Imagine my parent's reactions when I told them one of the classes I would be taking required me to watch ten pornography videos a week. I tried to beat around the bush and tell my dad that I was participating in a three credit, independent study that required me to watch “some movies." His interrogation on what kind of “movies" really cracked me down and after blurting out that it was pornography, he made me promise not to take the class. He thought that, “any teacher who makes their students watch porn is disgusting and unprofessional." So, then I called my mom (under circumstances like these, it's nice having divorced parents who don't talk to each other). She, on the other hand, was more supportive, and while “as a parent, I can't give you my blessing" she encouraged my youthful spirit in taking on such a provocative study.
At first, I had no idea what I was doing. The Excel spreadsheet designed specifically for the project didn't work on my computer so I was getting behind everyone else and not keeping up with my coding. Funnily enough, the person who designed the spreadsheet was one of the participant's mothers who lives in China. Porn is illegal there, so she didn't tell her mom what she was designing it for because if she did, she would have been pissed.
It was difficult to find time to watch all the videos on top of my schoolwork because I couldn't easily whip out a Pornhub video in the library and start coding. So, I developed a system where I would watch a video and code everything on paper, and then enter the information on a computer at the library. One time, when I was punching in numbers, a guy sitting next to me asked me what I was doing. I explained to the stranger why my computer screen was covered with words like, “coitus," “strap-on" and “oral sex."
You're probably wondering how a Jewish girl from northern New Jersey got involved in such a study. Or, maybe you don't know my home town or religious identification and just opened this article because the title is similar to a trashy MTV show you used to watch, and also, porn, duh.
My human sexuality teacher, Debby Herbenick, (yes, ladies, the Debbie that has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine various times) emailed my class about the opportunity to work under Bryant Paul in a study that coded for sexual content in pornographic videos. Coding the content would jumpstart further studies on porn. Without knowing what kind of videos are out there, it's difficult to understand the causes and effects of porn on human behavior and interaction.
So, in order to figure out exactly what was on the Internet, each week my supervisor sent each member of the coding team ten videos ranging from 30 seconds to 35 minutes long. Because it would take an impossibly long time to watch every video, the ones chosen were selected by taking a number of clips from the most popular categories. These included heterosexual, lesbian, threesome, transgender, gay, interracial, BDSM and group orgies.
Once I got into the hang of watching the videos and was careful not to miss any change in sexual position or act of aggression (spanking, choking, spitting, etc.) the project became much easier for me. Oh, there were still times when I was very surprised by the content, but I think it traumatized my roommates more than it traumatized me. The first time my friend ever watched porn was when she glanced at my screen as I did my homework in our room, and she actually cried. Real tears poured from her eyes, and I don't blame her. I mean, if my first exposure to porn consisted of a video of a guy getting off on punching another guy's penis, I'd probably cry, too. Just kidding, I wouldn't; I'm just trying to make her feel better.
The coding team was comprised of a mixed array of people. At first we met with Bryant Paul, the man in charge of the study. I had kind of a huge crush on him. I remember the first day we met him, his hair was all over the place and he wore a Corn Flakes t-shirt, which he probably bought at Target. He was a certified DILF… and married with two kids. Whatever. One time he called me into his office to talk to me about submitting my work on time. It really stung when I saw a picture of his beautiful wife on his desk, but whatever. Back to the team members. I recognized a few people from my Greek community, and even one girl from my chapter was part of the study. We never acknowledged each other, though, but I'm not quite sure why. There were a couple of female foreign students from China who took extremely detailed, handwritten notes on the videos we watched during our training sessions. What I remember best from one of these girls is that after we watched a video titled something like, “Curious Kinky Lesbian Teens" she asked, “Why does the title indicate that she is a teenager when she's clearly over 25 years old?"
Another guy said he decided to do the project because he wanted to prove to his mom that something good actually could come from watching porn. The last and strongest member of our team (there were actually a bunch more, but I don't really remember or care to discuss them) actually worked on the project the previous semester. He was gay, amazing, fashionable, and I wish that we had become best friends, but unfortunately we didn't.
Our graduate student leader, Nicole Fritz, was really cool and helped us through all the trials and traumas of watching such a vast amount of pornography. The only thing that all of us had in common was our investment in the three credit class. It was a strange experience bonding with these people through attempting to figure out how many times a guy spanked a girl's bottom, or who gave oral to whom in a group orgy. Nonetheless, none of us made it weird. Instead, we approached the project with an open mind and the hopes of getting an A in a class for watching people have sex.
While I would describe my first semester of sophomore year as consumed by pornography, I'm still glad I did it. Not only was it funny to see people's reactions to when I told them I was taking a class that watched porn for homework, I actually learned a few things.
1. There is something for everyone.
Seriously. I knew that some people were into really kinky stuff, but I didn't realize the extent of “some people" until I saw the high number of viewers paired with high percentage ratings on some of the videos I coded.
2. Be less homophobic.
Okay. I'm not a homophobe, but I will be honest and admit that before participating in this study I definitely wasn't comfortable watching gay men be intimate with each other. But, after watching explicit videos of homosexuals having anal sex, I am completely sensitized to it and have no problem with it. It makes me sad that I had a mildly bad reaction to it before the study, but then I realized that it was because I had never been exposed to such content before. You see way more lesbians making out on TV than you do men, but that's because of the gay men's threat to hegemonic masculinity -- but that's a discussion for another article for a different week.
3. How to give a better blowjob.
You can always count on Cosmopolitan Magazine to give tips on how to perform better oral sex. Maybe I'm just a visual learner, but I think a much more efficient way to teach someone how to give better head is through watching a professional porn star do it.
4. How to watch pornography and code for sexual content.
Duh!
5. Girls like porn more than guys think they do.
Interestingly enough, my friends weren't turned off by my study. In fact, girls in my house often begged me to let them watch my videos while I coded.
6. Why some guys are so aggressive.
A big reason why this study took place was to find out, in the future, whether aggressive acts in pornography result in sexual aggression among women and men. I did see a few BDSM videos where women dominated men, but the majority of the pornos that I watched depicted men choking, slapping, spitting and spanking women. When boys watch videos of actresses enjoying being mutilated and hit, they learn that's what girls in real life want. Unfortunately, this isn't true.
7. Not all porn is hardcore and “gross."
At the end of the semester I was assigned some pornography for women. These videos were quite beautiful. Instead of depicting girls with breast implants and guys who only cared about their happy ending, this female friendly category of pornography showed a couple having passionate and romantic sex.
My experience coding for sexual content in pornographic videos for an entire semester was strenuous, time consuming, mentally taxing, difficult and the most fun I never want to have again. I learned a lot from it and I'm happy I met the people I met, but I would never do it again. I hope that my four months of work contributes to something that benefits humanity twice as much as my involvement benefited me. Since the independent study ended I have felt a close connection to porn and can finally wear my “I Love Porn" pin -- that I swiped from my older brother when I was in high school -- with pride.
