WOMENS MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES AND EXPERIENCES WITH PORNOGRAPHY

This study was designed to investigate and represent a spectrum of wom en's experiences with and attitudes toward pornography. Q methodology was used to achieve this goal. in Phase 1, 30 participants were recrui ted for their varying views on and experiences with pornography. These participants were interviewed on their beliefs about the role of sexu ally explicit materials in their lives. Ninety-eight Q-sort items were written to adequately represent the variety of themes present in the interview transcripts. Participants in Phase 2 were mature women stude nts recruited from university classes and participants from Phase 1 wh o agreed to continue their participation (N = 59). The participants so rted the 98 items in a manner that best represented their own experien ces and views. The Q sorts were analyzed using principal components an alysis. A five-factor solution represented five unique perspectives he ld by women within the sample. Four of these perspectives are discusse d. Only two of these factors represent perspectives previously discuss ed in the psychological literature.