AMSTERDAM – Inspired by what they perceived as a lack of reliable data about the actual content of online porn videos (as opposed to the declared content of such videos, which is the type of data preferred by many anti-porn activists), a team of Dutch researchers recently spent a great deal of time watching porn on four major tube sites.

As they combed through footage from the top 100 videos (in terms of popularity, as measured by “views”) across four major tube sites, the researchers focused on four questions designed to reduce dependence on anecdotal evidence:

• To what extent are men and women objectified in internet pornography?
• How is power distributed between men and women in internet pornography?
• To what extent does internet pornography depict violence against men and women?
• How does amateur internet pornography differ from professional internet pornography in its depiction of gender (in)equality?

While the researchers’ conclusions (and methods) are sure to be subject to much debate, the overall takeaway likely will be disappointing to both critics and advocates of porn.

While anti-porn activists tend to be consistent in depicting porn as a monolith in which there’s essentially no variation between one degrading piece of misogynistic filth and the next, over the past 20 years or so, a new generation of pornographers have proclaimed themselves different in that they seek to bring in new perspectives — not to mention new demographics in fan base, different body types, and in some cases very different notions about gender roles and sexual power dynamics than those found in old-school porn.

Along the same lines, some have argued the increase in amateur porn production ushered in by technology-felled barriers-to-entry is leading to far more diversity in the marketplace, both in terms of content genres and the ways in which performers (male and female) are depicted.

From where the research team at the University of Amsterdam sits, however, the differences between professional and amateur pornography actually trend in the opposite direction.

“In terms of hierarchy, amateur videos were more likely to portray men in higher social or professional positions than women, while professional videos were more likely to depict women in higher positions than men,” the researchers reported in their study. “Women in amateur videos were more often depicted in lower positions than men. Professional videos, in contrast, were about equally likely to show men and women in lower positions.”

While the researchers concluded “men were more likely dominant during sexual activity than were women” in both pro and amateur porn, “this gender difference was stronger for amateur than for professional videos.”

Setting aside for the moment any reservations about the methods used by the research team (we’ll get to those concerns later), these conclusions aren’t as odd as they may sound at first blush.

First of all, where does an amateur pornographer turn for inspiration or guidance when he or she is first getting started? My strong hunch is many of them start by mimicking camera angles, sexual positions, sex acts, etc. they have seen depicted in other porn, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the porn they watched prior to making any of their own was professionally produced.

Second, the porn that is “most different” from stereotypical, mainstream porn probably is feminist porn, much of which is professionally produced and commercially distributed, as opposed to uploaded to YouPorn in pursuit of satisfying an exhibitionist urge.

Finally, if you consider the sites that served as sources for the videos considered in the study — Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and xHamster — none of them is a particular hotbed of feminist or alt porn. Sure, each likely has a smattering of videos that fall into either or both categories, but feminist porn videos certainly aren’t the ones drawing the most views when they do happen to be present on such sites.

Unsurprisingly, this is also where concerns about the study’s methods arise. By selecting only the most-viewed videos on the most popular tube sites, the researchers probably figured they had arrived a fairly reliable cross-section of online porn content. This assumption completely ignores the possibility tube sites serve a more limited demographic than the researchers imagine, however, and that possibility likely shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

On the other hand, when viewed from the perspective of producers and fans of “mainstream” and “professional” porn, the researchers’ conclusions stand in stark contrast to anti-porn activists’ hyperventilating claims that mainstream porn is rife with violence, depictions of nonconsensual sex and rampant objectification of women.

“Apart from spanking and gagging, violence was rather infrequently depicted in popular mainstream pornographic internet videos,” the research team reported.

This assertion defies claims published by groups like Fight the New Drug, who are fond of citing a 2010 study that reported 88 percent of the pornography viewed by researchers “contained physical violence.”

As has been the case with other studies concerning pornography, the new study from the University of Amsterdam seems hampered by starting from a place of total ignorance with respect to the subject of its inquiry.

“Although debates about pornography often seem to assume implicitly that pornography is a homogenous mass of sexually explicit content, researchers have increasingly pointed out that it is diverse and encompasses different genres,” the study authors noted.

So, you’re saying porn is not all the same? Thanks so much for pointing that out, because the conclusion could not have been reached by, say, reading any random selection of 50 porn DVD covers or looking at the categories tab on any porn site.

While disturbing to realize it took scientific studies to demonstrate to academics something immediately and intuitively understood by everyone who has ever participated in an adult affiliate program, it’s heartening to know someone is at least trying to look at these questions objectively.

Naturally, the study’s publication will do nothing to deter porn’s critics from spouting ridiculous generalizations about the products or give them pause in claiming porn causes every malady from sexual assault to severe overbites. What it might do in some limited fashion, though, is make it a little harder for the media to take seriously the most extreme claims put forth by porn’s harshest critics, undermining their credibility and influence in social policy debates.

One thing of which there’s no doubt: If nothing else, this study served as justification for a group of Dutchmen to get paid to watch a hell of a lot of porn.