Picking the brain of ‘Professor Porn’

Who is this man?

Bryant Paul, 34, began teaching at IU in 2003. His class, T410 Sex in the Media, details sex in mainstream media – how it’s regulated and how it’s promoted.
 In addition to teaching, Paul conducts numerous studies on how pornography affects people. In a recent study, he showed some subjects barely legal porn, featuring 18- and 19-year-olds, and other subjects regular porn. He then showed all of them images of fully clothed children, along with sexual words, to test which subjects drew a connection between the two. To little surprise, Paul concluded that those connections came quicker and easier for the subjects that viewed barely legal porn.

Paul says:

At cocktail parties people always tell me I have the best job in the world. It’s not as great as they would think.

Believe it or not, my wife is pretty cool with my research.

My grandfather used to introduce me to people by saying, “This is my grandson. He’s getting his PhD in strip joints.”

Some feminists tell me I’m validating porn by studying it. But what if I studied cancer? By studying cancer are we validating it?

Porn deserves more credit for bringing VCRs into the mainstream and changing Internet usage from a hourly fee to a month-long pass.

At porn conventions, I learned that breasts aren’t the only embellishments. Many actresses have enhanced labis.

I’ve met Ron Jeremy numerous times. He’s a media-junkie and a pretty smart guy.

While writing my dissertation, I watched so much porn that I couldn’t help picturing everyone naked.

How many dirty movies have I seen? A thousand or so.

Porn music developed like pop music. It was bluesy in the ’60s, major key in the ’70s, synthisized in the ’80s, and grungy in the ’90s. I find that hilarious.

I’ve got unopened DVDs with titles like “Bikini Banger Vol. 4” that star my former grad student.

I’ve found that women often view porn as socially acceptable and get a thrill from doing something “wrong.”