MENS INTERACTIONS WITH WOMEN AFTER VIEWING SEXUALLY EXPLICIT FILMS - DOES DEGRADATION MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Short-term exposure to nonviolent sexual media stimuli can produce cog nitive changes in men, which, in turn, can affect their attitudes towa rd women. This study sought to build on past research by reliably dist inguishing between (a) sexually explicit and non-sexual films and (b) sexually explicit films that are either degrading or non degrading to women. We tested whether men's viewing of these materials affects thei r judgment of women in subsequent face-to-face interactions. Sex-typed and non sex-typed melt (Bem, 1974) viewed one of three equally stimul ating film stimuli determined by an independent set of viewers to be: (a) sexually explicit and degrading, (b) sexually explicit and non-deg rading, or (c) non sexual film. After viewing the men interacted with women and then evaluated their partners' intellectual competence, sexu al interest, sexual attractiveness, and sexual permissiveness. Women r ated the men's sexual interest, dominance, and their own feelings of d egradation during the interaction. No effects for film exposure alone were found for any of these variables, and no interaction effects betw een film and partners' sex-role orientation were found for women's eva luations of their partners. However, men's sex-rob orientation moderat ed film effects for men's evaluations of their female partners' intell ectual competence and sexual interest. These findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with other studies and the potentially neg ative social implications for everyday male-female interaction.