Dr Katerina Litsou

This article reports on an interdisciplinary project that conducted a series of systematic reviews of academic research about the use of pornography and sexual health. Academics from a variety of disciplines were involved; half of the team had a background in humanities and the other half a background in psychology. While working closely together, they realized that they disagreed on many different matters, such as how to ask questions, how to use definitions, what count as data, what counts as a good outcome in research, how to structure an academic article, and how to use other academics’ work. This article reports on the team members’ use of reflective practice to analyze their responses to these disagreements and suggests that such disagreements can be seen as positive and productive in interdisciplinary research as they may facilitate collaboration among those representing different disciplines.

This paper explores some the difficulties in undertaking a large-scale systematic review of pornography research literature. Its authors come from different disciplines across the humanities and social sciences, and work within an interdisciplinary team. The research project aims to understand pornography’s relationship with its audiences, particularly considering the relationship between pornography consumption and healthy sexual development. Offering a conversational account of research experiences on the project so far, the paper illustrates some key tensions and ongoing points of discussion in research committed to interdisciplinary scholarship, featuring disciplinary perspectives that do not easily correlate. We disagree on definitions, data-gathering methods and modes of data analysis. This paper does not aim to deliver solutions to these problems but presents two different voices describing our experiences of interdisciplinary porn research so far. In order to challenge and extend our disciplinary thinking, we offer an example of dialogue, and highlight the potential of listening across disciplinary frameworks. We encourage scholars from different disciplines to work together as this generates broader research perspectives and offers challenging conditions that can usefully interrogate and extend upon traditional research practice and methods. We hope this paper will generate further reflection among research peers about how best to strengthen interdisciplinary research practice, including, but not limited to, porn research.

This paper adds to recent discussions of young people’s porn literacy and argues that researchers must address porn users’ engagements with, and understandings of, different porn genres and practices. As part of a larger interdisciplinary project which consisted of a series of systematic reviews of literature on the relationship between pornography use and healthy sexual development, we reviewed articles addressing the relationship between pornography use and literacy. We found few articles that present empirical data to discuss porn literacies, and those we found commonly frame young people’s porn literacy as their ability to critically read porn as negative and comprising ‘unrealistic’ portrayals of sex. This model of porn literacy tends to be heteronormative, where only conservative ideals of ‘good’, coupled, and vanilla sex are deemed ‘realistic’. Data from the literature we reviewed shows that young people make sophisticated distinctions between different kinds of pornography, some of which could be called ‘realistic’, as per do-it-yourself and amateur porn. We extend this discussion to young people’s understandings of ‘authenticity’ across their broader digital and social media practices. From this focus, we propose the need to incorporate young people’s existing porn literacies into future education and research approaches. This includes engaging with their understandings and experiences of porn genres, digital media practice, and representations of authenticity.

A systematic review of literature on the relationship between consumption of pornography and sexual pleasure found two approaches. One examines masturbatory pleasure produced by engagement with pornography and finds that both men and women take pleasure from pornography consumption (although for women in particular this can create conflicting reactions). A second, more dominant, approach investigates whether pornography consumption is associated with subsequent sexual pleasure with a partner. It is notable that even in a sample of articles curated to understand pleasure, there is more research into satisfaction than pleasure and, in particular, relationship satisfaction.

"This book presents an innovative cross-disciplinary report on research across the humanities and social sciences about the relationship between pornography and its consumers.

Two members of the Delphi panel who completed a tranche of the survey.

A systematic review and thematic synthesis were conducted on the motivations, purposes, and influence of pornography use among women who are in committed relationships. Pornography use was identified as having both positive and negative outcomes for women’s sexual and relationship lives. Women watched pornography for diverse reasons: to feel sexually empowered, to enhance sexual arousal, and for masturbation purposes. Shared use of pornography with partners provided variety in sexual activities, could aid communication about sexual issues and helped improve intimacy. Pornography use can help some women feel sexually empowered, relaxed and better able to enjoy their sexual lives.

Abstract

In interdisciplinary investigations into the relationships between pornography and its audiences, the issue of how to define the object of study is more complex than in studies situated within a single discipline. A Delphi panel of 38 leading pornography researchers from a wide range of disciplines was asked about various topics, including the definition of pornography. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of two rounds of survey responses suggested two different and—at first sight—incompatible definitions operating. The first was “Sexually explicit materials intended to arouse.” The second was a culturally relative definition suggesting pornography has no innate characteristics. This technical report suggests that we should encourage researchers to choose which definition they want to use in a self-reflective way depending on the needs of the project, so long as they make it explicit and justify their decision.

Researchers and media commentators often claim that young people are increasingly learning about sex through pornography, but evidence about this is unclear. This article reports on a mixed methods systematic review of research on pornography use for sexual learning. Ten articles were included that explicitly addressed how porn users describe the educational aspects of pornography. Thematic analysis located five key themes about ‘porn education’ in these articles: learning the mechanics of sex; learning concerning sexual identities and sexualities; inadequate information through pornography; wrong lessons from pornography; and a need for more relevant sex education. No articles attempted to measure or discuss whether people who access pornography have better (or worse) skills and knowledge about sex and sexual health than those who do not. Sex education is only discussed in relation to young people, neglecting attention to lifelong learning about sex and sexuality. According to this dataset, pornography use can offer useful information about the mechanics of sex, and this is particularly pertinent for young gay men. Many articles reveal that young people are often aware of the shortcomings of pornography as a source of information and guidance, and that improvements to sex and relationships education are necessary.

The aim of this study was to explore motivations women describe for using pornography. A qualitative online interview study was conducted with 30 women (Mean age 30.23, range 20–47; residing in the UK and in Greece; of varied sexual orientations and relationship status) about their pornography use, motivations for use, and preferences. Reflexive thematic analysis was used. Results were organized into four themes: Sexual Precursors, Non-sexual Precursors, Intended Outcomes, and Unintended Outcomes. The findings highlight that pornography use for women can have both positive and negative ramifications for women’s sexual lives. Implications for clinical practice and education are discussed.

This article reports on the findings of a systematic review of literature on pornography use and sexual consent published between January 2000 and December 2017. The review found that there exists little research explicitly addressing consent. There exists an extensive literature on the relationship between the consumption of pornography and sexual aggression/violence; however, this work fails to distinguish between consensual (kink, spanking, BDSM) and nonconsensual acts (sexual harassment and rape). Our thematic analysis found that there is no agreement in the literature reviewed as to whether consumption of pornography is correlated with better or worse understandings or practices of sexual consent. The majority of articles that identified correlations between aspects of sexual health and pornography consumption incorrectly assigned causality to pornography consumption.

Poor mental health among undergraduate students is often addressed through interventions which aim to improve resilience, mindfulness or similar qualities. This shifts the responsibility of improving student mental health onto students themselves and obscures the effect of institutions and societies. This scoping review aimed to identify what is known and what gaps exist in the literature about institutional and societal risk and protective factors for UK undergraduate student mental ill‐health. Eleven databases, Google and reference lists were searched for journal articles and grey literature published between 2005 and 2024, which examined institutional or societal risk or protective factors for UK undergraduate student mental ill‐health. Forty‐four publications met the inclusion criteria for the review. Institutional factors identified related to studying, getting support, university life and interventions. Societal factors identified related to state finance and immigration systems, travel and transport, and the COVID pandemic. These factors are not culturally specific to the UK but rather represent issues of concern for university policymakers and practitioners internationally. This review highlights the importance of student‐centred policies, particularly for financial and study‐related factors, and providing training for university staff on undergraduate mental health and changes they can make to teaching, support services and the campus environment for students generally and sub‐groups of students with particular needs. Potentially fruitful avenues of further research for improving undergraduate student mental health include the impact of campus culture, specific university policies, university facilities and built environments, specific national/regional policies and laws, structural inequalities, cultural norms and local environments or communities.