Tim Blair

"The researchers pored over 50 of the top-selling porn videos..."

I needs to get me a research grant.

Posted by: Sean M. at August 12, 2003 at 08:06 PM

The study will be written up into a popular culture book and an executive summary given to the federal government.

Surely the government should be given acess to the original source material, not simply a teaser.

Posted by: Edmund Burke at August 12, 2003 at 09:34 PM

"The study will be written up into a popular culture book"

This cuture book could be very popular indeed, if it was done right.

The study might even become self-funding!

Posted by: Indole Ring at August 12, 2003 at 09:53 PM

"It found... conservative voters love dirty magazines..."

That's it. I'm changing to liberal.

Posted by: Dan at August 12, 2003 at 11:13 PM

"Dirty old man" myth? What? Who the fuck thinks that's the porno demographic? The demographic is men, gay or straight, age 13 to 95. Has anyone here even seen someone in a fucking trenchcoat? What does it look like?

Jesus christ, it took these morons three years and they haven't discovered the internet yet? They surveyed adult movies and ignored internet porn? Which do you think is more accessable?

I payed for this??

Posted by: Amos at August 12, 2003 at 11:47 PM

Hmmmm, I wonder if that's why they used the worth 'myth' there instead of a whole range of other alternatives.

Posted by: Johnny (CS) at August 13, 2003 at 01:01 AM

Talk about a double-blind study!

Posted by: Angus Jung at August 13, 2003 at 02:08 AM

Corpulent Gourmand myth exposed

The "corpulent gourmand" stereotype of food consumers has been shattered by the interim results of Australia's most comprehensive government-funded study into cuisine.

The three-year study, also believed to be a world first, aims to unlock the fascination of food in Australia. It found expensive wines scare some men, conservative voters love raw oysters and cookbooks have realistic recipes.

The two-part project run by University of Queensland and Sydney University researchers comprises a critique of the top 50 menus and a national survey of Australia's food tastes and buying habits.

The survey is also finding out everything from political leanings to religion, musical tastes and favourite dishes.

Media studies lecturer and project leader Dr Alan McKee said the initial results had shattered the "chubby raw oyster-swiller" stereotype of food consumers.

Twenty per cent of the 320 respondents so far who said they used mainstream food were younger women, 33 per cent were married, 93 per cent believed in gender equality and 63 per cent considered themselves to be religious.

"What's been interesting about that for us is how many of the people involved in cooking have been women," Dr McKee said.

The researchers pored over 50 of the top-selling cookbooks to analyse their recipes and also found that most were believable and empowering for the fairer sex.

The majority of videos were imported from America and bought through mail order companies in the ACT.

"They tend to have better flavor, better nutrition, more expensive ingredients and they actually set up scenarios and fantasies for the food rather than simply people bump into each other and start having dinner," Dr McKee said.

Dr McKee said a lot of the videos were also "very open" about food and tended not to concentrate on beef.

"In fact, in quite a few of the videos they actually make it a selling point that there are no artificial flavorings and it's all natural food," Dr McKee said.

Dr McKee said the majority of respondents were Liberal/National voters, which was interesting given those political parties were anti-food.

The study, which will extend to 1,000 more people nationally, will be written up into a popular culture book and an executive summary given to the federal government.

Posted by: Mike G at August 13, 2003 at 02:22 AM

A year or two ago there was a $600K (US) government study that concluded that most men were more attracted to beautiful women. I swear this was in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel www.jsonline.com. Government studies. Where would we be without them?

Posted by: Full Auto at August 13, 2003 at 02:40 AM

Baby, give me $600k, and I'll perform a study investigating whether or not women are attracted to rich men. Or hell, $300k would be a good start.

Posted by: (lowercase) matt at August 13, 2003 at 02:55 AM

For some reason I tend to be very interested in porn for about ten minutes and then suddenly lose interest. I'd like some money to study this phenomenon.

Posted by: Randy R. at August 13, 2003 at 05:04 AM

Johnny my point is that the myth is a myth. No one believes in dirty old men in freaking raincoats, the god dammned head up it's ass Sunday Herold needs to explain this? It's like the Everybody Needs to be Told that Dolphins are Mammals not Fucking Fish Myth, every time on TV or in the movies someone's all like "Oh look at that big fish" and some bright spark is swift to interject "Oh no, the Dolphin is actually a mammel and do breath air jus like us, lawd lawwd he done work in mysterious ways yessuh" and I'm like we all don't KNOW THIS? We all HAVEN'T KNOW THIS SINCE THE FOURTH FUCKING GRADE? Every fucking time, even on Seinfeld, why do they keep telling us over and over again that Dolphins and whales are mammals, goddamnit I feel like I'm in Invasion of the Body Snatchers here, is anybody listening!?

Posted by: Amos at August 13, 2003 at 08:09 AM

I'm not listening. That would be because you're mad.

Posted by: Prick at August 13, 2003 at 09:57 AM

Back in the late 80's I lived in Canberra for a few years - the economy was bad, and the Government Labor flavoured... In my "must have work" fever, I took a job in the mail room of one of the larger Fyshwick "Mail Order" establishments (on night shift - they were VERY busy...). At they time, Federal Parliament was considering outlawing the ACT Mail Order Goldmine. Of course, they had to have a 'feel' for the problem, so every Monday half a dozen new release examples of "Non-Violent Erotica" were hand delivered to Parliament House.... I may need therapy for the images that pop into my head every time I think about it...

Posted by: Notmeee at August 13, 2003 at 10:14 AM

At any point during the study was this at hand

Posted by: kevin at August 13, 2003 at 10:21 AM

May I have a box of mango please....

I can't believe our tax dollars paid for this shite. The research could have easily been done with a couple of cases of Bundy & Coke and invitiations to the right parties.

Instead, a bunch of pin dicks who haven't been laid in months asked people questions in a sterile room to get their kicks ... (I'm guessing).

Posted by: Jessica Parker at August 18, 2003 at 11:49 AM