Vol. 2 No. 2 Specials

Millions of Americans aren’t getting their ideas about sexual behavior from sex-ed class – or from their friends, or their parents, or even their sexual partners. Instead, they learn about sex from people whose main purpose is to entertain the public, not to educate it. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of customers of all ages. All national cable providers offer a pornography channel, millions of pornographic videos are sold each year, and roughly 50 percent of hotel guests watch pornography on pay-per-view channels. Most data on consumption does not even take into account the Internet, where pornography is estimated to make up half of all searches. Pornography reaches a mass audience and should be regarded as the most pervasive – and persuasive – form of sex education in America.

Though rarely thought of as a sex educator, pornography strongly influences the sexual practices of the viewing population. Widespread safer sex practice in pornography could encourage healthier habits among the viewing population. Research in the field of mass media communication theory suggests that repeated exposure to certain images has the power to influence a viewer’s sexual behaviors. Three well-established theories lend credence to the hypothesis that safer sex in pornography might translate into safer sex in the bedroom.

One applicable theory considers television as the most powerful storyteller in our culture, continually repeating myths, ideologies, facts, and patterns of relationships that define and legitimize the social order. For example, it is widely accepted that as more and more pornography came to include sex acts that used to be considered unusual – including advanced sex positions and anal sex – more and more people began to consider these practices to be part of a “normal” sex life. A steady dose of safer sex messages in pornography could lead viewers to believe that condom use during sex is the societal norm; viewers might then feel more comfortable using condoms in their own lives.

Another theory predicts that people who view rewarded behaviors will imitate these behaviors in their own lives, and the more attractive and rewarding the behavior, the more likely viewers are to imitate the behavior. Thus, if adult entertainment actors use condoms while participating in especially arousing and attractive sex acts, viewers over time may internalize the belief that condom use leads to more, and better, sex.