I’ve read a few tumblrs about women’s bodies, where women would submit photographs of their boobs, or bellies or whatnot and talk about their feelings about that part of their anatomy. One very common mindset a lot of them is believing "I don’t have the [boobs/stomach/butt/labia minora/etc] that guys expect from porn. Porn is the key word here.
There is this assumption that porn makes women insecure about their bodies, by promoting an idealized image. The problem is that idealized image is vague. I often wonder if these women would have these exact same insecurities had they never seen other women’s bodies or porn.
Women’s bodies come in a lot of sizes and shapes, but there is a prevailing attitude in a lot of photo submitters that their bodies are ‘wrong’ in some arbitrary way. Women will post a photo of their breasts and spend paragraphs upon paragraphs describing how they feel like their areolas are too big (what exactly is “too big?” is their some areola size chart out there to know?!) their boobs sag too much, are too far apart, too close together, too small, too big, too lopsided. They will frequently reference their bodies imperfection to porn.
I get that the media potrays an idealized version of what women look like. I also understand that society places much more emphasis and value judgement on a woman’s appearance vs men. But…there is a lot of porn out there. I mean, the internet is a big place. I’m sometimes wondering if they’d have the same negative opinions of their bodies if they’ve seen a BBW-themed website, or amateur photos of women of all sizes and ages that continue to be more and popular on the internet.
I’ve met lots of women that are insecure about their breasts. Or that they have a couple extra ounces of fat somewhere. I don’t remember any that said this specifically about porn. I think that is more of an after thought.
I imagine the answer will vary widely on this. I tend to avoid porn because of it being more of a fantasy than reality so it has zero affect on my perception of women. The media in general does have some affect but I can live with it.
I think the impact of porn is relatively minimal. The media as a whole - television, movies, magazines, advertising - are much broader influences. Standards for attractiveness in porn are just following the standards that were established elsewhere.
Certainly cannot speak for women’s opinion on porn and body image but for me, zero impact on what I think is attractive. Guessing, I would lean towards other women’s opinions, women’s magazines, women’s apparel and make-up industry as having more of an impact then porn.
Actually, I think porn affects men’s perceptions of what women enjoy during sex more than anything else. When I was younger and dating, the guys that I actually slept with seemed to be imitating what they saw in porn until I was explicit about what I enjoyed. The sex in porn is created for exhibitionism. That’s why there are so many flicking tongues and they change position like five times in a 20 minute period. And that’s why the women are screaming their fool heads off.
Most women I know don’t feel lacking when compared to a porn star, though.
I don’t think this is a common mindset at all. I’ve certainly heard other women compare themselves negatively to celebrities or attractive acquaintances, but the only porn-specific comments I can think of were with regard to breast size. Even then it is IME more common for a small-busted woman to lament that she’s no Sofia Vergara (or other busty mainstream actress) than to wish she had the breasts of a porn star.
This baffles me in two ways. One, doesn’t all the porn out there provide evidence that women’s bodies come in all shapes and sizes? And two, are their really lots of women who post pictures of their private parts online and then spend “paragraphs and paragraphs” talking about what’s “wrong” with them? What would psychologically impel a person to do this?
As a man, I have received the idealization of women’s bodies through the general pop culture: music videos (remember them?), movies, advertising, etc. The specific images I’ve noticed in porn that I wouldn’t get vía other routes would be limited to pubic grooming and natural breasts vs implants. I admit that I don’t much notice labial differences.
That’s somewhat internal, though. Almost every girl past the age of puberty doesn’t look like a supermodel, tv star, or porn actress. Yet almost every girl past the age of puberty suffers from a surplus of male attention, typically across a broad range of the male demographic. Those impossible expectations aren’t coming from the surrounding males, who are clearly pretty interested in the off-the-shelf goods. I doubt any teena-aged boy in history has turned down a girl with the line “Sorry, I’m looking for a girl built like Angelina Jolie - someone like that is bound to join A/V or chess club any day now!”
Teen-aged girls aren’t starving themselves to attract their classmates for the same reason kennels don’t hire Anthony Bourdain to cook for starving dogs - neither group is all that picky. They’re trying to attract Harry Styles or Justin Beiber, who are indeed shown paired with models and tv stars, but are unlikely to swing by the Dairy Queen in Bumblefuck, Arkansas to see your efforts - so relax.
Just to add to that, the continued growth of what would have been very niche porn categories not too long ago certainly should help change perceptions–certainly there are plenty of models in things like stocking or latex type fetish sites that aren’t “hollywood ideal,” just to name a couple categories I’ve seen.
Ideally, what it should be promoting is that “You don’t have to look model-perfect, as long as you can indulge in some of the things he likes.”