Red States Love Porn

[Sophia]

Hi Miss Shelby! What do you think, should porn sites start closing on Sunday?

As for why online porn is proving more profitable when marketed to red state demographics, my educated guess is that this is for mostly the same reasons prostitution is more profitable in more conservative reaches of the country and the world. The right-wing authoritarian view of sexuality as something dirty and shameful is identical to the stunted, objectifying excuse for sexuality all too often promoted in pornography. The first Christian theologian, Origen, called women and girls "sacks of dung." So do misogynist pornographers. Show me a Bible Belt community and I'll show you a place where porn profiteers will be guaranteed higher profit margins than in any blue area.

Note: some of these same pr0n-addicted conservative states ban sex toys designed for women as anti-family devices. "Sacks of dung" eh? Fuck you, misogynist turds.



Red States Love Porn | Mother Jones

They're red from all the chafing! In the latest installment of Irony and Hypocrisy Weekly, a study has shown that traditionally conservative states consume the most online pornography. Okay, the study (pdf link) was actually in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, and it looked at zip codes of credit cards used for "online adult entertainment" between 2006 and 2008. Researchers found that Utah led the way in sexy interweb fun times, with 5.47 subscribers per 1000 broadband users, followed by Alaska and Mississippi. Out of the top ten porn-using states, only Hawaii and Florida voted for Obama in the 2008 elections, and I think Hawaii is excused because they're so far away from, you know, actual sex with people they don't live next door to. Of course, one could also ascribe the higher online porn usage rates in red states to the simple fact that these states have often made in-person porn buying more difficult, but I prefer to think of it as another example of Larry Craig Syndrome: those who doeth protest too much are at home having a wanketh.

Researchers also found "marginally" higher porn subscription rates in the 27 states that had (at that time) passed anti-gay marriage laws, and in states where surveys show conservative positions on sexuality and gender roles. But in a boon to church-goers, there was also a slight dip in porn subscriptions on Sunday, although the oh-so-cynical researchers noted that this meant only that these people "shift their consumption of adult entertainment to other days of the week." Note to self: promote online porn company more aggressively on Saturdays and Mondays.

[Iacchus]

5.47 per 1000 broadband users? I wonder what the percentage was for those states that didn't rank as high or, what the percentage was overall? I mean if the overall percentage was 5.44 (although there is something about the number 47 ), it doesn't really tell us a whole lot does it?

Oh, .547% doesn't really sound all that high either. I just figured since porn is so readily available, it would be a lot closer to say, 20%? But, what do I know?

[erimir]

Broadband subscriptions don't have a 1:1 correspondence with broadband users.

Many subscriptions are for businesses or educational institutions, for example.

[Sophia]

Originally Posted by Iacchus

5.47 per 1000 broadband users? I wonder what the percentage was for those states that didn't rank as high or, what the percentage was overall? I mean if the overall percentage was 5.44 (although there is something about the number 47 ), it doesn't really tell us a whole lot does it?

Oh, .547% doesn't really sound all that high either. I just figured since porn is so readily available, it would be a lot closer to say, 20%? But, what do I know?

The point is that the incidence is higher than in the blue states. Relative, not absolute.

Remember that these figures are for subscription sites. Most people who use internet porn rely heavily upon free downloads, such as on the porntube style sites and file sharing networks. Even when porn companies make profit, these days they usually don't use a paid membership site model. Monetizing porntube style sites with ads is more prevalent these days.

[Miss Shelby]

wow, sophie. you're like the most obsessed person with the sins of the red states that I have ever met.

[Watser?]

That's actually one of her/his minor obsessions...