What It Really Means When Women Watch Porn
The latest research is in, and the numbers never lie.
For some reason, articles across the web today still seem to promote the narrative that men like porn and women like erotica. Or, to be more specific, that men like masturbating to audio/visual images — à la porn — and women prefer to masturbate while reading naughty literature — à la Fifty Shades of Grey.
I will admit that I bought into this belief as well for the first 30-some-odd years of my life. After all, science says that men are more visually stimulated than women, right?
But then why do those "dirty" movies make my lady parts feel kind of ... tingly? Is is just me?
Am I perv in hetero cis female clothing?
Thankfully, porn site YouPorn has confirmed that, no, I am not alone and I am not an atypical sexual deviant.
The results of a brand spanking (pun totally intended) new survey polling more than 24,000 females show that while my sister women maybe a tad shy and sneaky, large numbers of them enjoy watching a little naughty something-something on a regular basis.
As it turns out, one out of every four YouPorn viewers is female!
That's a quarter of the visitors to what (as of 2013) is the "5th most popular pornographic website" in the world, ranking just behind xHamster, XVideos, PornHub and LiveJasmin, so one can only imagine how many more women are getting their jills off across the board.
Here are 6 of the fascinating details YouPorn learned about women's porn viewing practices:
1. The most porn-loving women among us are Millennials who identify as either heterosexual or bisexual.
Of the women who participated in the survey, 76 percent are between the ages of 18-34, 57 percent identify as heterosexual and 32 percent identify as bisexual.
2. Most women still don't feel comfortable with even their closest friends knowing about their love of a good "afternoon matinee."
Despite the fact that 9 percent of the women polled watch porn more than once a day, 18 percent tune in every single day, and 63 percent watch either weekly or a few times a month — that's 90 percent watching porn on a regular basis! — more than half of them never talk to their friends about porn and would be embarrassed if their friends found out.
The good news is that those women who are in "a relationship (68% to be exact) agree that watching porn without their significant other doesn’t feel like cheating, and they wouldn’t be embarrassed if their S.O. found out they watched porn alone." So at least they do feel comfortable talking with someone about it.
I asked Ms. Naughty, writer, filmmaker and founder of the award-winning feminist porn site Bright Desire, for her thoughts on this one.
Her answer was enlightening:
"Stigma remains for women, it seems. We're still brought up to be nice girls, to read Cosmopolitan and look pretty (I can't believe they asked if women put on makeup to watch porn... duh). Porn is still seen as a man's thing and most porn is still for men. So it's not really a standard topic of 'girly' conversation. I think talking about porn means you are admitting to masturbating and that's still an embarrassing thing for women to say to each other. Guys happily joke about jerking off together, it's less of a thing for women."
3. Only half of the women who watch porn think they have just as much right to do so as men.
That's right. According to the results, "51% of respondents think it’s as acceptable for women to watch porn as it is for men."
I am so confused by this. Can Gwen Stefani please have a talk with these young women?
But there's more ...
4. The vast majority of women who watch porn regularly are unmarried, and they prefer to visit their favorite racy videos alone.
YouPorn found that "a whopping 89% of respondents prefer to watch porn alone," which they deemed, "Not incredibly surprising since 50% of our respondents are 'single', 27% are 'dating' and only about 20% are 'married'."
5. Despite the common portrayal of porn as a dangerous drug driving young people into depression at astonishing rates, most women watch porn for positive reasons.
More than two-thirds of the women surveyed turn on the porn for one of these three super fun reasons:
- They just like it (duh).
- It's a way to satisfy or explore their sexual fantasies.
- They feel "excited" at the moment.
In contrast, only 10 percent of women "turn to porn in dire stress" (8 percent) or watch it "to please their partner" (2 percent).
And as noted in an article reviewing the survey on Mashable, "Though there is hope that we're moving beyond the long-held stigmas. The flood of available online porn seems to be altering the way we experience it. Almost half of women said their habits have changed in the past five years, with many people enjoying new types of content. More people also now imagine themselves starring in porn."
6. A large number of women prefer porn they can relate to.
About one-third of women choose their specific video of the day based on the porn stars' similarity to themselves in terms of "age, weight, ethnicity etc.," and,“'Has a female lead or dominant character' is the second most popular factor that women consider when selecting a video."
In addition, "42% of women tend to select videos from a category they already know and have already skimmed through, while about 23% like to explore all their options before settling on one." Which, when you consider that many women are, by and large, relational beings, makes a whole lot of sense.
In a nutshell, lots and lots of women like to watch porn.
And it's not because the men in their lives "make them" or because they are mentally unstable or victims in any way at all.
Women like to watch porn because, women, like men, are human beings. (Shocking, right?!) And human beings, when we're all being honest with ourselves, really like sex.
Because sex.
Deputy Editor Arianna Jeret, MA/MSW, has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Yahoo Style, MSN, Fox News, Bustle, Parents and more. Find her on Twitter and Instagram for more.