Porn streaming sites are hailing a revolution in their user data with a substantial increase in the number of women searching for material on their sites, and a huge spike in searches for 'female friendly' videos.
PornHub have revealed that the top trending search term on their site over the last year was “porn for women” with a 1,400 per cent increase in searches.
Interestingly the searches came from both male and female users, perhaps showing that many are looking to watch more ethical or feminist-minded porn, a sex-positive moment that is trying to remove violence and misogyny from pornography and abuse from the industry.
“2017 seems to have been the year where women have come forward to express their desires more openly,” said Dr Laurie Betito, a sex therapist and director of the PornHub Sexual Wellness Centre. Betito believes the rise is down to increased feelings of female empowerment.
Women made up for 26 per cent of Pornhub users last year and the site saw a huge rise in visits from India (130 per cent), Japan (56 per cent) and the Philippines (32 per cent).
xHamster, another streaming site also disclosed on their site that they are seeing a rise in female users:
“Globally we saw a 2.4 per cent increase in percentage viewership by women in 2017as women made up an ever larger part of the overall viewing community,” the firm wrote on its blog. “This is trend we’ve seen consistently in recent years. Not only are more women coming online, they’re coming at a greater rate than men are.”
xHamster believe this is for two reason:
“First, the rise in amateur porn (coupled with upload sites like xHamster) has meant that more women are producing porn than ever before, and bringing with them a new approach that may resonate more with other women.”
“Second, easier access to adult content has meant that women can enjoy with less stigma. There is still a misconception that women do not enjoy adult material.”
The news echoes data PornHub released last year which said the streaming site saw an 8.2% drop in views on their site on the day of the Women's March in January 2017.
They also highlighted the different ways in which women consume porn compared to men.
According to their data 80 per cent of women access Pornhub from mobile devices,compared to 69 per cent of men. 71 per cent of female traffic comes from smartphones and the other nine per cent from tablets.
