What I Have Learned From Academic Research

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As I might have mentioned, the topic of my research paper is how the proliferation of the internet has impacted people's sexuality and sexual behavior. In order to come up with research articles, I spent a lot of time searching various sex-related journals for use of the word "internet". (This was the best method I found; all attempts to narrow or focus my search ended with no results.) Since my search methods were less than precise, I've spent a lot of time browsing through unrelated journal articles. Combined with the research for my paper, I've learned a few things, namely:

• A LOT of scientists have studied the practice of condom-less sex among gay men. Seriously, during my research I thought about creating my own Research Paper Drinking Game where I would down a shot every time I came across the word "barebacking".
  
• "Autassassinophilia is a paraphilia (i.e. "fetish") in which a person is sexually aroused by the risk of being killed." I have no idea how to pronounce that.
  
• Social scientists REALLY enjoy coming up with cutesy article titles. Some of my favorite examples: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered ... I’m Yours”: Calibrating Body Ownership through the Consensual Mastery/slavery Dynamic; the elegantly simple Hey stud: Race, sex, and sports; and the enigmatic Silver 'porn bullet' for information technology industry?
  
• Studies regarding the use of pornography and other sexually explicit materials are still disturbingly biased toward male use.
  
• Apparently sex, and especially porn, is bad, yo. Not all of the research agrees, but man: it is difficult to find good, comprehensive research that focuses on normal, healthy, positive sexuality.
  

Comments

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I need to spend more time on the Sherlock kink meme! (PLEASE do go put an autassassinophilia prompt up there! I think it's my new favorite word ever, and I would like to see its proliferation across the internets.)

I imagine "porn bullets" are what the riot squad use to disperse a Fred Phelps rally? I have no idea. I didn't read the article. If I didn't push down my curiosity, I would never get this paper done for all of the interesting (but irrelevant to my interests) research that jumps out at me.

Your observations are spot-on, I think: a lot of the "sex-positive" research I came across was done in the fields of Communications and Gender Studies, which tend to do more of the "thinking and analyzing" type of academic writing than the original research and scientific studies that the public and the media focus on. And you're right that sexually explicit "fiction" is often left out of psychological sex research, which goes back to the "researchers don't study the types of porn women like" problem I was discussing in my comment to ladylovelace.

Also, I am doing research into the Internet specifically, and its incorporation into popular and private sexuality. In terms of the glacial pace at which academic research moves, it's a relatively new phenomenon: a lot of the research I've come across was conducted in the early 2000s when the internet was certainly popular, but not to the degree it is now: about 30% of people at that time had an internet connection in their home. And researchers were still stuck in the "disease risk and prevention" trend of research from the 90s; hence all of the articles on barebacking and the risk of HIV transmission for men who find other men to have sex with through the internet.

All right, I need to stop writing my paper in the comments of my LJ! To the library! ;)

ETA: I was thinking about that 30% statistic I quoted, and it seemed high. It wasn't 30% of Americans who had internet access at homes, but 30% of teens in a particular study.