'porn for women*' one of the top search terms for 2017 on pornhub.com

I am a proud advocate for safe and appropriate use of pornography, and think it’s a great addition to any individual or relationship’s sex life. It can open communication amongst partners and so long as it doesn’t replace real-life intimacy, self-love is just as important as partnered sex.

Having said this, I get excited each year when Pornhub (the single biggest porn-site in the world) releases its statistics on how many visitors they get, how many videos are watched, and most importantly, the most-searched terms of the year. With over 23 billion visits to Pornhub in 2016, the most popular search term was ‘lesbian’. This is shortly followed by ‘step-mum’, ‘MILF’ and then ‘teen’. For its first year in the top search terms, ‘Overwatch’ (a multiplayer online shooting game) took out 11th place, followed in 12th by ‘anal’ and other consistently popular searches like ‘threesome’ and ‘gangbang’.

As of January 2018, the figures for 2017 have been released!! And in following with a great year of equality of sexual empowerment, of the 28 billion visits to the site in 2017, the search term ‘porn for women*’ came in the top three alongside ‘Rick and Morty’ and ‘Fidget Spinners (a sign of the times)’. This is such great news to me and other promoters of sex positivity and equal satisfaction. The fact that people of all genders are increasing in numbers amongst porn watchers shows that there is an increased understanding of all people as empowered in their own sexuality and in control of their sexual satisfaction.

While I don’t condone porn as your main form of sexual expression, for those socialised as women* (not discounting any and all other genders who have been socialised in the sex-negative culture that most of us life), many have spent most of their adult life consumed with the idea that sex is ‘dirty’ and isn’t meant to be enjoyed by one gender as much as another, porn is a great way to begin to get in touch with your inner sexual self. There are millions of amateur and professional videos available online showing all forms of sensual and sexual expression. Browsing through popular videos as well as searching for things you think or know turn you on, you can develop a new-found understanding of your desires, fantasies, positions, partners etc. It is also a great and safe way to explore various fetishes and kink, if this is something you are considering in the real world.

Pornhub and Youporn are two of the biggest porn websites in the world, however if the pop-ups and ads on arrival to the homepage are anything to go by, you know the sites are mostly targeting cis-men. This isn’t surprising to me given Australian and USA statistics report that only one-third of women* watch pornography, with the figures for men* sitting at four-fifths. These statistics are a few years old and I suspect the figure for those who identify as women is slowly rising.

While we wait for Pornhub to catch up and give the crowd what they want (i.e. ‘porn for women*’), pay services such as OMGYes offer an informative and honest approach to female sexual pleasure, and I highly recommend it! For those who want to save their penny’s, there are free sites available that specifically cater outside of the cis-male population. One of my favourites is founded by Michelle Shnaidman who offers a platform based in Canada (but accessible internationally) that promotes sexual empowerment, with heaps of great videos, erotic stories, pictures, meme’s, and more recently a full educational service. Check out the website – Bellesa: https://bellesa.co.

You can thank me later!