According to recently released findings in the Journal of Sex Research, porn stars have higher self-esteem, are more spiritual, and feel better about their bodies than women not in the adult industry.
Researchers compared the self reports of 177 porn actresses (porn actress defined as having performed in at least one adult movie), ranging from ages 18-50. The porn stars were compared to a sample of women matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status, and questions involved sexual behaviors, attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use.
The study found that porn stars were far more likely to identify as bisexual (67 percent, compared to the match group's 7 percent), that they had sex at an earlier age (15, compared to the match group's 17), had more sexual partners (on average, a porn star has more sex partners in one year than a non-porn star has in her lifetime, and this doesn't include their work partners), enjoyed sex more, and were perhaps obviously more concerned about contracting an STD.
In terms of quality of life, "porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group." The instances of child sexual abuse (CSA) were no different among the two groups.
It remains to be seen whether the higher self-esteem of porn stars is a new trend or if it's always been the case and the commonly accepted negative assumptions about them have merely been clouding our perceptions all these years. Regardless, here's hoping that studies like this and further empirical evidence help shed light on the stereotypes that befall sex workers.
As the last sentence of the study put it, "porn actresses appear more similar to women not employed as porn actresses than previously thought."
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/11/porn_stars_higher_self-esteem_study.php
Image is courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
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