An Honest Look At Porn-Watching Habits

You know those dishwasher detergent commercials. The ones that go ‘we do it every night’? Well, cleaning plates and forks isn’t the only thing that people are doing nightly (or daily for that matter.)

It’s time to relieve the guilt that’s shadowed over us after watching porn. Afterall, a quarter of gay or lesbian Americans watch porn daily. This, according to a survey conducted by Bespoke Surgical. Their team asked over 900 Americans a series of questions to find out the following:

• How many hours are they watching porn each week?
• What types of porn do they prefer to watch and what are their preferred sites?
• How have their opinions about porn consumption changed?
• How does porn impact their relationships and their sex lives in real life?

On average, people are spending 1.61 hours watching porn a week. However, the survey looked at different demographics and found that Millennials and people that identify as straight are the only two groups that are watching less, only watching 1.40 and 1.47 hours, respectively. Single Americans average 2.03 hours.

When it comes to what people are spending their time watching, every generation said they preferred to watch amatuer porn over scripted and staged porn. And while sites like OnlyFans have helped porn become more mainstream and normalized, “3 in 4 Americans would consider consuming porn from ethical porn sites like Lust Cinema, PinkLabel, and Afterglow,” Bespoke says.

Porn is no longer a secret people may feel the need to keep to themselves anymore. Over 60% of both straight (61%) and gay or lesbian (71%) feel comfortable talking about porn with their friends. People are even comfortable with their partner viewing porn without their knowledge. And when it comes to intimacy in the bedroom, not only are 76% of people ok with watching porn with their partners, but 84% of straight and 94% of gay or lesbian respondents said they’ve mimicked a sex act from porn with a partner.

Speaking of partners, the survey asked Americans if they would date someone that had a history in sex work. Overall, 6.2 out of every 10 people would date someone who had a history of pornography/sex work, and when broken down by orientation, 54.4% of straight Americans said they would not. It’s unclear why they say no. Many factors that could come into play could be judgement, insecurity, jealousy, etc. Afterall, 29% of separated or divorced people say they’ve felt emotionally connected to a specific sex performer so an emotional connection could feed into people not wanting to date someone with a history of sex work.

So why do many feel the need to watch porn? Aside from the obvious pleasure that many get from it, 64% of people say it relieves their stress! And not only that, but it’s allowed people to get more sexually adventurous themselves. 84% of people agreed that American culture has become more open and adventurous sexually in recent years, and 55% of people who identify as gay or lesbian say that they themselves have become more sexually adventurous from watching porn.

After reviewing this survey, it’s shocking to see that 69% of people said they have felt guilty or ashamed after watching porn. An activity that’s not only deemed a stress-reliever by many, but also a way to spice up their sex life, it’s sad to see that many feel the need to hang their heads low after participating in it. While porn has become more mainstream and is becoming less taboo, it’s time to destigmatize the feeling of guilt. Though porn might not impact every single person positively, we should acknowledge its existence and the positives that do come from it.