Review: Watching Sex
doesn't climax fast enough
by Bailey Vatalaro
The Daily Free Press (Boston University)
September 25, 2003
There are the come-hither eyes of a Barbie clone who never wears underwear and the well-endowed muscle man who never needs a rest. Porn is familiar to most of us, as are the bevy of feminist diatribes denouncing pornography as degrading to females and as a trigger to sexual violence. While many women protest the existence of porn in our culture, David Loftus looks for the first time at what men have to say about pornography.
Watching Sex: How Men Really Respond to Pornography is a peep show into the views of men who actually consume pornography. In reading this book you learn a lot (sometimes a little too much) about how and why men view porn.
But despite shedding insight into the male perspective on sex and porn, Loftus's work is mediocre at best due to its poor structure and repetitive nature.
Loftus formulates his arguments based on the results of an extensive survey of roughly 150 men of all backgrounds, ethnicities and sexual orientations. Watching Sex is structured so that Loftus's conclusions drawn from his research are intertwined with anecdotes or opinion from the participants. It is these accounts that prove to be the book's biggest strength and its biggest weakness.
The use of interviews throughout the book is what keeps the momentum going. There are 39-year-old virgins, a gentleman who likes erotica about furry animals, and an endless stream of men who wish more women would spontaneously start making-out. However, it is the voyeur in all of us that keeps us turning the pages to see what each man has to say. We learn what men like (realistic women and plots), what men do not like (overuse of obligatory money shots), and that some men are into some seriously kinky bedroom antics.
The candid manner in which the subjects express their feelings is by far the most fascinating aspect of Watching Sex. While the accounts feature explicit language and some shocking revelations that could evoke a raised eyebrow from even the most sexually liberal reader, these honest narratives provide validity to Loftus' argument. And in addition to proving the author's points, these interviews often spice up the book with gems -- one man colorfully describes his mother's reaction to his viewing Playboy at age six as though she "just about gave birth to broken glass."
But while these interviews can be entertaining and insightful, they are often extremely redundant -- Loftus will support one point by including several anecdotes that essentially say the same thing. Honestly, there are only so many ways a guy can say he enjoys watching hot girls fondle each other.
But the most glaring flaw in Watching Sex lies in its structure: Loftus' main arguments become lost amidst a slew of other men's voices as he places too much emphasis on the incorporation of interviews and not enough on clearly stating and proving his points. Not until the final third of the book does Loftus clearly map out and refute his points of contention with anti-porn crusaders. His line of reasoning is persuasive, especially in light of his vast sources, yet Loftus expounds on the true nature of pornography too late in the game.
Watching Sex is not completely effective, but it does finally give men a chance to defend their interest in porn amid accusations of perversion and misogyny. Loftus demonstrates that most men do not use porn as a method of asserting superiority over women, as feminists have argued. In fact, the majority of men surveyed used porn predominantly because they were lonely, desired a small fantasy, or wished to learn how to please their significant other.
Then again, some guys just read Playboy for the articles.