Why Are so Many Women into Watching Gay Male Porn?
A deep dive into Pornhub’s “The 2019 Year in Review” found that 37% of gay male porn is watched by women
For the 7th year in a row, Pornhub has released their Year in Review. Where they bring us, “The hottest trends, terms, searches, and a recap of everything that happened this year.”
Though I suck at math, I love statistics. I like to know what is going on with the population. We all have our opinions, but I like facts. I also enjoy porn. Let’s call it a problematic fave? So this review is like heaven for me.
Summary of the data
For the whole of 2019, there were over 42 billion visits to Pornhub, which averages to 115 million a day. (According to them this is the equivalent of everyone in Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Poland visiting in one day).
There were 8.7million more searches than last year and 6.83 million new video uploads. The 1.36 million hours of new content uploaded is equivalent to 169 years.
The top five categories were: Amateur, Alien, POV, Belle Delphine and Cosplay. The top five searches were: Japanese, Hentai, Lesbian, Milf and Korean. Which as Darcy Reeder so rightly pointed out in her essay, this is a good sign that “People want variety, not just conventional beauty standards.”
Now we get onto the crux of this piece.
In their review, they found that four of the top 10 pornstars searched by women are strictly gay male performers, which corroborates Insights study which found that 37% of gay male porn was watched by women.
They found that gay male porn is the second most popular category amongst women. In this section, the top three are, Gay-Black, Gay-Straight Guys and Gay-Daddy.
When deconstructing the age distribution, they found that women aged 18–40 watched the most gay male porn, with a whopping 40.3%.
They also found that proportionally speaking, women were 69% more likely to watch gay male porn than men. Women in my category (18–40) were 83% more likely to watch it than our male counterparts.
What does the porn you watch say about your sexual preference?
As I said above, I love porn. It is one of many problematic faves of mine. As for categories, I fluctuate. I recently went through a phase of watching lesbian squirting porn, but for the past few weeks I’ve been obsessed with, you guessed it, gay male porn.
I thought this was my own kinky fetish until I saw the review. It turns out I am one of many million of women who love to watch men get it on.
As for how this is even possible, Academic Lucy Neville conducted a study and found that 55% of women surveyed “imagine themselves as a man when masturbating, indicating that some women are able to easily cross-identify between genders during sexual situations”, which I found very interesting.
I’ve tried to think why I like it so much, and I guess one of the main attractions to it is how the men seem to enjoy it more? I have been with a few men who think being quiet is vital, but I find it sexy to see and hear a man react to pleasure. I also believe there is something to be said about a man who takes it up the butt. I think it’s hot and irresistibly masculine.
The problem with a lot of straight porn is how the women in theatrics and while the man is quietly pounding away. The porn in this category is dedicated to the straight male gaze, so I find it both distracting and fake. It is also incredibly violent — I don’t need to see women hit or called a ‘fucking whore’.
The same can be said about a lot of lesbian porn regarding the straight male-gaze. As someone with a vagina, I can pick up the bullshit. Why are their nails so long? They don’t even look or sound like their enjoying it most of the time.
So it is no surprise to me that Amature porn is the number one category this year. I think we are shifting to a time where we appreciate the realness of sexual intercourse. As women become more autonomous, we are causing a shift. Which in turn subtilty curates the things we are exposed to.
When asked about why women like gay male porn so much, clinical psychologist Itumeleng Mamabolo stated:
In heterosexual porn, the focus is on women, with fewer visuals of the men. A lot of the women watching [gay male pornography] are attracted to men, and the focus is on men, so it speaks to their attraction. Also, [in heterosexual porn] women are portrayed in an often demeaning manner — that they are there only for the pleasure of men. So there is a degree of discomfort for a lot of women in the way these women are portrayed. With gay porn, the position is more of equality.
Which I agree with completely. It is a lot easier to find some gay porn I like vs finding any straight or lesbian porn that gets me off. There have been moments where I’ve been so horrified by what I’ve seen, that it has turned me off completely.
As for whether the porn you watch say about your sexual preference, sexologists have theorised on this. Some believe our preferences have to do with our childhood, e.g. it is hypothesised that eroticisation is a tool for the reconstruction of childhood trauma. Others theorise that it could be the taboo nature that gets us off, and our preference may be genetic. But they don’t really know either.
As for me, though I label myself as bisexual, I am incredibly fluid. I find people enjoying themselves a turn-on. My imagination is also limitless. So I think what all this shows is that sexual attraction and desire goes beyond the binary.
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