Women's erotica

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Women's erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to women target-demographic of various sexual preferences. When erotica is specifically directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available from a variety of media including video games, websites, books, comics, short stories, films, photography, magazines, hentai and audio. The content may cover many aspects of sexuality, from relationships to fetishes; the main idea being to convey sex-positivism from a woman's perspective, or to feature female empowerment and sexual fantasies.

Contents

Websites

Because of the privacy and anonymity offered by the internet, women have increasingly embraced erotic material online. In 2003, Nielsen Netratings noted that more than a quarter of all porn surfers were female. [1] The first women's erotica subscription-based website, Purve, was launched in 1998. The site featured photos of nude men culled from gay sites, articles and sex advice. Sssh.com, a similar subscription site that features original movies and photographic content, was launched in 1999 by Angie Rowntree, who was later inducted into the Adult Video News Hall of Fame, Internet Founders Division, in recognition of her efforts to help establish and grow an online market for women's erotica. [2] In 2015, Sssh.com became the first porn-for-women site to win the XBIZ Award for Best Alternative Site. The first women's adult directory was Ladylynx which featured links to galleries and site reviews. Kara's Links, a similar directory site, began operating soon after.

Audio

Audio erotica targeted vision-impaired people for many years and became more popular around the late 2010s. However, it commenced much earlier; in the late 20th century, phone sex emerged, where listeners would call in and imagine themselves as a participant, which tends to be the earliest form of pornographic sound. [3] As time went on, more work emerged and audio erotica became a small market in pornography that offered audio-described porn, explicit content in podcasting, erotic ASMR videos, music soundtracks in porn videos, gendering of orgasmic sounds in porn and orgasmic vocal performances in popular music. [3] Nowadays, the most popular phone apps for audio erotica are Quinn and Dipsea, which were founded by women and tended to market to women since they wanted it to be for the founders, friends, and all women who enjoy erotica. [3] Its most popular genre is the male-for-female (M4F) boyfriend experience (BFE). [3]

Fiction

Erotic literature for women has seen explosive growth in the period of 2010–2015. Publishers report that women's erotica novels consistently sell well. [4]

The first publishing imprint of erotic fiction for women was Black Lace, launched in Britain in 1992. It remained unique in publishing for over a decade and was only recently joined in the marketplace by big-name publishers Harlequin, Kensington and Avon, who have released their own "black label" lines for female readers.

The first series of books to feature erotic short stories for women was Herotica, first published by Down There Press in 1996. Author and sex activist Susie Bright founded the series and edited the first three volumes. A similar series is Best Women's Erotica from Cleis Press which has appeared annually since 2001.

Internet-based publisher Ellora's Cave produces what it calls "romantica" - romance novels with explicit sex scenes. The company originally produced e-books but has now moved into printed publishing.

Recently, many readers have been finding their recommendations via BookTok, a subsection of TikTok. [5] Fanfiction is another form of women's erotica, with authors often using pseudonyms to hide their identities. [6]

Films

Women were not acknowledged as a potential audience by pornographic filmmakers until 1985 when former adult star Candida Royalle created her first adult movie for women, Femme. The movie featured explicit sex but focused on the woman's pleasure and refused to include "pop shots" (external ejaculation scenes). Since then, she has made 16 adult films for women. In April 2007, she launched a new line of films, Femme Chocolat, which depicts the sexual fantasies of Black women.

For many years, Royalle was the sole producer of erotic films for women. In 1997, Oscar-nominated director Lars von Trier started the company Puzzy Power, and together with Lene Børglum started producing pornographic films for women, starting with Constance (1998) and Pink Prison (1999). In July 2009, women's magazine Cosmopolitan (German edition) ranked Pink Prison as #1 in its Top Five of Die Besten Frauenpornos (best women's porn), calling it the "Vorbild für die neue Porno-Generation" (role model for the new porn-generation). [7]

In the 21st century, a number of other women have stepped in and created their own vision of women's erotica. These include:

In 2006 Playgirl in partnership with adult company Wicked produced and released their own line of adult films for women.

Television

In 2009, Dusk! TV started in the Netherlands with a 24-hour linear television channel with only erotica and female-friendly porn. All the above-mentioned films are broadcast. More women are starting to produce erotic films; mostly small, independent products and usually from a sense of dissatisfaction with mainstream porn. The content of the television channel is judged and chosen by female audience via Dusk! panel website. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Magazines

Cosmopolitan was the first magazine to include a nude male centrefoldBurt Reynolds in April 1972. Australia's Cleo magazine followed suit in November 1972 with a spread of actor Jack Thompson.

Playgirl magazine, an answer to Hugh Hefner's Playboy , first appeared in 1973 and offered a full-nude centerfold with its second issue. The magazine regularly features nude male models, erotic fiction and sex advice. While the magazine is ostensibly aimed at women, former editor Michelle Zipp has said that around 80% of the readership is gay men. [12] However, feminist and sex journalist Megan Hussey contests the claim that Playgirl was a gay magazine, saying that she led Playgirl's Playgirl Posse fan club, which had a 95 percent female membership. [13] Women's erotica magazines include:

Anime and manga

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotica</span> Category of sexually stimulating media

Erotica is art, literature or photography that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right. Erotica also exists in a number of subgenres including gay, lesbian, women's, monster, tentacle erotica and bondage erotica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic film</span> Films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer

Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, sex films, 18+ films, or also known as blue films, are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornography in Japan</span>

In Japan, pornography has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos (JAV) refers to the Japanese Adult Video industry. Animated films are referred to as hentai in English, but in Japan the terms "adult anime" and "erotic animation" are used. In addition to pornographic videos and magazines featuring live actors, there are now categories of pornographic manga and anime, and pornographic computer games.

<i>Playgirl</i> American womens magazine

Playgirl was an American magazine that had historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, and celebrity journalism, as well as original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, though it developed a significant gay male readership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susie Bright</span> American writer and feminist

Susannah Bright is an American feminist, author and journalist, often on the subject of politics and sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candida Royalle</span> American pornographic filmmaker (1950–2015)

Candida Royalle was an American producer and director of couples-oriented pornography, pornographic actress, sex educator, and sex-positive feminist. She was a member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic magazine</span> Magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature

Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult magazines or sex magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is the case in softcore pornography, and, in the usual case of hardcore pornography, depictions of masturbation, oral, manual, vaginal, or anal sex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian erotica</span> Visual art depiction of female-female sexuality

Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism to be erotic.

<i>All About Anna</i> 2005 film by Jessica Nilsson

All About Anna is a 2005 Danish erotic film directed by Jessica Nilsson and starring Gry Bay and Mark Stevens. The film is explicit in its exploration of sexual relationships.

<i>Constance</i> (1998 film) 1998 erotic film

Constance is a 1998 feminist erotic film directed by Knud Vesterskov and produced by Puzzy Power, a division of Lars von Trier's film company Zentropa. It was the first hardcore pornographic film ever to have been produced by an established mainstream film studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zentropa</span> Danish film company

Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film Europa (1991), which started the collaboration between von Trier and Jensen.

Petra Joy is a German feminist film director, film producer, TV producer, distributor, author, and photographer. She lives in Brighton, England. Along with Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle, Maria Beatty, and others, she is one of the pioneers in producing pornography for women. Her genre is described as "art-core," meaning the focus is on sexuality from the female perspective, female pleasure, and creative, sensual play. Common themes in her erotic films include safe sex, men seen as sexual objects, female fantasies, and male bisexuality.

Feminist views on pornography range from total condemnation of the medium as an inherent form of violence against women to an embracing of some forms as a medium of feminist expression. This debate reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to those on prostitution, BDSM, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism, particularly in Anglophone (English-speaking) countries. This division was exemplified in the feminist sex wars of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography activists against pro-pornography ones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex in film</span> Sex in mainstream film

Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, especially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or have been banned or censored by governments, although attitudes have changed much along the years and a more permissive social environment has developed in certain parts of the world, notably in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In countries with a film rating system, films which contain explicit sex scenes typically receive a restricted classification. Nudity in film may be regarded as sexual or as non-sexual.

Dusk! is a monthly subscription adult film television channel and website dedicated to "porn for women". Based in the Netherlands, Dusk! is available on all Dutch cable operators, 15 other European countries and the United States. The channel broadcasts 24/7 and is owned by 2GrapesMedia.

Feminist pornography, also known by other terms in internet such as 'ethical porn' or 'fair-trade porn' is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and members of the LGBT community.

Porn for women, women's porn or women's pornography is pornography aimed specifically at the female market, and often produced by women. It rejects the view that pornography is only for men, and seeks to make porn that women enjoy watching instead of what is being offered in male-centric mainstream pornography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sssh.com</span> Female erotica website

Sssh.com is an independent members-only female erotica site and the first "porn for women" website to be recognized by the mainstream adult industry, winning the XBIZ Award for Best Alternative Website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian erotica</span> 19th-century British sexual art and literature

Victorian erotica is a genre of sexual art and literature which emerged in the Victorian era of 19th-century Britain. Victorian erotica emerged as a product of a Victorian sexual culture. The Victorian era was characterized by paradox of rigid morality and anti-sensualism, but also by an obsession with sex. Sex was a main social topic, with progressive and enlightened thought pushing for sexual restriction and repression. Overpopulation was a societal concern for the Victorians, thought to be the cause of famine, disease, and war. To curb the threats of overpopulation and to solve other social issues that were arising at the time, sex was socially regulated and controlled. New sexual categories emerged as a response, defining normal and abnormal sex. Heterosexual sex between married couples became the only form of sex socially and morally permissible. Sexual pleasure and desire beyond heterosexual marriage was labelled as deviant, considered to be sinful and sinister. Such deviant forms included masturbation, homosexuality, prostitution and pornography. Procreation was the primary goal of sex, removing it from the public, and placing it in the domestic. Yet, Victorian anti-sexual attitudes were contradictory of genuine Victorian life, with sex underlying much of the cultural practice. Sex was simultaneously repressed and proliferated. Sex was featured in medical manuals such as The Sexual Impulse by Havelock Ellis and Functions and Disorders of Reproductive Organs by William Acton, and in cultural magazines like The Penny Magazine and The Rambler. Sex was popular in entertainment, with much of Victorian theatre, art and literature including and expressing sexual and sensual themes.

References

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  2. Blocks, Iris. "AVN Announces 2014 Hall of Fame Inductees". AVN Magazine. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Bellas, Athena; McAlister, Jodi (2023-07-03). "Let me take care of you: domestic caretaking fantasies in boyfriend experience audio erotica". Porn Studies. 10 (3): 319–333. doi: 10.1080/23268743.2023.2220721 . ISSN   2326-8743.
  4. Patrick, Bethanne Kelly (July 24, 2006). "It's Not Just You—It Really Is Hot in Here". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  5. Jerasa, Sarah; Boffone, Trevor (2021). "BookTok 101: TikTok, Digital Literacies, and Out‐of‐School Reading Practices". Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 65 (3): 219–226. doi:10.1002/jaal.1199. ISSN   1081-3004.
  6. Döring, Nicola (2020), Lykins, Amy D. (ed.), "Erotic Fan Fiction", Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–8, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59531-3_65-1, ISBN   978-3-319-59531-3 , retrieved 2023-11-27
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  8. Porn for women and Dusk! TV
  9. The Guardian, Porn made for women, by women
  10. Huffington Post Vive la Révolution! The Superheroines of Porn Domination
  11. The Daily Beast Organic, Fair-Trade Porn: On the Hunt for Ethical Smut
  12. Michael Rowe, "Great Scott: After years of struggling with his sexuality, Playgirl centerfold Scott Merritt is coming all the way out. To his surprise, so is Playgirl", The Advocate, Issue 895, August 19, 2003
  13. Hussey, Megan (March 10, 2021). "Remembering Playgirl: Entertainment for Women (No, Really!)". Sexpert.Com. Sexpert.
  14. Taylor, Jerome (May 28, 2009). "Can an ex-civil servant finally persuade women to buy erotica?". Independent.co.uk . Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  15. The f word review of Gluck
  16. Alley Cat website translated into English