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Sex

Women Tell Us What Porn They Like

Last week, PornHub released data about the porn categories its female viewers are most into—but it didn't explore why those categories are so popular, so we asked some women to explain.
Image via PornHub

Stop what you're doing: PornHub has released more data about the way the world jerks off. This time, pulling in data from its 60 million–strong user-base, the porn site focused on what women want—which makes sense, considering the female PornHub population is now at around 24 percent.

Taking a look at the global stats, it seems that we overwhelmingly like lesbian porn—bar ladies in Russia, who are very noticeably into butt stuff, and women in many African countries, who are searching for "ebony porn."

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This is all well and good. We now know that women in central Asia are into big dicks and that women in east Asia love hentai more than any other category. But what we don't know is why. In the UK, like the majority of the rest of the world, lesbian porn came out on top, so we spoke to a few British women about whether or not they feel that represents their tastes, and asked them how exactly their tastes have developed.

The porn star has to kind of look like me and be having the type of sex I'm having in real life.

I watched porn for the first time when I was probably about 13 or 14 on the laptop my whole family used. I assume they must have been out of the house, but who knows? Maybe I was into the risk?

I used to watch a lot of lesbian porn and "mainstream" stuff, but I don't anymore, and I'm also really put off by anything that looks too fake or where the women don't look like they're having a good time—basically the "30 minutes of blowjobs and one solid thrust in the vagina and she's come" stuff. Now the porn star has to kind of look like me and kind of be having the type of sex I'm having in real life, or would like to experiment with in real life. I assume this is because I'm a bit more self and sex positive than I was when I was a teenager and know what I want a bit more. If I want a quickie, it's always a guy going down on a girl.

At the moment, I prefer POV porn and a bit of dirty talk and mild BDSM… plus, I'm quite into interracial porn. I'm really not into anal at all because it all just looks a bit painful. Also, I don't like fake boobs; I find jiggly boobs a turn-on, so solid ones put me right off.

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- Steph, 26

Some of the porn I watch is a bit soft, but it's better than the stuff that makes you burst into tears.

I've started watching female-friendly porn. Some of it's a bit soft—like a woman is reading a book at a table and something is happening under said table—but it's better than trawling through porn sites trying to find something that doesn't make you burst into tears.

My first porn experience was when my ex-boyfriend at college tried to get me into watching porn with him, and I'd make him find very specific 1970s stuff where everyone looks very happy. That was my only request. We found a great one set on a boat, where everyone is having an absolute whale of a time. I'd have to put Post-It notes over the side of the screen where the adverts pop up so I didn't see any "wet teen sluts." It was usually two teen girls kissing a bit, but a) they couldn't kiss properly because they were too busy looking at the camera, and b) they were covered in semen.

At college, my next-door neighbor was watching porn, and there were lots of men with huge penises and a girl on top, and she was touching herself. They said to each other: "I can't believe she's taking that massive dick, and she still has to touch herself!" and it made me so frustrated—a lot of porn just propels a myth of female sexuality. That's why I now watch lesbian porn; I can imagine I'm in that scenario, whereas, with heterosexual porn, I don't want to be the girl! She's getting rammed loads, someone comes on her face. Not everyone enjoys that.

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- Jess, 27

I'm kind of surprised the Welsh are so into teen stuff, but otherwise it seems about right.

The first porn I watched was Debbie Does Dallas when I was hanging out with friends. I think I was about 17? I didn't find it sexy at all—it was mainly funny interspersed with boring. It put me off seeking out porn actively for a couple of years.

One of my former partners—with whom I was in a reasonably long-term open relationship—and I used to watch porn together quite a lot. He was unusual, though; I've found most of my partners, male and female, aren't that interested in making it a regular shared activity. I mainly watch on my own now, and less regularly than when I was single. I pretty much only watch lesbian porn, preferably real couple stuff/produced by lesbians. I used to sometimes watch straight porn, but I realized a while ago that while I'm attracted to men and women in person, in the abstract/my fantasy life I'm basically only into women.

I'm not into degradation stuff at all. Light bondage is fine, but anything beyond that isn't for me. A good friend works as a dom and is genuinely into it in her private life, and she's talked me through some of the stuff she's into as a sort of boundaries-testing exercise, and it felt totally alien to me.

In terms of those stats, I'm kind of surprised the Welsh are so into teen stuff, but otherwise, it seems about right.

- Bobbi, 28

My porn watching has changed over the years; it takes more to get me off now.

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I watch black men a lot because, sometimes, with white men, they can remind me of male friends or people's dads—or worse, my dad. I don't want that in my mind, so black men are a "safe watch" for me.

Watching lesbian sex is quite "safe"—I know many friends who've had bad male sex experiences, including me, so sometimes you just want to get off but not have to deal with a penis in your face. I think I use porn more because I'm single. I have casual partners, and I can get off to thoughts of them, but I use porn when I need to get on with it. I will watch about five to six videos and have many orgasms, just because I can.

My porn watching has changed over the years; it takes more to get me off now. I went through a phase of lesbian porn and POV. I went through a phase of really rough, almost violent sex, but I think this was because I was in a weird place in my head in my early twenties and had issues with controlling older men. I then moved to more woman on woman.

If I want a gentle experience without men, I watch lesbian. I don't like women with long false nails, big heels, aggression, arrogant college kids who do disgusting, degrading things to girls, any man wearing socks or sneakers while having sex, massive fake boobs, or blowjobs where the woman chokes.

- Jane, 34

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