A pornfession booth, PornHub wrapped, and discussion with porn performers: researchers provide an academic perspective on pornography

A sense of excitement and curiosity fills the air as students gradually gather at the Erasmus Paviljoen. On stage, two black leather couches with red heart-shaped cushions, red velvet curtains, and vintage erotic posters set the mood. Soft music plays in the back, and the staff asks students to squeeze to ensure everyone can sit. Finally, the lights turn off.

“I didn’t research pornography because of a dirty mind”, jokes Samira van Bohemen as she takes the stage. She introduces her research, which focuses on stereotypes in pornography. Pornography, she explains, is dominated by stereotypes: the fake taxicab, the pizza delivery guy, the schoolgirl… But what role do these stereotypes play in sexual arousal? And how much does our social environment influence what excites us?

On stage, the researchers reproduce some of the experiments they conducted at Lowlands music festival for the research. First, the conference’s host and the researcher Lena van de Lande sit together in the ‘Pornfession booth’, where a red curtain only allows them to hear each other. There was a similar set-up at the festival where Van de Lande listened to festival-goers’ sexual confessions as a kind of sex priest.

“A lot of people were really enthusiastic”, she recounts, “there was a waiting line all day long.” The first findings showed that ‘mutual pleasure in porn is essential for most Lowlands participants’, says Van de Lande. “Older participants were uncomfortable with porn involving younger people than them.”

Another experiment that attracted a big crowd was the ‘sexperiment’, explains researcher Michael Giffin. Participants’ physiological reactions to various pornographic stereotypes were measured by recording their heart rates while they watched clips from porn videos. As Giffin explains that, he plays the videos that the participants saw. Soft chuckles are coming out of the rows, before erupting into laughs as the porn gets more explicit.

The results from the research showed that ‘vanilla sex’ was the most arousing category among participants. In opposition, the ‘anti-stereotype’ category, featuring women in dominating positions, was the least arousing, especially among women, adds Giffin.

PhD student Lotte Mikkers gets everyone’s attention back as she reveals her first slide, ‘PornHub wrapped 2023’. “Which day of the year do people least watch porn?”, she asks. “Christmas!” several voices shout from the audience. She smiles and replies that it’s actually on Easter Sunday that people watch the least porn in the Netherlands.

Mikkers also shares statistics on the platform’s most popular categories. ‘Sex machines’, ‘super size’, and ‘mature actors’ are the top three. She draws a connection between these trends and societal changes. As technology becomes increasingly central to our lives, interest in androids and machine-based content has risen. Similarly, as populations age, there’s growing demand for content featuring older performers.

Finally, the last guests are coming up on stage. Porn performers EslunaLove and Marvin sit on the couch under loud applause. Marvin explains that he now mostly works as a producer, and EslunaLove says she acts in some projects and creates a lot of content for OnlyFans.

When asked about the difficulties of their jobs, Marvin says he wishes professionals were present on every production to make sure that consent is present, even ‘normalised’. EslunaLove adds that she selects very carefully the projects she participates in, prioritising a ‘safe environment’.

Meanwhile, three medical students remain seated in the upper row, debriefing with excitement. “I loved it. Talks like this can really change how people see porn”, one of them says. When asked about their own consumption of porn, another says that she ‘learned from porn’. She adds that ‘more research should be done about porn’, as it ‘really concerns us all’. Her friend agrees: “Almost everyone consumes porn, and not only videos: you can also listen to and read porn now.”