Friday, February 27, 2009
Sex Who Likes Porn?
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Red states like porn:
"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.
And which red state likes porn most of all?
The biggest consumer [of porn], Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users.... Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election—Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Thanks to Slog tipper Matt.
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1
People who repress sex are obsessed with sex you say? I'm shocked. That would be like saying that the most homophobic people are secretly homosexual. That just doesn't make any sense at all.
4
There's a Youtube clip where someone's using Google Trends to show that people in conservative countries (ex. Arab Nations) search Google for porn (kinky/twisted porn as well) more than anything else compared to Western nations.
5
I liked this stat too:
"Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage."
"Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage."
6
If you look at it another way, you could say that the data suggest that liberals are prudes. I've seen anecdotal evidence for this. I have friends who totally support my right to get married to another guy, but who get all squicky at any sexual reference in conversation.
8
Dan,
Actually, that doesn't surprise me. It seems counterintuitive but really isn't. Where there's some repression there is some obsession. Although, it would be interesting to find out the rate of consumption in say, Saudi Arabia where presumably pornography is repressed entirely.
Kinda reminds me of that Ren & Stimpy cartoon when Ren screams at Stimpy "DON'T PRESS THE BIG SHINY RED BUTTON!" Stimpy sweating and anxious as ever presses it.
Actually, that doesn't surprise me. It seems counterintuitive but really isn't. Where there's some repression there is some obsession. Although, it would be interesting to find out the rate of consumption in say, Saudi Arabia where presumably pornography is repressed entirely.
Kinda reminds me of that Ren & Stimpy cartoon when Ren screams at Stimpy "DON'T PRESS THE BIG SHINY RED BUTTON!" Stimpy sweating and anxious as ever presses it.
9
What this data actually suggests is that red-staters are much more likely to be dumb enough to pay for porn.
10
People still subscribe to a service in order to watch porn? I thought the internet eliminated that business model.
15
I wonder if these states are just not internet savvy enough to find the boatload of internet porn out there that you can get at no charge without signing up for a thing.
16
That was my immediate thought, that this speaks more to an inability/unwillingness to go out and find all the naked pictures available for free on the internet. Going out on the great big internet can expose you to nasty things like new ideas, which would contaminate your naked people experience.
18
two other things i wondered (as well as the can't you get it for free angle):
1. would a less accepting state culture perhaps mean the liberals in that state use porn more because the conservatives don't let them act freely in public?
2. would those will to talk about porn habits more likely to be liberal... in a liberal state even the conservatives might talk about it, but in a conservative state, only the liberals would.
just a couple of thoughts.
1. would a less accepting state culture perhaps mean the liberals in that state use porn more because the conservatives don't let them act freely in public?
2. would those will to talk about porn habits more likely to be liberal... in a liberal state even the conservatives might talk about it, but in a conservative state, only the liberals would.
just a couple of thoughts.
19
They're right, those commenters making the point that red states are just more likely to be unsophisticated about finding porn. That kind of takes all the fun out of the post, though. Talk about unsurprising study results. Did they report whether middle-aged conservative Utah homos are less knowledgeable than lefty pole-smokers like me about the many ways to suppress the gag reflex? Because, really, I can't imagine what that answer might be either.
20
Sexual repression provides fantastic energy for building civilizations. However, it also drives people crazy, which explains the insane nature of the most successful civilizations. Sexually liberal cultures never get anywhere beyond spears and canoes, if that. Most of them are wiped out or enslaved by the crazy ones. They also serve as tacitly permissible objects of sexual fantasies for their oppressors. This drives the oppressed nuts, too. That's the stage our culture is at, with women, the colored peoples, and gays fighting with various degrees of success to get out of the ecomomic and emotional ghettoes they've been fantasized into. Straight white men have been driven nuttier yet by the loss of their hallucinatory harems. The infrastructure, meantime, is going to hell from lack of the redirected sexual energy that created it in the first place. Christians made cities out of the jungles, now they're making jungles out of the cities.
21
@ 1, 8, etc - It's not that you should be surprised that right-wingers have turned out (yet again) to be lying hypocrites when it comes to sex. The point is that it's fun to be able to wave a bit of data in their faces that PROVES what lying hypocrites they are.
22
I could point the fact that maybe red states just aren't that computer savvy. Seriously, who the hell pays for porn?
23
Maybe it is all of us freeloading blue staters who are running the porn industry out of business. Thank God for the decent, hard-working, God fearing Republicans who keep our major porn corporations afloat.
26
I also wonder if people in those states tend to have more...low key sexual lives and so turn to porn as a substitute more often.
But yeah, more than likely they just get duped into actually paying for the stuff.
But yeah, more than likely they just get duped into actually paying for the stuff.
27
This is correlative and not representative of anything. Consider the advancement of technology (and thus nerds & hackers) in blue states vs the red states.. My hypothesis -- the blue states just don't scrubbed and pay for as much as teh red states do they have the know-how to get it online for free.
28
A few years ago there were billboards all over Omaha that showed various U of Nebraska football personalites (who rank somewhere just above God in Nebraska) looking sternly into the camera with the caption "REAL MEN DON'T USE PORN" next to their face.
Yet if you cross the river into Iowa, you will see porn stores with parking lots full of Nebraska plates.
Apparently Omaha is full of faux men....
Yet if you cross the river into Iowa, you will see porn stores with parking lots full of Nebraska plates.
Apparently Omaha is full of faux men....
30
@ 20 "Sexually liberal cultures never get anywhere beyond spears and canoes"
Uh, this is pretty much completely false. Do I really need to bring up the Greeks and Romans? Ever heard of an aqueduct or amphitheaters or roads?
Uh, this is pretty much completely false. Do I really need to bring up the Greeks and Romans? Ever heard of an aqueduct or amphitheaters or roads?
31
Let's see the statistics for the fucking most repressed "country" in the world: The VATICAN!
Those mofos are wacking it 24/7!!!!
Those mofos are wacking it 24/7!!!!
32
@ 7 - About the same. It's just that I would expect it less often with liberals, and that's not the case.
33
Alternative Theory - Perhaps the Mormon of Utah are just to damn honest to get it via Pirate means?
34
Maybe some of those in the blue states are old-school: They prefer the feel of holding the dead tree in their hands. I guess some are classics? I wouldn't know about any of this stuff, though. Seriously.
But wait, that doesn't explain the red states though. Damn.
. . .Oh wait, they're measuring porn consumption in terms of *adult content (online) subscriptions*? Umm, that's like a narrow definition/methodology of something . . .not sure what . . .
In addition to paying for it, which I think people should try to do to some extent (but then how do those in the porn industry earn so much?), what if your wife/partner or your kid saw *the bill or bank statement*, or if you were audited or were involved in a criminal or civil investigation? Not smart.
But wait, that doesn't explain the red states though. Damn.
. . .Oh wait, they're measuring porn consumption in terms of *adult content (online) subscriptions*? Umm, that's like a narrow definition/methodology of something . . .not sure what . . .
In addition to paying for it, which I think people should try to do to some extent (but then how do those in the porn industry earn so much?), what if your wife/partner or your kid saw *the bill or bank statement*, or if you were audited or were involved in a criminal or civil investigation? Not smart.
35
I am curious if Red States also lead the nation in pedophilia, spousal abuse, and incest. I have $5 that says they do.
36
Having dated a bisexual man from Riyad, Saudi Arabia, I can assure you that porn, though illegal and hard to find, is highly sought after and passed around until it literally falls apart (in the case of magazines). Also, lots of gay and bi men getting it on over there-that strict sex segregation is only a bad thing for the straight folks when it comes to getting laid apparently. I definitely come down on the more repression=more obsession side.
37
I wonder if they separated the Hawaii figures into porn on home computers and porn on pay-per-view hotel TVs? I'd almost bet that a lot of the high porn usage in Hawaii comes from tourists getting away from the repressions of their home neighborhoods.
39
it's also possible liberals are just having more sex, and thus less interested in looking at porn.
40
#18: With Utah being over 75% Mormon, I find it unlikely that the porn
buyers all just happen to be from the other 25%. But, okay, ASSuming
that "gentiles", as Mormons call them, are a minority buying enough
porn to make Utah #1, that's an interesting phenomenon in itself. Why
would be a non-Mormon in Utah be so eager to buy porn? Are they
jealous that Mormons get hot oil rubbed on their naked goodies by a
stranger in their secret ceremonies?
I agree that there's not enough here to draw an official conclusion,
but we're not setting national policy here anyway. All I want is to
have a good crude snicker, and PORN IN UTAH does a fine job.
buyers all just happen to be from the other 25%. But, okay, ASSuming
that "gentiles", as Mormons call them, are a minority buying enough
porn to make Utah #1, that's an interesting phenomenon in itself. Why
would be a non-Mormon in Utah be so eager to buy porn? Are they
jealous that Mormons get hot oil rubbed on their naked goodies by a
stranger in their secret ceremonies?
I agree that there's not enough here to draw an official conclusion,
but we're not setting national policy here anyway. All I want is to
have a good crude snicker, and PORN IN UTAH does a fine job.
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