Porn vs. Chick Flicks

Porn is in our culture as something that used to be a thing someone bought in private, at an adult store, for $19.99, to something that almost anyone can access fast, for free, and easy on the internet.  What can such exposure do to us?  According to Peter and Valkenburg, the more exposure an adolescent has to sexually explicit media, or porn, the less satisfied they are with their partners and own sexual lives (187).  I can definitely find this understandable because it makes perfect sense to me.  The more someone watches porn, the more someone feels like that is what is expected in real life sex.  Porn creates unrealistic standards for both sexes; women should have big boobs, a perfect butt, and a slat stomach, while men should have nice arms, chiseled abs, and a perfect penis.  No wonder people get so self conscious or unhappy when it comes to their sex life in real life.  Although this goes along with cultivation theory and is interesting, what about other types of media? 

One thing that I think isn’t said often, but I believe, is that porn can be thought of as being to men what romcoms or chick flicks are to women. 

As anyone can see in this clip, my argument stands...  I mean what typical adolescent teenage girl wouldn’t want their very own Noah?  I think what many people refuse to believe is that these romcoms or chick flicks do much of the same things for us adolescent females as porn does for adolescent males.  Guys want and expect a girl with the perfect body willing to try crazy different positions in the bedroom.  Girls want a guy who will build her a house and write 365 letters to her everyday for a year.  Are these two tales really so different?  I argue that they are similar because they create unreal expectations for either gender of what to look for and expect of their partner.  I would assume that after being prompted with clips like this or with romcoms/chick flicks and then asked how satisfied with their partner the average adolescent female is, it would be very similar to those adolescent boys who are primed or exposed to more porn and report to be less satisfied in their sex lives.

Peter and Valkenburg also claim that if a male is exposed to a Playboy centerfold, they are more likely to find their partner less attractive and are rated them less in love with them (173).  But again, can we not compare this to the average Cosmopolitan centerfold of Taylor Lautner after his role in Twilight?  Even if someone says to themselves that they know many of these love stories aren’t real, much like a lot of porn story lines are very realistic, don’t we all long for what we see?  I guess my argument stands that I believe people are too critical and harsh of exposure to pornography.  Yes, it can have negative effects on what people expect of reality, but why be so harsh on this one genre of media when other types of media can have the same/similar effects? 







Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2009). Adolescents' exposure to sexually explicit Internet material and sexual satisfaction: A
longitudinal study. Human Communication Research, 35(2), 171-194.