Men's interactions with women after viewing sexually explicit films: Does degradation make a difference?

Abstract

Short‐term exposure to nonviolent sexual media stimuli can produce cognitive changes in men, which, in turn, can affect their attitudes toward women. This study sought to build on past research by reliably distinguishing between (a) sexually explicit and non‐sexual films and (b) sexually explicit films that are either degrading or non‐degrading to women. We tested whether men's viewing of these materials affects their judgment of women in subsequent face‐to‐face interactions. Sex‐typed and non sex‐typed men (Bem, 1974) viewed one of three equally stimulating film stimuli determined by an independent set of viewers to be: (a) sexually explicit and degrading, (b) sexually explicit and non‐degrading, or (c) non‐sexual film. After viewing, the men interacted with women and then evaluated their partners' intellectual competence, sexual interest, sexual attractiveness, and sexual permissiveness. Women rated the men's sexual interest, dominance, and their own feelings of degradation during the interaction. No effects for film exposure alone were found for any of these variables, and no interaction effects between film and partners' sex‐role orientation were found for women's evaluations of their partners. However, men's sex‐role orientation moderated film effects for men's evaluations of their female partners' intellectual competence and sexual interest. These findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with other studies and the potentially negative social implications for everyday male‐female interactions.

Key words:

• Sexual Explicitness
• Sex‐Typing
• Sex‐Role Orientation