As discussed by Melinda Wenner Moyer in a recent perspective piece titled “The Sunny Side of Smut,” researchers finally are saying what many people in the adult entertainment business have been saying all along.

“Contrary to what many people believe, recent research shows that moderate pornography consumption does not make users more aggressive, promote sexism or harm relationships,” Moyer wrote. “If anything, some researchers suggest, exposure to pornography might make some people less likely to commit sexual crimes.”

With the help of Milton Diamond, director of the Pacific Center for Sex and Society at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Moyer goes on to poke a hole in one of the biggest arguments the anti-porn crowd loves to toss around: that pornography harms or in some way demeans women. The attitude may be a sexist relic more indicative of age, political party affiliation, residence and education, the pair opine.

“Regular pornography use does not seem to encourage sexism, either,” Moyer wrote. “In 2007 Alan McKee, a cultural studies expert at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, designed a questionnaire to assess sexist tendencies. He enclosed his survey in shipments of pornographic material distributed by a mail-order company and also posted it online. Responses from 1,023 pornography users indicated that the amount of pornography the subjects consumed did not predict whether they would hold negative attitudes toward women. The survey respondents who were most sexist were generally older men who voted for a right-wing political party, lived in a rural area and had a lower level of formal education.”

According to Diamond, “There’s absolutely no evidence that pornography does anything negative.”

The article concludes with a discussion of another accusation that has plagued the erotic business: sexual violence against women. Moyer pokes holes in that, as well.

“Perhaps the most serious accusation against pornography is that it incites sexual aggression,” Moyer wrote. “But not only do rape statistics suggest otherwise, some experts believe the consumption of pornography may actually reduce the desire to rape by offering a safe, private outlet for deviant sexual desires.”

Moyer’s conclusions undoubtedly are not news to those in the erotic entertainment business, but the fact that her article was featured in a revered publication like Scientific American indicates sexual issues finally are being brought out of the dark and studied in order to cast a new, unbiased light on the issues.

That has to be a good thing.

M.Christian is a YNOT.com contributing editor and an [I]author of literary erotica that blends the spectrum of sexual preferences and desires with horror and science fiction. Want to get in touch? Email him.[/I]