Aggression and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography videos: a content analysis update.
Bridges AJ, Wosnitzer R, Scharrer E, Sun C, Liberman R.
Source
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. abridges@uark.edu

Aggression. Aggressive acts were recorded according to two specific subtypes: verbal and physical. Physically aggressive acts were (a) pushing or shoving; (b) biting; (c) pinching; (d) pulling hair; (e) spanking; (f) open-hand slapping; (g) gagging (defined as when an object or body part, e.g., penis, hand, or sex toy, is inserted into a character’s mouth, visibly obstruct- ing breathing); (h) choking (when one character visibly places his or her hands around another character’s throat with applied pressure); (i) threatening with weapon; (j) kicking; (k) closed- fist punching; (l) bondage or confining; (m) using weapons; and (n) torturing, mutilating, or attempting murder. Verbally aggressive acts were (a) name calling or insulting and (b) threat- ening physical harm. Coders indicated whether each scene contained verbal aggression (yes/ no) and physical aggression (yes/no).

Aggression

On the whole, the pornographic scenes analyzed in this study were aggressive; only 10.2% (n = 31) of scenes did not contain an aggressive act. Across all scenes, a total of 3,375 verbally and physically aggressive acts were observed (Table 1). Of these, 632 were coded as instances of verbal aggression and 2,743 were coded as instances of physical aggression. On average, scenes had 11.52 acts of either verbal or physical aggression (SD = 15.04) and ranged from none to 128. Physical aggression (M = 9.31, SD = 12.30) was much more common than verbal aggression (M = 2.13, SD = 4.01), occurring in 88.2% (n = 268) of the scenes, whereas expressions of verbal aggression occurred in 48.7% (n = 148) of the scenes. By far, the most common verbally aggressive act was name calling (e.g., “bitch,” “slut”; n = 614, or 97.2% of all 632 verbally aggressive acts). Spanking (35.7% of physically aggressive acts; n = 980), gagging (27.7%; n = 759), and open-hand slapping (14.9%; n = 408) were the most frequently observed physically aggressive acts. Other physically aggressive acts recorded included hair- pulling (10.1%; n = 276), choking (6.7%; n = 184), and bondage or confinement (1.1%; n = 30).

None of the scenes showed characters who threatened one another with a weapon, hit one another with a closed fist, or tortured and mutilated each other.

Women were overwhelmingly the targets of aggressive acts (Table 2). Across all acts of aggression, both physical and verbal, 94.4% (n = 3,191) were directed toward women. Men were the perpetrators of aggression more than twice as often as women, committing 70.3% (n = 2,373) of the aggressive acts recorded. In contrast, women were perpetrators of 29.4% (n = 991) of all aggressive acts. Even when women were perpetrators, their targets were frequently other women (17.7%; n = 598). Men were targets of only 4.2% (n = 143) of aggressive acts perpetrated by women. Male-to-male aggression was present in only 0.3% (n = 11) of the recorded instances and was most often verbal (only 4 instances of physical aggression with a male perpetrator and a male target were recorded).

There were significant differences in the types of aggressive acts males and females experienced, χ2(13) = 234.51, p < .001. Women were significantly more likely to be spanked, choked, and gagged than men. Aggregately speaking across the sample spectrum, women were verbally insulted or referred to in derogatory terms 534 times, whereas men experienced similar verbal assaults in only 65 instances. Women were spanked on 953 occasions, visibly gagged 756 times, experienced an open-hand slap 361 times, had their hair pulled or yanked on 267 separate occasions, and were choked 180 times. Men, however, were spanked only 26 times, experienced an open-hand slap in 47 instances, and for all other aggressive acts, were aggressed against fewer than 10 times.

When aggressed against, 95.1% (n = 3,206) of targets responded with either expressions of pleasure (e.g., encouragement, sexual moans) or neutrally (e.g., no change in facial expres- sion or interruption to actions). There was a significant difference between female and male target responses to aggressive acts, χ2(1) = 51.31, p < .001. Women were significantly more likely to express pleasure or neutrality when aggressed against (95.9%; n = 3,049) than men (84.0%; n = 147). In contrast, men were four times more likely to show displeasure when aggressed against (16.0%, n = 28) compared with women (4.1%; n = 132).

Positive Behaviors

A total of 9.9% (n = 30) of scenes analyzed contained positive behaviors. Most of the positive behaviors observed were kissing, but laughing, embracing, caressing, verbal compliments, and statements of “making love” or “I love you” were also noted. Scenes that contained positive behaviors were significantly less likely to contain aggression. On average, scenes with positive behaviors contained 4.00 acts of aggression (SD = 5.04), whereas scenes without contained three times this amount (M = 12.36, SD = 15.56), t(110.88) = 6.31, p < .001.