| Featured Author Spotlight | ||
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Each edition of PMM, we will interview author(s) to learn more about their interest in men and masculinity, and how it relates to their contributions to the division journal. This month's featured author is Tracy Tylka, Ph.D. in Volume 16(1) of the January 2015 edition of PMM. Her most recent article is titled, "No Harm in Looking, Right? Men’s Pornography Consumption, Body Image, and Well-Being" (Tylka, 2015).
CLICK HERE for an archive of previously featured members.
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| Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your research interests, and how you became interested in conducting research relevant to the psychology of men and masculinity. | ||
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I received my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Akron in 2001. I joined the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University that same year, and I was promoted to full professor in 2013. I study body image and eating behavior, both adaptive and maladaptive aspects of these constructs, among women and men. I became very interested in the psychology of men and masculinity during graduate school, given that our professors were actively doing research on male role norms and men's well-being. At this point, I realized that so little was known about men's body image, so I began to study this area.
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 Tracy Tylka |
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| This article addresses a vital area in the psychology of men and masculinity that is often understudied (e.g., pornography use). How did you become interested in the possible body image consequences of pornography use for men? | ||
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Media are considered to play a central role in shaping women's and men's body image. Many experimental studies have shown that exposure to media appearance ideals increases body dissatisfaction and negative affect for men and women. However, very rarely has pornography been considered a form of media that could shape body image. The Internet provides anonymous use of pornography for free; thus, pornography is a medium that can be easily accessed and has been shown to be widely used, especially among men. Given that much pornography includes men and women who fit societal appearance ideals, I wondered if pornography use in particular would be associated with men's body image and emotional well-being. |
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| What are a few messages or key points you want readers to take away after having read this article? | ||
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In general, men's pornography use was linked to many body image and emotional well-being variables in a maladaptive fashion. These correlations tended to be small-to-moderate in size. More specifically, men's pornography use was (a) positively related to their muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction via their internalization of the mesomorphic ideal, (b) inversely related to body appreciation via their appearance monitoring behaviors, and (c) inversely related to positive affect and positively related to negative affect via their higher attachment anxiety and avoidance. Last, because this research is correlational, it cannot be argued at this time that pornography use leads to negative body image and poorer well-being. |
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| What's next on the horizon in your research program related to these topics? | ||
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I would like to conduct experimental research to determine if pornography use, like other types of media, prompts increased state body dissatisfaction, negative affect, and attachment concerns in men. I would also like to consider men's pornography use, as well as specific types of pornography use, in multidimensional models of men's body image and well-being. |
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