So it seems that Pornhub, the tube site owned by the largest monopoly in porn, just loves getting publicity about women and porn. They are now regularly releasing statistics about what their users want and the media goes bonkers when they concentrate on women. Hence this and this and this and…so on. This time around the number one search is for “lesbian” porn, different from previous results, with “anal” and “ebony” also being popular.
I wrote about the problems with these “what women want” stats back in September 2014 and August 2015 and the same points apply now.
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The one interesting thing I have seen is that Vice actually went out and asked women what they like in porn and their answers give a much more nuanced view of things. A few quotes:
I’m also really put off by anything that looks too fake or where the women don’t look like they’re having a good time—basically the “30 minutes of blowjobs and one solid thrust in the vagina and she’s come” stuff. Now the porn star has to kind of look like me and kind of be having the type of sex I’m having in real life, or would like to experiment with in real life. I assume this is because I’m a bit more self and sex positive than I was when I was a teenager and know what I want a bit more. If I want a quickie, it’s always a guy going down on a girl. – Steph, 26
I’ve started watching female-friendly porn. Some of it’s a bit soft—like a woman is reading a book at a table and something is happening under said table—but it’s better than trawling through porn sites trying to find something that doesn’t make you burst into tears.
…I’d have to put Post-It notes over the side of the screen where the adverts pop up so I didn’t see any “wet teen sluts.”
At college, my next-door neighbor was watching porn, and there were lots of men with huge penises and a girl on top, and she was touching herself. They said to each other: “I can’t believe she’s taking that massive dick, and she still has to touch herself!” and it made me so frustrated—a lot of porn just propels a myth of female sexuality. That’s why I now watch lesbian porn; I can imagine I’m in that scenario, whereas, with heterosexual porn, I don’t want to be the girl! She’s getting rammed loads, someone comes on her face. Not everyone enjoys that. – Jess, 27
I want a gentle experience without men, I watch lesbian. I don’t like women with long false nails, big heels, aggression, arrogant college kids who do disgusting, degrading things to girls, any man wearing socks or sneakers while having sex, massive fake boobs, or blowjobs where the woman chokes.- Jane, 34
I’m pretty sure there’s a bit of confirmation bias here but what I’m seeing is that women want to see porn that’s respectful to women and sex positive and that is a little more realistic about female sexuality and people’s bodies. What a shock.
By the way, there’s plenty of realistic, sex positive porn at Bright Desire. Yes, I have just turned this informative post into an ad. 🙂
Even I as a man feel represented by many of the quotes. Finding sensual, non degrading, realistic porn can be quite a challenge. Luckily in the last years a few sites sprung up that fill that void, although sometimes they still fall into the old porn tropes.
It is slowly getting better, and if you can, vote with your wallet and pay for the porn you enjoy, to make sure we get more of it 🙂