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27th Feb 2019

Boys Don’t Cry asks why we are so shy about discussing pornography

Wil Jones

Brought to you by ASOS

How many people admit to watching porn vs how many people actually watch it?

This week’s episode of JOE’s Boy’s Don’t Cry podcast tackles a subject that is part of a lot of people’s lives, but not many people want to talk about in public: pornography.

Recorded live at the Manchester Podcast Festival, Russell Kane and guests, comedians Kelly Convey and George Lewis, and sports presenter Will Perry, took a deep dive into the porn-watching habits of the current generation.

In particular, Kane points out how many people will never admit to watching it – despite evidence to the contrary.

“I think it needs de-mistifying, I think it needs de-tabooing. I bet 80 to 90 per cent of this room watches porn,” says Kane to the packed audience, which was a pretty even gender split. “And we’re all giggling, like we are ending our careers by talking about it. That shows there’s something wrong.

“The national stats are that 80 per cent of people watch porn. A lot more women than we thought. And do you know how we know this? It’s the first time we’ve had data about what people really think.

“All we’ve ever had up to about 2010 is what people say in a survey. Even in a secret survey, if I ask ‘Do you watch porn?’ – still people lie. Because you are saying what you wish was the truth.

“Whereas for the first time ever, Google is feeding back the search results into an anonymous data split of who is searching for porn. It turns out a lot more women are than are saying yes in surveys.”

“I haven’t spoken to anyone about it, until now, about porn,” chips in George Lewis. “I think it is assumed that all blokes watch it, and no women do.”

You can subscribe to Boys Don’t Cry now at https://playpodca.st/boys-dont-cry.

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