If the numbers are right, alot of us are watching porn. Australia is the seventh most active country on Pornhub despite our smaller population, with 25% of those visits coming from women...
More and more women are choosing to seek out ethical porn as part of their viewing habits, which is a step in the right direction in an industry that doesn’t always put the needs of women first.
A study carried out by the University of Sydney, found that 84% of men and 54% of women watched porn (we’ve had all those lockdowns since that study, so we wouldn’t be surprised if these percentages were higher).
The same study found that 42% of men and 49% of women agreed that pornography degraded the women in it. If that’s what you’re into, great. If not, then absolutely not so great.
This could be why research carried out by Pornhub (aka the world’s biggest porn site, y’know just in case you’ve “never heard of it”) found that lesbian porn was by far the most popular category of porn viewed by women. Lesbian porn is way more popular with women than men, and in Australia is the most-viewed porn category overall by men and women.
Or it could just be that we love seeing women get it on.
Anyway, moving on from all those stats and back to the point about the nearly half of us who think porn degrades the women in it.
Despite the fact that many of porn’s highest earners are women (it’s not as cut and dry as just that, but we’ll leave that for another day), it’s an industry dominated by men when it comes to writing, directing and producing. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of porn out there that doesn’t represent what women want to see.
There’s also issues like revenge porn, coercion, and underage women to contend with online porn streaming. This led to Pornhubremoving millions of unverified videos from the site in 2020, where it was impossible to know whether there was consent and permission for the content to be posted. Once a video’s out there on the internet, it’s nearly impossible to erase it forever.
If these issues worry you or put you off mainstream porn, then there are other options out there. Here are some ways you can get your porn kick in a more ethical way, so you can focus on other things:
This platform has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Strictly speaking, it isn’t just sex (though a lot of it is, let’s be honest), but it’s become a way for influencers, celebrities and sex workers to generate their own money by sharing their content with you directly. It’s straight from the source and removes some of the pitfalls of the porn industry like coercion, manipulation and women not being in control of their own bodies.
This site offers “real world sex” rather than highly-stylised porn that’s been filmed from an unrealistic perspective from the start. It’s the world’s first user-generated, human-curated social sex platform and aims to be inspirational as well as sexy. Other plus points of Make Love Not Porn: founded by a woman. Cindy Gallop founded the site following her direct personal experiences of dating younger men.
Founded by feminist pornographer Erika Lust, everything on ElseCinema is ethically made, produced and distributed. This is a great one if you're looking to find new categories or styles of ethical porn that you like as it’s basically a curated collection of the best ethical adult indie cinema that’s available across the world.
This site features porn from lots of different perspectives, and features “subversive smut made by ladies, artists and queers.” Most of their content focuses on safe sex (a big ethical porn point if ever saw one) which is so important to see represented on film.
Bellesa is porn that’s been created by women, and focuses on what women want to see, feel and experience during sex. No unrealistic content that shows women becoming aroused as soon as a guy appears within 50 feet here! It also has erotic stories submitted by the community that you can read at your pleasure.
Bright Desire offers feminist porn that isn’t just for women and moves away from a lot of the porn cliches. They offer fresh, inclusive and intelligent takes on sex, love and everything around it. You can look through the different categories to find something you like or check out individual performers.
PinkLabel.tv is all about up-and-coming independent adult filmmakers. Its founder, Shine Louise Houston wants to create adult content that’s real, respectful and powerful where money, sex, media and ethics converge.
Feminist porn isn’t always about slow sex and romance (hey, sometimes we like both ends of the spectrum) but that’s what founder Anna Richards has created with FrolicMe. It’s a place for beautiful, elegant content that’s aimed at people who get turned off by a lot of mainstream porn and the cliches contained within. Search for video, audio and stories.
Happy (ethical) browsing, everyone. You’re welcome :)
