A Canadian researcher set out to study the effects of porn viewing on heterosexual males. He needed a control groupâmen who hadn't ever viewed pornâand couldn't find any.
âGuys who do not watch pornography do not exist,â Lajeunesse of the universityâs School of Social Work said yesterday. So his study examined the habits of 20 university students who consumed X-rated materialâthat would be all of themâand the impact on their sexual identity and how it shapes their relationship with women.
The study foundâwith its small sample of mostly white university students blah blah blahâthat porn is not a "neurotoxin."
As adults, their sex lives were pretty conventional, almost identical to their parents, Lajeunesse said. In fact, the men distinguished between fantasy and reality; they did not want their partners to look like porn stars, he said. âWell, maybe in their bed one or twice, but not in their life,â he said. Lajeunesse suggested that pornography has been demonized and that its effects are negligible.If pornography is like a âneurotoxinâ that âdamages the brainâ as some U.S. anti-pornography crusaders claim, then simply showing heterosexual porn to gay men could switch their orientation, he said. As for the persistent perception that pornography breeds crime against women, Lajeunesse said aggressive men donât need porn as an incentive to be violent.