Gender differences in response to love/affection in erotica

There has been little empirical research concerning gender differences in response to sexually explicit video material. The present study tested the hypothesis that women, rather than men, were more responsive to explicit erotica with a romantic theme. As part of a larger study, 42 male and 34 female college students, 21 years of age and older, viewed one of two 5-minute video vignettes taken from a commercially available X-rated video tape. The sexually explicit portions of the two vignettes were essentially identical; the vignettes differed only in that the high romance condition included (a) dialogue expressing caring and affection between the partners and (b) more kissing and nongenital touching. Results indicated that contrary to expectations, both male and female subjects rated the explicit/romantic vignette as significantly more arousing than the explicit/nonromantic vignette (4.13 vs. 3.17 on a 7-point scale). These findings were consistent with other recent studies that suggested both men and women reported being moderately aroused by highly explicit audio-visual sexual material. This finding is consistent with the recent movement to romanticize highly explicit sexual material.