Pornography and the Human Sexual Desire

As quoted from Madame de Stael, “the desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man”. Human sexual desire is defined as an interest in sexual activities or objects, which may also be known as lust. Typically, there are a variety of different sexual desires and these variations could be triggered by both external or internal factors. Pornography, as an external factor, gives the option for someone choosing their own preference on what they enjoy watching.

From these different sexual preferences, we see gender differences that explains the behaviors and different cues from both the male and female. While women tend to have this romantic fantasy of sex, men like to think they are inducing great pleasure to their sexual partner from their own sexual talent (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 122).

The scientific analysis of pornography shows us that human sexual desire is different for every person, no matter your sexual orientation. We each respond to our own unique pattern of sexual cues; there is no fixed cue (Ogas & Gaddam, 2011, pg. 238). Historically, heated debates on the concepts of sexual agency and objectification have defined the grounds for those in support and those against pornography (Ogas and Gaddam, pg. 47). Mainly, critics argue that pornography leads to the objectification of women, but researchers have found out that feminist pornography shows female sexual empowerment. Society now might think that women do not watch porn like men do, but lately, there has been developing an  enthusiasm for ladies watching sex entertainment, alongside the likely impact of female utilization (Chadwick, Raisanen, Goldey, and Anders, Pg. 1853, 2018). In this experiment, Chadwick, Raisanen, Goldey, and Anders had a sample size of 21 women. To those 21 women, they showed a 2-hour film of a porn film. Out of those 21 women, about 80 percent of them enjoyed the film, and the rest of 20% discussed how that porn film felt risky for them (Chadwick, Raisanen, Goldey, and Anders, Pg. 1858, 2018). While some women do enjoy watching porn, a portion of women do not enjoy watching it because they did not find it  appealing and a lot of them felt an increase in low self-esteem for their body image (Chadwick, Raisanen, Goldey, and Anders, Pg. 1855, 2018).

Although visual pornography can affect a women’s self-body image, there are other types of sexual content that won’t negatively affect a women’s self-esteem of self-body image. Instead of visual imagery of sex, a lot of women prefer reading about sex through narratives and verbal exchanges (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 85). Romance novels in particular are the types of novels that actually trigger the female desire. Unlike women, men’s sexual fantasies are more visually explicit than a woman’s, and men also have more detailed visuals of a sexual encounter than a woman (Ogas & Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 46). For women, they care about the romance and intimacy of sex, while men care more about the pleasure of sex rather than the intimacy of it.

Usually when a single sexual cue is shown to a man, they automatically get sexually aroused, while on the other hand, women have to be exposed to multiple cues in order for a woman to be aroused (Ogas & Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 212). It does not take that much effort to make a man sexually excited because a man’s desire is much more powerful and urgent than a woman’s desire. From these gender differences, we can conclude that women tend to be more emotional and sensitive than men when it comes to sexual cues.

Both men and women have sexual preferences when it comes to choosing a long-term relationship partner and, at times, we wonder how both men and women evolved into figuring out their preferences in their partners. Ornamentation is a term that biologists have named for oversized body parts of women that men feel a sense of attraction towards to (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 54). From hundreds of years ago, men tend to focus more on the attractiveness of their partner. However, the reason why men prefer the curvature areas of women, is because of the benefits that they can recieve from it. According to scientists, these female curves designate the amount of years that a woman has remaining while in the process of conceiving and giving birth to his children (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 54). From an evolutionary point, men would prefer a woman with a much heavier weight than average because it means that the woman is healthy and will be able to be fertile. Usually, women who are too skinny, have a lower chance of being able to conceive and her health will decline (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 57). From this information, we can conclude that a man’s sexual desire for a long-term partner is not based off of her personality, nor intelligence, but solely based off of her physical appearance.

As men seem to focus more on the ornamentation of a woman, women possess more from a man than just his looks. Women are more likely to report low sexual desire than men because a woman has to consider the long term when it comes to having sex with a man (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 71). As hundreds of years pass by, women do not become aware of this happening because it automatically becomes a natural instinct. Women make sure to select a man who is willing to invest in a long-term, stable, child-rearing relationship (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 72). Although women prefer a man who is willing to commit, women also prefer a man of talent with great looks. According to psychologist Geoffret Miller, he believes that sexual selection, in other words “survival of the hottest”, is what causes women to choose these characteristics in men (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 103). With sexual selection, a woman chooses to select a man with talent, or even intelligence, because of the likelihood that those “talented genes” will pass on to her children. With this being said, from an evolutionary point of view, we see that a woman’s sexual desire to protect her and her children.

Now that we have discovered both the sexual desires of men and women, do the sexual desires differ with homosexuals and heterosexuals? According to the book, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, the 5th most popular category of porn that gay men watch is Straight Men (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 130). It seems that gay men prefer to masturbate to masculine men instead of gay men who are feminine and have a form of delicacy. Just like women, gay men relate to them in what sexual preferences they like. Another similarity would be that both gay men and women like to be the submissive role in sex. Gay men can have their differences with straight men, but they also appear to share some similarities. Just like men, gay men do not prefer romance novels, but they prefer appearance and visual attractiveness over all other qualities (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 138). Although gay men and straight men are different sexual orientations, it does not change the male brain, but when it comes to sexual desire, gay men have the same interests as women do.

Numerous articles have been published on the issue of pornography and sexual arousal. The age of a woman and the size of a woman’s body are the primary triggers for sexual arousal in men (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, pg. 25). Ogas and Gadddam note that while a lady’s physical attractiveness influences a male's sexual drive, age also has a significant influence. For instance, the two researchers observed that the number of searches made for teenagers was higher as opposed to those made for women above the age of 50 (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 26). However, the sexual interest is not only influenced by youthful pornstars but also ladies above 60 years, depending on the individual preference of the guy.

A lady's body measure gives off the impression of being a natural trigger of male excitement. Descriptive words portraying body measure, (for example, tubby and slim) are the third-most-visit class of modifiers showing up in Dogpile looks. A large portion of these quests is not looking for the slim assemblages of models. For each look for a ‘thin’ young lady, there are right around three scans for a ‘fat’ young lady. Although most of the ladies in standard pornography are skinnier than normal, toothpick-sized ladies is not a common attraction for men (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 35). A majority of sex researchers trust that ladies' midriff to-hip proportions are a visible sign for men. Some studies propose that males across the globe locate a particular abdomen to-hip proportion (0.7) to be generally stimulating (Ogas & Gaddam, 2011, pg.34).

The evidence on sexual desire and pornography indicates that different factors influence sexual behavior. For instance, females might consider pornography as more socially acceptable, and many of them would not mind watching pornography. However, a majority of women prefer to read novels of romance because they find more interest in parts of reading about sex, rather than just watching porn (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 86). On the other hand, porn activates sexual arousal in a man; just by a single cue, it would automatically arouse a man (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 86). Age and body size are two main influences for the type of pornography that a man decides to watch. Homosexual men share similarities with both women and men.

They have the same mentality as a man, but they do have similar sexual cues as women. From an evolutionary point, from hundreds of years ago, women tend to go for men who will protect and provide for her and her future children. They do not want to risk having a child with a man who is just going to eventually abandon her and not support her (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 72). For men, they predominantly focus on the physical appearance of a woman for their lifetime relationship. They tend to go for women who have curves because it indicates that she will be able to conceive children in a healthy manner (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 54). As for these reasons, the women that men watch porn of are a certain weight, not too overweight or not too skinny. From these observations, we can conclude that pornography reveals that every person, no matter your sexual orientation, has their own preference in sexual cues. There is no right or wrong cue, it is solely based on our choice and what we each desire. These desires can be from experiences that we encountered, and it can also be based from evolution. As quoted by Dr. Ogas and Gaddam, these preferences can flip, or change, overtime, but it is our cues that grant us the pleasures of sex (Ogas and Gaddam, 2011, Pg. 238).

References

1. Chadwick, S. B., Raisanen, J. C., Goldey, K. L., & Anders, S. V. (2018). Strategizing to Make Pornography Worthwhile: A Qualitative Exploration of Women’s Agentic Engagement with Sexual Media. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(6), 1853-1868. doi:10.1007/s10508-018-1174-y
2. Ogas, O., & Gaddam, S. (2011). A billion wicked thoughts: What the world’s largest experiment reveals about human desire. New York: Dutton Adult.

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