In the fervour of Olympic hockey gold, Calgarians turned to do some early morning stick-handling of their own.
New figures from what’s billed the world’s largest porn website indicate a “huge spike” in online traffic after a significant dip during Team Canada’s big win.
PornHub.com reported X-rated surfing dropped as low as 13 per cent during the Olympic hockey finale compared to the same time the previous Sunday. After the final whistle, consumption jumped 15 per cent above last week, comparatively.
“Interestingly, traffic to PornHub from Calgary was down during the night,” company spokesman Mike Williams told Metro. “This is probably because many people decided to sleep early to catch the game in time.”
University of Calgary professor Rebecca Sullivan, who has researched and taught pornography, says the data reinforces a well-documented link between major sporting events and surges in online porn surfing.
While she was quick to point out that neither watching sports nor watching porn are necessarily signs of “men behaving badly,” Sullivan warned the combination of both in a homosocial environment — one where men try to one-up their buddies — can take a turn for the worse.
“We know that the atmosphere around sporting events can be supercharged with forms of masculinity that are unfortunately also wrapped up with a lot of homophobic and misogynist behaviour,” she said.
After the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, an Edmonton-based utility company famously attributed sharp fluctuations in water consumption to bathroom breaks between periods during the gold-medal game.
Officials with Calgary water services and Enmax were unable to provide game-time variations for the services their organizations offer.
Spike in online porn surfing reported in Calgary after Olympic hockey finale
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