A Sense of Doubt blog post #2513 - Pornhub annual review and Trans sex popular in search terms
I am amused that I am setting this post for the first day of school when I tell a lot of my students that I publish a daily blog. I may or may not push this post to all the social media.
This is a huge post.
I think sex/porn viewership statistics are fascinating.
So here, just a share.
Fascinating.
https://medium.com/sexography/what-2021-looked-like-for-porn-watchers-aka-pornhub-wrapped-23476c1a54b
What 2021 Looked Like For Porn Watchers — aka Pornhub Wrapped
Forget the Year of the Ox; it’s the Year of Hentai
I’ll admit it’s the least sexy video on Pornhub — even for a marketer like me.
But each year, I eagerly await the Year in Review video by Pornhub. Every month, the website gets over 234 million visitors, so they collect a lot of data and collate it to show the year's trends and habits.
And I admit data kind of turns me on.
The data apparently also helps their users as the average time spent on the site decreased by nearly thirty seconds to nine minutes and 55 seconds. They attributed this to its ‘handy search algorithm and well-curated category tags.’
Oh yeah, handy search algorithm. Talk dirty to me.
Pornhub’s 8th annual review provides a fascinating insight into the sexual trends and habits of people around the world.
So please, join me as I review what I’m calling Pornhub Wrapped — with zero apologies to Spotify.
The Year of Hentai
Many of us thought that 2021 was the Year of the Ox.
In actuality, it was the Year of Hentai. For the first time in porn history, the most searched category was hentai. It was popular worldwide, featuring in the top 10 most searched categories in almost every country in the world. It was a significant improvement on 2018 when Fortnite was the most popular.
Hentai is a Japanese word that translated into English means “perverse” sexual desire. Broadly it covers the genre of anime, cartoon, and manga pornography.
The highly exaggerated sex acts depicted in these videos bring to light many kinks and fetishes that may not be possible in reality. Psychologist Dr. Leon Seltzer believes this is why hentai is so popular. “The erotic illusions possible are freed from all the normal constraints of reality. [It] can heighten the illusion that our libido has now landed in the most idyllic place possible.”
In hentai, anything is possible.
The second most popular search term was romance. With this knowledge, I think Hollywood could make rom-coms more appealing — by adding a lot more graphic sex.
The trend that JK Rowling doesn't like
No doubt to the chagrin of notorious transphobe, JK Rowling, there was a 23% increase in viewing transgender porn.
According to Adam Grayson of production company Evil Empire, transgender porn is very profitable. “In terms of revenue per scene or movie? Hands down, without a question. Nothing even touches it. And we sell it at a price premium…because we can get it.”
The majority of porn featuring transwomen is watched by cisgender men who identify as heterosexual.
Sex and pleasure educator Luna Matatas says the rise in visibility of the transgender community gives “all genders more permission and even prompt curiosity about what we find alluring, attractive and arousing.”
To make matters worse for Rowling, Harry Potter was the 3rd most-searched-for TV or movie character. I guess people want to see if he’s a real wizard with his wand.
Women last longer
35% of visitors to Pornhub are female, which is a slight increase over the previous year. The Philippines is the only country where there are more female viewers (52%) than males, though Colombia is close with a 49/51 female/male split.
A University of Denver study found that among women surveyed, 45% said they watched porn with their partners and 32% by themselves.
Women also have a longer average visit to the website — fourteen seconds longer, to be exact. However, this doesn't mean that men watch less porn — while their average stay is shorter, they visit more often.
Coming of age
While the average of a Pornhub visitor is 37, 7% of visitors are over the age of 65. And these people are the age group that spends the longest time on the website.
Laura Betitto, the author of “The Sex Bible for People Over 50″, says that Baby Boomers are obviously still keen to remain sexual but often need more stimulation; hence they have longer visits to porn websites.
“Sex within the aging population is being talked about more, written about more, and shown more. Visiting porn sites is just another example of the increasing openness to sexuality.”
People over 65 most commonly search for “blowjob,” “mature,” and “vintage.” Most of the searches by Baby Boomers are more vanilla and less adventurous than Gen Z, who have more diverse search tastes.
Sunday Funday
The most popular day of the week to watch porn is Sunday — usually around 11 am. Fridays and Saturdays are far less popular — and married people with busy lives could drive this.
“Married people have family activities on Fridays and Saturdays. There’s no space for self-pleasuring in this narrow window. Sunday, they have more time on their hands.” says Edward Shorter, a professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine at the University of Toronto.
Another reason Sunday is popular may be due to religion.
Studies have shown that the most religious areas of the country have the highest rates of porn consumption. In addition, they have found those who try to abstain from porn due to religious and cultural pressures are far more likely to view porn.
I guess it’s another way to speak to God.
It’s a small world, after all
Winning the Pornhub Gold medal is Team USA. They are the country that visits the website the most.
The other medal winners are the United Kingdom in second place, with Japan winning bronze.
People from the Philippines last longer, with an average viewing time of 11 minutes and 31 seconds, well above the site average of 9 minutes and 55 seconds.
In terms of most viewed categories, the picture below tells 1000 words. And those words include lesbian, ebony hentai, and anal. Not your average Scrabble game.
Women like to watch gay porn
Interestingly, one study found that 37% of the views of Pornhub’s gay male porn were by females.
Sex educator Luna Matatas gives several reasons for this.
“Typically, gay male porn isn’t fueling the heterosexual male gaze like heterosexual porn. So it makes sense that women might be enjoying soaking up all the masculinity and penis action without feeling like they are watching something that isn’t focused on what they are turned on by. Depending on the type of porn, women might also feel insecure about women’s bodies in heterosexual porn and be comparing themselves — which takes away from their pleasure.”
What to do when social media crashes
Do you remember what you were doing on October 4, 2021? That tragic day in history when Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp all went down? Without those apps, what was there to do?
According to Pornhub, there was one thing that people turned to in order to get turned on. The graph highlights how much traffic increased during the outage compared to a typical day.
I’m sure they will be hoping for more outages in 2022.
Sex education
Pornhub has also become a place to learn.
‘How to’ made the top ten search terms, growing by 245% as people turned to porn stars for their education. Popular questions included searching for instructions on how to perform sexual acts, how to put on a condom, and how to find the g-spot.
Unusually people also came to Pornhub to learn calculus.
Taiwanese math tutor Shun-Wei Chang began uploading non-sexual math videos. He became a huge hit, reaching over 7000 subscribers and over 2 million views across his videos in less than a year.
He singlehandedly got the word ‘teacher’ up 14 places in search popularity. Not sure he was the sexy teacher people had in mind, but people liked his videos.
And that’s a wrap
Many more statistics, trends, and habits are covered in Pornhub’s year in review. So if you are interested in porn, stats, data, or sex, it’s well worth reading.
And then, you could also claim you visited Pornhub for the articles.
I did want to end with one statistic not covered in the review, but that is worth mentioning as I believe it’s a positive step forward.
In the past, Pornhub has been criticized for hosting illegal content. As a result, it has led to a loss of advertisers. In 2021, they published their first transparency report, stating they had removed 653,465 pieces of content identified as potentially harmful.
I think that's important. Because no matter whether you want to watch hentai or vintage porn, gay or transgender, or even Fortnite or Harry Potter porn, then it should be legal.
Welcome to Pornhub’s 8th Year in Review, where we bring you 2021’s hottest trends, terms, searches and a recap of everything that happened during the year. Here you will find plenty of colorful infographics filled with data compiled by Pornhub’s intrepid statisticians. As always, we provide a little commentary to touch on the main trends and breakdown the details to see how the year that was 2021 affected the porn viewership of people around the world.
Holidays & Events Affecting Traffic
The Searches that Defined 2021
Every year, the Insights team and Pornhub’s statisticians sift through data from billions of visits to see what content defined the year. Those that follow this blog know that Pornhub’s top searches are often influenced by pop culture and other worldwide events. Many of these terms define 2021 not just on Pornhub but in mainstream media as well.
In 2018 our list included ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Bowsette’, while 2019 was led by ‘amateur’ porn and ‘aliens’ and 2020 was ‘quarantine’. For 2021, our top defining term is ‘hentai’.
1. Hentai
In Japanese culture, hentai can refer to any sort of sexual fetish. But around the world it most often describes the pornographic form of anime, a style of Japanese film and television animation. Hundreds of thousands of hentai videos can be found on Pornhub, including professional productions, homemade animations made by fans and 3D generated scenes.
Hentai became the most popular search term in the world after it moved to the top spot in the United States, Pornhub’s biggest audience. Hentai was a top ten search in almost every country in 2021.
Dr. Laurie Betito, clinical psychologist, sex therapist and director of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center, notes that “Cartoons are more fantastical than regular porn. They may offer more visual stimulation in terms of movements, angles, colors, and facial expressions. Because it’s not real, it can go further, with less constraints that reality offers. Hentai porn also tends to have more of a storyline and people seem to be more and more drawn to context.”
2. Romance
The second search that we feel defines 2021 is ‘Romance’. The popularity of searches containing ‘romance’ and ‘romantic’ more than doubled, alongside a 139% increase in ‘passionate’ searches. Among Pornhub’s gay male visitors, searches for ‘bromance’ grew 288% in the last year.
Dr. Laurie tells us that “Human connection has become far more important this past pandemic year. Many people have experienced loneliness and isolation and may be craving love, intimacy and romance. So the next best thing to a partner it seems, are the fantasies of romance.”
Sex educator and writer Dainis Graveris commented that “More and more people are looking for genuine interactions between performers and more realistic depictions of sex. ‘Romantic’ or ‘passionate’ porn somehow feels and looks more authentic. And many people see this porn genre as an inspiration for their sexual actions and preferences because the narratives speak to them. Viewers can use these romantic scenes to not only attain sexual satisfaction but also explore their sexual identity. The content aims to break the fictional standards of porn.”
3. Group Sex
It seems like after a bleak 2020 of lock-down, people were ready to throw social distancing to the wind and get in on some three way (or four or five) action! ‘Threesome’ grew by 40% worldwide and became the 6th most popular search in the United States and 4th among women. Searches for ‘group’, ‘ffm’, ‘mmf’ and ‘orgy’ all grew by more than 70%.
For some of you out there, third parties make for a real party in the bedroom…but especially after a year of being locked in the house, people are craving novelty. Niki Davis-Fainbloom suggests, “there may be more searches for threesomes this year because so many couples have been isolated with just their partner. When couples spend so much time together, it makes sense that they may begin to think about how to increase excitement in the relationship.”
Clinical Sexologist Dr. Stacy Friedman looks to a longer term effect. “Women and couples are finding more of an interest in group sex, such as threesomes, as ways to spice up their relationships. Getting an idea of how things look or work with multiple people can be helpful to bring about conversations in their relationships as to what they like or don’t like if they ever have an opportunity to have group sex.”
She also feels that “It allows those that don’t want to open up their relationships, a chance to fantasize with each other and enjoy or explore the idea of group sex. Women are becoming more confident in asking for what they want so the idea of exploring this type of activity can be exciting!”
4. Fitness
In 2021 we saw a 56% rise in ‘fitness’ related searches. As the world was under lockdown, many celebrities and social media influencers began sharing their favorite at-home fitness routines and this may have driven an increase in fitness searches on Pornhub. Porn involving activities like ‘yoga’, ‘running’, ‘exercise’ and ‘gym’ all saw search gains throughout the year.
5. Swapping
Our 5th term defining 2021 is ‘swapping’. Once again viewers tossed social distancing to the side and searched for ‘swap’ and ‘swapping’ 170% more than the previous year. ‘Swinger’ and ‘Swinging’ both trended in the spring and summer, resulting in a +127% increase in popularity. Somewhat related terms like ‘Cuckold’ increased +168% in 2021, as well as 93% growth in ‘cheating’ searches.
6. Challenge
In number six we have ‘challenge’. It seems like every week there’s a new challenge going around social media. Whether you think they’re fun or stupid, there’s no denying that millions of people are up to a challenge. Porn is no different, with dozens of challenges being popular in 2021 including ‘no nut November’, ‘try not to cum’, ‘jerk off challenge’ and ‘buss it’. ‘Challenge’ searches grew 255% in 2021, and more than 500 different terms are routinely searched alongside ‘challenge’.
7. Transgender
Number seven on our list is ‘transgender’. As society has become more inclusive of diverse gender identities, searches for ‘trans’ and ‘transgender’ content have increased on Pornhub. In 2021 ‘trans’ searches grew another 141% and views of the transgender category grew by 23%, making it the 10th most watch category by male visitors. Today, some of Pornhub’s most popular Verified Models are transgender.
According to Dr. Laurie, trans is trending for many different reasons: “Increasingly, marginalized sexuality (outside the vanilla world) is coming out of the shadows. We are talking about sex more, we are more free to explore our sexual fantasies with less judgment attached. Our sexual curiosity is coming out of the closet. Bicuriousity is far more acceptable these days, and even “trendy” among the younger generations. When it comes to Trans individuals, we are now seeing more and more people who are portrayed in mainstream media, thus making trans porn more intriguing, more available and more accepted.”
8. Goth
The 8th term that defined 2021 is ‘goth’ which grew by +283% over the last year. That follows a similar trend in pop culture with goth style and culture making a comeback with the Y and Z generations.
9. Roomate
At number nine on our list is ‘roommate’. Perhaps due to long periods of quarantine, people have been fantasizing about the people they were closest to, which may have caused the 136% increase in roommate related searches, including ‘lesbian roomate’, ‘gay roomate’, ‘straight roomate’ and ‘horny roomate’.
10. How to…
And finally, one more search stood out to our team as a trend in 2021. Our statisticians found that the popularity of searches containing ‘how to’ increased by 244% and there are now more than 200,000 videos on Pornhub that are tagged or titled as ‘how to’ videos. Some of the most popular searches include ‘how to squirt’, ‘..eat pussy’, ‘..suck dick’, ‘..put on a condom’, ‘..last longer’, ‘..finger myself’, ‘..shave balls’, ‘..make a dildo’ and of course ‘..find a g spot’ and ‘how to make her cum’.
Sex coach and doctor of human sexuality, Dr. Stacy Friedman tells us “The increase in searches of ‘how to’, shows that people are finally feeling more comfortable looking at how to improve their sex lives. Since the discussion of sex has been taboo for so long, relationships have suffered because there aren’t that many places to learn about sex. Since we have had the pandemic, I believe that couples are realizing they need more help in the bedroom so there is more research out there that they can find information from. People want to know how to enjoy their sexuality more.”
2021’s Most Searched for Terms
Trendy terms aside, Pornhub’s #1 worldwide search in 2021 was ‘hentai’, which moved up +1 spot to replace 2020’s favorite ‘Japanese’. ‘Lesbian’ and ‘MILF’ retained their 3rd and 4th positions, while ‘pinay’ (a Filipino woman) moved up +13 spots to complete our top five. Other gainers included ‘creampie’ (+5), ‘cosplay’ (+9), ‘pov’ (+8) and ‘squirt’ (+9).
‘Teacher’ grew by +14 and made our Top 20 because a math teacher in Taiwan uploaded his calculus tutorials on Pornhub and his story quickly went viral. He now has 7700 subscribers on Pornhub, and his calculus videos have been watched more than 2 million times. In 2021, searches for ‘ebony’ moved down -2 positions, while ‘black’ searches increased by +19 to make our top searches list worldwide.
For the 3rd straight year, Lana Rhoades was Pornhub’s most searched pornstar, followed by Abella Danger who retained her #2 position. Eva Elfie moved up +2 spots ahead of Riley Reid and Mia Malkova. Jordi El Nino Polla was the most searched male pornstar with a rank increase of +3, while Alex Adams (+19), Violet Myers (+102), Lexi Luna (+26) all had significant growth in 2021.
Below you can find the most viewed Verified Amateur Models of 2021. Videos uploaded by the Pornhub Community’s top 5 models ‘yinyleon’, ‘Porn Force’, ‘LuxuryGirl’, ‘TheStartofUs’ and ‘Crystal Lust’ had more than 1 billion combined views.
The State of the Union
2021 saw ‘hentai’ overtake ‘lesbian’ as the most searched for term in the United States. ‘Milf’, ‘ebony’, ‘asian’ and ‘latina’ retained their 3rd, 4th and 5th positions, while threesome increase by +2 to become the 7th most searched term among American visitors. Other big gainers include ‘black’ (+5), ‘gangbang’ (+17), ‘pov’ (+7), ‘gloryhole’ (+27), ‘Fortnite’ (+12), ‘squirt’ (+17) and ‘trans’ (+134).
The big increase in ‘gloryhole’ searches may be a result of some government authorities (like Canada’s CDC) recommending that a hole in a wall or other barrier could help avoid Covid transmission during sexual encounters.
If you’ve followed our Insights blog, you already know that porn preferences differ from one country to the next. But did you know that people’s tastes can differ just as much from region to region within a country? By looking at the top relative searches, we can see what terms are proportionally more likely to be searched in those regions when compared to all other parts of a country.
The United States is a great example of these regional differences, as illustrated in the following map. Our statisticians found that visitors from Alaska were more likely to search for ‘morning sex’, while those in Virgina like a bit of ‘dirty talk’. Visitors from North Dakota are more likely to search for a ‘quickie’, which may be why their state has one of the shortest visit durations. Arkansas has one of the highest divorce rates in the United States, and ‘divorce’ is their most common relative search.
Colorado is more into ‘huge boobs’ while their neighbors in Oklahoma prefer ‘natural tits’. America’s wang (aka Florida) likes ‘bbc’ (big black cock), while up the coast in North Carolina they are more likely to search for ‘penis pump’. Kansas likes to search for ‘pantyhose’, South Dakota likes ‘sex doll’ and visitors from Utah are more likely to search for ‘Mormon’ porn.
Top 20 Countries by Traffic
Once again, the United States continues to be the country with the highest daily traffic to Pornhub, followed by the United Kingdom (+1), which moved ahead of Japan. France (+1), Italy (+2) and Mexico (+4) all had traffic increases which pushed them ahead of Canada (-3), Germany (-2) and the Philippines (-1). Chile (+5) and Colombia (+8) were new to our Top 20 Countries list in 2021.
Collectively the Top 20 countries represent 79% of Pornhub’s daily traffic, so we will be looking more closely at them through this Year in Review.
To learn even more about the porn preferences of each country, you can skip to the Top 20 Countries in Depth section at the end of the Year in Review.
A Time for Reflection
2021 saw Pornhub’s average visit duration decrease by nearly half a minute to 9 minutes 55 seconds. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone got 29 seconds more efficient at masturbating in 2021, as time on site can reflect many factors including the speed internet in some regions. Our usage trends show it’s more likely that visitors are finding what they want much faster thanks to our handy search algorithm and well-curated category tags.
This year, the Philippines tops the list of the longest lasting countries at 11 minutes 31 seconds. Japan is the only Top 20 country with an increase in viewing time (+12 sec) making it the second longest lasting country at 10 minutes 3 seconds.
Female visitors came and went 14 seconds faster than men and visitors 18-24 were -61 seconds faster than older age groups, while those over 65 took on average an additional +96 seconds.
This leads Dr. Bentito to affirm: “Porn, erotica, sex is clearly not just for the young! Increasingly, Baby Boomers are showing an interest in remaining sexual. As we age, however, we sometimes need more stimulation to get us there, which is why we may be seeing a trend for longer visits. Sex within the aging population is being talked about more, written about more and shown more (see my book “The Sex Bible for People Over 50″). Visiting porn sites is just another example of the increasing openness to sexuality.”
The average visit duration of the United States decreased by -23 seconds in 2021 to 9 minutes 44 seconds. California saw the biggest drop drop of -36 seconds, becoming the second fastest state after Colorado, which dropped -29 seconds to only a quick 8 minute 51 second average visit time. Wyoming was the longest lasting state at 11 minutes 3 seconds.
Worldwide, and indeed in most countries we have studied, Sunday is the most popular day to visit Pornhub, while Friday tends to have the lowest traffic. A lot of that has to do with the hours people prefer to watch porn. Peak viewing times are typically from 10pm to 1am, but on weekends (as people tend to stay up later and sleep in longer), the view time shifts into the morning hours.
When reviewing our data, Sex Sociologist and Columbia professor Jessie Ford had the following to say:
“People often think about sex and porn as a biologically driven realm of life, but I argue that it’s much more like other aspects of social life than people might think. People are spending the most time on Pornhub after work, at the end of the day, late at night and sometimes in the siesta hour right after lunch. People are watching less on Friday, Saturday, Sunday because they are probably out doing other things. So I like to think of porn as being very much connected to other aspects and other rhythms in our social life.”
Categorical Analysis
While search terms can be more easily influenced by current trends and differing international terminologies, Pornhub’s 100+ video categories are the same throughout the world. So, when compared internationally or on a local level, categories can give a solid indication of the types or genres of porn that people are most interested in viewing.
For the second year, ‘Japanese’ remained Pornhub’s most viewed category, followed by ‘Lesbian’, ‘Ebony’, ‘Hentai’, ‘MILF’ and ‘Anal’ all held onto their top 6 spots. ‘Threesome’ gained +3 to become the 10th most searched term worldwide, while ‘Female Orgasm’ (+14), ‘Outdoor’ (+7), ‘Bisexual Male’ (+23) and ‘Big Ass’ (+31) all saw big increases in popularity this year.
The following map illustrates which of the top categories are most popular in different parts of the world. ‘Ebony’ remained tops in the United States, while northern neighbors in Canada prefer ‘Lesbian’. ‘Hentai’ expanded its popularity into South America, ‘Japanese’ is popular through most of Asia, ‘Indian’ is tops in India and Pakistan, while ‘Arab’ is the most popular category in countries like Egypt, and ‘Anal’ through much of Europe.
The ‘Big Ass’ category stretched it’s popularity by +314% in 2021, followed closely by ‘Bisexual Male’ with a +288% increase compared to 2020. The last year also saw twice as many ‘Female Orgasm’ views (+92%), and the ‘Popular With Women’ category gained another +41%. The ‘Transgender’ continues to grow, up +23% in 2021 and ‘Threesome’ views by +19%.
Luna Matatas is a Sex and Pleasure Educator with over 10 years of experience in sexual health and wellness. Of these stats, she said: “It is definitely worth talking about the fact that viewership of the Transgender category grew by 23% in 2021. The trans community has been prominent in advocating for their rights and representation across the world and showing up more in mainstream media, so we’re hearing more and seeing more about trans people and trans communities. This rise in visibility can often give all genders more permission and even prompt curiosity about what we find alluring, attractive and arousing. Trans communities have always existed and attraction to trans people and performers, but as trans communities get more included in movies, shows and mainstream society – we start to see a normalization of trans inclusion in other ways too, including porn and erotic media.”
The ‘Mature’ category was viewed the longest, most likely because it’s more popular with older aged visitors, who tend to visit Pornhub for longer durations. ‘Handjob’ lasted +26 seconds longer in 2021, and people were into ‘Orgy’ for +39 seconds longer. Viewers of the ‘Cosplay’ category spent -106 seconds less time watching videos in 2021.
For another year, the ‘Scissoring’ category cut right to the chase and was viewed for the shortest amount of time, just 7 minutes 42 seconds. Want to get off quick next time? Try the ‘Scissoring’ category.
Pornhub Pride
By analyzing traffic landing specifically on Pornhub Gay pages, our statisticians can see what type of gay (male) porn was the most popular in 2021. This year saw some big changes to gay favorites, with ‘twink’ edging +7 to the number one spot, topping ‘femboy’. ‘Hentai’ searches shot up +9, while ‘yaoi’ (gay Hentai) gained +15. ‘Massage’, ‘Public’ (+21), ‘Gloryhole’ (+15) and ‘Threesome’ (+19) all saw big increases, pushing them among the top gay search terms.
Searches that saw significant growth among gay men included ‘bromance’ (+288%), ‘twink’ (+118%), ‘moaning’ (+79%) and ‘gym’ (+61%).
‘Straight Guys’ remained the most viewed gay category for another year, as did ‘Black’ in 2nd place. ‘Bareback’ came on top of ‘Daddy’ which ended the year topping ‘Twink’.
Sex Educator Luna Matatas says: “Fantasies are a big part of why we go to porn. Our fantasies can’t be understood through any single data point, they are often a complex manifestation of a bunch of different parts of us. The allure of straight guy porn for gay men sometimes is about fantasizing about conventional masculinity. It might feel arousing to fetishize heterosexual men as ‘more masculine’ because of the idea that they fit into society’s binary of masculine and feminine easily. So if you’re a gay man and attracted to masculinity, it makes sense you’d be looking at ‘straight guy’ porn to see things that are appear hyper masculine.”
The most searched for pornstars by gay men were Cade Maddox, Joey Mills, Reno Gold and William Seed.
Gender Demographics
The ‘Japanese’ category remained the most popular with men, and ‘Lesbian’ for women. The ‘Threesome’ category ranked 4th for women and 10th among men. Men watch ‘Ebony’ and ‘Transgender’ more than women, but women are +170% more likely to view the ‘Scissoring’ category than men, +131% more into ‘Solo Male’ and +118% more interested in ‘Pussy Licking’.
Why is pussy licking, scissoring and fingering porn so popular? According to Niki Davis-Fainbloom, this is largely due to the focus on female pleasure. She says, “It makes sense that women would enjoy viewing pussy licking, scissoring and fingering more than men because we are turned on by watching porn that focuses on our pleasure. When the focus is on female pleasure, it is easy to put ourselves in the position of the ladies that are clearly having a good time. Most women can’t orgasm from penetration without clitoral stimulation and it is often during “foreplay,” when we are being fingered and receiving oral sex that we orgasm. As a result, it makes sense that we would enjoy watching porn that reflects our ultimate pleasure.”
Sex Coach Kaitlin Klarer agrees. With Scissoring, Solo Male, Pussy Licking and Fingering all being more popular with women, “That tells us that women desire watching things that involve the vulva and not just vaginal penetration. That’s telling me that women are jonesing for some good ‘outercourse’ content. So guys remember that!”
Lana Roades was the most viewed pornstar by women for a 3rd year, followed by Abella Danger and Jordi El Nino Polla. When compared to men, women are twice as likely (+98%) to search for Manuel Ferrara, +87% more into Alessa Shine and +71% more often for Lexi Lore.
That gay pornstar Cade Maddox is searched more by women comes as no surprise to our statisticians. An earlier Insights study found that 37% of Pornhub’s gay male porn was being watched by women.
Sex Educator Luna Matatas explains: “Typically gay male porn isn’t fueling the heterosexual male gaze like heterosexual porn. So it makes sense that women might be enjoying soaking up all the masculinity and penis action without feeling like they are watching something that isn’t focused on what they are turned on by. Depending on the type of porn, women might also feel insecure about women’s bodies in heterosexual porn and be comparing themselves – which takes away from their pleasure.”
Proportion of Female Visitors
2021 saw the proportion of female visitors grow to 35%, an increase of 1 percentage point and +5% growth compared to 2020. Among Pornhub’s top 20 countries, the Philippines, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Ukraine all have greater than 40% female viewership.
A University of Denver study found that among women surveyed, 45% said they watched porn with their partners, and 32% by themselves.
According to Niki Davis-Fainbloom, “We are moving towards embracing female sexuality and women are feeling more deserving of pleasure. As a result, women are more open to exploring their sexuality and there is less stigma around watching porn. More women are feeling empowered, and exploring how the right video can help facilitate that for us. As a result, it seems like there is more porn being produced that targets a female audience.”
Age Demographics
Pornhub’s visitors grew up a bit over the last year in terms of their average age now being 37 years old, an increase of +1 year since 2020. Visitors aged 18-35 decreased by -3 percentage points, while those aged 35 to 44 grew by +3 percentage points.
Gen Z (18-24) visitors are +77% more likely to view Lesbian videos and +76% more into Hentai compared to older age groups. They’re also +72% more into Cosplay and +68% more into Feet videos.
Gen Y (25-34) are +92% more likely to view the Asian category, +79% more into POV videos and +58% more into Creampie.
Gen X (35-54) are +58% more likely to view Cartoon porn, +47% more interested in Interracial and +31% more into Threesomes.
Boomers over the age of 55 are +59% more likely to watch Handjob videos, +56% more into Mature and +53% more interested in Vintage content.
Devices & Technology
In 2021, mobile devices made up 86% of all Pornhub’s traffic worldwide. 83% of that was from smartphones, which saw their share grow by 3%. Tablet traffic was reduced another –24% in 2021, while desktop and laptop traffic were reduced to just 14% of Pornhub’s global traffic.
Some countries have even larger shares of mobile traffic including the United States where 88% of visits are from phones or tablets. Mobile devices make up 96% of Pornhub’s traffic from Mexico and 93% from Italy.
A quarter of visitors from South Korea still use their desktop computers, followed by 24% in Taiwan and 23% in the Ukraine.
Operating Systems
Android remained the dominant mobile Operating System for the second year, increasing it’s share by +3% to 54%, while Apple iOS shrank by -3% to 45% of Pornhub’s mobile traffic.
While desktop operating systems make up only 14% of Pornhub’s traffic, it’s still an active tech group as the share of Mac OS grew by 4% to 27.3% while Windows share shrank -3% to 64.7% of desktop traffic. The share of Linux based visits grew by +28% in 2012, as well as a +26% increase in Chrome OS visitors.
Web Browsers
Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari web browsers made up 90% of mobile browser traffic. That’s a +7.3% share growth for Chrome, and a -2.9% decrease for Safari. Big increases in 2021 were Android Browser which increased it’s share by +1300% and Firefox by +6100%. Opera Mini and UC Browser had the biggest share decreases, -44% and -31.7% respectively.
On the desktop side, Safari’s share grew by +17.2%, as did Chrome by +2.5%. Microsoft’s Edge browser shrank by -1.2% to 10.2% of desktop users. Classic Internet Explorer saw it share reduced by -61.5% to just 1.8% of desktop browsing, alongside a -22.2% drop in Firefox users. Opera had the biggest growth by +38.4% to 3.9% of desktop usage.
Game Consoles
Game consoles aren’t just for playing games, they can also be a handy way to play with yourself. (Think about that next time your friend hands you one of their game controllers for a little two-way action). Playstation’s share grew again by +17.6% to make up over 60% of console based visits. Xbox increased it’s share +6% to 36.8%, while PS Vita, Nintendo’s WiiU and 3DS shrank to just a fraction of Pornhub’s traffic from gaming devices.
Movie & TV Characters
Fantasy plays a big role in pornography. People are not simply looking for naked flesh, they’re interested in the stories that lead to each sexual encounter. Like film and television studios, the porn industry spends millions each year to design elaborate scenes that will bring viewers into the story, and create an emotional attachment with the characters on screen. It’s only natural that fans will want to see their favorite movie characters involved in sexual scenarios, so porn parodies are a popular adult film genre.
Harley Quinn was the most searched movie series or character in 2021, followed by Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Black Widow.
There’s little doubt that people still love the Simpsons after more than 30 years, as their popularity remains top among Pornhub’s cartoon and TV related searches. It’s followed closely by Teen Titans and Scooby Doo. Squid Game trended in the later part of 2021, but ended the year 13th among TV related searches.
Video Games & Characters
Fortnite continued to be the most searched for game on Pornhub. Minecraft moved up +2 to the second most popular search, pushing down both Overwatch and Pokemon. New to the top video game searches in 2021 were Brawl Stars, FNAF (Five Nights at Freddy’s) and Genshin Impact.
To see what video game characters were the most popular, our statisticians looked for any searches that combined a character name with the title of the video game they appear in (to avoid counting searches for pornstars who may have similar names). Topping this year’s list was Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, followed by D. Va from Overwatch and Nintendo’s Super Mario.
If you are surprised by all the searches for video games, you really shouldn’t be! According to New York sex educator Niki Davis-Fainbloom, “People are playing more video games now than ever, so it makes sense that we would find a way to add an erotic twist to our gaming experience,” moreover, “Especially in 2020, it’s logical that we would want to escape from our strenuous world and enter into an existence of total fantasy.”
She adds: “The human mind has a spectacular capacity to eroticize almost anything that we come in contact with. Enjoying video game porn also feeds into our desire for novelty. If you show a person the same porn video everyday for a week, their arousal dwindles in each continued showing. However, when you show them a novel video, their arousal comes back stronger and harder than ever. With the advent of new video games, we are given unexplored situations and characters to eroticize. It’s very exciting stuff!”
Holiday Traffic Changes
We’ve found that people are pretty regular when it comes to their masturbation schedule, choosing the most convenient days and times to visit Pornhub. Holidays can have a dramatic affect on traffic to Pornhub as people have to adjust their regular schedule to travel, attend events and spend time with family and friends.
To illustrate these changes, our statisticians focused on the biggest holiday season of the year to see whether it was Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Years Eve that caused the biggest drop in Pornhub traffic.
New Years Eve kicked holiday ass with a -44% drop in Pornhub’s traffic from 6pm to Midnight. Out of our top 20 traffic countries, the biggest celebrations happen in Sweden where Pornhub’s traffic plummets -69%, as well as a -66% drop in Germany and -60% in France.
Pornhub’s worldwide traffic drops -30% on Christmas Eve from 6pm to Midnight, and -19% on Christmas Day. The biggest Christmas Eve celebrators are France (-62%), Germany (-56%) and Spain (-55%). The countries that take the biggest porn break on Christmas Day is Australia (-24%) followed by Canada with a -23% drop.
Events Causing Traffic Changes
Live events cause people to adjust their regular porn viewing schedule, quite often causing a drop in Pornhub traffic. However, some events will cause Pornhub traffic to increase like when Facebook and Instagram suffered a service outage in October. As people had more time on their hands, they headed to Pornhub to keep those same hands busy. Worldwide traffic increased by as much as +10.5% on October 4th at 2pm when compared to the same time on an average day.
Eurovision Song Contest
When people have to adjust their favorite porn viewing times to watch a live event, it can cause a noticeable change in Pornhub’s traffic. The 65th annual Eurovision Song Contest aired it’s finale on May 22, 2021. During the 3 hour live broadcast, traffic to Pornhub dropped though-out much of Europe, especially in countries represented by a finalist. Malta and Iceland showed the biggest traffic drops by nearly a third.
If we take a closer look at the changes by hour, we can see that even in highly populated countries like the U.K. (Pornhub’s second biggest source of traffic), there’s a noticeable drop during the broadcast, as much as -14% in the final hour.
Superbowl 55
Super Bowl 55 took place on Sunday February 7th, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 31 to 9. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched live events in the United States, so it’s no surprise to see U.S. traffic drop as much as 21% during the game. Even more interesting is the traffic change in Florida and Missouri as people there tuned in to watch their home teams play.
In the final hour of the match, Florida’s traffic dropped -39%, compared to only -15% in Missouri. You can see from the graph that the halftime show was a convenient time to grab a snack but also to visit Pornhub, as traffic increased slightly during that period. After the match, fans in Florida celebrate their win on Pornhub, with traffic going +13% higher than normal at 1am, but only +5% in the U.S. and Missouri.
Top 20 Countries In Depth
In this section you will find a closer look at each of our top 20 countries by order of highest daily traffic. It really illustrates how porn tastes differ around the world. Throughout 2021, Pornhub continued to expand into international markets and you will see that many of the top searches are in different languages. Through crowdsourcing, thousands of Pornhub video titles are being translated into foreign languages to help people around the world find the content they want, using their localized lingo.
You may also notice that many of the top searches have to do with the places, languages, and culture in those countries. The takeaway is that people like to see porn featuring their fellow citizens!
1. United States
‘Hentai’ became the #1 search in the United States, replacing the previous favorite ‘lesbian’. The most searched pornstar among Americans was Lana Rhoades, while Ebony remained the most viewed category of videos, ahead of Lesbian and MILF. When compared to the rest of the world, Americans are +128% more likely to view the Scissoring category, +97% more into Ebony and +67% more into Interracial videos.
2. United Kingdom
‘Lesbian’ and ‘MILF’ remained the top 2 searches in the U.K., while terms like ‘threesome’, ‘ebony’, ‘massage’ and ‘anal’ all saw increases in rank. 2021 saw searches for ‘lesbian scissoring’ increase by +408% among U.K. visitors, as well as a +188% increase in ‘squirting’ and +126% more ‘trans’ searches.
When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from the U.K. are +658% more likely to view the British category, +244% into MILF and +102% more into Indian videos.
3. Japan
The #1 search in Japan is ‘Japanese’, followed by ‘amateur’, ‘hentai’ and ‘masturbation’ (in Japanese). ‘Married women’ increased it’s rank by +10, as did ‘mature woman’ and ‘big tits’. Trending searches included a +491% increase for ‘athlete’, most likely a result of the Tokyo Olympic games.
Eva Elfie is Japan’s favorite pornstar, followed by Julia Japanese. When compared to the rest of the world, Japanese visitors are +351% more likely to view the Uncensored Cartoon category, +83% more into Euro and +73% more for Cosplay.
4. France
The #1 search in France remained ‘francaise’, while ‘hentai’ overtook ‘French’ for the second most searched term. In 2021, France’s trending searches included a +363% increase for ‘try not to cum’, +225% more ‘naruto rule 34’ and +213% more ‘squirting’. When compared to the worldwide average, visitors from France are +140% more into the Solo Female category, and +136% more for Fingering.
5. Italy
For 2021, ‘Italiano’ and ‘Dialoghi Italiano’ replaced MILF as the top search in Italy. Other big rank changes included ‘anal’ (+8), ‘mature’ (+11), and ‘pompino’ (+22). The most search pornstars in Italy are Malena La Pugliese, Martina Smeraldi and Valentina Nappi. Some top trending searches in Italy were ‘sesso romantico’ (+278%) and ‘sesso passionale’ (+173%). Italian visitors are +194% more likely to view the Solo Female category, +139% more into Bisexual Male and +117% more into Transgender videos.
6. Mexico
‘Hentai’ was the most popular search in Mexico, while ‘lesbianas’ moved up to 2nd. Significant rank changes included ‘anal’ (+5), ‘culonas’ (+9) and ‘squirt’ (+16). Trending searches in 2021 included a +255% increase for ‘otaku’, +182% for ‘naruto’ and +145% for ‘hinata’. Compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Mexico are +229% more likely to view the Scissoring category, +105% more into Popular With Women and +89% more into Parody videos.
7. Canada
‘Hentai’ bumped ‘lesbian’ for the #1 search spot in Canada, while ‘threesome’ gained +3 to make Canada’s top 5 for the first time. Canadians were big time into ‘big tits’ as it’s rank increased by +11 in 2021. Trending searches included ‘milf amateur’ (+385%), ‘lesbian scissoring’ (+321%) and ‘dry humping’ (+190%). When compared to the rest of the world, Canadian visitors are +93% more likely to view the Fingering category, +72% more into Female Orgasm and +51% more into Solo Female videos.
8. Germany
German visitors love German porn! The top 2 terms are ‘German’ and ‘Deutsch’, the most viewed category is ‘German’ and in 2021 ‘Deutsch amateur’ searches grew by +308%. On top of that, German visitors are +1167% more likely to view the German category compared to the rest of the world. Germans are also +214% more into Big Ass and +146% more into Bisexual Male.
9. Philippines
The most searched term in the Philippines continues to be ‘pinay’, while several other terms appeared in the top 10 for the first time including ‘korean’ (+9), ‘asian’ (+23) and ‘anime’ (+12). 2021’s trending searches include a +460% increase for ‘threesome pinay’, +345% for ‘hentai anime’ and +316% for ‘Rule 34’. Compared to the rest off the world, visitors from the Philippines are +286% more likely to view the Hentai category, +134% more into Romantic videos and +111% more into Cartoon.
10. Brazil
‘Hentai’ replaced ‘Brasil’ as the most searched term in Brazil, while other terms saw big increases like ‘naruto’ (+55), ‘amador’ (+7) and ‘gostosa’ (+25). Trending terms were ‘caseiro’ (+128%), ‘coreanos’ (+115%) and ‘trans’ (+74%). Compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Brazil are +274% more likely to view the Uniforms category, +145% more into SFW content and +71% more into Hentai videos.
11. Spain
‘Hentai’ and ‘MILF’ continued to be the most popular searches in Spain, while ‘Espanol’ moves up 4 spots to 3rd. Other ranks changes included a +20 increase for ‘lesbianas’ and +28 for ‘latina’. 2021’s trending searches included ‘maduras’ (+105%), ‘transexual’ (+53%) and ‘orgia’ (+47%). When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Spain are +145% more likely to view the Fingering category, +104% more into Party videos and +83% more into Muscular Men. The most viewed category of video in Spain in Mature.
12. Australia
‘Hentai’ and ‘lesbian’ remained the #1 searches in Australia, while ‘Asian’ moved up one spot to replace ‘MILF’ in 3rd. Trending searches in 2021 included ‘milf amateur’ (+434%), ‘big tits big ass’ (+429%) and ‘squirting’ (+410%). When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Australia are +136% more likely to view the Scissoring category, +102% more into Asian videos and +81% more into the Popular With Women category.
13. Poland
The top 3 searches in Poland continued to be ‘Polska’, ‘Hentai’ and ‘MILF’ for 2021. Trending searches included ‘wielkie dupy’ (+339%), ‘sugar daddy’ (+265%) and ‘cipka’ (+189%). Compared to the rest of the world, Polish visitors are +221% more likely to view the Uniforms category, +185% more for Czech and +170% more for SFW content.
14. Ukraine
Once again, visitors from Ukraine get right to the point and search most often for ‘sex’. Searches in Cyrillic script saw huge increases in 2021 with terms meaning ‘hard’, ‘squirt’, ‘blowjob’ and ‘massage’ all become top localized searches. Trending terms in Cyrillic included ‘close up’ (+241%), ‘cuckold’ (+224%) and huge tits (+172%).
When compared to the rest of the world, Ukrainian visitors are +728% more likely to view the ‘Russian’ category, +157% more into ‘Fisting’ and +112% more for ‘Party’ videos.
15. Netherlands
For 2021, ‘MILF’ moved up 2 positions to become the most popular search in the Netherlands, while the previous favorite ‘Dutch’ moved down 2 in rank. Other terms with rank changes include ‘massage’ (+4), ‘asian’ (+12) and ‘squirt’ (+10). Trending searches included ‘turk porno’ (+535%), ‘gay porn’ (+520%) and ‘swap’ (+284%). When compared to the rest of the world, Dutch visitors are +89% more likely to view the Popular With Women category, +80% more into Scissoring and +56% more into Outdoor videos.
16. Argentina
In Argentina, the number 1 search remained ‘Argentina’. Searches for ‘colonas’ (big ass) moved up 24 spots and ‘casero’ (referring to homemade videos) moved up 47. Trending terms for 2021 included ‘gloryhole’ (+324%) and ‘trans’ (+183%). When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Argentina were +143% more likely to view the ‘Brazilian’ category, +117% more into Pornhub’s ‘Verified Models’ and +104% interested in the ‘Pornstar’ category.
17. Colombia
In 2021, ‘hentai’ moved up 3 spots to become the most searched term in Colombia, leaving ‘colombiana’, ‘colombia’ and ‘milf’ to take up the following 3 spots. Searches for ‘trans’ saw a big increase by +144% in 2021, as well as a +129% increase in ‘trio’ and +95% increase in ‘romantico’ searches.
When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Colombia are +321% more likely to view ‘SFW’ content, +206% more into ‘Brazilian’ and +142% more into the ‘Latina’ video category.
18. Russia
In 2021, the Cyrillic spelling for Russian became the number one search in Russia, followed by ‘hentai’ and ‘MILF’. Terms with big rank changes included ‘bdsm’ (+23), ‘anime’ (+14) and ‘furry’ (+13). 2021’s trending terms in Russia included Cyrillic for ‘big boobs’, ‘big ass’, ‘gentle sex’ and ‘cum inside’. When compared to the rest of the world, Russian visitors are +171% more into Solo Female videos, +123% more into Hentai and +102% more into Scissoring.
19. Sweden
The top 3 searches in Sweden remained ‘Swedish’, ‘MILF’ and ‘Svensk’ for 2021. The rest of the list had several big gainers including ‘asmr’ (+24), ‘Svensk porr’ (+75) and ‘asian’ (+18). Trending searches included ‘female gloryhole’ (+957%), ‘Czech gloryhole’ (+377%) and ‘cum on belly’ (+293%).
Sweden is one of the few countries to have a male pornstar as their favorite, in this case it’s Johnny Sinns. When compared to the rest of the world, Swedes are +69% more into watching the Scissoring category, +58% more into Anal and +53% more into Cartoon.
20. Chile
In 2021, searches for ‘MILF’ moved up 4 positions to become the #1 search in Chile. Big rank changes include ‘Argentina’ (+11), ‘culonas’ (+24), ‘lesbianas’ (+10) and ‘Naruto’ (+30). Trending searches included ‘Jordi El Nino Pola’ (+318%) who is also Chile’s most searched pornstar, ahead of Yinyleon and Esperanza Gomez. When compared to the rest of the world, visitors from Chile are +351% more likely to watch the Scissoring category, +123% more into Brazilian videos and +80% more into Big Ass.
https://www.glamour.com/story/mainstream-porn-transgender-performers
How Mainstream Porn Is Finally Making Room for Trans Performers
Grooby is one of the largest and most popular producers of transgender porn in the world. Since 1996, the company, owned by Steven Grooby, has been creating and marketing adult entertainment featuring trans women. It began with flagship site Shemale Yum, which was followed by Ladyboy-Ladyboy, Black Shemale Hardcore, Shemale Pornstar, and over two dozen others. But as awareness of trans issues has gained traction broadly, and small producers and outspoken activists within the porn industry have advocated for more respectful and realistic representation, Grooby was faced with a problem: Should it change its successful branding to reflect less derogatory terminology? If it took terms like shemale and “tranny” out of its site names, search terms, and film titles, would it lose its market share to other companies that were willing to keep using words that upset performers but beckoned consumers?
“In terms of SEO, words like shemale and tranny are searched exponentially higher than other terms” for transgender content in porn, says Kristel Penn, marketing and editorial director at Grooby. “Our product was reaching those looking for it without diluting the results of those looking for nonadult services.” But sensibilities were changing, and the pressure to abandon outdated and damaging terminology for transgender people was growing everywhere—but especially in the porn community.
And it was about time.
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| Trans activist and performer Venus Lux Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images |
Trans pornography has always been a small segment of the overall porn industry in America—Penn says, “it has a minute market share in the adult industry overall”—but it’s always been popular within that niche. Viewership for the genre has increased steadily since the 1990s, and exploded in the past half decade. Searches for the word transgender have gone up by nearly 300 percent over the past three years on Pornhub alone, according to research the company compiled specifically for this article. And trans porn is bankable. In 2015, Adam Grayson of production company Evil Empire told IBT that trans porn was his most popular genre. “In terms of revenue per scene or movie? Hands down, without a question,” he said. “Nothing even touches it. And we sell it at a price premium…because we can get it.” Fans of trans erotica are extremely loyal, as there’s relatively little content available to them that fills their needs.
But despite the money that trans performers have made for producers, their work has been mired in cringeworthy epithets, reductive stereotypes, and predictable (and often offensively nonrepresentative) scenes for decades. Models had long been at the mercy of producers and marketers more concerned with making a buck than representing performers with dignity—part of the reason it’s been such a long, slow climb to respectability.
Transsexual performers were named on the so-called Cambria List, which discouraged the creation of pornography that included elements considered obscene by federal prosecutors back in 2001 (in anticipation of the conservative George W. Bush years). Also on the list? Bondage, interracial sex, and facial cum shots. But where most of these elements have become common in porn over the past 16 years, trans porn remained somewhat sequestered in its own corner of the industry. There weren’t many producers who were willing to take the chance, and those who did were worried about pushing the envelope too far.
“There was this centralized model, where there’s [a few] porn companies that hire trans people, and they’re each run by one guy who decides how it’s supposed to look,” says Tobi Hill-Meyer, a trans-positive porn director and the editor of Nerve Endings, a collection of trans-centric erotic fiction. “Everything becomes really cookie-cutter, because they make something and it works, and then they don’t want to do anything else.”
Hill-Meyer remembers the first time she got hired by a mainstream trans-porn studio as a performer. She was to shoot a 30-minute masturbation scene. “They literally had me scripted out by the minute,” she recalls. “I didn’t get to make decisions about what would be erotic. Someone else made the decisions and told me what I should be doing. And of course, that someone else making the decision was following the direction of one of those 12 rich, white, cisgender guys who ran everything.”
These same decision-makers wanted to film what their viewers—other cisgender men—wanted to see trans women do. It may come as a surprise to some that the majority of pornography featuring trans women is consumed by cisgender men who identify as heterosexual. But it’s a truth well-known among porn industry insiders. Pornhub reports that men are 63 percent more likely to search for transgender-related pornography, and xHamster says a full 87.5 percent of their searches for the word “shemale” are from men. “There’s the basic general rule that mainstream porn is always marketed to men,” says Hill-Meyer. And what those male viewers have learned to expect from trans porn, it seems, is trans women with erect penises who penetrate their partners—whether that’s what most trans women want to do in their real lives or not.
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| Kelly Pierce @mrskellypierce |
In most mainstream trans porn, says RS, a queer, nonbinary, trans, femme porn performer, “It’s clear that the sex is not for [the performers]; it’s for someone else. It’s for the male gaze, it’s for that viewer who just wants to see these things.” Though viewership for trans female porn has been diversifying—Kristel Penn of Grooby reports that they’ve seen an influx of trans-identifying viewers, and Kelly Pierce says that she’s been gaining female cam viewers recently—most trans porn is still made by male directors or producers, with other men in mind.
“Men, when they see a beautiful trans woman and like what she’s got downstairs, they think that the trans woman thinks just like they do,” says Kelly Pierce, a former porn performer who now performs via webcam. “A lot of porn viewership likes trans women on top [penetrating a partner]. So they’re putting trans women into sexual activities that they might not normally do. You have to use your penis, for instance. But the majority of trans women don’t want their penises touched. The majority don’t want to do anything with their penis.”And while it may be lucrative to make porn that plays into viewers’ fantasies, it can be detrimental for performers whose gender identity is tied up with body dysmorphia. Many trans women in the porn industry—and sex work more generally—enter the industry to fund their physical transitions. They plan to purchase breast implants, facial surgery, or sexual reassignment surgery—often referred to as “bottom surgery”—with their earnings. But that puts trans female performers into a bind: “I know a lot of trans women who are stuck with the duality of wanting to have bottom surgery,” says RS, “but not being able to because their source of income depends on them having [a penis].”
A lot of trans porn used to (and still does) revolve around the element of surprise. In many cases, the “downstairs,” as Kelly Pierce calls it, is revealed partway through the scene, and treated at first with horror…then as a taboo turn-on. “It’s erotic for everyone because there’s so much taboo,” says RS, “but that kind of situation can be extremely unfair for a trans feminine person. It often is. A lot of assault comes from that kind of setting.”
Violent assault isn’t just a scary campfire story for trans women, either. Although recent strides in transgender acceptance, like Laverne Cox’s advocacy, Caitlin Jenner’s headline-grabbing comments, and Amazon’s barrier-breaking drama Transparent, have drawn public attention to transgender issues, they’ve also increased trans exposure to violence. Crimes against trans people—especially trans women of color—are at an all-time high in America. There were 27 reported homicides of transgender individuals in the United States in 2016—a record high. And so far, 2017 has seen 18.
In such dire circumstances, some proponents of transgender rights hope that more responsible representation in adult entertainment could serve an educational purpose for the general public. “People are naturally ignorant when it comes to sexuality and gender identity, because there is a lack of education,” says Venus Lux, an outspoken trans activist and winner of the 2016 AVN Award for Transgender Performer of the Year. “It’s not like they encounter transgender people on the streets to be able to ask them questions.” That leaves many cisgender individuals with few options when they’re curious about transgenderism. If they search for the word “trans” online, they’re likely to find porn, which may be their first and sometimes only experience with trans people.
Performer and director Dana Vespoli, who works with TransSensual, a trans-positive production company, says that it’s not just about educating cisgender people: Many trans people are learning about themselves through porn too. “I think about young people in parts of the United States like the South, the Midwest, that are realizing they’re trans,” says Vespoli. “If they’re going and accessing [porn], I want them to see themselves represented in a way that’s nuanced and shown in a positive light.”
Vespoli is far from the only pornographer who feels that way. After decades of being treated as little more than a sideshow, the trans porn genre is starting to demand more recognition and dignity—and making its own internal changes to get the ball rolling. A great example is the evolution of the Tranny Awards, an online competition that Grooby began in 2007. “At the time, there was a lack of trans representation at the major adult award shows,” says Penn. “It was meant to be an informal online competition,” but it was so well received that it quickly evolved into a one-night event at a nightclub, then into its current iteration as a three-day convention and stage show. But as the Tranny Awards gained renown, so did their unfortunate choice of monikers.
Potential sponsors were leery of attaching themselves to the word “tranny,” and activists vocally denounced the name. Performers from both the mainstream and indie sides of the porn industry agitated for the awards show that ostensibly was made to “honor” them to change its name to something that sounded honorable, rather than derogatory. In 2014, Grooby, at last, made the switch to “the Transgender Erotica Awards.”
By the time the TEAs were rebranded, the company had already been promoting properties with the words “shemale” and “ladyboy” for nearly two decades. But Grooby had seen the writing on the wall: Trans activists, porn performers, and even lots of people in the general public wanted change. So Grooby decided to start a rebranding process across many of its properties. “We do understand why this terminology has been an issue with folks and ultimately we want to do right by our performers and fans. Our intention has always been to show respect to our performers,” says Penn.
After years of careful planning, Grooby officially renamed its flagship site—formerly Shemale Yum—GroobyGirls.com on August 15, 2017. “The site has been around for 20 years and is our most established brand,” says Penn. It’s a huge move, and Grooby isn’t going to stop. “Our remaining sites and future DVDs will be rebranded in the months ahead,” Penn declares.
This dramatic move is only a part of a trend in adult entertainment toward treating transgender performers with more respect on camera, in marketing, and on red carpets. Back in 2013, for instance, the Transsexual Performer of the Year award was presented onstage during the "Oscars of Porn"—the AVN Awards—for the first time, giving them far more visibility in one of the world's most media-saturated porn industry events.
Part of presenting trans performers with dignity means partnering them with more diverse scene partners. Trans people have just as many sexual orientations as cisgender people, but until the past few years, trans feminine performers were almost always paired with men in their scenes. There’s a growing body of trans porn content from a number of studios with similar pairings. “It’s blowing people’s minds,” says Lux, “because lesbian porn in that capacity is changing.”
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| The cast of 'Real F*cking Girls' (from left: Aubrey Kate, Mona Wales, Natassia Dreams, Kelli Lox) accepting the Best DVD Award at the Transgender Erotic Awards show. Alan Tom/Altomic Visuals |
Later this month, one of the industry’s leading production companies, Wicked Pictures, will release its star performer jessica drake’s showcase film, jessica drake Is Wicked, which will feature drake in a four-way all-female orgy with three trans partners. “We had a level of integration of trans [performers] within Wicked Pictures productions, which has never been done in its 25-year history of operation,” says Venus Lux, who is one of the women in the scene. This film follows on the heels of Real Fucking Girls, a Grooby film about trans women in lesbian relationships from 2016. “The movie swept all three major adult award shows,” says Kristel Penn—a first for a transgender film.
Of course, trans women aren’t the only transgender folks that the general public could stand to learn more about through porn—there’s a growing field of trans male performers in the wings. Buck Angel, a trans advocate who rose to fame in the early 2000s, has made porn for over a decade, pioneered sex toys for trans men, and traveled the world as an advocate for trans acceptance. His latest pornographic outing, Buck Angel Superstar, is a big-budget, dramatic feature film based on his life. Dana Vespoli, who directed it, is hopeful that Buck Angel Superstar will do well with female audiences—or any audience. “I want to shoot more and have more representation of FTM performers,” she says.“Pornography reaches many people,” Angel says via e-mail. “[Trans people] have become more visible in porn, but I would say that this is more with trans women. Trans men still seem to be underrepresented.”
Finding the audience for trans men in porn has been a sticking point for decades, but experimentation is finally starting to get under way. “Sometimes you have to see something visually before you imagine it as an option for yourself—and how better to do that than show big-name gay porn stars having sex with trans men and loving it?” says Cyd St. Vincent, founder of the company Bonus Hole Boys, which St. Vincent describes as “the first gay porn website featuring trans guys.” The formula seems to be working. “Hundreds of people write to me telling me they didn’t even know trans men existed, and that our porn was their first exposure!”
And, though the focus on gay men as an audience is gaining traction, trans male performer Viktor Belmont reports, “I’m a gay porn performer, but my fan base is women.” St. Vincent, too, says, “The majority of our fans are gay men…but we have a huge following of women, as well.”
It seems that trans men in porn appeal to multiple demographics, many of whom aren’t even being marketed to yet. According to Pornhub, there’s a wide-open audience that’s just starting to consider the possibilities, particularly when it comes to trans men.
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| Buck Angel Chris Weeks/Getty Images |
“The number one [transgender]-related search is ‘FTM’ (female to male)” by a large margin, according to Pornhub’s findings. The site hosts a vast amount of content featuring trans women (much of it labeled “shemale,” unfortunately), but there’s simply less trans male content to go around, and it seems that people are hungry to find more.
But porn featuring trans men is susceptible to the same tropes and stagnation as the trans female porn that’s been on the market for decades. “People really like to cast trans men in a sort of ‘genital reveal’ sort of way that can feel sort of trope-y,” says Viktor Belmont. “I would never yuck anyone’s yum, but in a porn if that’s the only storyline going on, it can feel a little repetitive and stale.”
Luckily, there’s a robust group of small, independent porn companies creating work that depicts trans people in a myriad of ways that reflect their authentic desires and sexualities—and they’ve been doing it for a while. The inclusivity and authenticity of indie, queer, feminist porn has long been an incubator for change within the more mainstream side of the industry, especially when it comes to trans representation. Tobi Hill-Meyer, for instance, gained traction nearly a decade ago as the first visibly transgender woman to perform for Crash Pad Series, Pink & White Productions’ flagship series, which hires performers of many gender identities. Buck Angel started his own website, featuring himself and other trans men, in 2002. And Trouble Films, a company launched by Courtney Trouble as NoFauxxx.com, was giving trans performers of all identities screen time in 2003.
And the contemporary landscape of indie porn is more diverse than ever. Performer RS has worked with a number of small independent companies, including AORTA Films, which allows performers to explore their various trans, nonbinary, and other gender nonconforming identities.
Foxhouse Films, created by performance artist and adult performer Alyx Fox, allows its “multigendered and polysexual” performers to explore their sexualities regardless of their gender identities, and encourages trans, nonbinary, cisgender, and genderqueer performers alike to enact their desires on camera. “We try to capture authentic sex,” says Fox. “It’s easier for us to work from performer desires and what they want to do…. It has to be something they are excited about.”
And performers themselves are starting to also create porn, thus taking the means of production into their own hands. Says Hill-Meyer, “the big companies are making less money, and the tools of being able to produce your own porn are getting super accessible.” Hill-Meyer has created several documentary porn films about trans women herself, to much acclaim, and she’s seeing more trans individuals create their own work all the time. “That additional accessibility is radically shifting the possibilities for people who don’t want to do what the 12 wealthy, cis, white guys want them to do.”
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| Viktor Belmont @viktorbelmont |
Webcamming too is offering an outlet for trans performers to express themselves sexually on camera—on their own terms. Kelly Pierce has been performing exclusively on cam (sometimes with her husband) for the past six years, and she loves it. “I’m just really thrilled that I can control my career, finally. And I can be myself!... My cam fans get to see me on a more regular basis, whereas in porn, they just see you as a fantasy, and they don’t see you as a person."
As trans visibility increases—for better or worse—under the Trump administration’s conservative policies, the general public is growing more aware and more curious. “What’s happening,” says Alyx Fox, “is there are a lot of people who are having an evolving moment of consciousness. I think people are starting to have sexual desires that are more fluid and identities that are more fluid.”
The porn industry, from the biggest and most established companies down to individual cam performers, is finally getting ready to meet these viewers’ needs. And the best way for consumers to ensure this evolution keeps going?
Kristel Penn at Grooby—who's creating a safe and respectful place for trans women to perform in mainstream pornography—pleads, “To those reading this: Please, please, please pay for your porn.”
“By paying us and supporting our projects,” says Viktor Belmont, “we can keep creating media for you to enjoy!”
Lynsey G. is a veteran porn journalist and author of the book Watching Porn: And Other Confessions of an Adult Entertainment Journalist. As part of our Summer of Sex, she'll be taking a look at the ways pornography informs and subverts social issues. Her installment on mainstream porn and race can be found here, and her piece on mainstream porn and ageism can be found here.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2201.04 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2377 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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