A couple of years ago, researchers in the United States conducted a nationwide study that aimed to find out what effect porn viewing has on marital relationships. The results showed that some couples use pornography to compensate for dissatisfaction with the existing sexual relationship. Porn often helps them focus on the positive and find new ways to experience pleasure.
However, there were also those who claimed that it was watching pornography that ruined their sex life: they began to notice that the physical characteristics of the real partner were far from the virtual “ideal”, so there were dissatisfaction and disappointment.
Scientists have not given a definitive answer on whether pornography is good or bad for a couple’s relationship. Each couple decides it independently – by experimenting. However, some aspects of the impact of pornography have been clarified.
Pornographic films are more useful for women
Many women turn watching porn into a part of their sex game and use it for their own benefit and that of their partner. Such women report that they feel more satisfied with their married life and sexual relations than those who do not watch pornography at all.
Psychologists and sexologists often advise women to watch pornographic films for self-education, as well as trying to get in mood, because many of us have complexes that do not allow us to enjoy intimate life, feel pleasure for ourselves and transfer it to our partner.
Watching pornography together has many advantages, stimulates the couple’s erotic fantasies, helps them prepare for the upcoming intercourse and thus improves the quality of the intercourse itself. Spouses begin to trust each other more, learn to experiment and experience joint joy.
Participants in one study reported that when they viewed pornography with their partner, they felt more engaged and sexually satisfied in their relationship than when they viewed it alone. Interestingly, couples who watch pornography at least once a month are less likely to divorce than couples who never watch it.
However, each drug has its own dose – it is not worth consuming it in excessively large quantities. In addition, studies show that pornography can have a devastating effect on the quality of family life when spouses view it alone. This is especially true for married men – they begin to perceive extramarital affairs more easily and may even consider divorce.
However, isn’t pornography dangerous?
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have debunked the myth that watching pornography can ‘inspire’ men to commit sexual violence. After decades of research on the subject, they found no correlation between sex crimes and the availability of pornography.
In addition, according to their data, the number of sexual crimes has even decreased in some countries since they officially allowed pornography.
So pornography does not affect sexually aggressive behavior. Researchers liken watching it to drinking alcohol: it’s only dangerous for those who already have other risk factors, such as chronic mental illness.
Pornography is not sexism
The porn industry has long been accused of promoting sexism. It was believed that after watching pornography, men begin to make exaggerated sexual demands on their real partners and begin to show an excessively dominant attitude. However, the researchers refuted this speculation: women were treated badly only by men who, already in childhood and adolescence, showed a desire to dominate the weaker ones.
In the case of mentally stable men, “consumption” of pornography does not lead to negative attitudes towards women: their opinion of women did not change in any way after watching pornography.
In addition, when analyzing the profiles of users of pornographic websites, it became clear that men increasingly watch pornographic films depicting women in their 40s, 50s and even 60s. At the same time, the age of the men themselves is very different.
According to the researchers, this shows that today’s men find older women more atractive because they take care of themselves and, unlike young women, better understand male psychology and are not ashamed of their bodies.