Violet Blue's "Eyes Wide Open" essay on women and porn for O: The Oprah Magazine and Oprah.com is running on CNN.com this week under the new headline Are more women okay with watching porn? and it's worth a look: Violet Blue is the editor of Best Women's Erotica '09 from Cleis Press and the author of The Smart Girl's Guide to Watching Porn and, as regular readers of my own Sexy Films features will tell you, when it comes to women enjoying adult films, she's not alone.
Blue does a nice job delineating some of the things that keep some women away from porn – cultural taboos, perceived degradation of women, general hokeyness, impossible body image standards – but also brings the good news that the industry is responding favorably to increased interest from women:
Though I've sometimes felt that my job as a porn reviewer (for Web sites like FleshBot.com) is akin to being a canary in a bad-taste boys' club mine shaft, I've seen a change in quality in the past few years that I think is a direct reflection of the growing female audience. As more discriminating viewers, we've demanded better porn -- and lo, it is being made. Women are changing the market.
Among the stats in her article:
- 1 in 3 visitors to adult entertainment websites are female, according to Nielsen/Net Rating
- 13 million American women view porn online at least once a month
- The difference between men's and women's sexual arousal response to watching porn is "statistically negligible, according to research conducted at McGill University
- Women respond intensely to gay, lesbian, and heterosexual porn, regardless of their own particular gender orientation, according to research conducted at Northwestern University
Check out the slideshow below for a look at some of the adult films Violet Blue recommended as a starter kit for readers of O: The Oprah Magazine
Comments
Very curious to check out some of those titles from the slideshow now!
Great article! Hopefully the quality and female-friendliness of porn will continue to steadily improve.
Now how about some good bi porn? There hasn't been something like that in a LONG time
Touché, Mike: Don't miss the fourth slide in the slideshow above... Violet Blue recommended O Magazine readers check out "The Bi Apple" by Audacia Ray! Tagline: "Girls who like boys doing boys who like girls." What more could you ask for? ;) I also recommend following Audacia Ray on Twitter: Twitter.com/AudaciaRay Love, Sarah
For some reason I'm just loving the thought of some suburban housewife reading her O Magazine and going out to find a copy of "The Bi Apple" movie with the Afro-sporting strap-on-wielding hottie on the cover of the DVD. I've got new respect for you, Oprah, new respect.
I liked this piece a lot. Gave a link in my most recent column on classical erotica. Kudos to you!
Hi Sarah! An article you can sink your teeth into! Cuz women love their porn, there just more than likely to deny. =D Check out forthegirls.com I did a review of the site and they offer up a nice dish of Porn and Erotica. Great as always!
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