Lifestyle

Girls, Girls, Girls: Why Porn Today Is Attracting More Female Viewers

by Blair Nicole

Women watch porn. Once you pick your jaw up off the floor, it’s time to get real.

We’ve long passed the days in which men need to worry about women accepting or tolerating their porn-viewing habits. Now, according to studies and plenty of anecdotal evidence, women watch porn, too.

Women are stroking it.

In our generation of cultural revolution, women have been allowed out of their dungeons of purity. They are now encouraged to be more sexual and less apologetic, just like men. Can I get an amen?

This actually flies in the face of many supposed resources that claimed men were simply hornier than women, which explained their excessive porn-viewing habits. However, new evidence suggests this could very well be a social construct.

All we really know from science and biology is men tend to be more visual, and thus, they may seem more interested in pornography, given its highly visual nature.

And while it’s true that women may statistically prefer more brain power and eroticism, such as through erotica or BDSM emotional play, new sources show women are adapting and evolving into more visual beings.

Straight From The Horse’s Mouth

PornHub has stated its audience is comprised of about 25 percent females. A New York Times piece discovered that in tests, straight women showed definite signs of being aroused when given sexually explicit images, including fairly hardcore acts, and even those involving lesbianism and homosexual acts.

An alternate story quoting Nielsen ratings revealed that one in three adults who surf porn sites were women. In another article on women’s sexual habits, the author, Maya Jordan, claimed women are so visually curious about porn that 55 percent are watching sexual content about twice a month.

Why? The better question is, why not?

Jordan also explained women were not necessarily attracted to the same type of porn as a man might be. She prefers "storyline, context and foreplay."

Another Huffington Post article boldly suggests porn helps women relieve stress (up to 23 percent), and it may even be, get this: beneficial for a couple’s sex life. But haven’t most of us known this for a while?

Talk about the tide turning. Remember porn theaters in the middle of nowhere? Back when people used to escape their spouses with a video?

Fifty-eight percent of respondents who watched porn with their partners reported being more committed and sexually satisfied. Half of those women said watching the porn gave them the confidence to act the way they really wanted to in bed.

Now more than ever, couples are seeing porn for what it truly is. It's not an addiction, a sin or even a form of cheating. It is a tool for sexual exploration.

It could even be seen as a very indirect form of roleplaying and voyeurism. Porn opens up the relationship bed to a “virtual” third party, and it kinks up couples' sexual escapes at home by grabbing ideas and using that imagery as mental fuel.

Negotiation and compromise are always the building blocks of an active and liberating sex life and relationship. There’s always exceptions to this newfound sexual freedom, but it’s liberating to see society finally realizing women have sexual urges, too.

There are certainly worse things to happen to a relationship than a woman watching porn.