Today on Public Discourse, Mark Regnerus speculates about the connection he found between men who support gay marriage and men who use pornography. Today’s pornography treats viewers to “a veritable fire-hose dousing of sex-act diversity.” Moreover, it doesn’t depict sex as making babies or an exclusive act of total self-gift. Therefore, Regnerus speculates, men who have seen sex frequently depicted that way might be more inclined to define marriage as something other than permanent, exclusive, and conjugal, or to reject marriage altogether. The results were telling:
Data from the New Family Structures Study reveal that when young adult Americans (ages 23-39) are asked about their level of agreement with the statement “It should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry in America,” the gender difference emerges, just as expected: 42 percent of men agreed or strongly agreed, compared with 47 percent of women of the same age. More men than women disagreed or strongly disagreed (37 versus 30 percent), while comparable levels (21-23 percent) said they were “unsure.”
But of the men who view pornographic material “every day or almost every day,” 54 percent “strongly agreed” that gay and lesbian marriage should be legal, compared with around 13 percent of those whose porn-use patterns were either monthly or less often than that. Statistical tests confirmed that porn use is a (very) significant predictor of men’s support for same-sex marriage, even after controlling for other obvious factors that might influence one’s perspective, such as political affiliation, religiosity, marital status, age, education, and sexual orientation.
The same pattern emerges for the statement, “Gay and lesbian couples do just as good a job raising children as heterosexual couples.” Only 26 percent of the lightest porn users concurred, compared to 63 percent of the heaviest consumers. It’s a linear association for men: the more porn they consume, the more they affirm this statement. More rigorous statistical tests confirmed that this association too is a very robust one.
Regnerus leaves the matter at the level of exposure: If you see many kinds of graphic sex acts, it’s likely to change your view of what sex and marriage mean. That makes sense, but I would push the argument further. Pornography doesn’t just change what you think is possible. It changes what you want and what you think is morally acceptable. If human beings become habituated to repeatedly performed actions, many repeated users of pornography will be all the more inclined to want and pursue the kind of sex they see. Moreover, they will seek ways to justify their desires to themselves and others. They want what they see, and they want that to be OK.
The conjugal view of marriage stands against such justification. For some men, it may represent a vague opprobrium. For others, it may make the women in their life want to settle down and commit. Either way, it impedes desires pursued. If this is the case, the question of whether gays can truly marry is ancillary. For the vision of sex in modern pornography to become acceptable and more available, marriage must be defanged, reduced to one option among many or discarded altogether.
December 20th, 2012 | 1:33 pm
For the vision of sex in modern pornography to become acceptable and more available, marriage must be defanged, reduced to one option among many or discarded altogether.
As I understand Nathaniel Peters, he is hypothesizing that men who use pornography frequently and who also approve of same-sex marriage view same-sex marriage (perhaps unconsciously?) in the same manner as those who disapprove of same-sex marriage. That is, those who use pornography frequently and approve of same-sex marriage see the approval of same-sex marriage as something that will ultimately destroy marriage.
Are we to believe, then, that the frequent porn users who say “gay and lesbian couples do just as good a job raising children as heterosexual couples,” have as their goal to promote same-sex marriage and thereby ultimately to undermine marriage altogether?
If human beings become habituated to repeatedly performed actions, many repeated users of pornography will be all the more inclined to want and pursue the kind of sex they see. Moreover, they will seek ways to justify their desires to themselves and others. They want what they see, and they want that to be OK.
I don’t know that this is a fact. I think for the vast majority of people who look at porn, it is a matter of fantasy—perhaps like video games. I don’t think people watch porn and say, “Wow, I’ve got to do that myself!” any more than people who play Grand Theft Auto feel a need to go out and steal cars.
In any case, an interesting question about the data might be, Why does high porn consumption by men decrease the gender gap between men and women when it comes to the approval of same sex marriage?
I fear the lesson people will draw from Mark Regnerus’s article will be simply that degenerates consume a lot of porn, and it’s no surprise that degenerates tend to approve of same-sex marriage. What else would decent people expect?
December 20th, 2012 | 2:36 pm
Interesting but irrelevant. Porn is accepted, marriage is defanged. The folks who would use this survey are already viewed as cultural outliers and of no importance.
December 20th, 2012 | 5:06 pm
In his Public Discourse article, Prof. Regnerus simply says that men’s consumption of porn appears to correlate with certain views on same sex marriage. He hypothesizes that one’s impoverished understanding of sex is the common denominator.
David Nickol, I have no idea where you got your interpretation of the post. As to whether porn “changes what you want and what you think is acceptable,” Mr. Peters at least has some data on his side:
http://nymag.com/news/features/70976/
Apparently young men these days who have feasted on porn for decades are beginning to think that ejaculating all over a woman’s face is, well, normal and acceptable. The scary thing is that women are starting to play along.
December 20th, 2012 | 5:09 pm
The Big Failure is self reporting — liberal thinking men don’t mind reporting their use of porn honestly, while repressed, fearful or guilt-ridden conservatives do. Self reporting [porn use] is not a measure of anything real. Regnerus is a joke.
December 20th, 2012 | 5:12 pm
The comparison to video games is a good one. Violent games have increased our tolerance for violence and we recently reaped the whirlwind of gun violence. The association has value but may not entirely account for the dismissal of marriage. No fault sex has done that. Porn memorializes our collective tolerance being dulled and sex is no more than amusement and relationship expression.
December 20th, 2012 | 6:02 pm
Seeing the name “Regnerus” strongly suggests the whole thing is worthless anyway, but setting that aside: how does this fit with other studies showing that red states consume far more porn than blue states?
December 20th, 2012 | 6:26 pm
Hyhybt wrote: how does this fit with other studies showing that red states consume far more porn than blue states?
1) There is no study that has ever measured how much porn has been consumed in any state for any given period of time.
2) There is no study that has shown that red states consume “far more” porn than blue states.
December 20th, 2012 | 7:13 pm
1) There is no study that has ever measured how much porn has been consumed in any state for any given period of time.
Yes there is:
December 20th, 2012 | 7:15 pm
An interesting finding from the study itself:
December 20th, 2012 | 9:47 pm
Depressing as it is, Chuck is quite right. The genie’s out of the bottle on both pornography and (probably sooner than later) gay “marriage.”
December 20th, 2012 | 11:10 pm
Regnerus continues his smear campaign, in order to stop same-sex marriage. Sad. So now his tactic is to get people to stop supporting same-sex marriage for fear of being labeled a porn addict.
Regnerus forgets that he has already trashed his reputation and severely compromised his academic credentials. All he can do is preach to the choir, so to speak. Sure, the anti-gays will love this latest “finding.” Normal people, however, will continue to ignore Mr. Regnerus.
December 21st, 2012 | 5:53 am
Heather wrote: 1) There is no study that has ever measured how much porn has been consumed in any state for any given period of time.
David replied: Yes there is:
=============
No, there isn’t.
The study referenced does NOT measure how much porn was consumed in any state at any given time, nor do we know who exactly consumes porn.
It measures only credit card receipts from one provider.
This is like saying a study that measures the purchases of Smirnoff’s alcoholic beverages in one state is actually measuring the total consumption of all alcoholic beverages in that state, and can then provide a national comparison with other states.
In addition, purchase of porn does not equal total consumption, because contrary to alcohol, it is readily available without the need for purchase. One provider does not equal all providers.
No one has measured how much porn has been consumed in any state for any period of time, because that data has simply not ever been available to researchers.
Furthermore, this study implies that if a state is classified as “Red,” then all of its consumers are Republican and socially conservative, another profoundly misleading conclusion.
However, what this does underscore is the problem that social conservatives are fully aware of regarding the Republican party: a sizable number of Republicans are either liberal or quite liberal. This includes normalizing homosexuality, porn, promiscuity, prostitution, etc.
““When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different,” says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.”
Which people? Republicans who normalize homosexuality, promiscuity, and porn are more like Democrats who normalize homosexuality, promiscuity, and porn? Oh, astounding.
The real quality difference in people lies exactly in those who do not normalize porn, homosexuality, promiscuity, prostitution, etc., and those who do.
December 21st, 2012 | 7:16 am
Of course the ad hominems tell you exactly how much ability to answer Dr Regenerus his critics have.
Not much.
December 21st, 2012 | 9:39 am
Clearly David Nickol has never heard of the “ecological fallacy”. For anybody tempted to draw any conclusions from Nickol’s posts, look it up.
December 21st, 2012 | 10:15 am
Fred –
All that studies have been able to show in that regard is that a fraction of people who already show issues may be affected by video-game violence. Practically everyone in my generation grew up with Looney Tunes and other violent cartoons, but most were able to make a distinction between that fantasy and real life.
December 21st, 2012 | 10:00 pm
This latest gay-bashing bigotry out of Regnerus is profoundly dishonest. What he does not say in the article is more important than what he does say. For one example, what he does not tell readers is that out of his study’s total 2,988 respondents, only 84 watch porno “every day or nearly every day.” 1,402 of his respondents are in favor of same-sex marriage. So, if every last one of his 84 respondents who watch porno “every day or nearly every day” were to favor same-sex marriage, that still would mean that only 5.9% of his respondents who favor same-sex marriage watch porno every day. Yet, he is attempting to brand and smear equality supporters as daily pornography viewers. Regnerus and his Witherspoon funders and editors made the choices about how to present this latest gay-bashing bigot attack. This was a very calculated way for them to be sure of presenting the information in a manner that attempts to demonize equality supporters. “Watches porno every day” is not a characteristic for 94.1% of his respondents who favor same-sex marriage, yet Regnerus says that there is an “association” between porn viewing and support for marriage equality.
December 21st, 2012 | 10:27 pm
Ray, That wasn’t me. I don’t often agree with you, but I have to on this. The connection between violence and video games is tenuous at best.
December 22nd, 2012 | 3:36 am
Scott wrote:” This latest gay-bashing bigotry out of Regnerus is profoundly dishonest. ”
Project much? I only see Regnerus bashing bigotry in your comment.
“Regnerus says that there is an “association” between porn viewing and support for marriage equality.”
Because there is one – and it’s visible in any representative sample you study. It has to do with liberal ideology on sexuality and relationships.
This ideology states that it is legitimate and normal for a person to pursue dysfunctional, disoriented, perverse, and perverted sexual kicks. Thus it normalizes homosexuality and porn (aside from hook-ups, sex with strangers, promiscuity, etc.).
What does porn say? It says that homosexuality is normal. It also says that carrying out any perverse and perverted, violent, deformed sexual acts is just fine. As long as you get your (deformed) sexual thrills, that’s all that matters – that is one of core messages of porn – and what makes it so popular.
Pornography is a testament to how warped, dysfunctional, and perverse millions and millions of people are in regard to their sexuality ideology.
Thus it intersects in many ways with the very same discourse of people who normalize homosexuality: “there is nothing wrong, disoriented, or dysfunctional with any homosexual dynamic that pops up in anyone’s mind.”
Generally speaking, people who have normalized porn are not in the least interested in examining how perverted they are as regards sexuality, in the very same way that people who insist on normalizing homosexuality refuse to face how disoriented and dysfunctional it is. Thus, they insist that the reasons why an individual developed a homosexuality problem must never be investigated or known.
December 22nd, 2012 | 7:26 am
Scott Rose, do you consume porn? Do you support SSM?
I do neither of those things. Perhaps statistically you and I would cancel each other out.
December 27th, 2012 | 9:10 pm
Whoops, Fred, sorry about that. My comment should have been addressed to Frank.
December 28th, 2012 | 9:09 pm
I think the people blaming Regnerus are missing the point. Porn and gay marriage are both a fantasy, that do not exist, except in the minds of people.
They both display a fear of what is physically real.
They both refuse to see people as body-persons.
Male/female are fixed binary distinctions. There are deviations from the norm, but they are deviations.
Post-modernists are simply wrong when they claim that these things are based on one’s perception, rather than reality.
It has to do with spending too much time with technology and fictional people.
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