Effects of Rape Myth Pornography on Women's Attitudes and the Mediating Role of Sex Role Stereotyping

• NCJ Number: 109634
• Journal: Sex Roles Volume: 17 Issue: 5-6 Dated: (September 1987) Pages: 321-338
• Author(s): S E Mayerson; D A Taylor
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study tested hypotheses regarding the effects of women's reading pornography on their self-esteem and attitudes about rape and interpersonal violence as well as how these effects were mediated by the women's degree of sex role stereotyping (SRS).

Abstract

Women both high and low in SRS read one of three sexually explicit stories portraying various combinations of a woman's consent or nonconsent and arousal or nonarousal to forced sexual activity. As predicted, all stories had some effect on the women's attitudes. Differences attributable to the consent and arousal manipulations were minimal but generally in the expected direction. Compared to not reading a story, reading any story generally led to changes in subjects' self-esteem and greater acceptance of rape myths and interpersonal violence. As predicted, high SRS subjects generally reported lower self-esteem and more tolerance of rape and other violence compared to low SRS subjects. Differences were found in perceptions of sexual situations. This article also discusses significant SRS by story interactions and other results related to the hypotheses. 1 table, 3 figures, and 27 references. (Author abstract modified)