Because I’m slack (read: ridiculously busy with Bright Desire) and haven’t blogged about these issues as they’ve happened, I thought I’d compile a post with recent news about women and porn.
Adult: Porn for Women?
At the start of November editor Sarah Nicole Prickett got some news coverage for her new magazine called Adult, mainly because the news media decided it was porn for women. In an interview with NYMag titled Boobs But With A Female Perspective, Prickett says:
I want a magazine that is for everybody but feels like it was made by a woman. And I don’t know that this issue totally does that, because you will notice that all of the people in the magazine — the subjects in the photo editorials are women.
She points out that the photographers were not used to shooting naked men.
Yeah, I want to have more men. We’ve all sort of internalized this idea that the female body is just intrinsically more attractive. And when there was a man in the photo, it didn’t totally work.
The editor says she doesn’t believe in the concept of “porn for women” but that didn’t stop everyone from declaring Adult to be just that, complete with the usual backlash that the magazine is just the same old male-style exploitation.
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Adult was supposed to go on sale December 1 but at time of writing it’s still listed as pre-order at Amazon. With a cover price of $13.50, it promises a mix of pictorials, interviews, erotic fiction and articles.
[Psst! Bright Desire is only $19.95 and it’s got movies, articles, interviews, fiction AND naked men!]
How Many Women Are Watching Porn?
So ever since 2003 when Nielsen Netratings published their finding that around one third of all porn users are female, almost every survey and study of women’s porn-viewing habits has echoed that statistic. 30% or so has become the figure I – and everyone else – tends to quote whenever someone says “But women don’t like porn!”
* In October, a Pew Research Centre report looked into the online video viewing – and watching – habits of 1003 Americans. Their results found that only 25% of men and 8% of women had used the internet to watch porn. 8%??
The survey was conducted over the phone, so that really low figure “may reflect a reluctance to report the behavior among some adults,” Pew said.
As Amanda Hess pointed out in her Slate article How Many Women Are Not Admitting To Pew That They Watch Porn?:
The percentage of female Internet video viewers claiming to watch porn online has grown exponentially over the past few years. In 2010, Pew reported that only 2 percent of female video viewers said they watched adult videos online. Today, 8 percent of those women admit to it. That’s an incredible jump in three years’ time. And if we think it’s likely that more than 25 percent of male video viewers sometimes navigate into smuttier territory—but are just reluctant to admit it over the phone—then it stands to reason that women, who have been repeatedly told that porn is just for boys, would be particularly disincentivized to openly air the details of their online porn habits.
* Meanwhile, Huffington Post reports on a less-than-scientific survey by lingerie/adult retailer Ann Summers. Done over social media, a self-selecting group of 300 women found that many used porn to de-stress, 93% didn’t think their partner was unfaithful if they watched porn and 57% percent of respondents who reported enjoying porn solo were aged 18-24.
Best Women’s Erotica 2014
The latest edition of Best Women’s Erotica, edited by Violet Blue, has been released. I submitted a couple of stories this year but didn’t make the cut. A whole bunch of other great writers did, though, including well known authors Alison Tyler and Sommer Marsden plenty of new names.
Joyful, daring, and authentic, these steamy stories revel in erotic adventure, from the sparks between strangers to the knowing caresses of long-time lovers. These stories are not merely erotic, but filled with strong characters and clever narratives showing how sexual experience is different for everyone. This anthology is a a glorious celebration of the finest and friskiest female erotic fiction today.
Dorcelle.com – “No Feminism”
Industry site XBiz featured a press release announcing the launch of new porn for women site Dorcelle.com. Which is interesting as I think I reported on its launch last year. They may have re-launched it. In any case, Dorcelle is an offshoot of French glamour porn company Marc Dorcel and features movies, sex tips, articles, the usual shebang. The PR quotes an study done by the company that found 80% of women have watched porn at least once with 20% of respondents viewing it regularly. Interestingly, it’s “About” page dated March 2012 says:
No feminism, only quality adult movies with a fine editorial as girls share their experiences confidently.
Hmmm.
Interviews
* Anna Arrowsmith (aka Anna Span) gives a brief but insightful interview about her porn and politics to the Independent here.
* Tristan Taormino gave an interview discussing feminist porn back in May but Cosmopolitan recently re-dated it to November. The article saw a sudden increase in traffic and it subsequently brought down the wrath of Morality In Media. Anna Breslaw, who conducted the interview, received a mass email from incensed Christian women. Her reply makes great reading.
Morality in Media traffics in the kind of “empowerment” that means, exclusively, “stay covered up and keep your legs closed.” As far as they are concerned, the only kind of women who would work in the adult industry are those who are being “exploited,” rather than exacting their own agency as grown women who can do what they want with their bodies — even if it’s not a choice we’d make ourselves.
Jingling Balls
In other rabid morality group news, One Million Moms got terribly upset by this amusing and very tame Kmart Christmas commercial. They demanded Kmart ‘pull the ad from TV, denouncing it as “disgusting,” “inappropriate” and “filth” that should not be seen by families gathering to watch TV.’ Meanwhile, the ad immediately went viral. Hello, Streisand effect.