explicit media are controlled by organized crime (Sherr-Klein, 1981).