Long-Term Consumption of “X-Rated” Materials and Attitudes Toward Women Among Australian Consumers of X-Rated Videos

This chapter examines the results of a survey of 380 purchasers of X-rated videos throughout Australia. Of specific interest is the impact of pornography consumption on general attitudes toward women, as measured by items taken from the 1984 Australian National Social Science Survey. The history of social science pornography-related research has typically shadowed the moral/philosophical/legal discourses on sex. Research studies on the consumption of pornographic materials and attitudes toward women have been of two basic types: laboratory experiments or ecological-level statistical studies. Laboratory studies generally utilize “volunteers” from introductory psychology courses or advertise for “subjects” in local newspapers. The laboratory studies often put forward as exemplars of support for the link between pornography and negative attitudes toward women include those conducted by Zillmann and Bryant. Baron examined the relationship between circulation rates of “soft-core pornographic” magazines and gender equality in the fifty United States.