There is a lot of controversy around porn. Porn, as we traditionally know it, just isn’t that great. It depicts truly unrealistic standards when it comes to pleasure, body image, and basically anything about sex. It’s this extremely dramatized and mostly dangerous portrayal of what real sex is. And because most of us stumble upon (or sneakily look for) porn when we’re really young and basically have no experience with sex, it can really fuck up our expectations for what our sex life will look like.
But it’s 2024, and while we seem to be going backwards in a lot of aspects, the porn industry has made some pretty significant strides toward being less fucking disgusting. Ethical porn sites that put an emphasis on women empowerment have entered the scene and given us all a collective breath of fresh air.
So, now that we’ve gotten porn that doesn’t make us feel ashamed or that we’re abnormal for the way we look, the sounds we make, or what we like, we’ve gotten a much better idea of what kinds of porn women actually like. Here are the five kinds of porn women want to watch the most — and, no, it’s not just “lesbian.”
5. “More Meaningful” Sex
I, too, enjoy watching porn more if I feel like I get a whole backstory. I want to know why they’re fucking, and my hope is that it’s because they’re super in love.
“Fans are really seeking out narrative experiences of all kinds,” says Angie Rowntree, founder and director of ethical porn site Sssh.com. “It’s not just ‘porn with a plot’ as in adult video, they want more ‘stories’ told in general, whether that means erotic written stories, erotic audio content, and even themed photo galleries.”
And it’s not just any story fans care about, Rowntree explains that they want the sex to “mean something” between the characters. I mean, aren’t we all just looking for some connection and intimacy?
4. Threesomes
Ah, women after my own heart. Threesomes are actually the only kind of porn I enjoy these days and I could never understand why. But it’s really simple — who doesn’t want to be the center of attention?
“Of the requests we received for threesomes, about 30% of those requests asked us specifically for ‘goddess worship’ — a woman being pleasured by two men at once,” Rownstree says. She mentions that in the past, they’d only get requests for two women and one man (which is still the most popular version, btw). “But now, we are seeing the unapologetic rise of the ‘goddess’ straight out of Tassaert’s infamous painting — so get it, girls!”
3. Escapism
Have you looked at the world lately? Who wouldn’t want to escape? And no, not with some creepy dystopian plot (we’re living in a dystopia), but something much better.
“Fans are also looking to ‘escape’ through being immersed in a different place or lifestyle where they can live vicariously through the characters,” Rowntree says. “To this end, we have started to produce more content set in various locales from Europe to Thailand that allow members to experience a hot little vacation from the comfort of home.”
2. Robot Romance
This one surprised me a bit, but hey — whatever gets you off, girlies! “No one wants to see Terminator porn (thankfully!) – but what they do want are explorations of what it means to be human through AI storylines similar to Her or Bicentennial Man, or even stories that include characters like Data from Star Trek who grapple with human desire and connection,” she says.
1. Period Pieces
My Bridgerton girlies to the front! If you’ve ever wanted to know what it was like to have a man “take you” in a horse-drawn carriage with the threat of society finding you in a compromising position (hi, Colin and Penelope), you are most definitely not alone.
“Sssh.com owes a great deal creatively to this genre, because ‘bodice rippers’ and historical romance have often been the safe gateway for women looking for erotic content,” Rowntree says. “Historical romance was our number one requested fantasy back in 1999, and it goes to show you the ‘classics’ aren’t about to die any time soon.”
