Attempts to Establish a Relationship between Sex Education and Pornography among Young Adults

Pornography is almost an inevitable phenomenon in each of our lives and it is a widely discussed and debated issue in academic as well as journalistic articles and discussions. In a country as that of India, where ‘sex’ is considered to be a ‘social taboo’ and where it is almost established that there exists an appalling lack of what is known as ‘sex education’ among young individuals, pornography happens to be one of the tools for ‘sex education’. However, whether an effective one or not, is still a much debated issue. It is similarly interesting to note that the social treatment of female sexuality and male sexuality varies to a great extent in India. While female sexuality is suppressed, male sexuality is more hegemonic in its characteristics.

Thus, being a young gender enthusiast, I decided to record my findings through a survey conducted with 40 young adults (20 males and 20 females) to draw a relation between pornography and sex education and the attitude of young adults towards them and also to trace the differences in attitude of males and females in the treatment of the same. I explored the urban college campuses of the metropolitan city of Kolkata. The young adults ranging in the age group of 18-23 who are porn consumers as well as ‘educated’ in reputed institutions were specifically chosen because they are in a stage of their lives wherein the adolescent curiosity regarding the concept of ‘sex’ as well as occasional consumption of porn and awareness about ‘sex education’ are in perfect juxtaposition. Therefore, it was interesting to study their attitudes regarding the same. The survey was conducted through the interview method with the help of structured, close-ended questionnaires.

The findings show that 56.52% of the respondents get introduced to porn through their peer groups while 34.78% of them are introduced through movies and advertisements.

It is seen that while young boys have mostly got introduced to the concept of “sex” through peer groups, young girls on the contrary derive their knowledge from textbooks, advertisements and family members. Thereby, it can be determined that ‘sex’ is more openly discussed among male peer groups than female peer groups. It was also noted that porn consumption is higher among males than females. Pornography as a tool for ‘sex education’ is more effective for males rather than females. Another set of data depicts that “pornography” affects the personal sexual practices of males more than that of females. Mostly, the respondents have opined that watching porn is not a healthy habit while a huge percentage is not sure about its treatment. 50% of the respondents believe that pornography provides “false images” of sex.

While 55% of the respondents accepts that pornography is a major tool for ‘sex education’, the respondents seem to doubt it’s efficiency as a tool to a great extent. Therefore, it could be concluded that although “pornography” is one of the major tools of sex education in urban life of Kolkata, it is not believed to be an efficient tool among the youth of the city.

Ankita Bose