Porn has traditionally elicited strong negative reactions from feminists, but according to Cosmopolitan, we may be too quick to judge porn viewers. The Journal of Sex Research unveiled a new study that challenges our assumptions about how porn affects our beliefs and values.
These findings come out of the University of Western Ontario, where 28,000 people were asked about their pornography habits and their attitudes toward women. The 23 percent of respondents who had watched an X-rated film in the last year were a mix of men and women, and the group as a whole was more likely to see women as equals. This group was also more supportive of abortion rights and females in professional roles.
The study doesn’t make any groundbreaking claims about the pornography audience, but it does prove that judgments should be kept in check. The age-old stereotype about creepy men huddled over computer screens is now obsolete, and pornography is something men and women can both take part in without feeling like they are objectifying the subjects on the other side of the screen.