Enjoyment, Exploration and Education: Understanding the Consumption of Pornography among Young Men with Non-Exclusive Sexual Orientations

McCormack, M.; Wignall, L.

doi:10.1177/0038038516629909

Enjoyment, Exploration and Education: Understanding the Consumption of Pornography among Young Men with Non-Exclusive Sexual Orientations

McCormack, M.; Wignall, L.

Authors

M. McCormack

L. Wignall

Abstract

This qualitative research examines the influence of pornography consumption on young men with non-exclusive sexual orientations. Drawing on 35 in-depth interviews with young men from an elite university in the north-eastern United States, we examine how pornography was experienced as a leisure activity to be consumed in free time. Rather than focusing on the potential harms of pornography, we use an inductive analytic approach to explore the broader range of experiences that participants had, since the time they first consumed pornography. We demonstrate that pornography had educational benefits for these young men, related to their sexual desires, emerging sexual identities and for developing new sexual techniques. This study is part of a growing body of research that seeks to develop a holistic understanding of pornography in society, addressing the absence of the lived experience of the consumer in most pornography research.

Citation

McCormack, M., & Wignall, L. (2017). Enjoyment, Exploration and Education: Understanding the Consumption of Pornography among Young Men with Non-Exclusive Sexual Orientations. Sociology, 51(5), 975-991. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038516629909

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 5, 2016
Online Publication Date	Feb 23, 2016
Publication Date	Oct 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Jan 7, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Jan 15, 2016
Journal	Sociology
Print ISSN	0038-0385
Electronic ISSN	1469-8684
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	51
Issue	5
Pages	975-991
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038516629909
Keywords	Consumption, Leisure, Men, Porn, Pornography, Sexuality.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).