The "Bible Belt" is the Porn Belt: Surprised?

[Zzyzx]

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I borrowed the title from a religion forum.

Many studies show that the southeastern US states are the heaviest consumers of pornography and gay porn -- and are producers of one-third of uploaded amateur porn videos (as any Internet search reveals).

Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia are the leading states in percentage of porn viewers.

1) WHY is the most religious area of the US also the greatest consumer of pornography?

2) WHY is a gay-bashing / anti-gay / bigoted area ALSO a great consumer of GAY porn?

[atheist buddy]

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I borrowed the title from a religion forum.

Many studies show that the southeastern US states are the heaviest consumers of pornography and gay porn -- and are producers of one-third of uploaded amateur porn videos (as any Internet search reveals).

Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia are the leading states in percentage of porn viewers.

1) WHY is the most religious area of the US also the greatest consumer of pornography?

2) WHY is a gay-bashing / anti-gay / bigoted area ALSO a great consumer of GAY porn?

I think that you will find that the correlation isn't to the predominate religious affiliation of a region: it is going to be directly correlated to the anti-porn laws in any specific state.

Those states which do not allow stores to sell pornographic books, magazines or videos have far higher internet porn use than those which do, regardless of the religious makeup of the region.

(grin)

Nevermind the 'bible belt' states: Utah has the highest internet porn subscription rate, at 3. something per thousand, as opposed to Nevada (the lowest state...but with a rather high percentage of Mormon population, just so you know) with 1.96 per thousand. (from the Deseret News)

Utah also has the strictest controls on porn accessibility through local stores and advertisement, and Nevada has the fewest.

So we have a couple of things going on here:

First, if one wants to view porn, one goes where it is available. If you can't buy a video or magazine at a local 'adult entertainment' shop (because there ain't any), then you go to the internet.

Ah ah! I swear I'm actually laughing out loud right now. "lol" is used too liberally, and when somebody is actually laughing outloud it's hard to convey it. I am ACTUALLY giggling as I write this.

It's not that you said anything terribly silly or anything. In fact, what you're saying makes total sense in a way...

....except for the fact that NOBODY buys porn from "local stores". EVER.

You're about 20 years out of date. The internet was never ever EVER a "Plan B" porn provider, only used by people once they are deprived of their local store porn. That's a fairy tale more outlandish than the virgin birth one. The INSTANT that porn was available online, magazines and videos became obsolete.

The typical porn-craving person age 13 to 200 anywhere in America, from Utah to New York, from Alabama to San Francisco, has never ever in the last couple of decades even remotely contemplated buying porn in a store. If you ask him about his "porn collection" he'll assume you're refering to his "favorite video list" on youporn.com, or if he's old-fashioned, to a folder in his laptop.

My husband and I are great fans of porn, and we live in a very liberal town, and I swear to you, we have NO idea where the closest "porn store" is. I don't think they are any. Most sex paraphernalia stores don't even carry any videos or magazines. I think there are more blockbusters than porn video stores in America.

Why would somebody pay a local store for something they can get for free, in much greater quantity, quality and variety, in the confort and privacy of their home?

So, your argument fails because it's central premise is clearly false.

The puritanical porn restrictions in Utah, and the enormous porn use, are both symptoms of a depraved and repressed sex culture, highly influenced by high religiosity.

Well, the studies didn't take place twenty years ago. The correlation is clearly there, and I actually posted a source (which provided sources within the article) about it.

Would you care to back up your contention, here? You can "LOL" all you want to, but you haven't provided any studies about it, or given any evidence regarding this issue.

I have. Your turn.

First of all, states in the Bible belt do NOT have less porn shops than liberal states. There practically aren't any porn shops anywhere in America.

Sure, liberal states will have plenty of stores that sell lingerie, sex toys, inflatable dolls, etc. Some of these will have a very small selection of videos, maybe, but they cater to a tiiiiny demographic: People who don't own a computer. Period.

So the correlation between the limited ability to purchase porn in a store and the prevalence of online porn is simply not there. You can't buy videos in store in states that consume a lot of online porn, you can't buy videos in store in states that DON'T consume a lot of online porn. No correlation.

But let's forget about that, and pretend there IS a correlation.

Correlation does not mean causation. Absent evidence in either direction, it's just as senseless to say that absence of porn stores causes online porn use, as it is to say that accesibility of online porn causes the absence of porn stores. If anything, the latter seems much more reasonable. People can watch porn online for free, so they don't buy videos.

It could also mean that there is a third factor that causes BOTH, meaning, for example, that puritanism and religious hypocrisy cause BOTH a lowering of the type of porn one must do publicly (shopping at a store) AND increasing the type of porn one can do privately (online).

Or it could also mean that two completely separate factors determine the two trends indipendently. It could be, for example, that legislation causes local porn shops to be fewer, and separate from this, religious sexual repression causes extensive online porn use.

My guess is that religious sexual repression is the cause of both the legislation that makes it hard to open a sex shop in Utah, AND of the urge to watch online porn.

Sure it's just a guess, but at least it's a guess not based on the unquestionably false notion that anybody would prefer the inconvenience, cost and stigma of going to a porn shop, as opposed to the immediate, instant, free and discreet access to practically EVERY PORN VIDEO EVER MADE, directly from home.

Think about it. Some 15 year old is home alone on a rainy night and he's going to... you know... So, he has two choices. He can either go out in the rain, get to the porn store, hope that the clerk who will reject his fake ID isn't there, hope that none of his parent's friends see him going into the store, hope the video he wants to see hasn't been rented by somebody else, pay good money for the vid, go back in the rain, get home, do his thing, go back out in the rain, get to the porn store, hope nobody sees him, return the video, go back out in the rain for the 4th time. OR, he can just turn on his computer and watch all the porn he wants for free. Now, put 1000 guys in that position. How many will choose the first option over the second?

Come on! Blockbuster went bankrupt a couple of years after Netflix showed up! Wouldn't it be crazy to say that Netflix's popularity was caused by the decreased availability of Blockbuster stores? Netflix offers a better product than Blockbuster, people choose to use Netflix, so Blockbuster goes away. It's that simple. Youporn offers a better product than your local porn DVD store, people choose to use youporn, so the local DVD store goes away.

Higher porn use is caused by a repressive religious culture. Stop doing crazy contortions to try to get your religion off the hook.

[dianaiad]

Higher porn use is caused by a repressive religious culture. Stop doing crazy contortions to try to get your religion off the hook.

You present quite a case...a bit of an ironic one given that part of the lecture you just wrote was 'correlation is not causation."

As well, you still have not presented any outside sources and studies to support your contention, whereas I did.

Had you actually read the article for which I provided the link, you would have noticed a couple of things therein...and one of them YOU touched on, with the randy fifteen year old, and one of the things I wrote about you have completely ignored, as if it had never been mentioned and you had received an undivine AHA! moment.

As it happens, y'all got me curious. Really curious..so I did some research. a ran across this article. It's well worth a read.

The thing I noticed first was that all this hoorah about who visits the most porn sites, comparatively, is like children cutting donuts and cutting the crumbs to see who has the biggest piece.

For instance, the difference between Utah (the largest consumer of online porn) and West Virginia (wait..isn't WV in the 'bible belt?'...why, yes, I do believe it is, along with four of the other states in the ten states which use the least online porn. Sorry, Zzyzx...oh, and sorry, atheist buddy) Is a whole 1.6 per thousand.

This is a pretty slim difference, actually, compared to, oh....truck ownership or other demographic differences in lifestyle between areas.

According to this article. linked to above, there are a few other correlations with online porn use:

the higher the education, the more online porn.
the more charitable, the more porn.
the more volunteer hours, more online porn.
online porn seems to be inversely correlated with population...at least on the extremes. The areas with the highest populations tend to use less, and the most isolated use a bit more.

..........and here's one for you and your randy fifteen year old: the states with the most young people use more.

In general, the article mentions that areas which are more conservative politically and religiously tend to use more...but then there's that top and bottom ten list, where five bible belt states are in the 'least used' column, and the top ten users of online porn only have two conservative states.

Those two states seem to also be on the 'most educated, most charitable, most volunteer oriented--and with the most kids' list.

The upshot is, with a difference of a person per thousand between the highest and lowest use, you really ARE counting crumbs on that donut, atheist buddy. There are so many other variables and correlations here that your...and Zzyzx's instant finger pointing to religion is less than logical.

One could as easily point at college education, which, frankly, is more clearly related here, or average population age (well, except for Florida), or ???

And yes, high public moral standards also plays a part, but given the states on both the 'high' and 'low' list, I don't think that it plays anywhere near as large a factor as you wish it did.

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 12 by dianaiad]

Dianaiad,

I admire your diligence in researching the topic. What overall conclusions can we draw? You and I live in high-porn states. I contribute absolutely nothing to viewership in Arkansas (not inclined to watch people do anything -- including sports, sex and other performances) and trust that you do the same for Utah.

Maybe BB states (that is Bible Belt, not Big Bang) watch only a little more porn than national averages or other states. Shouldn't BTs (Bible Thumpers) and other religionists watch far LESS porn or none at all since they supposedly have "High Christian Morals?"

BTW, West Virginia may be low in viewership due to low Internet connectivity -- something else that needs research. Since "they have to pipe sunlight in" there may not be room for fiber optics.