A masculine look at pornography – From fantasy to reality
Summary
Objectives
To document the impact of pornography use upon the sexual scripts of young men as well as upon their sexual careers and intimate relationships.
Methodology
For the sake of remaining neutral, and to avoid as much as possible any a priori, this research uses the grounded theory to go beyond the usual preconception about pornography. Twenty young heterosexuals between 18–25 were given the chance to express themselves on these subjects during 20 partially supervised interviews.
Results
For some of them, pornography seems to be a form of initial sexual education. For others, its erotic aspect appears only later.
Discussion
It seems that after a certain time, pornography is used to visualize some old fantasies and, sometimes, to materialize them. For many of them, masturbation and pornography merge.
Conclusion
No matter its function — information, education, satisfaction of a curiosity or arousal —, pornography seems only to amount to some sort of momentary escape, as these young men do not give much credit to this form of fantasy. In fact, it seems that pornography use is part of a dynamic and diachronic relation in young people. This research allows the development of interventions specifically adapted to masculinity issues.
1 Auteur correspondant.
Service social, professeur associé à l’université de Montréal, simonlouislajeunesse.com.
2 Service social, professeur à l’université d’Ottawa.