Abstract

This thesis explores women's positive and negative experiences with and opinions about pornography. There has been almost no sociological research on American women's use of pornography. My study uniquely combines qualitative and quantitative research with feminist theory and discourse analysis to produce its findings. The quantitative portion consists of the results and analyses of 90 questionnaires that were distributed to a random sample of women at the College of Wooster. The qualitative portion of this project consists of the results of in-depth interviews with ten College of Wooster women and shorter interviews with 17 female attendees of Adult Video News's Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Findings show that women have a wide and varied range of opinions, both positive and negative, about pornography. Interviewees across the spectrum of opinions about pornography expressed concern that women as a group have a problem with a lack of communication about sexual issues, which can result in a multitude of problems. Research also shows that female consumers are often pragmatic about their pornography use and have given it a lot of thought; furthermore, they were the ones most likely to be critical of pornography.

Advisor

Craven, Christa

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

Publication Date

2008

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2008 Natalie Hutchinson Friedman