A new study claims that heterosexual men — the group most likely to oppose gay marriage — who watch porn are more likely to…come around to the idea.
Quick! Someone ship over a dozen copies of Titty Titty Gang Bang to the Republican National Committee!
“Our study suggests that the more heterosexual men, especially less educated heterosexual men, watch pornography, the more supportive they become of same-sex marriage,” study author, Indiana University Assistant Professor Paul Wright, told The Washington Examiner.
Well, that’s kind of insulting to dumb straight dudes. Not that they’d know it. But we digress.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Wright and co-author Ashley Randall of the University of Arizona utilized studies funded by the National Science Foundation of some 500 hetero males over the course of six years, comparing their porno consumption with their views on same-sex marriage. Wright and Randall then published their findings in the (actually legitimate) peer-reviewed journal, Communication Research.
“Pornography adopts an individualistic, non-judgmental stance on all kinds of non-traditional sexual behaviors and same-sex marriage attitudes are strongly linked to attitudes about same-sex sex,” Wright said. “If people think individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to have same-sex sex, they will also think that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to get married to a partner of the same-sex.”
The authors suggested that since lesbian porn “is quite popular among males” (understatement of the century), the change seen in the men toward same-sex marriage suggests “a change in males’ attitude regarding male-male marriage.” Hooray for guy-on-guy action!
“Since a portion of individuals’ sexual attitudes come from the media they consume,” Wright added, “it makes sense that pornography viewers would have more positive attitudes towards same-sex marriage.”
So it seems like all those creepy, hairy-palmed dudes who’ve never seen the light of day or an actual vagina are leading the cause for equality. Come next election cycle, we wouldn’t be surprised if pro-gay marriage ads are simply replaced with lesbian porn and the words: “Who’d wanna make this illegal?”
You’re welcome, Illinois.
MikeE
I think this study has it backward.
The type of people to be AGAINST marriage equality are religiously conservative, and thus NOT likely to admit to watching any pornography.
The type of people who are likely to be for marriage equality tend to NOT be religiously conservative, and therefore have no hangups about admitting to watching pornography.
The study is flawed from the start.
The equation for the study should have been:
Men who are for marriage equality more readily admit to watching pornography than those who are adamantly against marriage equality.
Fidelio
Why we even had this study is beyond me. It is offensive to juxtapose porn and marriage equality. This does nothing to elevate the conservation and only serves to undermine any hard-fought legislative gains.
longpastdue
@MikeE: I have to agree with you on this one, anyone that knows research design knows that this study is rife with confounding variables. I would also say that other research doesn’t really support these claims as we know from other studies that the more conservative and religious a state is…the more internet porn it consumes.
Gordito
The correct title to this article should be: Guys Whom Admit to Watching Porn Accept Gay Marriage
hyhybt
It’s already being used as if this were somehow, in and of itself, proof that allowing us to marry would be evil.
erasure25
Seems off. Utah has the highest porn consumption rate in the US and clearly Mormons are not pro-same sex marriage. Anyhow, this study is correlative and not causative. Correlation does not imply causation. A better conclusion would seem to be that people who are honest and comfortable about their sexuality and thus are open and honest about their porn consumption are more likely to support same sex sex and same sex marriage. I’m not equating sex with marriage, but really, everyone assumes a married couple has sex so there is some relation.
MK Ultra
Didn’t that fraud researcher from a University in Texas make the same claim. His name is Regnerus or something like that. He also did a crap study on gays making bad parents.
Probably the same funders. I don’t understand their angle. Like this is going to have any effect on the skyrocketing support for marriage equality or straight men watching porn.
I would call this paid propaganda before I would ever use the word research. Follow the money. This is Regnerus part2
Scott Rose
The researcher is talking out his ass when he says that lots of men like to watch female-on-female porno, and that could be a reason for male porno viewers’ supposed higher levels of acceptance of marriage equality. This researcher’s data from the General Social Survey does NOT have respondents reporting on whether they watch female-on-female porno. The researcher is speculating — gossiping really — on the basis of nothing scientific. If he is going to be making these ridiculous, speculative claims in association with his “research,” he might as well put on a red clown nose, and we might as well honk a circus horn in his face.
hyhybt
@Scott Rose: I’m not sure I understand. The study seems to have been of a correlation only, so *of course* any statements about why that correlation exists are going to be speculative. Yes, guessing. That doesn’t make it the same as “talking out his ass,” which would be guessing without reasoning behind it. Looking for evidence of which guess, if any, is correct comes later.
As for this particular survey not collecting data on straight men liking lesbian porn… why would it have to? That’s already well known. An exploration of whether it’s specifically the ones who like lesbian porn who also favor marriage equality would come *after* having the idea that might be true.
Scott Rose
@hyhybt: Where data on porn consumption is real data (download figures from porn companies, commercial tracking services, et cetera, for example) — and not from self-reporting on surveys — it is known that the heaviest pornography consumption occurs in the states with the greatest levels of opposition to same-sex marriage. If there were a constant correlation between heavy porn viewing and increased support for same-sex marriage, then the states with the highest support for same-sex marriage would also have the highest rates of heavy porn viewing. Empirically, we know that is not the case.