How Is the COVID-19 Pandemic Affecting Our Sexualities? An Overview of the Current Media Narratives and Research Hypotheses. Nicola Döring. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Aug 5 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-020-01790-z
Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first broke out in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has spread rapidly worldwide since the beginning of 2020. This new infectious disease is associated with a variety of symptoms and, in severe cases, leads to organ failure and death. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) (2020a) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. Since then, the primary goal has been to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which is responsible for the disease and is easily transmitted by direct and contact transmission. To this end, travel restrictions, curfews, and contact bans have been imposed in numerous countries around the world, and all nonessential public institutions have been closed (COVID-19 shutdown or lockdown). Most political, cultural, religious, and sporting events have been canceled or postponed. People are being asked to wash their hands regularly and wear protective masks, to keep a minimum distance of 1.5 meters away from other human beings and to stay at home if possible (i.e., social distancing and self-isolation). By Spring 2020, more than half of the world population was in lockdown (Sandford, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic is causing one of the world’s largest economic crises and is affecting the well-being of individuals; some stress factors, such as domestic isolation, lack of movement and social contact, loss of jobs and economic problems, supply bottlenecks, limited health and psychosocial care, and fear of and confrontation with infection and death, characterize life worldwide during the pandemic, but with great differences depending on the respective geographical region, socioeconomic situation, and personal circumstances.
More Masturbation
Those who spend more time in domestic isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic also have more time and opportunity to masturbate. This at least is suspected by the public, and a corresponding descriptive narrative of more masturbation has been well visible in the media in Spring 2020 (Döring & Walter, 2020). This also applies to a prescriptive narrative of more masturbation, which directly calls on the population to masturbate more often. Masturbation is recommended because it reduces stress and anxiety, strengthens the immune system, fights boredom and frustration, and compensates for the lack of partnered sex, at least according to the arguments of the media (e.g., Die Bild, 2020), loosely referring to the state of research on the positive health outcomes of masturbation (e.g., Coleman, 2003; Levin, 2007; Robbins et al., 2011). The New York City Health Department (NYC Health Department, 2020) was quoted worldwide as stating the following: “You are your safest sex partner. Masturbation will not spread COVID-19, especially if you wash your hands (and any sex toys) with soap and water for at least 20 s before and after sex.”
The new enthusiasm with which the media and health authorities are celebrating masturbation may be a desirable step toward further destigmatizing and normalizing solo sex. At the same time, it is problematic when masturbation is officially recommended as an alternative to partnered sex. For some people masturbation might be a viable substitute, while others feel they cannot do without interpersonal intimacy.
Empirically, it is an open question whether, and if so, with whom, changes in masturbation frequency occur at all. In addition to pandemic factors that can have an increasing effect (e.g., more time at home), there are also pandemic factors that can have a dampening effect (e.g., fears and worries). It is also plausible that the majority of people will more or less stick to their preexisting masturbation habits.
More Sex Toy Use
The most popular solo sex media narrative during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic has postulated the use of more sex toys (Döring & Walter, 2020). Toys are used for partnered sex, but even more often—especially with women—for solo sex (Döring & Poeschl, 2019), for which during coronavirus isolation, according to common belief, there is a particularly high opportunity.
The media narrative of more sex toy use, which might be more prevalent in high-income countries, is optimistically oriented and refers to extra-pleasurable masturbation due to more or less sophisticated technical aids. Such mass media information about sex toys has a normalizing and educational character. At the same time, it is clever public relations work on the part of the sex toy industry because specific brands and products (e.g., Womanizer.com and We-Vibe.com) have often been praised in media reports and, in some cases, press articles directly linked to online shopping sites.
This media narrative is often missing a critical examination of the commercialization of solo sex and of the sex products themselves, such as their functionality, sustainability, material quality, or pricing. While there are numerous blogs dedicated to the differentiated review of sex toys from users’ perspectives, only the marketing managers of the companies that report on sales successes have a say in media reports (Döring & Walter, 2020).
Empirically, we hardly know anything about pandemic-specific effects: By whom are sex toys increasingly bought, and how intensively are they being used during the COVID-19 pandemic? Which sexual scripts are acted out with these toys? What effects on solosexual satisfaction are experienced?
Finally, it should be noted that the narrative of more sex toy use refers to established toys such as dildos and vibrators and excludes sex dolls or sex robots, which are otherwise discussed as new trends (Döring, Mohseni, & Walter, in press; Döring & Pöschl, 2018). Whole-body toys such as robots and dolls, as well as conventional cuddly toys, may be particularly well suited for use in self-isolation when the need for tenderness, hugging, and cuddling is at stake and people want to calm and comfort themselves while falling asleep.
More Pornography Use
During masturbation, people resort not only to toys but often also to pornography, currently mostly in the form of online pornography (Grubbs, Wright, Braden, Wilt, & Kraus, 2019). During the COVID-19 pandemic, this has increasingly been the case, at least that is what the narrative of more pornography use circulating in the media claims: “Corona makes porn purchases explode” was the headline of Germany’s largest daily newspaper (Döring & Walter, 2020).
Pornhub.com led a special public relations coup. This leading provider of online pornography made headlines worldwide at the beginning of March 2020 because it gave quarantined Italians free premium access to the platform for one month. The offer was so positively received that Pornhub immediately expanded it to Spain and France and eventually the whole world. Pornhub tweeted the following on March 24, 2020 (Pornhub, 2020b): “Stay home and help flatten the curve! Since COVID-19 continues to impact us all, Pornhub has decided to extend Free Pornhub Premium worldwide until April 23rd. So enjoy, stay home, and stay safe https://pornhub.com/stayhome #StayHomehub.”
Those who signed up for free also confirmed that they would stay away from social contacts and enjoy Pornhub premium videos in return. Pornhub jokingly changed its name to StayHomehub. For the Pornhub platform, which is repeatedly mentioned in the narrative of more pornography use, the COVID-19 crisis is likely to have resulted in a significant increase in the platform’s popularity. Pornhub’s approach was not at all original, as various companies have offered free premium access during the pandemic. In connection with porn, however, this marketing measure had a particularly high news value.
Pornography and its effects are a very controversial subject in both public and academic discourses. In the German-language media in the Spring of 2020, the narrative of more pornography use was accompanied by rather affirmative assessments: people staying at home and masturbating more often using pornography were suddenly seen less as a problematic risk behavior and more as a desirable SARS-CoV-2 prevention behavior and thus much more favorably regarded than usual. Professional assessments also go in this direction and do not see temporarily increased pornography consumption as a major problem but rather as constructive coping behavior to overcome pandemic-induced boredom and fear (Grubbs, 2020; Lehmiller, 2020) and to comply with contact bans (Grubbs, 2020):
For most users, pornography is probably just another distraction–one that might actually help “flatten the curve” by keeping people safely occupied and socially distanced. Combined with the fact that many people are isolating alone, pornography may provide a low-risk sexual outlet that does not cause people to risk their own safety or the safety of others.
In the international press, however, there are also articles that classify increased pornography consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic as a danger, mainly because it is expected to foster sexualized violence (Quek & Tyler, 2020; Schilling, 2020).
From a clinical point of view, it is predicted that in people who already have problems with their pornography consumption and self-regulation, these problems will increase under the conditions of the pandemic (Mestre-Bach et al., 2020). Hence, target-group-specific healthcare is necessary, for example, via online self-help forums (e.g., NoFap, Reboot Nation, or 12-step forums focusing on sex and love addiction) according to pornography addiction experts (Mestre-Bach et al., 2020).
Again, special attention should be paid to young people who may be consuming more pornography during the pandemic and at the same time have less direct contact with peers and sexual educators. They may need target-group-specific online sexual education during the pandemic. Moreover, positive effects are also possible, for example, in the form that the increased use of pornography may help in the exploration of one’s own sexual fantasies and desires, in self-validation and in open partner communication (Kohut, Fisher, & Campbell, 2017).
Instead of playing opportunities and risks against each other in a pro and con pornography discourse, according to the differential susceptibility to media effects model (DSMM; Valkenburg & Peter, 2013), we must identify the specific predictors that in individual cases can lead to predominantly positive, predominantly negative, ambivalent, or even no effects of pornography use.
The Rise of Coronavirus Porn as a New Genre of Pornography
The media has reported not only about a general increase in pornography use but also about the rise of coronavirus porn as a new genre of pornography. In so-called coronavirus porn, the action takes place in a hospital or supposedly in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where COVID-19 originally broke out. The protagonists wear masks, gloves, and protective suits and interact with doctors and nurses, as described in detail by the magazine VICE (Cole, 2020). In fact, at the beginning of April 2020, more than 1000 videos were found on the pornography platform Pornhub.com under the search term “Corona” and more than 100 videos were found on the platform XHamster.com.
What has often been declared by the media to be an allegedly “extreme” or at least “strange” sex trend is actually quite normal: current events are reflected in people’s sexual fantasies and thus also become the subject of pornography. Coronavirus fantasies and porn probably have very different functions: fear defense, eroticization of the threat, curiosity about the bizarre, desire to cross borders, hopes of recovery, etc. (Lehmiller, 2020). Moreover, the motifs of coronavirus porn are partly connectable to existing fetishes and kinks (e.g., latex masks and gloves, clinic sex/white sex). While Forbes Magazine has emphasized the normality of eroticizing the novel coronavirus (Cookney, 2020), the Independent has criticized that an irresponsible pornography industry is capitalizing on the topic of coronavirus in a harmful way (Austin & Boyd, 2020).
Pornhub.com provided platform statistics that demonstrate increased interest in coronavirus porn in March 2020 (Pornhub, 2020a). These statistics were often quoted in the relevant media reports, which in turn may have helped to raise the popularity of the Pornhub brand. To date, there are no systematic content analyses of the new coronavirus pornography genre nor are there any empirical user studies on actual usage patterns and their possible effects.