Spanish Women and Pornography Based on Different Sexual Orientation: an Analysis of Consumption, Arousal, and Discomfort by Sexual Orientation and Age

Women’s pleasure has long been ignored or pathologized (Van Ness et al., 2017). In particular, sexist and conservative societies characterize women as being sexually passive with a low sexual drive and relegate women’s sexual behaviors to men’s sexual satisfaction (Emmerink et al., 2016; Lamb, 2010). Additionally, in this context, the sexual double standard, which criticizes women who show active sexuality while positively valuing these behaviors for men (Emmerink et al., 2016; Van Ness et al., 2017), indicates that most women experience their own sexuality in silence, purity, and repression (Trinh, 2016; Van Ness et al., 2017). In particular, the difficulty of identifying women as a proactive sexual agent increases for those manifestations that are socially condemned. The consumption of pornography is one of these invisible aspects. However, several studies have shown that women consume pornography, especially since beginning of the Internet era, which facilitates access to erotic content (Carnes et al., 2007).

For example, in the United States, 68% of women between 18 and 61 years old had ever intentionally seen pornography on the Internet (Kasper et al., 2015). These figures are in line with another study which found that 40% of women (between 17 and 64 years old), either less or more frequently, had used pornography to masturbate in recent years and that 20.8% had seen pornography, but without masturbating (Bridges et al., 2016).

In China, the percentages are similar; a study found that 62% of women (between 19 and 58 years old) had intentionally watched erotic videos online in the last 12 months (Zheng & Zheng, 2014). Another study found that in Australia, 54% of women (from 16 to 69 years old) had ever looked pornographic material in their lives, and 41% had done so recently (Rissel et al., 2017).

Regarding Europe, in a study among a young population (between 18 and 26 years old), 56.9% of Polish women and 49.3% of German women had used pornography more than once a month in the last 6 months (Martyniuk et al., 2016). In Spain, a study found that 68.1% of adolescent and young women (from 19 to 25 years old) had ever searched for sexual material on the Internet, and 68.5% of them had ever masturbated while they were on the Internet (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2017). However, women over the age of 55 rarely report current pornography consumption (4.7%) (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2019). This decrease is in line with a study from the USA comparing young people versus middle-aged and older people, in which it was observed that the consumption of pornography during the most recent year decreased with age and increased conservative attitudes toward pornography (Price et al., 2016). Therefore, age may play an important role in pornography consumption.

Among the scarce literature on the effect that women’s sexual orientation has on pornography consumption, a study developed by Hungarian portals showed that women of the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) seemed to view pornography more frequently than heterosexual women (Bőthe et al., 2018). In this sense, in a study from Norway with women between 18 and 59 years old, 92% of lesbian and bisexual women had ever been exposed to pornography, more or less intentionally, compared to 67% of heterosexual women (Træen & Daneback, 2013).

Although these studies yield important findings, they do not explore other relevant elements, such as the type of pornography used or the associated discomfort. First, viewing erotic material has been associated with sexual well-being and sexual satisfaction between heterosexual couples (Maas et al., 2018), especially when it is occasional (Wright et al., 2019). Such viewing can be used to learn about sexual matters (Ševčíková & Daneback, 2014), provide greater sexual openness and better sexual experiences (Rissel et al., 2017), and serve as ways to discover preferences and develop intimacy (Attwood et al., 2018). In addition, the online context provides a “safer” place than the offline context (Griffiths, 2012). Thus, by using pornography, people can explore new horizons and enjoy sexual experiences that are not usually accessible, such as erotic material about certain fetishes and fantasies (Yu, 2013) or sexual practices associated with different sexual orientations (Hald & Štulhofer, 2016; Walters & Spengler, 2016).

However, a higher and more regular consumption of pornography has also been associated with sexual dissatisfaction (Blais-Lecours et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2019). In particular, some authors have related the viewing of pornography with greater discussions (Carroll et al., 2017) and worse sexual quality within a couple (Poulsen et al., 2013). In particular, there have been discrepancies regarding the consumption of pornography and the attitudes that both partners have (Daneback et al., 2009). Moreover, a high consumption of pornography can create false expectations and beliefs that may lead to a greater sense of body dissatisfaction or lower sexual self-esteem (Tylka, 2015).

At the same time, pornography consumption may cause discomfort when dissonance occurs between the content of the sexual material and one’s own sexual self-concept (Priolo et al., 2016). This would be the case not only when consuming materials from other sexual orientations (Walters & Spengler, 2016) but also when there is an inconsistency between engaging in this activity and one’s values (Grubbs et al., 2019a), as well as the internalized passive role that is expected for women (Van Ness et al., 2017).

Despite the impact that pornography may have on both men and women, the literature has rarely analyzed these aspects in women. Following the systematic review of Grubbs et al. (2019b), most studies have focused on male populations or comparisons between men and women, thereby ignoring the content of pornography. In line with the systematic review by Ashton et al. (2018) that focused on pornography use by women, none of the studies evaluated the consumption of content based on different sexual orientations or the women’s level of discomfort when consuming them.

Therefore, improving knowledge about women’s experience of pornography consumption is required, particularly in Hispanic countries such as Spain, where there is little research in this regard and the sexual double standard still influences sexual behavior. For this reason, this study analyzes the consumption of pornography among Spanish women and their experience of being aroused by different types of content based on their sexual orientation, as well as their perception of discomfort. Due to the influence of age and sexual orientation on sexual behavior, both factors are considered in these analyses.

In this context, we establish the following research questions and hypotheses:

In light of our findings, compared to past investigations (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2017; Bridges et al., 2016; Kasper et al., 2015; Martyniuk et al., 2016; Rissel et al., 2017; Træen & Daneback, 2013; Zheng & Zheng, 2014), our results showed that more young adult Spanish women had consumed pornography. This difference may be due to the age of the participants, which in our case was from 18 to 44 years old, while in other studies, the sample was younger (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2017; Martyniuk et al., 2016) or had a greater range of ages (Bridges et al., 2016; Kasper et al., 2015; Rissel et al., 2017; Træen & Daneback, 2013; Zheng & Zheng, 2014). Another aspect that may influence the findings is what type of information has been collected. For example, we asked about the women’s behavior experience on at least one occasion and not for a specific period of time or regarding specific correlated practices such as masturbation (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2017; Bridges et al., 2016) or the frequency thereof (Bridges et al., 2016; Martyniuk et al., 2016; Zheng & Zheng, 2014). However, cultural context and social desirability may have also influence on the outcomes. Depending on the country, there is a greater stigmatization of affective-sexual diversity and sexuality in general, which can inhibit women from talking about it (Digoix et al., 2016; Schmitt & Fuller, 2015).

In general, regardless of the women’s reported sexual orientation, there was a consumption of all types of pornographic content. These findings support other studies (Copen et al., 2016; Nebot-Garcia et al., 2018; Vrangalova & Savin-Williams, 2010) in which women who identified as a specific sexual orientation were found to express desires, behaviors, and interests toward a theoretically nonpreferred sex.

In particular, these Spanish bisexual and lesbian women did not show significant differences between them in regard to viewing different types of pornography based on their sexual orientation. However, as we expected, more lesbian and bisexual women reported pornography consumption compared to heterosexual women. As another European study pointed out (Træen & Daneback, 2013), more lesbian and bisexual women consume pornography than their heterosexual counterparts. These differences may be due to the possible greater disinhibition of women with a nonheterosexual orientation. In this case, their behaviors are not limited to what is expected of them according to traditional gender roles, which means that they are able to show more proactive behavior in regard to seeking sexual pleasure. In addition, in more traditional contexts, this increased consumption among lesbian and bisexual women could also be related to the security and anonymity offered by the Internet, where sexuality can be explored and sexual desire be satisfied without fear of discrimination (Giménez-García et al., 2020).

Regarding content, as we expected, more heterosexual and bisexual women reported viewing heterosexual pornography, while more lesbian women reported viewing lesbian pornography.

Regarding arousal, the excitation responses also showed greater differences of the heterosexual women compared to those of lesbian and bisexual women. In any case, our research also supported that all women were aroused by gay pornography (Neville, 2015). This arousal has been observed especially in heterosexual women, probably because men, who are the object of desire of heterosexual women, appear in this type of content (Ramsay, 2017). Thus, attention to one or another element of pornographic content may be more related to attraction to the sexual object than to identification with the character of one’s same gender. However, more than half of lesbian women had been aroused by gay pornography, while more heterosexual women had experienced arousal due to lesbian pornography. In line with Diamond (2008), women’s sexual desire can be separated into two aspects: libido and arousal. The first is associated with certain objects of desire, whereas arousal can be experienced with stimuli other than those marked by one’s sexual orientation. Thus, women may feel aroused while seeing how other people enjoy sexual pleasure, regardless of whether they are attracted to them (Chivers et al., 2007; McCutcheon & Bishop, 2015). Moreover, regardless of their orientation, many women reject heterosexual pornography and prefer other typologies, such as gay or lesbian pornography, due to the passive role that women play in heterosexual porn (McCutcheon & Bishop, 2015; Neville, 2015; Ramsay, 2017). Moreover, sexual orientation may be more fluid and belong to a continuum rather than a closed category (Copen et al., 2016; Vrangalova & Savin-Williams, 2012). Therefore, if we evaluate sexual orientation through the Kinsey 7-point scale (Kinsey et al., 1948), which ranges from “exclusively heterosexual” to “exclusively homosexual,” participants identified as lesbian or heterosexual might be in intermediate positions, i.e., showing some degree of attraction to men and women, which would explain their arousal by nonpreferred sex pornography.

Perception of discomfort, as we expected, may be related to an inconsistency between reported sexual orientation and sexual orientation content. In particular, this occurred with lesbian porn for heterosexual women and gay porn for lesbian women, who were more likely to perceive discomfort. These results may be due to the discrepancy between what is expected of oneself, depending on one’s sexual orientation, and what is truly felt or experienced (Priolo et al., 2016). As past studies have described, these discrepancies regarding what is expected may raise doubts and questions about one’s sexual orientation, with a consequential impact on well-being (Coulter et al., 2017).

However, discomfort was also observed in the arousal by materials according to orientation and for bisexual women. Therefore, there may be other factors that mediate such discomfort, such as religious beliefs (Baltazar et al., 2010; Nelson et al., 2010; Poulsen et al., 2013), moral values (Fisher et al., 2019; Grubbs et al., 2019a; Grubbs & Perry, 2019; Perry, 2018), or disagreement with the sexual role expected of women (Van Ness et al., 2017).

Regarding age, more women reported consuming any type of pornography as their age increased. This seems to go against other Spanish studies in which a higher consumption of pornography has been observed in young women aged 19–25 (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2017) than in those over 55 (Ballester-Arnal et al., 2019). However, it must be remembered that our sample was between 18 and 44 years old and that in another study, it was observed that diverse sexual behaviors increased in prevalence until approximately the age of 40, after which the prevalence began to decrease (Herbenick et al., 2010).

In the case of arousal, age was only significant in arousal by gay porn, where the number of women who had been aroused increased with age. It is possible that older women have rarely consumed this type of porn, which may increase their arousal when they finally watch it. After that, they may seek out this type of content explicitly to achieve greater arousal.

Regarding discomfort, the number of bisexual women who showed discomfort when aroused by gay or lesbian pornography increased as age increased. These results may be because bisexual women suffer greater discrimination, stigma, and invisibility (Balsam & Mohr, 2007; Brewster & Moradi, 2010) and are therefore more punished for carrying out behaviors that go beyond heteronormativity. Finally, more women experienced discomfort when aroused by heterosexual porn as age decreased. It is possible that young women, regardless of their sexual orientation, are more coerced by social norms and influenced by the ideology of women’s sexuality, which would make their self-exploration difficult (Emmerink et al., 2016; Van Ness et al., 2017).

These results should be considered in light of some limitations. For example, we cannot generalize the results because the sample was obtained through convenience sampling. Second, the use of nonvalidated self-assessment reports and social desirability could influence the results, especially in some aspects of sexuality that may go against social norms (Van Ness et al., 2017). Third, we did not provide participants with a specific definition of pornography; thus, given the existence of various meanings or insights (McKee et al., 2020), participants may interpret pornography in different ways. Fourth, it must be considered that we asked about the consumption of pornography at some point in life, which is a measure that provides less detail than others such as frequency or asking about one’s level of consumption during the last year. However, we were not as interested in the percentages of consumption as we were in if there were differences with respect to arousal and discomfort based on sexual orientation; thus, we chose this more general measure to be able to cover a larger population. However, despite having a good number of bisexual and lesbian participants, it would be advisable to increase the sample and include people over 44 years old to generalize these results.

The findings of this study showed the relevance of pornography in the sexual lives of young adult Spanish women. Moreover, the findings emphasize the existing diversity in the orientation of desire and the response of arousal regardless of the self-informed sexual orientation. In addition to some differences, the results also revealed the discomfort perceived by young adult Spanish women despite their sexual orientation. In particular, for the heterosexual participants, age was a differential variable regarding experiencing discomfort with pornography. To prevent the stigmatization of women’s sexuality, all these findings should be considered in sexual education programs and health policies to make visible the sexual orientation fluidity and the diversity in women’s sexuality, as well as their active role. This consideration would have a positive impact on the quality of life and well-being of women, which would reduce their discomfort regarding their own sexual development.