Women love gay porn

What gives?

Some part of me has always been a little curious about this part of myself, and it has made my sexual-identification journey a tad confusing. It was interesting to find that half the sample had done that.”

This observation of temporary gender-fluidity is fascinating to me.

How does gay male porn differ from straight porn, outside of being two (or more) dudes?

Melissa: For me, the real difference is actually a bit of a social rebellion: I'm so used to seeing women degraded [in porn] and whenever I get with a new partner, their first thing they want to see is if I like being degraded.

That makes a difference for me.

Cory : I feel like a lot of mainstream straight porn can feel really stale sometimes.

Gay porn tends to get down to business, and I like that. So, 100% as I watch it every time, or about 50%, as that is the approximate breakdown of the type of videos I watch.

Sonia: A good 50-60%. Sometimes I'll get into very specific little subcategories for a period of time and this ends up being one of them.

Habit: About 90% of that is gay male porn.

Gay porn is all masculinity, but it’s also femininity. In fact, it is a category that over the years has begun to be developed by women for women. Or five.

The stigma 

There is still a stigma around women watching porn (one woman in an interview said she would never talk to her friends about porn watching habits), this in addition to the misunderstood differentiation between porn preference and real life desires. One reddit poster told her boyfriend about watching gay male porn, and he absolutely “freaked out and said it isn't normal for someone who is straight to watch gay porn.” And what do we hate most about this complete dolt criticizing his girlfriend’s porn habits?

Sometimes, it's refreshing to not keep seeing the same gangbang of a loudly moaning gal.

Cate : Men have a hunger and intensity to their play that I find fascinating. I suppose watching it also satisfies voyeuristic tendencies as well. Usually, I'm very into watching really well made queer porn for women. That's why it comes as no surprise that lesbian porn has consistently dominated PornHub searches for well over a decade.

“For one, many older, straight women may feel more comfortable watching gay porn because they don't have to worry about measuring up to a younger, more attractive, or more sexually skilled woman on screen”.

Cate : I find the situational context more believable. That’s how sex should always be.

It’s harder for me to tell when a guy is faking it because I’m not a dude. I suppose watching it also satisfies voyeuristic tendencies as well. When we snap back to reality outside the fantasy, why does it matter what labels we characterize ourselves under? This is why I now prefer bi male porn with one woman and two or more men. But if there was 'normal,' then straight ladies consuming gay porn would definitely be, mathematically speaking." —HelpMyBabySleep,and "Girl, if you were the only one, then the Internet wouldn't be 80 percent Yaoi fan fiction." —Liara T Soni.

In order for women to feel better and more informed about their porn choices, we need to keep talking about it and dissipate this cloud of shame around women consuming the type of porn they like.

It’s possible that women are unable to enjoy heteronormative porn because the power dynamics often don’t appear to be equal. There are a few choice lesbian sex scenes from Hollywood that I have mentally bookmarked – I’m sure I’m not alone in this – in which, while they don’t show everything, the implication of more is enough to get the imagination going, and the accurate portrayal of desire is better than anything you can find on Pornhub.

Cate : I watch porn 3-5 times a week.

Beatrice : A few times a week.

Cory : I watch porn almost every time I masturbate, so lets say around 3-5 days a week.

Habit : I watch porn about once or twice a week.