Considering how much recent attention has been paid to men’s porn habits and the problems this habit appear to cause for some, it’s perhaps not surprising that – according to this article – women are apparently using more porn, too.

Admittedly, the “evidence” cited in the article on women’s increasing porn use is questionable, particularly the claim that 17% of women are struggling with pornography “addiction.”  After all, that’s according to the “Internet Filter Review,” a group whose I can only imagine is responsible for selling the solution that will “protect” us from such objectionable material: filter software.  Now that’s one profitable problem!

Nevertheless, questionable statistics aside, it’s not hard to image that women would be experiencing some of the same issues that, at least anecdotally, men are reporting, like compulsive use and decreased interest in having sex with actual human beings (so complicated!). Particularly interesting to me though is the contention that porn “addiction” is more complicated for women because they feel more guilt about it.  I don’t know, somehow I’m not buying that part.  I think feeling guilty about porn use is a generational thing more than a gender thing – most young men and women feel little guilt about porn-watching because it has almost no stigma for their generation.  That’s not the case for older generations.  My sense is that even though there has always been porn, its used to be more secretive, less discussed and more stigmatized.

Of course, it’s wise not to be too alarmist about porn use in general yet.  Though it does appear to be on the increase, the concept of “porn addiction” is still up for debate, and not officially part of the DSM.

And that leads me to my favorite quote in the whole article:

“I have a problem with the word addiction,” [Psychotherapist Phillip Hodson] says. “Sex is a very natural function – and what is an abnormal level of sex to have or to want? If a woman is taking two minutes to orgasm to porn, and she’s doing it, say, 10 times a day, that’s still only 20 minutes a day.”

Um.  Exsqueeze me?  A women orgasming 10 times a day, in a total of 20 minutes?  I’m exhausted just thinking about that.  And frankly, though I agree with Hodson’s larger warning about how we use the term addiction, I can’t help thinking that the only place he would come to the conclusion that perfectly normal women are orgasming 10 times a day at two minutes apiece is……you guessed it: Porn!

Or…I don’t know.  Maybe it’s me.

Read the whole Guardian article here.

-Nicole