Well, it’s taken a long time and a lot of money, but scientists may have just finally discovered that men and women share emotions as well as likes and dislikes. Even when it comes to (*gasp*) porn!

Sorry to hit you with the hard facts straight off the bat, but it was necessary.

Eggheads at Duisburg-Essen University in Germany have decided that women who view and use Internet porn, as well as participating in adult chat and ‘dating sites’, are as much at risk of becoming addicted as men are.

Professor Matthias Brand studied 102 young heterosexual women, half of whom were porn users. Testing over a hundred women to see if they get their jollies from porn? I’ve chosen the wrong line of work!

Surprisingly, Professor Brand’s study is one of the very few undertaken on women and their porn habits, the focus being almost solely on men over the last few years.

shocked-woman-2

The notion that women are led by emotion and men by something a little more primal was brought to the fore by Brand and his team. Evidence shows that women, when getting their rocks off to Internet filth, prefer scenarios “that allow social interaction.” Men, meanwhile, appear content to stare slack-jawed at a screen while rubbing themselves into oblivion.

In a serious bout of stating the obvious, studies showed that female users of Internet porn reacted more strongly and showed more signs of craving than their porn-less counterparts. You don’t say!

If you’re interested in the hard science, then the results run thus: “As demonstrated by tests for dependent groups, the pornographic picture presentation led to an increase in sexual arousal (Mt1=14.14,SD=21.71, Mt2=27.63, SD=25.19, t=−5.53, p<0.001, Cohen’s d for dependent samples=0.56) and the need to masturbate (Mt1=6.13, SD=12.01, Mt2=21.06, SD=26.84, t=−6.85, p<0.001, Cohen’s d for dependent samples=0.86) within the whole sample.”

Sorry, come again? Imagine, somewhere on this planet, talk like that is enough to get a scientist aroused… and we’re trusting these people with our future health and wellbeing?

What this means to laypeople like you and I is that a bunch of people just looked at porn for a bit, enjoyed it, went home and got paid 10 Euros an hour for the privilege! Nice work if you can get it.

The downside of the study shows that regular users of Internet grot can develop symptoms similar to substance addicts, and sudden withdrawal can be just as dangerous.

The bigger question is why and how women’s attitudes and reception to porn have long been ignored by science; traditionally built upon a sense of all-inclusive pride.

Whatever the weather, this study and its results should hopefully stick two fingers up to preconceived ideas. Everybody needs a little playtime, and everybody sure loves to window shop and see what’s on offer. Combining the two makes perfect sense, whatever gender you are.

For some reason, I now have the urge to watch Videodrome…

Comments are closed.