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Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 012.719168
der spiegel
27. November 2012, 08:49 Uhr
Psychologie
Pornodarstellerinnen sind glücklicher
Von Thomas Wagner-Nagy
Missbrauchsopfer, Drogensüchtige, Traumatisierte - Schauspielerinnen aus Pornofilmen gelten als unglücklich. Eine Untersuchung in den USA aber zeigt: Pornodarstellerinnen fühlen sich besser als andere Frauen.
Hamburg - Darstellerinnen aus Pornofilmen sind glücklicher als andere Frauen und psychisch mindestens genauso stabil. Sie haben mehr Spaß am Sex, neigen aber auch zu erhöhtem Drogenkonsum. Das zeigt eine Studie amerikanischer Psychologen.
Das Team um James Griffith von der Shippensburg University im Bundesstaat Pennsylvania wollte die Frage klären, ob es sich bei den freizügigen Damen um psychisch und körperlich beeinträchtigte Personen handelt, wie Kritiker der Pornoindustrie meinen.
Dazu befragten die Forscher 177 amerikanische Frauen im Alter von 18 bis 50 Jahren, die schon mindestens eine bezahlte Rolle in einem Pornofilm gehabt hatten, nach ihrem Wohlbefinden und Details aus ihrem Lebenslauf. Eine Kontrollgruppe von Frauen mit ähnlichem Alter und Beziehungsstatus wurde den Darstellerinnen gegenübergestellt, von denen immerhin ein Drittel verheiratet oder in einer festen Beziehung war.
Freude am Leben
Einige Ergebnisse der Befragung dürften wenig überraschen: So hatten die Pornodarstellerinnen ihr erstes Mal im Alter von 15 Jahren durchschnittlich zwei Jahre früher als die Frauen aus der Kontrollgruppe und waren mit 67 gegenüber sieben Prozent eher bisexuell veranlagt.
Frauen aus der Kontrollgruppe hatten in ihrem Leben durchschnittlich fünf Liebespartner. Die Pornodarstellerinnen übertrafen diese Zahl erwartungsgemäß deutlich mit 75 Bettgefährten - dabei wurden Kontakte vor der Kamera nicht mitgezählt.
Zudem genossen sie nach eigenen Angaben das Liebesspiel mehr und bewerteten den Grad ihrer sexuellen Befriedigung ebenso wie ihr Selbstbewusstsein und allgemein die Freude am Leben höher. Auch bescheinigt die Studie den Darstellerinnen eine bessere Beziehung zum eigenen Körper, einen ruhigeren Schlaf und ein höheres Maß an Spiritualität als den übrigen Frauen.
Keine Missbrauchsopfer
Doch die Befragung offenbarte auch, dass die Pornodarstellerinnen mehr Drogen nahmen. Die Hälfte der Befragten hatte bereits Ecstasy probiert, 40 Prozent hatten schon Erfahrungen mit Kokain und 27 Prozent mit Methamphetaminen. Sie zeigten sich auch besorgter, sich mit sexuell übertragbaren Krankheiten anzustecken.
Schließlich betonen die Autoren der Studie, dass bei den Pornodarstellerinnen im Vergleich zu den anderen Frauen keine erhöhte Tendenz festzustellen war, nach der diese als Kind Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs gewesen seien. Ein hier vermuteter Zusammenhang war auch die Ausgangsfrage der Studie: Die Wissenschaftler wollten überprüfen, ob es sich bei Pornodarstellerinnen mehrheitlich um sogenannte "Damaged Goods" handelt. Der Begriff hat viele Bedeutungen und ist stets sehr negativ behaftet: Gemeint ist eine Person, die aufgrund von traumatischen Erfahrungen wie Drogen- oder sexuellem Missbrauch unter psychischen Störungen leidet.
Kritiker der Pornoindustrie schreiben den Darstellerinnen häufig solche Eigenschaften zu. Die Erkenntnisse aus der Studie liefern keine Beweise, die für die die Damaged-Goods-Hypothese sprechen, schreiben Griffith und seine Kollegen im Fachmagazin "Journal of Sex Research".
Dass auch Pornodarstellerinnen außerhalb der USA so glücklich sind, darf allerdings bezweifelt werden. Nach Schätzungen des "New York Times Magazine" erzielt die US-Pornoindustrie einen Jahresumsatz von bis zu 14 Milliarden Dollar. Das US-Geschäft ist aber nicht nur das größte, sondern auch eines der am stärksten regulierten weltweit. Daher ist anzunehmen, dass die Situation der hauptsächlich um Los Angeles angesiedelten amerikanischen Darstellerinnen nicht repräsentativ für die gesamte Branche ist.
URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mens ... 69328.html
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Originalartikel im "Journal of Sex Research"
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 012.719168
Abstract
The damaged goods hypothesis posits that female performers in the adult entertainment industry have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman. The present study compared the self-reports of 177 porn actresses to a sample of women matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status. Comparisons were conducted on sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use. Porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, first had sex at an earlier age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of CSA. In terms of psychological characteristics, porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group. Last, female performers were more likely to have ever used 10 different types of drugs compared to the comparison group. A discriminant function analysis was able to correctly classify 83% of the participants concerning whether they were a porn actress or member of the matched sample. These findings did not provide support for the damaged goods hypothesis.
Abstract
The damaged goods hypothesis posits that female performers in the adult entertainment industry have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman. The present study compared the self-reports of 177 porn actresses to a sample of women matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status. Comparisons were conducted on sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use. Porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, first had sex at an earlier age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of CSA. In terms of psychological characteristics, porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group. Last, female performers were more likely to have ever used 10 different types of drugs compared to the comparison group. A discriminant function analysis was able to correctly classify 83% of the participants concerning whether they were a porn actress or member of the matched sample. These findings did not provide support for the damaged goods hypothesis.
Pornography is a multibillion-dollar industry and has been a morally debated social issue for decades. Some individuals have claimed pornography is harmful to all those involved (e.g., MacKinnon, 1993), whereas others have suggested it is fairly benign (e.g., Strossen, 1995). There exists a gender disparity in pornography such that most adult films are produced and consumed by men (Dines, Jensen, & Russo, 1998). Some have suggested this gender inequity may be related to the view that porn actresses are sexual objects because adult films emphasize sexual acts that are primarily arousing to men (Sun, Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, & Liberman, 2008). For example, a recent study found that approximately 90% of top-selling adult films contained aggressive acts toward women; of those, more than 95% of the targets of the aggression provided a response that was either neutral or pleasurable (Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, & Liberman, 2010). These common portrayals of women in adult films may be related to how society views porn actresses. Stereotypes of those involved in adult entertainment have been used to support or condemn the industry (Evans-DeCicco & Cowan, 2001) and to justify political views on pornography, although the actual characteristics of porn actresses are unknown because no systematic study on this group of women has been conducted. What is known is that attitudes toward pornography vary across individuals (Senn, 1993), and those attitudes are related to opinions toward the actresses who perform in adult films (Polk & Cowan, 1996).
A series of studies (Evans-DeCicco & Cowan, 2001; Polk & Cowan, 1996) examined how individuals perceived actresses in the adult entertainment industry. In the first study (Polk & Cowan, 1996), porn stars were viewed more negatively than the average woman and movie stars but more positively than prostitutes. In addition, negative attitudes toward pornography were shown to be positively related to the attribution of negative characteristics to porn stars. Furthermore, those who viewed pornography as harmful were also more likely to believe that porn stars did not like their work. A later study (Evans-DeCicco & Cowan, 2001) reported that individuals believed porn stars came from backgrounds with sexual and physical abuse. In addition, porn stars were rated more negatively than women in general on a composite measure consisting of a variety of dimensions (e.g., psychological health, self-esteem, drug use, shame). Last, a positive relationship was found between attitudes toward pornography and beliefs about pornography actresses. Although not causal, a strong correlation showed that more negative views of pornography were associated with more negative beliefs toward porn stars. Although both studies (Evans-DeCicco & Cowan, 2001; Polk & Cowan, 1996) provided valuable data, a shortcoming was that the studies offered information on individuals’ perceptions of porn stars rather than on porn stars’ self-reported characteristics.
These stereotypical perceptions of sex workers can be referred to as the “damaged goods” hypothesis. The damaged goods hypothesis is not a scientific postulate; rather, it is the public perception that actresses involved in the pornography industry come from desperate backgrounds and are less psychologically healthy compared to typical women. This negative perception has been reported in several studies (Evans-DeCicco & Cowan, 2001; Polk & Cowan, 1996) and in other literature as well. For example, some descriptions of actresses in pornography have included attributes such as drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, desperation, being pimped out, and being victims of sexual abuse (e.g., Dworkin, 1989; MacKinnon, 1993). Some have made extreme assertions, such as claiming that all women in pornography were sexually abused as children (e.g., MacKinnon, 1993). However, without data, claims regarding the attributes of pornography actresses lack support.
At present, very little is known about the actual characteristics of porn actresses. The limited amount of information from individual actresses that does exist is in the form of personal reports (Lovelace, 1980), case studies (Faludi, 1999), anecdotal evidence (Campbell, 1990; Gittler, 1999; Strossen, 1995; Wilkenson, 1994), and qualitative studies with small sample sizes (Abbott, 2000; Stoller, 1991; Stoller & Levine, 1993), which have provided both positive and negative accounts. Stoller (1991) and Stoller and Levine (1993) conducted ethnographic investigations using interviews of a few actors, producers, and writers in the pornography industry and reported that all participants were hostile or ambivalent toward accepted social conventions, lacked employment options, and had experienced CSA. The most extensive study on women in the adult entertainment industry was conducted by Abbott (2000), who interviewed 31 actresses. Abbott's qualitative investigation examined motivations for becoming a pornography actress and factors associated with staying in the business. The study indicated that the primary reasons for entering the adult entertainment industry included money, fame and glamour, freedom and independence, opportunity and sociability, and being naughty and having sex. With regard to the sexual aspect, a career in pornography provided actresses an opportunity to go against the norms of acceptable sexual behavior. Similarly, money was the primary factor for keeping actresses involved in the industry because other jobs with the same amount of freedom and flexibility were difficult to find. The fame and glamour aspect of being a performer as well as admiration from fans were also important incentives to keep actresses in the industry. Although the study did provide some information on the motivations for beginning and continuing a career as a pornography actress, no issues regarding other characteristics of the women were investigated, and the small sample size restricted generalizations.
The main obstacle in conducting research on individuals in the adult entertainment industry has been the extreme difficulty of gaining access to this population. For example, Stoller (1991) was unable to find a single male actor willing to talk with him. Similarly, Faludi (1999) had difficulty gaining access to individuals and documented the lives of only a few male porn actors, focusing on an actor who committed suicide. Abramovich (2005) highlighted that no studies provide quantitative data on porn actresses. There are two primary reasons why researchers have had difficulty accessing this population. First, there is an issue with identifying and locating porn actresses. There is no public registry of actresses, and individuals outside of the pornography industry are not granted access to productions. Thus, there are few settings in which a large number of performers can be found at a given time. A second and related reason is that the pornography industry is a fairly closed community. Due to the nature of the work, much of society may consider this group of women to be “deviants”; thus, porn actresses tend to associate with others in the industry rather than be shunned by those with different views (Abbott, 2000). To date, the authors are unaware of any systematic study that has collected data on a large number of porn actresses; thus, the perceptions that individuals hold regarding this group of women is assumptive. Evans-DeCicco and Cowan (2001) suggested that a large-scale study investigating the characteristics of women in pornography would be useful as an initial step in supporting or disconfirming some of the stereotypes of porn actresses. The present study fills a gap in the literature by identifying actual characteristics of porn actresses in the adult entertainment industry in the areas of sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use, and comparing the self-reports of porn actresses to a matched sample to test the damaged goods hypothesis.
