The world of 3DX or just erotica in general is huge! There are so many different forms of art expressing all sorts of fetishes and depicting a persons’ wildest fantasies. From more realistic settings to settings of fantasy. In short, remember Rule 34: “If it exists, there is porn of it”.
To each their own, and so there are many things one can write about. However with this column I’d like to address a specific subject: women and erotica. Now I have been active for quite a while for Affect3D and I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of our customers consist of men. But why would this be? Aren’t women just as interested in porn as men? Or do we have to fall back on stereotyping and say that “men are just perverts” and “women don’t like porn?” (No offense guys! Like I said, those are just typical stereotypes)
It’s true that men might be more open about porn than women are. More often you will find boys talking with each other about for example porn magazines than you will find girls. Of course this is dependent on cultural and social differences, but this is just generally speaking. This might be one of the reasons there is less to find about the subject women and porn, than men and porn. Now wouldn’t it be interesting to dive deeper into the aspect of “women and erotica” and find out if there really are big differences between male and female interests? That’s what I would like to start with this column. Today I’d like to show you the tip of the iceberg, so you will all get a general idea of what this is all about. Please note that this first column will mainly introduce various aspect and raise some questions, which answers will hopefully be revealed in the columns to come.
Women and porn
So question number one: Do woman actually like porn? When you type this into Google you get a lot of different search results, from “surprising facts about woman and porn” to articles stating “this is what woman look for in porn.” After searching around for a while I found an interesting article “What kind of porn turns woman on.”[1] It talks about the common perception that woman are turned off by porn that is made for men, by men. Women like female-friendly pornography; a statement you must have already heard of before. The article then mentions a research that has been done on porn patterns that actually suggests otherwise. I quote:
“While most women don’t watch porn, those who do are not watching female-friendly porn but rather the same mainstream, male-targeted, hardcore sites that men view. (..) “There is a real interesting phenomenon in women’s sexuality—not seen in men’s—and that is this divide between what erotica should be and what actually turns women on.”
So in short they conclude that the few women who watch porn actually like the same type of porn that men do. However they might feel like they shouldn’t like it, because of social or political standards. An interesting statement, if you ask me. The article then continues with giving us a different reason for the search patterns on the porn websites. The results might show that a small portion of women like the same type of porn as men, but isn’t that just because there is not enough porn made especially for women? I quote:
“If the vast majority of porn on the market is made by and for men—and it is—is it any wonder that a relatively small portion of women wants to watch it? To me, that number just speaks to the opportunity on the market for porn made with a female viewership in mind.”
So what is it that woman actually want? Female-friendly soft porn, or the more men orientated porn?
Women and 3DX
The interesting thing of 3DX is that you can create whatever you want. You can drift as far away from reality as you like, so in that case it differs quite a bit from real life porn. Now what do women think about this? It turns out that if you look for information about women and 3D porn there is not much to find, at least officially.
For starters there are some female artists here at Affect3D. For example Hibbli3D and Smerinka are two women that have found their way to the world of 3DX art. If you look around on the internet, on sites such as Deviantart or Patreon, even more female artists can be found. The majority might still consist of male artists, but this at least shows that there is a growing interest on the women’s side as well.
Then what about female consumers? Are most of our customers indeed male, or is there perhaps a growing number of females as well? And what kind of 3DX fetishes are they interested in?
In the months to come I would like to form an answer to some of the questions raised in this column. I’m planning on contacting some artists to ask them for their views on this matter and perhaps I’ll be able to start a short survey and get many women involved. Of course everyone is also free to join in the discussion by leaving comments. Perhaps you have some question of your own you’d like me to answer or a certain fetish you’d like me to research. Or you can just share your personal opinion or experiences on the subject. I hope that at the end I will be able to give you a good image of “what women want.”
[1] http://www.alternet.org/gender/what-kind-porn-turns-women
Image sources:
Featured cover image – Haneto’s pixiv
Inserted image: Hibbli3D website
Sarrana
June 21, 2016The biggest thing to understand about this whole scenario are some of the basics in the processes that occur between the two main genders for arousal. Some good lessons and research in sexology will help you get better results, but here’s some quick rundowns.
The start and end product of both male and female arousal in regards to psychological response are the same, but it is how the sexually arousing stimuli (or turn-ons) is processed psychology that ultimately garners a large aspect of the pornographic material that females and males consume.
A short run down, as the full details can always be researched to a greater understanding. In female psychological sexual response sexual cognitions/thoughts greatly increase a woman’s testosterone levels, though initial sexual response can come from anything to start the sexual cognitions. In male psychological sexual response, cognition first begins at identifying and evaluating a stimulus, categorizing the stimulus as sexual, and an affecivet response. This results in men preferring stimuli as that can be easily identified, preferring the stimuli to correlate with their desires, fetishes and sexual preferences, categorizing the stimulus as sexual, and preferring to place themselves in the sexual scenario.
If you were to look at porn and pin-up posters, most of these check off. Visual stimuli as being the preferred stimulus as that is the easiest to identify as sexual. A massive variety of videos that emphasize particulars for easy evaluation against their own fetishes. Objectification of the stimulus to more easily few the stimulus as sexual. And finally, a large majority of porn focusing on the preferred stimuli (only focusing on the female actress) to allow men to better place themselves in the shoes of the male porn actor, and having the porn actor look at the viewer for viewer inclusion.
Female psychological sexual response is very straight-forward when compared with men’s, but it is much harder to market towards and there’s no easy route or guaranteed knowledge that you’ll get a positive response from women when making porn directed towards them. The main reason is that there is no real accepted guideline for the initial stages for psychological sexual arousal, there are theories about aspects like women “needing intimacy” and how it “prompts them to engage in stimuli”, but those don’t apply to every situation. Also, the main stage that generates psychological arousal is very vague and relies on numerous factors, emotions and personal experiences being a couple big ones.
The cognitive stage of psychological sexual arousal in females is something that porn producers can hardly compete against. They are facing against a mental video that can be just as detailed to the female in the heat of arousal as a regular porn video, but also has the ability to be anything a female desires at any point in time. She doesn’t have to spend 30 minutes searching for a specific fetish, or doesn’t have to worry about stray aspects that may shut off her arousal. But the biggest thing is having fetishes that there are simply no videos for that super sexy math teacher at your university that you would give anything to fuck. This is part of where the intimacy theory does come true, no amount of video porn can capture that feel of personal experiences that are entwined with emotions and intimacy.
There are however, aspects that female fantasies currently do not cover. Initial arousal is one, it is harder for a woman to generate an arousing thought or fantasy when not aroused then when she is. Fetish exploration is another, sometimes a woman might not know enough about a fetish that she is interested in to generate her fantasies. And finally, emotional and orgasmic details, basically extremely detailed aspects of how a woman is feeling both emotionally and physically. This is something that is currently covered by written erotica, and is much harder to convey in video form. Written erotica I do believe is the prime consumption of porn by women that is also paid for.
Other aspects of difference include exactly why men and women watch porn. Women don’t need to watch a full episode of porn or even buy anything as they don’t need it. Just need to initiate arousal and then let their mental fantasies do the rest of the work for them. This not only can explain a general amount of porn watched difference between the two genders, but also explains why most women never buy porn. Further, men watch porn more for just sexual arousal. Porn is also watched out of boredom or stress, quickly going to these when on the computer before they can identify that they are bored or stressed; another factor that changes the numbers.
In terms of what sort of porn that can attract more female viewers, here are my tips:
– Make sure that none of the members try to include the viewer. Let all the actors and characters be engaged as possible in the sex act. No breaks for looking at the camera. Hidden characters/actors are fine, just as long as it is not the only one or two actors. Gangbang scenes come to mind in that all that really matters is the person in the center getting gangbanged.
– Give the characters/actors personality. Make them believable, let them have an identity. Objectification of actors and characters results in a feeling of alienation for a lot of women because there is no connection via intimacy, emotion or details. Further, with a lot of the feminist movements going on, many are more offended by objectification than ever, so it has more negative consequences than before.
– Focus on the arousal, the pleasure that the characters/actors are experiencing. Orgasms, moans, begging for more, gradually getting into rougher territory, as long as they are real are all desirable aspects. A woman would want to see all members focusing on sex as much as possible, trying to get the other partners into intense orgasmic states as that is what the woman would want herself. Brazzers does this quite well.
– Do away with pointless set-up scenes that try and put setting or plot to why this sex act is happening. It restricts the fantasy building for females. In this, a singular animated image from an entire porn scene may be more arousing to a female than the entire video.
– Tied with the above pointer, if you don’t have a solid plot, setting or circumstances for the situation, do away with them entirely. This is an aspect that is similar to men, focus on the fetishes. An incestual scene or a train scene may certainly be a fetish, but only if it is focused on for the entire video, if you only mention it in passing at the start (like many porn vids), you start to loose interest in the viewer as they end up becoming disappointed in not seeing the fetish that was portrayed at the start, or a lost of interest in the rest of the video from being shown a non-specific fetish at the start. The Japanese does this better than western porn.
– Some fetishes simply require elaborate set-up time. Incestual fetishes are the prime example of this as there needs to a definite understanding and investment from the viewer in the characters in that they are all members of one family. Otherwise the incestual aspect will have no impact on a viewer. Identify what you are working with, and restrict your fetishes accordingly. Written and comic material will always deal with emotional relationships the best, whereas videos can present scenarios that may take far too long to describe or too complicated to fantasize, like BDSM.
I think I went longer than I should have, but this should help you understand some aspects of why porn is more of a male dominated industry., and may allow you to direct your production to your desired audience a little more.
ZXC146
June 15, 2016please type a commentGOODGOOOD
ammon17
June 16, 2016please type a commentGOODGOOODDD YES!
ZXC146
June 15, 2016please type a comment
DB Spencer
June 9, 2016It all depends on whether I’m in a creator or fan state of mind.
As a female creator of 3DX, I like to portray my characters as real people as much as possible. I like them to giggle, have silly fun, to shiver and purr from tender tickles and scratches, like real people do during sex. For these things are just as important as the “bump and grind” of “male porn”-style intercourse and cumshots.
As a fan of erotica, I’m just as much a lover the classic “bang and burst” of BangBros/Brazzers, as I am a lover of the tender “sensual realism” of Sweetheart Video/Sweet Sinner. All depends on my mood. lol
Wobbegong
June 8, 2016Oh the good old “I should not like this” argument. I think the most important question is what turns on women? The same kind of porn? Because I am pretty sure that nearly all porn can turn on men, unless they have a very specific fetish in my opinion. Does it apply to women? Do they enjoy the rather rough way women are handled in porn “normally” or is it better if there is a back and forth?
At the end, men are much more inclined towards the lewd aspect of life (are there many “cam guys”? I kinda doubt it).
Of course all of this is what I think