ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the validity of the scholarly claims using both quantitative behavioral measures of popularity-looking at the number of views and at viewers’ ratings for videos including aggression-and qualitative interviews with both men and women who frequently watch pornographic videos online. The assumption that men prefer aggressive and demeaning content largely relies on the increasingly popular, although contested, premise that pornography viewing often becomes an addiction since it affects the brain in a way that is similar to that of most drugs. In fact, the large majority of interviewees who said that they enjoyed a degree of aggression in pornography preferred to see the same amount or fewer videos containing aggression. The majority (about 80%) of both women and men who watch pornography online did not seek aggressive content.
