As a female who thinks porn is really fun, I hold a special place in my heart for adult film stars -- they're fun, sexy, confident, and share their fun, sexy confidence with us, what's not to like? Good news -- turns out they're pretty happy.

A recently published study from the Journal of Sex Research (best job ever?) has reported that they found no evidence to support the "Damaged Goods Hypothesis;" a theory which claims that adult film stars commonly come from difficult backgrounds, and have poor self-esteem.

Quite the contrary, this new study shows that the 177 adult actresses surveyed had a better body image, quality of life, and were more positive and spiritual than the selected sample of women outside of the industry whom they were compared to. The sample women were matched to the actresses by age, marital status and several other factors.

Why is this so important? Because painting women in porn as victims without their consent takes away all of their power, and gives it to censors who would like to shut down the industry. From the report:

"Stereotypes of those involved in adult entertainment have been used to support or condemn the industry and to justify political views on pornography."

There are a lot of adult films out there that are degrading, for sure. It is also true that many adult film actresses come from backgrounds of poverty, homelessness and abuse. However, you can also find women with similar backgrounds working for McDonalds, and as CEO's of large corporations. It is unfair to stigmatize an entire group of people based on a hunch, and this study will make that stigma much harder to defend.

See? Statistics really are useful for something after high school.

 

 

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