Porn! Huh! Good God, Ya’ll…

6766978195_594a443eb4First, let me present my bona fides. Although I’m sometimes critical about certain types of porn, I don’t in principle have anything against it. I consume it occasionally myself. I would tell you how I use it, but it might influence your answers so…

I’m interested in what you use it for.

Don’t roll your eyes and say ‘Duh’. What I mean by the question is this:

What do you use porn for

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I’m going to put a poll up on this thing, just for some vague numbers (this isn’t any kind of formal academic research), but what I’d much prefer is for you to leave a comment as well, because polls are limiting and I am sure I’ve missed many, many reasons why people use porn. I’d like to hear your own. If you’d like to comment anonymously, just make up some bullshit name and email.

And thank you for your participation!

 

42 Thoughts on “Porn! Huh! Good God, Ya’ll…

  1. The poll doesn’t allow for more than one choice. 😉

    I’ve used every option above under one circumstance or another.

    • Thank you! Yes, you know how fucking useless polls are. I should probably allow more than one answer, shouldn’t I? Will change it.

      And thanks for letting me know.

  2. Porn is frequently a research tool for me. It can sometimes answer the question, ‘I wonder if anyone does that…’ Though that is actually a silly question in my experience, as if I can conceive of it, then someone is doing it, somewhere! More often it answers the the question I didn’t ask and leads me down paths I had never even considered. But then I write and produce erotica so perhaps my viewpoint is a little skewed?

    I hope you make the results available? With just a few in so far it is already interesting to see the most popular. (Go on, fill in the poll and find out, you know you want to…) 😉

    • P.S. The dog is pretty hot!

    • I don’t think so. I think most everyone writes and produces erotica in their minds 😛 Some of us are just a little more exhibitionistic about it 😀

      And the poll answers and the comments ARE really the research. It’s just an itch question I needed scratching. I’m writing about desire and who it belongs to in my thesis right now.

  3. I’m not sure I agree with the “bored” part of one answer, but I checked it anyway. In a long-distance relationship, for me there’s a level of forgetting the contours of a woman’s body, as though my hands develop amnesia during our separations. I use porn to remember — which, inevitably, does get me horny. A side benefit is that I get to check off the box that says “yep, still working.”

    • I used the term bored because I found a lot of mentions of the use of porn in response to boredom in other bits of research. So clearly some people DO use the porn/arousal mechanism as a way to alleviate boredom. But obviously this doesn’t pertain to everyone!

      I think your response that you use porn to ‘remember’ or to bring back vividly a memory of a sexual act you have experienced is a wonderful way to use porn. I wonder if our exchange will prompt other people to consider if they’ve used it that way also!

  4. Something totally different to read, not the usual.

  5. Aiden on July 3, 2015 at 5:32 am said:

    I don’t use porn very often. I much prefer reading erotica when I want a little help with my masturbation. When I do watch porn it’s typically because I feel like I only have a very small amount of time to get my self off and it will get my body reacting at high levels very fast. The visual definitely works to achieve the much needed end goal with less work. I do wonder though if its because I use it sparingly and not as a main go to. If I watched more porn would it have less effect on me?

    • You bring up a very interesting point. There is an argument to be made that because textual porn or erotica requires the reader to engage their own inner image and meaning-making mechanisms, it is less likely to result in what is commonly known as ‘porn creep’. http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/health/are-you-watching-too-much-porn-20130821 . There is some reasonably creditable research on porn tolerance build-up and sexual dysfunction, but it is so mired in moralizing that sometimes it is really hard to sort out fact from dogma.

    • Regarding my relationship to written erotica (as a reader): This has even a less direct connection, for me, to a state of high arousal, and to masturbation and orgasm, than does erotic entertainment of a visual nature (whether video porn or static photography/art). Whereas the visual medium is something I engage with and enjoy for its own sake (as I explain in my first comment below), but under circumstances that begin with a fairly keen preexisting arousal and usually culminate (after the viewing experience) in masturbation and orgasm, the latter isn’t true with the literature. I read erotic literature when I’m generally in the mood for the sort of compelling and delightful reading experience it gives me—provided I have something fresh on hand, or an old favorite piece I haven’t read in a while. It does arouse me, but I’m not necessarily aroused before I begin reading, and I rarely get aroused to the point where I feel like following through on an autoerotic adventure. Though the titillation and arousal form an important part of the experience, I’d say in some ways, for me, reading erotica is more similar to reading, say, a delightfully humorous novel than it is to looking at erotic visual art or entertainment.

  6. I have a very different relationship to porn. It’s not something I use as a means to an end, but enjoy occasionally when I’m in the mood.

    Traditional porn does very little for me.

  7. Anon on July 3, 2015 at 7:17 am said:

    I like seeing fantasies enacted out that I generally don’t get to act out in real life. Also, the visual appeal of seeing the kind of people you want to be seeing (not having sex, just glamour shots).

  8. Kris on July 3, 2015 at 8:22 am said:

    Generally speaking it’s just an added stimulus for my

  9. Weston on July 3, 2015 at 11:23 am said:

    Good question! Sometimes I just want to watch people fuck. Yes, doing so usually leads to me masturbating, but the original motive is unrelated to getting myself off. I’d say porn can be fun, and isn’t limited just to serve a utilitarian purpose such as getting someone in the mood or serving as a masturbatory aid.

    • I’m trying to understand this a bit better.

      “the original motive is unrelated to getting myself off”

      Can you think a little about what the original motive is, then? I’d really appreciate if you can put that into words.

  10. Hmm. This isn’t that easy to answer. I don’t watch porn to get off. I don’t masturbate when watching it. I don’t seek out porn very often. When I do, I think it is mostly for lazy voyeurism. My brain is far less engaged watching a porn clip than it is seeing an image or even a short gif. I think that is because I enjoy the fantasy that a still or short image can trigger so much more. It is those situations that seriously turbo charge my horn. Spanking and impact play videos might be the exception to this. I can get totally wrapped up in watching those and whilst I rarely masturbate when watching them, I do orgasm.

    I don’t think I have analysed it this much before.

    • Hey, it seems to me you’ve thought about it quite a bit!

      The spanking and impact play – you say you don’t masturbate but do orgasm – so is the orgasm spontaneous? Do you watch those knowing they will cause you to orgasm?

      You say with the other types of porn, it’s “lazy voyeurism” – but does that act of voyeurism arouse you? Or is it just unsexual?

  11. I selected “other” because I watch it purely because I like movies and enjoy watching people have sex. To be honest I watch them just like a person would watch any other movie and that’s all it really is to me and it will either be something directed by Axel Braun or Stormy Daniels because it’s either a parody or generally humorous in tone.

    If I don’t want a written, scripted story and I’m in more of a BDSM mood I will watch something on Kink.com, normally somebody like Aiden Starr Dominating another woman with electro stim or something along those lines and the scene tells it’s own story.

    I can’t remember the last time I masturbated to a porno to be honest though sure they sometimes make me horny – oftentimes they don’t. I don’t really watch it to get off anymore, just to enjoy watching the movie/scene/fucking. I find myself critical of how it was shot, written and the performers involved in the same way I do with regular films.

  12. Carole-Ann on July 3, 2015 at 11:52 am said:

    I ticked the ‘bored’ one, but I’m not usually that bored anyway. I use porn to make me smile, and cringe a bit if it gets too hard-core (but I still smile) 🙂

  13. cjlemire on July 3, 2015 at 12:01 pm said:

    Echoing what Big Ed said about all of the answers being applicable at one time or another, and also Aiden’s comment about it being a useful time compressor. It’s also a way to explore fantasies beyond my direct experience, and things that are possible with body types different from what my partner and I possess.

    My consumption of porn these days is almost exclusively kink/bondage porn. Sexual situations that don’t involve power exchange have little interest for me.

  14. Im with Big Ed. I want an “all of the above” option

  15. One of the reasons I watch it is to learn. If I’m thinking of trying something new with someone, I want to see how it’s done, what it looks like.

    For getting off, I tend to prefer written words or (as I’ve recently discovered) scrolling through a hot tumblr on a theme I’m interested in. I prefer gifs and photos over full clips. I think, as someone mentioned above, it’s easier to mentally insert myself, or to mentally flesh out the scene. Films or videos (unless I’m using for instruction) I’d rather watch with a partner.

    • This is interesting! “I watch it is to learn. If I’m thinking of trying something new with someone, I want to see how it’s done, what it looks like.”

      So it’s to get a technique right?

  16. I’d never really watched it until recently. But I have a few clips I like to watch sometimes when I’m wanking. 🙂

  17. Dora on July 3, 2015 at 1:06 pm said:

    Or sometimes when I’m horny and I just want that kind of visual experience.

  18. I guess I’d say it’s an experience I undertake for its own sake. That is, it’s related to being horny and to getting off, but it’s not simply a fillip, and it’s not the simplest way for me to get off. When I choose a porn experience, it’s because I crave that particular form of erotic entertainment.

    • Having now read other respondents’ comments, I note that there are a number of us describing a porn relationship motivated chiefly by the wish to enjoy the porn as an end in itself, rather than a means to some other end. Would this possibly qualify as an additional option in the quiz?

  19. Gotta cop out and say Other, because several of the choices apply, but none are exact. I don’t look at porn if I’m not already horny. I don’t ever ‘need’ it to get off. I sometimes use it to get off, but more often, just as a tease before getting off. As a magnifier for horniness, or to scratch a very particular erotic itch – searching for a particular scene or angle, or acrobatic, or look. Sometimes I look because I”m looking for something pretty. Sometimes I’m looking for something ugly. Soooo; Other. 🙂

  20. Generally I find porn laughably inept and rather boring but since I write erotic romance I use it for research (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it).

  21. andy on July 3, 2015 at 3:44 pm said:

    i generally use porn when i feel that i’ll be happier after getting off, which is not quite the same state as being horny. i use it to have a better experience; i can generally get off without porn, but having something to get my brain in the mood results in me having more fun than just masturbating.

  22. Personally, I use porn to stretch boundaries and I enjoy watching things that are taken to extremes. I’m not dismissing vanilla porn here. Some glossy/vanilla material can be entertaining and pretty to look at but, if I was choosing porn for personal enjoyment, I’d select material that is unconventional.

  23. Depends on the type of porn, for sure!

    Tumblr porn – by far my fave at the moment. Basically when I want to see beautiful people / bodies / body parts in sexy / romantic / hot / intense moments repeat infinitely. I have an obsessive personality and I like building in my imagination from those moments. Plus they tend to be curated by women for women and tend to the romantic / softer side, which I like. My imagination is definitely the thing that gets my wheels going the most, so it’s perfect.

    I won’t always get off after looking at tumblr porn, and I won’t look at it for the purpose of it, either. It’s like a little pick me up, something I enjoy looking at.

    Googling “porn” – what I’ve resorted to when I’ve wanted to watch people fuck. I like watching personal fantasy-specific ones, but I tend to skip around the videos and jump around. Some of the BDSM stuff is a little too much for me (stops being sexy to watch / not my kink), but kind of like Tumblr, it’s a good jumping point in my imagination. I’m beginning to lose appeal in this, though. It’s difficult finding good porn this way and it just doesn’t keep my interest if I don’t like it; I start to look at it too analytically / critically.

    I rarely do this outside of lying in bed with my laptop with a purpose. It’s not really working for me, though. I think I need to find something a little more to my taste, or at least some more variety, especially on the BDSM front. Last time was probably 3-4 months ago.

  24. One thing I’ve been thinking about is the type of porn I use, how it changes and how / if my choice is related to what I want to get from it.

    I can only think of one time recently when I’ve masturbated without using porn (and if I’m honest that was probably only because it wasn’t quite practical to do so). On this occasion I took my time, and generally when I masturbate while using porn I want to get off quickly. So, the second or third option in the poll, depending on how I feel at the time.

    Also, lately I’ve been relying on tumblr. I have a few blogs bookmarked, on a handful of different kinks / fantasies (and rarely featuring any actual fucking). I think still photos are good because I can concentrate easily on a single image, which can help with the intensity I’m after. What’s interesting about this is that when I watch a video or read erotica, I can find myself being distracted by the… well, by the reading / watching process – ie if I’m close to orgasm and turn the page and the scene changes or the story ends, or the camera view changes.

    But I can still lose myself in, and get off on written and video porn, and it can be a slower and more involved experience. (I feel that for me, there are similarities between how I experience the two – or at least when it’s a beautifully made erotic film rather than just fucking).

    Anyway, as I said, for a while now it’s just been tumblr porn, and getting off quickly. Why that is, I’m not really sure. And I’m not sure if it’s simply because I need that quick hit, or partly just because I’ve defaulted to that.

    Whichever of the three types I’ve mentioned I’m consuming, apart from just helping me get off, it lets me scratch whichever kink is itching away at me the most at the time (particularly ones which I haven’t experienced enough / at all in person).

  25. I have ticked ‘other’ because none of the options work for me. I watch porn because I feel like it and enjoy it. I would go so far as to say that at times it is something I view as a special treat. It is rarely something I do in a hurry either, as I like to spend time clicking about through the free tube sites finding just the right clip that ‘works’ for me. I like MFM with anal but it is very specific anal. I like seeing the cock as it first pushes into her arse, slowing… yep, it is that specific… and I will search for a clip that has stuff that I find sexy which leads up to that moment.

    When I was single and when M was still in the USA it was a fairly regular activity for me but I can’t remember the last time I did it recently. Having a very active partnered sex life has reduced my desire/interest/need for it.

    Mollyxxx

    • I think perhaps you mistook the question. The question isn’t about WHY you watch it, but how you use it. So most importantly – do you feel horny before you watch it, or do you watch it to feel horny? i.e. as a state-changer or a state-enhancer/facilitator.

  26. I also use porn videos for research. Sometimes it helps to write sex correctly when I see it in action. Keeps me from making stupid mistakes, like feeling balls on a clit when he’s on top.

  27. It’s more of an auditory thing than a visual thing for me. If the man isn’t grunting or growling, I’m generally not interested. If the girl is a screamer, it’s generally going to lose my interest. Two men grunting without a woman, I will usually watch until the end.

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