Giami, A., de Colomby, P., Paterson, F. Eroticizing
condoms: Representations of sex and AIDS Originally
published in: D. Friedrich, W. Heckmann (eds). Aids in Europe-The
Behavioural aspect. Paper delivered at : AIDS in Europe - The Behavioural Aspect European Conference on Methods and Results of Psycho-Social AIDS-Research September 26-29, 1994, Berlin , Germany 1.The historic link between pornography and sex-education 2. The dilemma posed by using porn material in AIDS prevention Consumers of Porn Magazines in France RESEARCH-ACTION WITH THE MAGAZINE SEXY-MAG ANALYSIS OF THE "AIDS AND CONDOMS" THEME IN A FEW FRENCH HETEROSEXUAL EROTIC MAGAZINES Representation of sexuality and AIDS among actors and models
INITIAL HYPOTHESIS:
This project stems from some results of the French National Survey on Sexual Behaviours, in which 47.4% of men and 19.3% of women stated they read a pornographic magazine often or occasionally (Spira, Bajos, ACSF, 1993). In addition, a large proportion of these readers considered that condoms could be used in erotic play. Thus, it seems that a fairly large portion of the so-called general population would be accessible through porn publications, to messages concerning prevention .
The first aim of this project was to evaluate how it might be possible to conceive and disseminate messages concerning prevention of HIV built around the principle of the eroticisation of condoms. In order to do this we tried to find out what has already been improvised in the field of the Porn industry[1], and by the people involved in it. We also wished to sensitize the producers of porn magazines to the problem of AIDS prevention and to encourage them to come up with AIDS prevention messages in the usual language - written and iconographic - of these magazines.
During our preliminary exploration work for this project we contacted the people in charge of these publications and also met with actors and models who work in this milieu. Conversations with all of those involved led us to suppose that few individuals protected themselves and rarely against HIV infection. In this context of frequent partner turn-over and high-risk sexual activity, the problem of contagion is accentuated.
Our work developed as follows: - We wished, firstly, to use the porn press to help spread specific HIV-prevention messages. - Secondly, we looked at what had already been done on this subject in this press. - After interviews with several actors and models working in this field we noted that safe sex was not practiced systematically. We concluded that if we wished to collaborate with this milieu to produce messages of prevention geared toward the general public, it was also necessary and urgently so, to have the actors and models, and the people around them, become more conscious of the risk involved in their work and change their behaviours.
PREMISE:1.The historic link between pornography and sex-education.
Due to the censorship of explicit representations of genitalia and sex acts, porn films and magazines have often used the pretext of sex-education to show sexually explicit material. Since the 1930s, Sexploitation Movies and Hygiene Pictures, for example, showed the damages wrought by sexuality and were in fact the only films showing genitals. More recently, there was a German film series on sex-education, Helga: the Private Life of a Young Girl, (by Erich F. Bender, 1967). These films reflect the evolution of the basic premise; they have covered topics like prevention of venereal diseases, reproductive education, and in the 1970s, during the "sexual revolution", spoke of mutually satisfying sexual relations. Rather surprisingly, on the other hand, AIDs has not yet produced a new blossoming of Hygiene Pictures (Bouyxou, 1994). It would seem that safe sex and condom use are problematical for the current sex industry. C. Lemes recounts feeling she was "transgressing a taboo" in order to get Playboy (Brazil) to print a scientific survey on the sexual behaviour of Brazilian men accompanied by recommendations on condom use (Lemes, 1994). As for sex-education, it has often been accused by reactionaries of being a form of pornography which increases the frequency of sexual activity and contributes to making youngsters sexually active at an earlier age. Since oral contraceptives and birth control education have become readily available, the education establishment has been involved in this debate. And now, there is similar opposition among teachers concerning the distribution of condoms to adolescents.
2. The dilemma posed by using porn material in AIDS prevention.The main studies on the effects of exposure to pornography have two underlying research paradigms: learning: "exposure to pornography in experimental conditions can lead subjects to commit sexual aggressions; people imitate what they see or, at least, become less sensitive to sexual violence towards women" - and catharsis: "reducing aggressive urges (aggressiveness) through the experience of symbolic systems such as art, for example." (McCormack, 1988, p. 493). Under these conditions, if one adheres to the liberal viewpoint that pornography mainly produces a cathartic-type effect, its use as a technique to help prevent AIDS by modifying high-risk behaviour may at first seem limited. If, in addition, one adheres to more conservative viewpoints or to the American Feminist viewpoint that pornography reinforces the tendancy of violence towards women (Pornography is the theory, rape is the practice : Andrea Dworkin), then there is the moral issue implicit in supporting porn businesses which apparently produce these effects. Moreover gay porn and heterosexual porn do not have the same status. The gay porn is considered as political correct in American circles because it helps support the gay identity and takes place in the struggle against AIDS (Patton, 1991). It is not our aim, in this research, to evaluate the effects of exposure to porn messages. For the moment we are attempting to explore the place and the status of condoms and safe sex in the porn system of representation.This system of representation is seen as a "magnifying mirror" of sexual representations, and by extension, of AIDS as understood by the general population. In other words, an analysis of porn can help us understand the representations of sexuality in contemporary French culture. Behaviour change is a long-term process. Transformation of representations might be the first step of such a long-term process.
Consumers of Porn Magazines in France
1- Pornographic magazines are read mainly by men. 47.4% of men and 19.3% of women stated that they read a pornographic magazine often or occasionally. This is a high percentage which leads us to suppose that porn messages get good public distribution.
Methods The analysis of data available in the ACSF file was geared on the 5.7% of men who stated they had often read a porn magazine. This choice was made in the interest of working with a contrasting sample. Since only 1.5% of women fell in this category, they were not included in this analysis.
2 - The change in sexual behaviours since the appearance of AIDS: 40% of readers, as opposed to 19% of men overall, stated that they had changed their sexual behaviour since the appearance of AIDS.
3 - Feeling concerned by AIDS: This group seemed to feel more concerned by AIDS than other men: 10% thought they had a greater risk of being infected as against 5% of men overall, and 14.5% stated they were not at risk as against 23.5% of men overall. Likewise, 66% of readers wondered very often or often if they were already infected; less than 50% of men overall gave a similar response.
4 - Opinions about condoms: Readers of porn magazines seem to have a more positive image of condoms and their opinions about them are more clear-cut than among the general male population. Readers find them even less complicated to use than men overall, more of them maintain that they can be used in erotic play (+12.7 points), and that they can make pleasure last longer (+9.9 points) or increase it (+2.8 points).
5 - Average number of sexual intercourse: A higher proportion of readers have sexual relations, and though they may not actually be more precocious to start with (age of first encounter), readers state a greater frequency of sexual intercourse than men overall, no matter what age-group they belong to.
6 - Number of partners: Readers have more frequently been in a multi-partner situation during the past 12 months and have had a larger number of partners than multi-partner non-reader males.
7 - Frequentation of prostitutes: Although it is a minority activity, frequentation of prostitutes seems to concern readers of porn magazines more than the general male population. Twice as many readers stated they had been to a prostitute during the 5 years preceding the survey (6.6% against 3.2%) and during the past 12 months (1.8% against 0.9%).
8 - Homo- and bi-sexuality: Twice as many readers of porn magazines stated that they had been sexually attracted to men, and twice as many also admitted that they had had at least one same-gender sexual experience in their lives.
9 - Masturbation: More than half of the sample of readers stated that they masturbated often and considered this practice to be completely acceptable. Conversely, while 35% of the sample of the general male population found this practice acceptable, only 17% stated that they masturbated often.
10 - Less frequent practices Minority practices such as group sex, exchanging partners or use of an object for sexual arousal, while they are not common amongst either the general male population or readers of porn magazines, are more frequent amongst the latter. The highest percentage of readers having often made love with several people concerned men over 40 (5% against 0.4%); in addition, 1.5% of men 25 years old and under stated they did it often, five times more than men their age overall.
11 - Condom use: Over 80% of readers in all age-groups stated that they had already used condoms during their sexual life (the corresponding figure for men overall was only 69.1% and the percentage decreases with age). Condom use over the 12 months preceding the survey remained higher among readers even though use of this type of protection diminished noticeably with age in both groups.
Comments: Porn magazine readers stated in this national survey that they had more frequent and diverse sexual activities than the general male population. They reported a higher number of partners. More of them also felt concerned by the risk of catching HIV, stating that they had changed their sexual behaviour since the appearance of AIDS, and more stated that they used condoms. In the present state of the project, we cannot assert that this situation is directly linked to their consumption of porn magazines or if consumption of porn magazines is only one element in a more diverse sexual repertory which implies cultivating eroticism and being more at ease sexually (Béjin, 1993). In any event, the fact that 40% of readers (as against 19% in the general male population) stated that their sexual behaviour had changed since the appearance of AIDS, is an indicator to be taken into account regarding the potential for change in this group. While it is still difficult to assert that condom use will increase due to specific messages of prevention in the porn press, we can state that this population is already sensitive to this problem. This is in keeping with Ducot and Spira's (1993) proposal which suggests: "In dealing with condom use, the emphasis should be on the fact that sexual relations with condoms can be satisfying, and not just: "wear a condom and you'll be safe".
RESEARCH-ACTION WITH THE MAGAZINE SEXY-MAG
In March, 1993, the magazine Sexy-Mag ran a feature entitled: "Love in the Time of AIDS". It included: - a technical and humorous presentation of condoms and how to use them; - information on the AIDS epidemic; - information on condom use by people in the sex industry; - information on the risk-factor in various sexual practices; - suggestions on different no-risk sexual practices: sex-play without penetration, fondling, mutual masturbation, soft-core sadomasochism, getting the partner to participate in putting on the condom (with her mouth, for example), etc. This report represented an original type of communication in heterosexual circles since it emphasized the erotic aspects and erotic advantages of condom use and safe-sex. On the other hand, along with this feature, this issue of the magazine also contained texts about and photographs of penetrations without condoms. So the presence of diverse and contradictory messages must also be taken into account. This construction associates hygienist elements (information, mainly) with erotic elements. This magazine's strategy aims, on the one hand, to give accurate information about AIDS and prevention of HIV (a specialist had been consulted), and on the other to bring out the erotic benefits of the new situation in two ways: condom use and development of sexual practices that gain legitimacy thanks to absence of risk involved.
It is in this context that we contacted Annabel Faust, the chief editor of the magazine and main author of the feature. Together, we developed a project to print a special edition of the magazine centered on AIDS prevention. The project was submitted to the French Agency for Fighting AIDS (Agence Française de Lutte contre le Sida) which comes under the French Ministry of Health. The AFLS accepted the project in principle and agreed to finance it. A special issue came out in December, 1993, and included: * An explicit photographic feature showing a man and a women in an erotic context with close-ups of the penis with a condom. * A condom given out by a Pin-Up girl and inserted in the magazine as a gift. * A questionnaire for the readers on sexual practices and condom use. * An interview with the French singer, Pierre Vassiliu, on AIDS.
Publication of this document allowed us to meet the directors of other porn magazines interested in the experience and who might wish to reproduce it in their magazines.
ANALYSIS OF THE
"AIDS AND CONDOMS" THEME IN A FEW
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