Why Red States Don't Have Blue Balls

[Septimus]

Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers - science-in-society - 27 February 2009 - New Scientist

Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.

A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

Family values are just precious.

[ZarakiKujata]

Didn't some study come out recently that showed that evangelicals have more pleasurable sex then others too?

[Kuya]

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,"

Psychology should make this into a law.

[Linliel]

There was a recent case in Australia with the bushfire donations for the victims of the Victorian bushfires: the sex industry lobbyists "Eros" tried to donate lots of money to the Salvation Army, but the Salvos rejected the donation on moral grounds. Yet they were busy setting up a stall at the Brisbane "Sexpo" sex expo.

"Hoffmann claims Salvos management were "highly supportive" of the Sexpo presence after a worldwide decision was made to attack the issue of trafficking head-on. He said he hoped the Salvos' decision to reject the Eros donation didn't impact on the good work underway at Sexpo. Hofmann said that while the Sexpo stall might raise eyebrows among the Salvos' more conservative members, this reflected a lack of awareness on their behalf.

Other religious groups also have stands at Sexpo -- the Bible Society of Queensland were seen roaming the floor yesterday dispensing copies of their Jesus Loves P-rn Stars tome, authored by members of an outfit called the "XXX Church". Bible Society spokesman Steve Davies makes the salient point that the porn industry would lose 45% of its clients if Christians stopped consuming their products."

Crikey - Salvos stiff the s-x lobby's hard-earned - Salvos stiff the s-x lobby's hard-earned (needs a membership but this is a very high quality news source in Australia).

So yeah talk about double standards!

[Conrad]

Sorry this isn't directly related to the topic, but why does that site censor "sex" and "porn" from its articles?

[Ramor]

This just shows that red states buy more porn, not that they watch more. I'm offended to think religious nuts watch more porn than I do, I'm going to go start reversing the statistic.

[Correction]

Sorry this isn't directly related to the topic, but why does that site censor "sex" and "porn" from its articles?

Australia has pretty strict censorship laws. Just look at what they do to video games for an example. Wouldn't surprise me to learn it extends to mainstream media.

[Zilong]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66...usapproval.jpg

[Linliel]

No, it's because it's actually an email newsletter which then posts its articles on line, so it censors out those words because they are likely to hit spam filters

[0ni0n]

coincidentally, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and adjacent strictly Islamic countries have some of the most prosperous underground porn and prostitution industry. Lesson? Suppressing harmless natural human impulses is an exercise in futility. That and alot of religious people are hypocrites.

[Zilong]

I don't think it's really hypocrisy when part of your faith include a harem of 70 virgins if you blow yourself up.

[Kuya]

coincidentally, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and adjacent strictly Islamic countries have some of the most prosperous underground porn and prostitution industry. Lesson? Suppressing harmless natural human impulses is an exercise in futility. That and alot of religious people are hypocrites.

Yasser turned onto a side street, then braked suddenly. “Oh shit, it’s a checkpoint,” he said, inclining his head toward some traffic cops in brown uniforms. “Do you have your ID?” he asked me. He wasn’t worried about the gay-themed nature of his tour—he didn’t want to be caught alone with a woman. I rummaged through my purse, realizing that I’d left my passport in the hotel for safekeeping. Yasser looked behind him to see if he could reverse the car, but had no choice except to proceed. To his relief, the cops nodded us through. “God, they freaked me out,” Yasser said. As he resumed his narration, I recalled something he had told me earlier. “It’s a lot easier to be gay than straight here,” he had said. “If you go out with a girl, people will start to ask her questions. But if I have a date upstairs and my family is downstairs, they won’t even come up.”

In Saudi Arabia, sodomy is punishable by death. Though that penalty is seldom applied, just this February a man in the Mecca region was executed for having sex with a boy, among other crimes. (For this reason, the names of most people in this story have been changed.) Ask many Saudis about homosexuality, and they’ll wince with repugnance. “I disapprove,” Rania, a 32-year-old human-resources manager, told me firmly. “Women weren’t meant to be with women, and men aren’t supposed to be with men.”

This legal and public condemnation notwithstanding, the kingdom leaves considerable space for homosexual behavior. As long as gays and lesbians maintain a public front of obeisance to Wahhabist norms, they are left to do what they want in private. Vibrant communities of men who enjoy sex with other men can be found in cosmopolitan cities like Jeddah and Riyadh. They meet in schools, in cafés, in the streets, and on the Internet. “You can be cruised anywhere in Saudi Arabia, any time of the day,” said Radwan, a 42-year-old gay Saudi American who grew up in various Western cities and now lives in Jeddah. “They’re quite shameless about it.” Talal, a Syrian who moved to Riyadh in 2000, calls the Saudi capital a “gay heaven.”

This society thrives just below the surface. During the afternoon, traffic cops patrol outside girls’ schools as classes end, in part to keep boys away. But they exert little control over what goes on inside. A few years ago, a Jeddah- based newspaper ran a story on lesbianism in high schools, reporting that girls were having sex in the bathrooms. Yasmin, a 21-year-old student in Riyadh who’d had a brief sexual relationship with a girlfriend (and was the only Saudi woman who’d had a lesbian relationship who was willing to speak with me for this story), told me that one of the department buildings at her college is known as a lesbian enclave. The building has large bathroom stalls, which provide privacy, and walls covered with graffiti offering romantic and religious advice; tips include “she doesn’t really love you no matter what she tells you” and “before you engage in anything with [her] remember: God is watching you.” In Saudi Arabia, “It’s easier to be a lesbian [than a heterosexual]. There’s an overwhelming number of people who turn to lesbianism,” Yasmin said, adding that the number of men in the kingdom who turn to gay sex is even greater. “They’re not really homosexual,” she said. “They’re like cell mates in prison.”

This analogy came up again and again during my conversations. As Radwan, the Saudi American, put it, “Some Saudi [men] can’t have sex with women, so they have sex with guys. When the sexes are so strictly segregated”—men are allowed little contact with women outside their families, in order to protect women’s purity—“how do they have a chance to have sex with a woman and not get into trouble?” Tariq, a 24-year-old in the travel industry, explains that many “tops” are simply hard up for sex, looking to break their abstinence in whatever way they can. Francis, a 34-year-old beauty queen from the Philippines (in 2003 he won a gay beauty pageant held in a private house in Jeddah by a group of Filipinos), reported that he’s had sex with Saudi men whose wives were pregnant or menstruating; when those circumstances changed, most of the men stopped calling. “If they can’t use their wives,” Francis said, “they have this option with gays.”

Gay courting in the kingdom is often overt—in fact, the preferred mode is cruising. “When I was new here, I was worried when six or seven cars would follow me as I walked down the street,” Jamie, a 31-year-old Filipino florist living in Jeddah, told me. “Especially if you’re pretty like me, they won’t stop chasing you.” John Bradley, the author of Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis (2005), says that most male Western expatriates here, gay or not, have been propositioned by Saudi men driving by “at any time of the day or night, quite openly and usually very, very persistently.”

Many gay expatriates say they feel more at home in the kingdom than in their native lands. Jason, a South African educator who has lived in Jeddah since 2002, notes that although South Africa allows gay marriage, “it’s as though there are more gays here.” For Talal, Riyadh became an escape. When he was 17 and living in Da mas cus, his father walked in on him having sex with a male friend. He hit Talal and grounded him for two months, letting him out of the house only after he swore he was no longer attracted to men. Talal’s pale face flushed crimson as he recalled his shame at disappointing his family. Eager to escape the weight of their expectations, he took a job in Riyadh. When he announced that he would be moving, his father responded, “You know all Saudis like boys, and you are white. Take care.” Talal was pleased to find a measure of truth in his father’s warning—his fair skin made him a hit among the locals.

Marcos, a 41-year-old from the Philippines, was arrested in 1996 for attending a party featuring a drag show. He spent nine months in prison, where he got 200 lashes, before being deported. Still, he opted to return; he loves his work in fashion, which pays decently, and the social opportunities are an added bonus. “Guys romp around and parade in front of you,” he told me. “They will seduce you. It’s up to you how many you want, every day.”

When gays are willing to take 200 lashes and stay in Saudi Arabia, you know something is up.

[Knyghtmayre]

Buy... porn?

[Parshias]

Buy... porn?

This just goes to show that red states don't watch more porn than everyone else, they're just dumb enough to actually pay for their porn.

Amateurs.

[Egon]

I think the main difference here is looking at porn instead of committing adultery or premarital sex.

But in reality, who the fuck cares. I could link a billion "studies" saying anything about any state.

Wait, actually, post something where a blue state has actually done something productive, instead of bitching about everyone else.

[Not Kuno]

Wait, actually, post something where a blue state has actually done something productive, instead of bitching about everyone else.

It was nice knowing you.

[scrockstar]

you see, it's against their morals to "Steal" porn. That would be just wrong.

[Kuya]

I think the main difference here is looking at porn instead of committing adultery or premarital sex.

But in reality, who the fuck cares. I could link a billion "studies" saying anything about any state.

Wait, actually, post something where a blue state has actually done something productive, instead of bitching about everyone else.

There's also a greater degree of zoophilia in the southern states. Just thought you'd like to know.

[Egon]

Man, if you actually lived in a state that would have been perfect!

[Lordwafik]

His country is in a state of denial, does that count?