Breaking expectations through personal experiences! Young people reflecting and learning about sexualities and gender through porn: an ethnographic study in Barcelona

Abstract

Porn studies have a long tradition of researching porn as a cultural artifact in relation to adult audiences. Recently, there has been increasing interest in young people’s uses and perceptions of porn since there is a general concern about its possible harms and dangers. This article aims to shed light on these issues through an ethnographic study carried out in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. Our main objective is to understand how teenagers and young people use, experience, and give meaning to the porn content they consume. We applied a bottom-up approach that brings the real and everyday experiences of young people to the discussion. The results focus on three areas: the spatial, temporal, and media context in which young people approach porn; their own interpretations of pornographic content, considering gender differences; and the double preventive and educational view young people extract from porn.