Porn Supremacy

Make way for porn's fastest growing demo: women

"I happened to be in a strip club. I had this money...and couldn’t for the life of me get a lap dance. I was the only woman in this topless bar. The dancers kept passing me by and I thought to myself, ‘What’s going on? Do I smell? Do I not look cute enough? What’s wrong with me?” This is where Kassia Wosick’s study of women as consumers in the sex industry began. “I realized it was because I was a woman that I was getting passed over,” she says. “That sparked this question for me: How are women in strip clubs treated? In fact, how are women who want to participate as consumers in the sex industry incorporated into business concepts about customers? What is it like being a female consumer in an industry that had traditionally objectified and exploited women’s bodies particularly for heterosexual male consumption?” For her research, Wosick, a sociologist at NM State University, spent a year on a porn set observing the production process.

Wosick explains that more women are involved behind-the-scenes in porn than one might expect. She also notes that more women then ever before are buying it. "Women have come forward and said, 'Look I like to watch porn. I like to watch porn with my partner, I like to watch it alone; I'm not as disgusted by it as I thought I was going to be or I never was disgusted and now I'm coming out as a porn watcher."

Still, the industry has failed to adequately market to the demographic. "I think that more women have started to enjoy pornography as a sexual outlet, as a way of turning themselves on. I don't think that the porn industry is saying women are our new main customers, but they're realizing that their customers base is continuing to diversify," she says. "I think that by diversifying pornography as a whole, what we'll see is a better reflection of people's sexual desire and that's going to help regular people of the world not feel like we're abnormal as maybe we think we are."

In preparation for her second book, "Pinking" the Sex Industry: Women, Sex Toys and the Home Party Plan Economy, Wosick has focused on many aspects of the adult industry, not just pornography. She has looked at sex toy parties, strip clubs and gigolos. Gigolos, as Wosick points, are an illustration of female sexual prowess. Women who pay for sex and ask for the sex that they want are exercising a right that has been available and widely legitimized for heterosexual males.

Many women are scared to walk into a sex shop or buy a dildo because they don't want to be perceived in a deviant light. People might wonder, Is her partner not enough for her? Maybe she's just hypersexual. All of these conventional opinions limit women. They illustrate perfectly what is called sex negativity.

"We say 'they slept together' instead of 'they had sex,'" Wosick stresses. "Why are we so afraid to say they had sex?" Eliminating taboo, she says, is key.

She suggests reacclimatizing with sexual positivity and its five components as a jumping off point. One: Use appropriate names. If it's a vagina call it that. Two: Know your boundaries and the boundaries of others. As Wosick puts it, "different strokes for different folks." Three: Sex is funny, laugh about it (when appropriate); "People fart during sex, it's funny." Four: Mix it up. "It's okay that there's variety, not everyone wants to have sex in bed or with the same partner or in missionary." Five: Start talking. "We need to talk more about sex and intimacy and love and coming and orgasms and ejaculation."

Doing so will ensure that your freak flag flies proudly at full-mast. "I think that women have so much more sexual agency than they think they do," Wosick says.

"Women are curious," she finalizes. "And really, you never know what you might like."


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