What kind of pr0n addict are YOU, kemosabe?

[Hypoxia]

Which "Type" Of Porn-Watcher Are You, According To Science?

Chances are, you don't really think about your porn-watching habits all too much. But according to a new study, maybe you should. Research published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that there are three types of porn-watchers — but only one of them is actually healthy.

Researchers at the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, categorized the types of porn-watchers as follows: Recreational, compulsive, and distressed.

Oh, those lusty Quebecois. How many are distressed? I'll admit to distress on occasion and I'm not even Canadian.

Let's spin this for authors. Is your motivation for writing smut recreational, compulsive, or distressed? Or commercial, or mental-masturbatory, or sacred? Hey, those researchers missed that last one, y'know, with vestal virgins and all. Holy fuck!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I rarely if ever watch porn; and write for fantasy, recreation and self indulgence. Not compulsive, not distressed.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm a fourth kind--a research watcher.

 

[Handley_Page]

kemosabe?
I always thought that it was two words.

 

[Halin24]

I simply write to exercise the brain and work on my English. 'Smut' or not is less important than relations and meaningful interaction, a premise for the story really.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Fascinating. I hardly ever watch porn because most of it is just so awfully badly done and I don't read that much of anyone else's writing either. The odd story here and there. On the other hand, I'm a compulsive writer and a big chunk of my spare time goes into writing erotica.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I like looking at naked women, but there is no compulsion to do so.

As for writing smut, I haven't written a word of it for about a year. Most of my writing is mainstream stuff...non-erotic.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

I guess I'm the odd one out, I'd have to say compulsive. I have a habit of laying in bed unable to sleep for hours, reliving arguments I've had with people / imagining and re-imagining situations and people that have pissed me off... but a bit of porn right before I go to bed clears all of that right up.

Probably not the healthiest solution, but so far it's gotten me a lot of great hours of sleep, so I can't complain.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

It's worth looking at the actual study. When you do, this jumps out immediately: "In the final sample, 71.8% were women (n = 596) and 28.2% were men (n = 234) ".

If you're male, take the results with a grain of salt. Other studies show that men and women tend to consume erotica differently. This study seems to support that, when you dig, but the OP's link glosses over all of that (of course).

If you jump down into the data, you find something I was expecting, but wasn't exactly mentioned by the article:

(%) n ..... ~75% ........................... ~12% ...............................................................remainder
Sex....... Recreational profile ...... Highly distressed non-compulsive profile ...... Compulsive profile

 Women 77.5 (486)a ................ 78.1 (82)a ...................................................... 28.6 (28)b
 Men .... 22.5 (141)a ................ 21.9 (23)a ...................................................... 71.4 (70)b

In short, most viewers are recreational (or liars), but compulsive viewing is largely male. Freaking out at what they see or the fact that they are looking at all is largely female. The study didn't examine it, but I'd be interested in knowing how many of the women in the distressed category have had real life experiences of sexual abuse, vs not. And how many got upset because they can't compete with what's on the screen. And how many are just horrified that they LIKED what they saw. Given the sample size this study wouldn't be able to answer those questions even if they asked, but since I think a number of my readers fall into that category I'd have liked a better breakdown. I'd also have liked to know what kind of porn was being watched. There's stuff out there that could make almost anyone feel distressed.

Table 1 of http://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(16)30842-6/fulltext#sec3.1 has some other interesting nuggets, but they don't apply to my writing so I'll let others comment. Keep in mind how small the same sizes get when looking at anything other than hetero females.

Me, I virtually never watch porn anymore, and even when I used to it was rare and for short internals, way below the averages here. I'd have liked to see these numbers broken down by age...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I guess I'm the odd one out, I'd have to say compulsive. I have a habit of laying in bed unable to sleep for hours, reliving arguments I've had with people / imagining and re-imagining situations and people that have pissed me off... but a bit of porn right before I go to bed clears all of that right up.

Probably not the healthiest solution, but so far it's gotten me a lot of great hours of sleep, so I can't complain.

I was like that. Then I found Paxil. Now I sleep like a baby.

 

[jehoram]

kemosabe?
I always thought that it was two words.

That's an interesting question, with a rather involved answer. The writers of the Lone Ranger radio show got the name from a camp in Michigan called Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee. Two words, or actually four, but ...

The writers claimed that it meant "trusty scout," which can't be corroborated, but there is a school of thought that this came from an Ojibweh word "giimoozaabi" meaning "to peek" or he who peeks." Since that's pretty much the job description of a military scout ... to observe without being observed ... there may be a grain of truth to it.

Ain't you glad you asked?

 

[sr71plt]

On the OP: Isn't this a question about visual pornography media, not stories? The two seem to be conflating.

 

[Kantarii]

Writing is just another form of creative art I put in my portfolio. It weighs the same with me as far as drawing, etching glass, wire sculpture, wood burning, of dressing like a woman to take pictures

 

[hylas_]

I will be honest, there is a bit of compulsiveness to my pr0ne watching habits *:/

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Remember when you're reading the results of this study, of all the things money and time could have been spent to research, someone decided this was a good way to waste those things.

Unless the porn you watch is of a dangerous nature (ie, kiddie porn or beastiality) who cares what type of watcher you are.

Q_C

 

[werdsmith]

I don't think that over-thinking it is helpful, lol

 

[Areala-chan]

Compulsive mixed with recreational pretty well describes my writing habits. I enjoy banging the keyboard, making things for other people to hopefully enjoy. I usually have several ideas and threads I'm trying out. If they stick, I keep working and working until I'm satisfied with the outcome. If they don't work, I don't stress out. I'll have another idea hit me out of the blue at some point and the cycle begins anew.

 

[luvdoublepenetration]

I love double penetration...It should be home made videos...hate professional ones, they appear to be fake.
Like stories like : https://www.literotica.com/s/the-mechanics-bill

and videos like : http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=483094386


Suggest me stories (no cuckolding by the husband and no incest) but love humiliation and submission stories in double penetration...

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I'm no porn addict per se, I rarely watch movies and almost rarely read porn stories. Most of the time I come across interesting sex scenes in mainstream fiction or news stories, and want to fix or develop them I'm working on a novella about a young guy who becomes a political assassin but has sex with sundry women from real life encounters. At the end he has a sexual relationship with a married detective hot on his trail for the murders.

I'm more interested in how sexual encounters happen. The reader should be able to use my stories as how-to tutorials for connecting with women. If I wrote fishing or combat stories the tutorial scheme would be there.

Sex, for all intents and purposes, last about 5 minutes and is usually conventional and unimaginative. Its either an impulse event with your best friends spouse or a lust relief event with the spouse.

What matters are the chance encounters that some along.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's an interesting question, but watching porn and writing porn are two completely different things. I'm not sure you can apply the same categories to them, or if the implications of those categories are the same for them.

Watching porn is passive, not creative. So, if it is compulsive or distressed, it doesn't yield anything positive. We would want to discourage it.

But writing is a creative activity. Even if the motive that drives it isn't healthy, something comes from it. A lot of great authors and artists have been psychologically unhealthy people, but they might have felt that the psychological pain was worth the price of the art they created. Compulsiveness probably is a common trait among a lot of successful people, including successful creative people. What looks unhealthy in one set of behaviors may not look unhealthy in others, or, even if it does, the result may be worth it.

Writing also may be a psychologically healthy way of coping with distress that one has felt. I can imagine erotic writing serving that purpose.

 

[rjordan]

I'm a fourth kind--a research watcher.

And read Playboy for the articles.

rj

 

[rjordan]

Remember when you're reading the results of this study, of all the things money and time could have been spent to research, someone decided this was a good way to waste those things.

Unless the porn you watch is of a dangerous nature (ie, kiddie porn or beastiality) who cares what type of watcher you are.

Q_C

How do you know kiddie porn and beastiality porn are dangerous? How do you know other kinds of porn are not? Would it be a waste of time and money to find out?

The purpose of research is to gather evidence, not to "prove" something you already believe and think is true. Without a falsifiable hypothesis of some kind, judging the usefulness of this research is kind of pointless, wouldn't you say?

To answer the OP, I used to watch porn for recreation. With the current trends in porn, I compulsively avoid it.

I write for fun about things I could have experienced, but circumstances led me in another direction. Strictly recreational. I have absolutely no compulsion to write without a paycheck at the other end. Most of my stories go 5-10 years between concept and completion. My completion rate (concepts/completion) is probably around 10%, if that.

rj

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Remember when you're reading the results of this study, of all the things money and time could have been spent to research, someone decided this was a good way to waste those things.

Unless the porn you watch is of a dangerous nature (ie, kiddie porn or beastiality) who cares what type of watcher you are.

Q_C

I'd care if:

I was in a relationship someone in the distressed or compulsive category.
Evidence surfaced showing distressed or compulsive readers acted to curtail the freedom to read erotica.
Evidence surfaced that distressed readers were at much high risk for doing themselves harm in sexual settings.
Evidence surfaced that compulsive readers were much more likely to act out what they'd internalized.
etc..

Humans don't, as a rule, understand themselves, and we don't understand ourselves as a species. Research is the only known fix.

 

[curiouschattycouple]

I started writing erotica for my wife after we talked about our MFM fantasies - for our own entertainment. Before I started writing I found literotica for ideas, and I posted my first story in return. More are in the works. I enjoy writing short stories, my wife enjoys reading them, and they are also "scripts" for our fantasy play. We hang out here now for new ideas and thoughts and observations from other authors and the other folk of literotica.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

And read Playboy for the articles.

rj

Me too, now that I know there are articles.

How do you know kiddie porn and beastiality porn are dangerous? How do you know other kinds of porn are not? Would it be a waste of time and money to find out?

Well, kiddie porn surely isn't good for the kiddies involved, and I highly doubt that goat signed and understood the consent form, so I'm thinking stating them as harmful is a given.

The purpose of research is to gather evidence, not to "prove" something you already believe and think is true. Without a falsifiable hypothesis of some kind, judging the usefulness of this research is kind of pointless, wouldn't you say?

I'm guessing this to be a general response and not one specifically directed at me or my statement. If I'm wrong, maybe reread the post you responded to. However, it kinda stumbles over itself. First off, let's say these results are 100% accurate; what then? What next? Are individuals going to seek counseling? Will the human race be saved? And now that you have a falsifiable hypothesis, will enough research be conducted further to generate a disprovable theory, and then will said results be repeatedly duplicated to find sustainability? The answer is no.

These types of studies show up constantly, make headlines next to "six moves that will drive him crazy" and then vanish, replaced next week/month with another of a similarly temporary study that adds up to nothing and costs money. Based on that, I say Pointless.

Ultimately, these studies are like the ones where eggs and chocolate and healthy... unhealthy... healthy... unhealthy. Pointless when the conclusion isn't consistent enough to be useful. The dollars add up.

I'll say again, of all the things that money and time could've been spent on...

Give the money to Saint Jude's for Chirst's sake.

Q_C