This study suggests that greater exposure to pornography among heterosexual German women is associated with their desire to engage in or having previously engaged in submissive sexual behaviors but not dominant behaviors. This pattern of correlations aligns with sexual script theory and content analyses of dominance and submission and gender in pornography. It does not align with the perspective that measures of pornography consumption are simply proxies for factors such as a high sex drive or an adventurous approach to sex.

This study found that German heterosexual women’s personal and partnered consumption of pornography were positively correlated with their desire to engage in or having previously engaged in submissive (but not dominant) sexual behaviors such as having their hair pulled, having their face ejaculated on, being spanked, choked, called names, slapped, and gagged. The association between women’s partnered pornography consumption and submissive sexual behavior was strongest for women whose first exposure to pornography was at a young age. The findings also indicated that women’s personal and partnered pornography consumption were uniquely related to their engagement in submissive sexual behavior.

Human sexual expression and activities are largely learned from social and environmental input (Hogben & Byrne, 1998; Tiefer, 2004). Sexual scripts (i.e., socially constructed guidelines for sexual roles and behaviors) that are prevalent in the environment and positively depicted are the most likely to be adopted (Bandura, 1986; Simon & Gagnon, 1984). Pornography (i.e., erotic, sexually explicit media content) has been argued to be a significant purveyor of cultural-level sexual scripts (Dines, 2010; Jensen, 2007; Paul, 2005). Content analyses indicate that sexual scripts for male aggression and dominance and female subservience and submission are not only prevalent in popular pornography but also depicted as resulting in women’s sexual satisfaction (Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, & Liberman, 2010; Sun, Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, & Liberman, 2008).

A growing body of research is specifically interested in how women use and are impacted by pornography (Benjamin & Tlusten, 2010; Laier, Pekal, & Brand, 2014; Weinberg, Williams, Kleiner, & Irizarry, 2010). No study, however, appears to have investigated whether women’s pornography consumption is associated with specific sexual behaviors frequently depicted in pornography—for example, spanking (or being spanked), choking (or being choked), pulling hair (or having their hair pulled), or name-calling (or being called names; Bridges et al., 2010). Since pornographic scripts are gendered and overwhelmingly depict a male dominant and female submissive dynamic (Dines, 2010; Jensen, 2007), the present study investigates heterosexual German women’s interest and engagement in the specific types of dominant and submissive behaviors observed in recent content analyses of popular pornography as well as whether their personal and partnered pornography consumption is related to their desires and engagement in such behaviors.

Male Dominance and Female Submission in Pornography Content analyses of pornography over the past three decades have consistently found that depictions of male dominance and aggression directed toward women are prevalent. Cowan, Lee, Levy, and Snyder (1988) randomly selected 45 titles from a list of 121 popular X-rated videos and found that dominance and/or exploitation, including physical or verbal aggression, occurred in 54% of the scenes, and rape was depicted in 51% of the films. Duncan (1991) randomly selected 10% (50 titles) of the entire adult video collection from a video store and found that 13.6% of the scenes contained violent acts. Rape was depicted in one third of these scenes, and degrading acts—mostly verbal abuse—were found in 18.2% of the scenes. Monk-Turner and Purcell (1999) analyzed 209 scenes from 40 popular pornographic videos from a national video store chain and found that 17% of scenes contained themes concerning violence against women and 85% depicted men ejaculating on women. Barron and Kimmel (2000) compared the depiction of sexual violence across different forms of media and concluded that Internet pornography depicted more violent scenes than print media or videos. In recent years, scholars have paid increased attention to Internet pornography. For example, Gorman, Monk-Turner, and Fish (2010) analyzed 45 free videos randomly selected from popular Internet adult websites and reported that 55% of all videos had a main theme of exploitation or domination in which the male actor took control. Klaassen and Peter (2014) analyzed the 100 most viewed videos on each of the top four adult websites (Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn, and xHamster) and found that men were more often shown as dominant and women as submissive, and that the two most frequent acts of male aggression against women were spanking (27% of scenes) and gagging (18.8% of scenes). Recent studies that have systematically sampled popular pornographic videos provide detailed information about sexual behaviors frequently depicted in these movies (in 27–75% of scenes analyzed), such as name-calling (e.g., “slut” or “whore”), hair pulling, light and heavy spanking, facial ejaculation, double penetration (i.e., penetrating a partner’s anus or vagina simultaneously with another man), ass-to-mouth (i.e., anally penetrating a partner and then inserting the penis directly into her mouth), penile gagging, facial slapping, and choking (Bridges et al., 2010; Sun et al., 2008). These two studies on pornography’s content further indicate that women, overwhelmingly dominated by men, often express pleasure or no response to men’s aggression.

Results Hypothesis 1: Interest and Engagement in Dominant Versus Submissive Behavior To test Hypothesis 1, analyses were undertaken to explore whether women were more likely to want to try and to have tried the dominant side or the submissive side of eight behaviors observed in content analyses of pornography. To compare women’s level of interest, women who had not tried the behavior and who had no interest in trying the behavior (coded 0) were compared to women who had not tried the behavior but said they would like to try the behavior (coded 1). To compare women’s actual engagement in each behavior, women who had tried the behavior (coded 1) were compared to women who had not tried the behavior (coded 0). Differences between women’s interest and engagement in each dominant behavior and its submissive counterpart were evaluated using McNemar tests. Results are presented in Table 2. Women who had not tried the behaviors expressed more interest in the submissive side of each behavior than the dominant side. Four of these differences were statistically significant (i.e., sadomasochism, forced sex, hard spanking, and binding). Regarding actual behavior, women were significantly more likely to report engaging in the submissive side than the dominant side in all instances (i.e., choking, sadomasochism, hair pulling, forced sex, slapping, light spanking, hard spanking, and binding). In sum, the direction of women’s interest in submissive behavior versus dominant behavior and actual engagement in submissive behavior versus dominant behavior was similar: Women were more likely to express interest and engage in submissive behavior than dominant behavior. Table 2. Comparisons of Interest and Engagement in Dominant and Submissive Behavior. View larger version Hypothesis 2: Personal Pornography Consumption and Dominance and Submissiveness Hypothesis 2 predicted that women’s personal pornography consumption would more strongly correlate with their interest and engagement in submissive behavior than dominant behavior. Given the directional correspondence between women’s desires and behaviors across the eight dominance/submission acts, summative indexes were created for the submissive behaviors and the dominant behaviors (i.e., the summation of submissive and dominant behaviors that women want to try or have tried—possible range of 0–8 for each). Principal components analyses using eigenvalues, scree plots, and factor loadings as evaluative criteria suggested one factor solutions for each index. Both scales were internally consistent (submission interest and engagement index Cronbach’s α = .79; dominance interest and engagement index Cronbach’s α = .76). Women wanted to try or had tried more submissive behaviors (M = 4.06; SD = 2.26) than dominant behaviors (M = 2.98; SD = 2.09; within subjects t = 11.12, p < .01). The correlation between women’s personal pornography consumption and submissiveness was positive and significant (r = .28, p < .01). The correlation between women’s personal pornography consumption and dominance was not significant (r = .05, ns). The difference between these correlations was significant (Williams’ t = 4.38, p < .01).2 In sum, women’s personal pornography consumption correlated with their submissive desires and behavior but was unrelated to their dominant desires and behavior. Hypothesis 3: Partnered Pornography Consumption and Dominance and Submissiveness Hypothesis 3 predicted that women’s partnered pornography consumption would more strongly correlate with their interest and engagement in submissive behavior than dominant behavior. To test this hypothesis, the analyses carried out for Hypothesis 2 were replicated with partnered pornography consumption in place of personal pornography consumption. The correlation between women’s partnered pornography consumption and submissiveness was positive and significant (r = .26, p < .01). The correlation between women’s partnered pornography consumption and dominance was not significant (r = .10, ns). The difference between these correlations was significant (Williams’ t = 3.21, p < .01).2 In sum, women’s partnered pornography consumption correlated with their submissive desires and behavior but was unrelated to their dominant desires and behavior. Hypothesis 4: Unique Correlation of Personal and Partnered Pornography Consumption to Submissive Behavior Hypothesis 4 predicted that women’s personal pornography consumption and partnered pornography consumption would uniquely correlate with their submissive behavior. To test this hypothesis, a summative index was created that reflected the number of general submission behaviors women had actually tried and the number of behaviors particular to male sexual dominance and female sexual submission that women had actually tried (possible range of 0–8 for each index). Women were slightly more likely to have tried the former (M = 3.21; SD = 2.37) than the latter (M = 3.00; SD = 1.81) behaviors (within subjects t = 2.14, p < .05). Principal components analyses using eigenvalues, scree plots, and factor loadings as evaluative criteria suggested one factor solutions for each index. Both scales were internally consistent (submission behavior index Cronbach’s α = .82; male sexual dominance and female sexual submission behavior index Cronbach’s α = .72). Partial correlations were calculated to test the fourth hypothesis. After partialling out the contribution of their partnered pornography consumption, women’s personal pornography consumption was marginally correlated with their general submission behavior (partial r = .13, p = .07) and significantly correlated with their male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior (partial r = .26, p < .01). After partialling out the contribution of their personal pornography consumption, women’s partnered pornography consumption was positively correlated with their general submission behavior (partial r = .21, p < .01) and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior (partial r = .38, p < .01). In sum, the pattern of results suggested that women’s personal and partnered pornography consumption were uniquely correlated with their submissive behavior. Hypothesis 5: Age of First Pornography Exposure as a Moderator Hypothesis 5 predicted that associations between women’s pornography exposure and submissive behavior would be strongest in the case of women who were first exposed to pornography at an early age. Three-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses predicting women’s general submission behavior and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior were conducted. In addition to age of first exposure, women’s student status, relationship status, religiosity, and years of age were entered as controls in step one, as prior research suggests that these factors may correlate with pornography exposure or sexual behavior (Ballester-Arnal, Castro-Calvo, Gil-Llario, & Gimenez-Garcia, 2014; Maddox, Rhoades, & Markman, 2011; Zillmann & Bryant, 1988). Women’s personal and partnered pornography consumption were entered in step two. Multiplicative interaction terms between women’s personal and partnered pornography consumption and age of first pornography exposure were entered in step three. All covariates and predictors were either centered or binary coded. Results are presented in Table 3. Table 3. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses Predicting Women’s Submissive Behavior. View larger version The interactions between women’s personal pornography consumption and age of first pornography exposure were not significant. Frequent personal pornography consumption was associated with engaging in more general submission behavior and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior regardless of the age at which women were first exposed to pornography. The interactions between women’s partnered pornography consumption and age of first pornography exposure were significant, however. Simple slope analyses indicated that women’s partnered pornography consumption was most strongly related to their submission behavior and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior when they were first exposed to pornography at an early age. Illustrative simple slopes for the association between partnered pornography consumption and general submission behaviors are: 6–9 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .48, p < .01; 10–12 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .30, p < .01; 13–15 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .13, ns. Illustrative simple slopes for the association between partnered pornography consumption and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behaviors are: 6–9 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .69, p < .01;10–12 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .46, p < .01; 13–15 years old first exposed to pornography, β = .23, p < .01. Figures 1 and 2 provide visual illustrations of these interactions. In sum, the younger the age at which women had first been exposed to pornography, the more strongly their partnered pornography consumption predicted their submissive behavior. Download Open in new tab Download in PowerPoint Download Open in new tab Download in PowerPoint

Conclusion This study is one of the first to demonstrate a clear link between pornography consumption and women’s submissive sexual behaviors by identifying acts prevalent in pornography and by using an examination of different uses of pornography and their interactions with women’s early exposure. Pornography has been argued to be mere fantasy (Bader, 2008; Kipnis, 1996; Lehman, 2006) and a tool for women’s sexual liberation (Ellis, O’Dair, & Tallmer, 1990). It has also been argued that the pornographic images are polysemic and that the audience’s identification is unpredictable (McClintock, 1993). Thus, when women see other women being dominated in pornography, they may identify with the dominator, not the dominated, and subsequently learn a sexual domination script. However, based on this and previous research (Wright, Sun, Steffen, & Tokunaga, 2014), many heterosexual men and women appear to largely accept pornography’s script of male dominance and female submission and to behave accordingly. This power imbalance provides much to ponder in terms of sexual relations and gender inequality.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes 1.

Given this variable’s positive skew, replicative analyses were conducted for all hypothesis tests using a logarithm transformation (Mertler & Vannatta, 2002). Results with the variable in its original form mirrored the transformed variable results. 2.

Correlative difference significant regardless of the test employed (http://comparingcorrelations.org/; Diedenhofen & Musch, 2015). 3.

As knowledge is cumulative, however, it would be remiss to not also mention the following. First, scholars have identified economic factors as crucial in motivating pornographers to come up with novel sexual acts to catch consumers’ attention (Dines, 2012; Jensen, 2008). Thus, it is likely counterproductive for pornographers to merely document already-established patterns of sexual behavior. An “upping-the-ante” example can be seen in the act of ejaculating on a woman’s face/mouth. Once a rare occurrence in stag films, the predecessors of modern pornography (Williams, 1989), this act has become ubiquitous in recent years (Bridges et al., 2010; Hardy, 1998). Second, if women’s already-established submissive behavior is the cause of their pornography consumption, two patterns should be present in the data (see Cohen & Cohen, 1983, p. 93: model c: spurious relationships): (1) women’s personal and partnered pornography use should be correlated and (2) this association should reduce to nonsignificance when women’s submissive behavior is controlled. Women’s personal and partnered pornography consumption were positively correlated (r = .37, p < .01). This association remained significant, however, after controlling for both women’s general submission behavior (partial r = .33, p < .01) and male sexual dominance/female sexual submission behavior (partial r = .23, p < .01). Third, data from a growing body of longitudinal pornography studies have more consistently supported a media effects explanation than a selective exposure explanation (see Wright, Tokunaga, & Bae, 2014, for a discussion).