Degrading content and character sex: accounting for men and women's differential reactions...

This study examines sex differences in arousal to non-violent sexually explicit videos and viewers' perceptions of the character traits that distinguish degrading from non-degrading content. Men and women were exposed to either neutral, erotic or nonviolent pornographic video clips then administered

a questionnaire assessing subjective arousal and perceptions of male and female characters. Nonviolent pornographic videos were characterized by perceptions of female degradation and male aggression. Comparably assertive male and female characters and male affection distinguished erotic videos. Whereas men reported more arousal to the degrading videos than did women, responses to the erotic videos were comparable. These findings support the feminist perspective that nonviolent pornography cultivates arousal to depictions of male aggression and female degradation among male viewers.

Keywords: Pornography; Arousal; Female Degradation

Introduction

Arousal and affective response to sexually explicit materials have long been of interest to researchers. Initial surveys in the 1950s by Kinsey and his associates reported men were more aroused to sexually explicit materials than women (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953). Subsequent laboratory studies found men and women comparably aroused (Fisher & Byrne, 1978a; Schmidt & Sigusch, 1970). More recently sex differences have been detected in response to specific pornographic themes (Cowan & Dunn, 1994).

In Kinsey et al.'s (1953) survey, men (77%) reported being more sexually aroused to sexually explicit materials than women (32%). Other early surveys reported similar findings (Abelson, Cohen, Heaton, & Slider, 1970; Berger, Gagnon, & Simon, 1970). However, experimental studies beginning in the early 1970s seemingly cast doubt on these findings as researchers found women and men to be comparably aroused by sexually explicit stimuli. For example, Schmidt and Sigusch (1970) reported no overall differences in sexual arousal between men and women when exposed to films or slides depicting petting, foreplay and coitus. Fisher and Bryne (1978a), using an erotic silent film depicting petting and oral sex, also found no sex differences in sexual arousal and subsequent sexual behavior.

However, even during this time, sex differences were detected in response to specific types of depictions, but somewhat glossed over by researchers in reporting their findings. For example, Griffitt (1973), using slides showing various sexual themes ranging from intercourse to petting to masturbation found no overall differences in male and female self-reported arousal, but sex differences for some of the individual themes, with men reporting more arousal to slides depicting group sex and fellatio.

In general studies have shown women to be more aroused by affectionate and nonexploitive depictions. Herrell (1975) had participants read an erotic passage in which the female was exploited or regarded the experience as positive. Women responded with less sexual arousal to the former whereas men reported comparable levels of sexual arousal to each. Herrell concluded that men become aroused regardless of interpersonal content whereas women are more aroused by nonexploitive than exploitive passages. Supporting this idea is a study by Byrne, Fisher, Lamberth, and Mitchell (1974) who found that for male participants, negative affect (disgusted, angry, etc.) predicted negative evaluations of erotic stimuli (text and slides) only when they were not aroused by them. Such was not the case for female participants whose negative affect predicted negative evaluations of the erotic materials regardless oft their level of arousal. More recently Quakenbush, Strassbery, and Turner (1995) reported that participants, men and women, were more aroused by an affectionate, sexually explicit video segment than an identical clip with the affection edited out, leading this group of researchers to conclude that sexual scripts, especially for males, may have changed since the 1970s.

A methodological inconsistency among earlier studies, as noted by Fisher and Byrne (1978b), was the type of stimuli used, which ranged from text, to slides to videos, and depicted a variety of sexual activities. A typology described by Stock (1997) has proved useful in distinguishing between various types of sexually explicit materials.

* Sexually violent pornography, which includes the overt infliction of pain and use of force, or the threat of either.

* Nonviolent pornography, which does not include physical violence, but in which men or women are verbally abused or portrayed as having animal characteristics. In it women are often shown as lacking any human character or identity and are depicted as mere sexual playthings, instantly responsive to male sexual demands. They worship male genitals and their own value depends on the quality of their genitals and breasts.

* Erotica, which portrays positive, affectionate human sexual interaction between consenting individuals participating within a balance of power.

Studies that have utilized these categories have been somewhat consistent in finding sex differences in arousal to various sexually explicit stimuli. Cowan and Dunn (1994) found sex differences in arousal to degrading materials, but equivalent levels of arousal to mutually consenting sex. Murnen and Stockton (1997) also reported significantly larger sex differences in arousal to pornography (degrading and violent) compared to erotica. One reason for this may be that women find degrading pornography more degrading than men and are less aroused by it (Cowan & Dunn, 1994; Gardos & Mosher, 1999). A different perspective is offered by Gardos and Mosher (1999) who found male participants' arousal to explicit videos to be positively related to acceptance (accepting, affirming, approving) but not to perceptions of degradation, prompting the inference that males may be more aroused by certain types of degrading pornography because they perceive them more as reaffirming male sexuality as opposed to degrading to women.

A theoretical perspective is offered by feminists who view pornography as reinforcing inequality by using women to bolster 'masculine esteem', a process whereby men gain a sense of power by viewing women as 'anonymous, panting playthings, adult toys, dehumanized objects' (Brownmiller, 1980, p. 32). By depicting women as subordinate to males in sexual relations, pornography eroticizes male superiority (Stoltenberg, 1993). As a result men are conditioned to become aroused not only by the sexual explicitness in pornographic materials but also by the degradation of the female participants. A number of studies in which male arousal to pornographic films has been found to correspond to attitudes of aggression and dominance toward women lend support to this perspective (Bogaert, 2001; Malamuth, Check, & Briere, 1986).

The social implications of exposure to degrading materials have been documented by Zillmann and Bryant (1982) who found that participants exposed to degrading pornography subsequently exhibited more sexual callousness toward women and were more likely to trivialize rape. Researchers have also found exposure to degrading pornography may reinforce sex-typed attitudes (Jansma, Linz, Mulac, & Imrich, 1997; McKenzie-Mohr & Zanna, 1990) and perpetuate misunderstandings in male-female sexual interactions (Frable, Johnson & Kellman, 1997).

The intention of this study is to extend previous research by assessing participant response and character perceptions for sexually explicit erotic and degrading videos. By having participants rate specific characters (male and female) as well as the video segments overall, the relationship between arousal and content perceptions may be more clearly delineated in terms of sex differences and similarities. Based on the preceding the following hypotheses and research questions will be examined by this study.

* H1: Male participants will be more aroused by the erotic and nonviolent, degrading pornography videos than the neutral film clips.

* H2: Female participants will report more arousal to the erotic film segments than the nonviolent, degrading pornography and neutral videos.

* RQ1: How are male and female characters perceived in erotic and nonviolent pornographic film segments? For example, is the male character also perceived as degraded in nonviolent pornography?

* RQ2: Are there differences in character perceptions according to sex of the viewer?

* RQ3: What is the relationship between male and female participants' arousal and their character perceptions?

Method

Male and female students were recruited from introductory psychology courses at a publicly funded Canadian university. A total of 39 students (19 male and 20 female) participated in the study and received extra credit toward their final grade for participation.

Three film conditions were evaluated: erotica, degrading and neutral. Segments were selected for each of the film conditions based upon the following descriptions; Erotica: mutually pleasurable, explicit sexual activity in which the participants are treated as equals; Nonviolent pornography: explicit sexual activity in which the primary focus was male gratification degrading a female and included such themes as dominance, penis worship, inequity and status reduction, previously identified by Cowan and Dunn (1994) as degrading to women; Neutral: segments that did not depict degrading behaviors or sexual explicitness or activity.

The film segments used in the erotica condition were taken from two films, 'Femme' and 'Urban Heat', produced by Candida Royalle, a former porn star whose productions have been used by other researchers as sexually explicit stimuli intended for women (Mosher & MacIan, 1994). Royalle describes her films as 'erotic movies made from a women's point of view' (Heyward, 1992). A typical scenario would include lengthy foreplay (touching, kissing, fondling and caressing), followed by oral sex, performed sequentially by each participant, then intercourse concluding in apparent climatic pleasure for each participant. The nonviolent pornography segments contained complete scenes edited from videos also used by previous researchers to represent degrading materials (Cowan & Dunn, 1994; Gardos & Mosher, 1999). All scenes involved sexual activity between two participants. In one segment from 'Nothing to Hide' the dialogue is often as degrading as the action. The female character, who is nameless, but called a 'dippy broad' and a 'slob', repeatedly begs the male character whose name is Jack, to have sex with her. When they arrive at her apartment, she has to perform a number of activities (undressing, turning around, bending over and squeezing her breasts), all at his insistence, in order to overcome Jack's professed non-interest. Only when she hops on the couch and takes her bra off, exposing her 'big breasts', does he become somewhat interested, allowing her to perform oral sex. During this time he asks if she wants to marry him. When she replies in the affirmative, he says, 'I wouldn't marry you if you were the last person on earth'. The neutral condition was used as a baseline measure and consisted of segments from National Geographic films. The number of segments and total minutes in this condition was limited due to the potential problem as noted by Check and Guloien (1989) of participants becoming bored while watching such films. These segments were taken from documentary-type videos that focused on art or nature. Subjects included the restoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome, a pair of biologists (a male and female couple) tracking an orangutan through the wilds of Indonesia and a profile of a Japanese ceramic artist.

Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the three film conditions in same-sex groups of 5 to 9 participants monitored by a same-sex experimenter. Each session consisted of three or four film segments, with each segment lasting from 5 to 10 minutes. The total viewing time ranged from about 20-30 minutes. Participants evaluated the video segments immediately after exposure to each segment.

A questionnaire assessing perceptions of male and female characters (affectionate, humiliated, submissive, promiscuous, degraded, dominant, willing and aggressive) as well as participant arousal to the segments overall (entertaining, sexually arousing, exciting, stimulating) was administered by a same-sex experimenter. A 7-point Likert scale (from 'not at all' to 'very much') was used for the ratings. These items were based on terms used by various researchers in rating sexually explicit materials and participants' arousal to them (Check & Guloien, 1989; Cowan & Dunn, 1994; Gardos & Mosher, 1999; Goodson, McCormick & Evans, 2000).

After the film evaluations were completed participants were debriefed about the experiment by the experimenter who explained the purpose of the study and also offered assistance to anyone who might have been upset by the stimuli by referring them to the university psychology services center. In addition, participants were given a 'Personal Safety Card', issued by the campus Sexual Harassment Office on which phone numbers for various local resources were listed.

Results

Cronbach's alpha for the 4-item arousal scale was .92. Questionnaire items for the film characters were factor analyzed using principal components analysis and varimax rotation. Table i shows the factor ratings for the female and male characters. Since the male dominant and promiscuous items had cross loadings greater than .40, they were not used in the rest of the analysis. Ratings for the female characters indicated two factors, Female Degradation and Female Assertiveness. Factors extracted for the male character ratings included Male Assertiveness, Male Degradation and Male Affection.

As can be seen from the factor loadings in Table 1, there were several differences in the way male and female characters were perceived. Based on percent of variance explained, the dominant factor for females was degradation; for males it was assertiveness. Perceptions of male and female characters were similar except for affectionate, which loaded on the assertiveness factor for females while for males it loaded on a separate, one-item factor.

An ANOVA was used to test for the effect of participants' sex and film condition on the arousal factor. There were no significant main effects but an interaction effect was found for film group and participant sex, F (2,33) = 5.18, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .211. A priori contrast tests revealed no significant differences between the film conditions for female arousal; however males reported less arousal to the neutral film (M = 1.95) than the erotic (M = 3.97) and degrading (M = 4.58) films, F (2, 16) = 5.83, p < .05. As indicated in Figure 1 the only significant difference between male and female participants' arousal was in the nonviolent pornography film condition, t (14) = 3.02, p < .01.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

A two-way MANOVA was used to test the effect of participant sex and film condition on female character perceptions. There was no main effect for participant sex or interaction of participant sex with film condition. A significant effect was found for film condition, Wilk's Lambda = .110, F (4, 64) = 32.17, p < .001. Univariate F-tests revealed effects for film condition on the perception of the female character's assertiveness, F (2, 36) = 7.16, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .285, and degradation F (2, 36) = 94.93, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .841. As can be seen in Table 2, post hoc analysis indicated that the female character was perceived as more assertive in the erotic and nonviolent pornographic conditions than the neutral condition. In addition the female character was perceived as most degraded in the nonviolent pornographic condition followed by the erotic condition then the neutral condition.

A main effect for film condition was also found on perceptions of male characters, Wilk's Lambda =. 151, F (6, 62) = 16.28, p < .001. Univariate F-tests revealed significant effects for film condition on the male character's affection, F (2, 36) = 12.60, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .412; assertiveness, F (2, 36) = 25.20, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .583; and degradation, F (2, 36) = 6.85, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .265. Post hoc analysis revealed that male characters were perceived as most affectionate in the erotic condition and most assertive in the erotica and nonviolent pornography conditions (see Table 2). In general male characters were perceived as minimally degraded, but somewhat more degraded in the nonviolent pornography condition than in the neutral or erotica conditions.

As can be seen in Table 3, male participants' arousal was significantly correlated with the female character's degradation as well as the male and female characters' assertiveness.

Discussion

The results of the study support the first hypothesis that males would find the erotic and degrading video segments comparably arousing and more arousing than the neutral video. The second hypothesis that females would report greater arousal to the erotic video segments than the neutral or pornographic videos was not supported. One explanation for this would be that the neutral videos failed to serve as a baseline measure for female arousal. Perhaps using film clips from previous research rated equivalently low in arousal by males and females would have more clearly delineated female response in this study. However consistent with previous research, male and female participants did demonstrate equivalent levels of arousal to the erotic videos, but women reported significantly less arousal than men to the nonviolent pornographic videos.

Male and female characterizations were perceived similarly by male and female participants. This differs from previous studies in which male participants rated pornographic videos as less degrading than female participants (Cowan & Dunn, 1994; Gardos & Mosher, 1999). This disparity might be due to participants in this study specifically rating the female character as opposed to the video segments overall. That the male character was not perceived as very degraded in the pornographic videos may mediate the perception of overall degradation for male participants.

In the erotic and neutral videos male and female characters were not perceived as being very degraded. However in the pornographic videos female characters were rated as highly degraded but males minimally degraded. That male participants were able to perceive female degradation and still be aroused by it is evidenced by the positive correlation between male arousal and female degradation. Since participants' perception of degradation apparently centers on the female character, one can argue that the tendency of viewers to identify with characters of the same sex when viewing media content (Bussey & Bandura, 1984; Mahoney & Strassberg, 1993) would make the perception of minimal male degradation, but high female degradation more appealing to male viewers than females. Even though male participants are able to perceive female degradation on an equal basis with female participants, they may become more aroused because they identify more with the male character who is not perceived as degraded. This would be partly consistent with Gardos and Mosher's (1999) study in that male viewers may be aroused by the sexual affirmation experienced by the male character as opposed to the female character's degradation, which they may not notice. However, male participants in this study reported perceiving the female character's degradation and were still aroused by the degrading videos. Perhaps some combination of arousal to male affirmation as well as female degradation is at work here. After all, the male's 'affirmation' in adult videos typically comes at the expense of the female character, and both conditions, female degradation and male affirmation, are apparently perceived by male participants.

In the erotic videos, both characters were perceived as relatively assertive and not degraded with males showing more affection than in the pornographic videos. In the pornographic videos, the male characters were perceived as not very degraded or affectionate, but highly assertive while the female was depicted as highly degraded. These perceptions would be consistent with the feminist view of pornography as involving male detachment and aggression along with female degradation (Steinem, 1980).

For female characters, affection was associated with assertiveness, while for male characters affection loaded on a factor distinct from assertion. This difference may best be reflected in nonviolent pornography in which male characters are typically depicted as assertive, but not very affectionate. On the other hand, female characters in these videos may be perceived as asserting themselves affectionately as they try to appease the sexual whims of the male characters. Such a perception supports the notion that the female character in pornographic materials is often perceived as a willing participant in her own degradation. This depiction of a positive experience for the female may explain, in part, why males find pornography degrading to females arousing and why such materials may reinforce sex-typed attitudes.

One limitation of the current study may be the relatively small sample size. While the effect sizes in this study generally fall into the large range ([[eta].sup.2] > .138) according to Cohen's (1987) effect size index for behavioral sciences, a larger sample may have extended the study's findings and increased its generalizibility. Another concern might be that the segments used in this study were edited from full-length, commercially available videos. Hence they may not be contextually representative of the real-life experience of watching a complete video. On the other hand, feature-length X-rated videos, such as the ones used in this study, seem to consist of a series of vaguely related vignettes. For example, the segments taken from the 'Femme' video were two complete vignettes edited from a series of unrelated vignettes, which comprised the entire video.

An additional limitation might be in using college students to assess sexually explicit materials. Other studies have found that college men may be more androgynous than the general population (Faulkender, 1987) and that participants volunteering for sex research tend to have more liberal attitudes toward sex than those choosing not to participate (Saunders, Fisher, Hewitt, & Clayton, 1985). Such attitudes in this study could have resulted in a greater awareness of female degradation on the part of male participants and, as a result, led to higher ratings than the norm. Whether or not that might be the case would need to be investigated in future research.

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Jack Glascock is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Illinois State University. Correspondence to: Jack Glascock, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA; E-mail: jaglasc@ilstu.edu

Table 1 Factor Matrixes for Character Perceptions for All Films

                           Female character

                      Factor 1          Factor 2
                    (Degradation)    (Assertiveness)

Affectionate            -.331              .704
Aggressive               .271              .762
Degraded                 .911             -.020
Dominant                -.154              .618
Humiliated               .871             -.095
Promiscuous              .876              .089
Submissive               .877              .066
Willing                  .370              .699
Eigenvalue              3.49              1.95
Pct. of Variance       43.6              24.4

                                Male character

                      Factor 1          Factor 2        Factor 3
                   (Assertiveness)    (Degradation)    (Affection)

Affectionate            -.019              .004            .969
Aggressive               .866              .147           -.101
Degraded                 .132              .896           -.107
Dominant                 .723             -.003           -.486
Humiliated              -.081              .900            .115
Promiscuous              .670              .403           -.449
Submissive               .297              .710           -.057
Willing                  .885             -.171            .289
Eigenvalue              3.35              1.79            1.27
Pct. of Variance       42.0              22.5            15.9

Table 2 Means for Character Perceptions by Film Condition

Dependent Variable       Neutral    Erotica     Degrading
                                               pornography

N                           10         13          16

Female
  Assertiveness
    Mean                 2.91 (a)   4.46 (b)   3.78 (b)
    SD                   1.14        .976       .858
  Degradation
    Mean                 1.42 (a)   2.34 (b)   5.40 (c)
    SD                    .394       .932       .838
Male
  Affection
    Mean                 3.60 (b)   5.12 (c)   2.02 (a)
    SD                   1.84       1.62       1.56
  Assertiveness
    Mean                 3.15 (a)   5.50 (b)   5.97 (b)
    SD                   1.44       0.89       0.77
  Degradation
    Mean                 1.31 (a)   1.74 (a)   2.71 (b)
    SD                    .362      1.24       1.11

Note: Within each row, means with different subscripts differ
at the .05 level using the Duncan test. 1 = 'not at all';
7 = 'very much'.

Table 3 Correlations between Arousal and Character Perceptions

                         Arousal

                         Male       Female

N                        19         20
Female characters
  Assertiveness            .55 *      .17 *
  Degradation              .47 *     -.35
Male characters
  Affection                .37        .40
  Assertiveness            .51 *     -.11
  Degradation              .38       -.38

Note: * p < .05.