This summer, my research team and I took on an exciting challenge—collecting data at one of the most famous music festivals in the Netherlands, which draws over 65,000 visitors. Over the course of three intense days under the August sun and next to the festival’s booming main stage, we had an overwhelming amount of interest in our study on gender stereotypes in pornography. This experience not only brought us tons of valuable data but also fascinating insights into how people perceive these stereotypes. Here’s a look back at our ‘Pornfessions’ research.
Author: Samira van Bohemen
Date: September 13, 2024
Photo: Maurits Kortenbout
We invited festival-goers into our custom research space—a container transformed with red curtains, baroque wallpaper, and posters of iconic adult films like Deep Throat and Debbie Does Dallas. The idea was to recreate the feel of an old-school video store’s adult section, hidden behind a red curtain.
Our project, titled Pornfessions, aimed to explore where gender stereotypes in pornography come from, how they intersect with people’s desires, and how individuals’ gender identities influence their experiences of these stereotypes. To do this, we created two interactive research experiences:
In our Pornfession Booths, visitors could anonymously share their thoughts and preferences with an interviewer, or as we called them, a “porn priest.” These conversations took place with both the participant and interviewer behind a divider, allowing for more intimate and open dialogue.
Each participant was shown 32 pornographic video titles. Some of these titles were highly stereotypical and taken from mainstream sites like Pornhub and XVideos. Others were neutral, while a third group reversed traditional gender roles. Participants ranked the titles from least to most attractive and explained their reasons for each choice.
“Our project, titled Pornfessions, aimed to explore where gender stereotypes in pornography come from, how they intersect with people’s desires, and how individuals’ gender identities influence their experiences of these stereotypes.”
Examples of the titles we used included: “Naughty Schoolgirl on Her Knees to Get Punished” and “Dominated Housemaid with Great Tits Banged After Cleaning” representing the highly stereotypical titles, “Hot Couple Seductive Shower Encounter” and “Let’s Fuck Until We Both Scream” representing more neutral titles, and, “Naughty Teen Schoolboy Fucked by Schoolmistress” and “Bald Male Secretary Begs His Female Boss for a Raise” representing the reversed gender roles.
The conversations about these titles, which lasted around 25 minutes, followed a 10-minute survey where we asked participants about their gender values and beliefs. With four interviewers running nonstop, we managed to interview 81 participants—a significant number for this kind of research, where typically you’d be happy to get 25 interviews.
Though it’s too early to draw conclusions from the data, our “porn priests” did notice some interesting trends in the conversations:
Porn Priest 1: “Many participants, both male and female, found mutual pleasure to be the most attractive theme. They often chose titles that resonated with their personal lives.”
Porn Priest 2: “I noticed that more men preferred the fantasy aspect of porn, especially things unlikely to happen in real life, like an orgy with porn stars. One woman also mentioned this preference.”
Porn Priest 3: “Many people, regardless of gender, felt uncomfortable with words like ‘teen’ and ‘babysitter,’ worrying that they implied underage content.”
Porn Priest 4: “Power imbalances were polarizing—some found them exciting, while others were turned off, citing concerns about consent and societal gender dynamics.”
In addition to the booths, we conducted a Sexperiment where participants didn’t just talk about their preferences—they physically reacted to them. Each participant was wired to a heart rate monitor, placed in front of an eye tracker, and presented with a series of pornographic titles, some of which reinforced gender stereotypes, while others were neutral or unrelated to porn.
Participants rated how aroused they felt by the title, watched an 8-second clip, and rated their arousal again. Meanwhile, we tracked their heart rate to capture objective signs of arousal.
This experiment aimed to measure the embodiment of culture—how our learned beliefs about gender not only shape our minds but also influence our bodies’ physiological responses. For example, someone raised with traditional views on gender might show greater physical arousal to videos featuring dominant men and submissive women. Conversely, someone with more progressive views might have less of a physiological reaction to those same stereotypes.
“The experiment aimed to measure the embodiment of culture”
With three booths running simultaneously, we collected data from 120 participants. This is an impressive sample size, especially considering that festival-goers typically have more diverse backgrounds than the usual research participants, who are often psychology students.
The high level of participation and enthusiasm we encountered underscores the importance of tailoring research to fit the audience. More than ever, social science research faces a challenge: many people are becoming ‘tired’ of participating in studies, particularly due to survey fatigue or lengthy, demanding interviews. To keep people engaged, we need to design research that is more exciting, relevant to their life experiences, and—whenever possible—enjoyable.
This was a key aim of our Pornfessions project: to create a study that resonated with the life worlds of festival-goers, aligned with their values, outlook on society, and interests—such as sexuality and pornography. By making the research setting and method relatable and engaging, we believe it ultimately enriched the quality of the data we collected.
Conducting research at a festival also allowed us to reach a much broader sample. Typically, research on topics like gender and sexuality tends to draw participants from university campuses, particularly young, female students. However, the festival setting offered a more diverse group of participants, giving us insights from people with a range of perspectives on gender and sexuality. The vibrant and anonymous atmosphere of the festival also fostered a sense of openness and curiosity, encouraging participants to share more freely and candidly, which resulted in deeper and more honest conversations.
While it will take time to fully analyze the data, the festival was an incredible opportunity to dive into the complex relationships between gender, culture, and sexual preferences. We’re beyond grateful to the 200+ participants who stood in line—some for over an hour and a half—to take part in our study.
Finally, a huge thank you to Lowlands Festival, BKB, NWO-NWA, and my amazing research team at the Erasmus Love Lab and the PORN-TYPES project. Special thanks to Christian and his team from the Erasmus Behavioral Lab for all their support. This project was made possible by a NWO Vidi Grant (VI.Vidi.221S.023).
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