Women watch porn: Oprah puts me on CNN


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I woke up this morning to pretty much scream like a girl with excitement to see my article for Oprah go live on CNN. Here’s Are more women OK with watching porn? — by me. (Violet Blue on CNN for Oprah — Oprah putting the “O” in my OMFG yet again!) Snip:

Personally, I like my pizza deliveryman to do one thing: bring me my dinner. But mention this guy to a group of women, and, while most of us will think of cheesy pies with tomato sauce, a good number of us will conjure up that hilariously bad porn cliché, the randy fellow who’s always ready to accept sex in exchange for a medium sausage and mushroom.

Notwithstanding how lame the cliché is, or how simply bad most porn is (and after ten years as a professional reviewer of the stuff, I can report that much of it is very bad), the fact is, millions of women use and enjoy “explicit sexual imagery.”

What’s perhaps more surprising, given the latest scientific research, is that more of us don’t.

In the first three months of 2007, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, approximately one in three visitors to adult entertainment Web sites was female; during the same period, nearly 13 million American women were checking out porn online at least once each month.

Theresa Flynt, vice president of marketing for Hustler video, says that women account for 56 percent of business at her company’s video stores. “And the female audience is increasing,” she adds. “Women are buying more porn.” (They’re creating more of it, too: Female director Candida Royalle’s hard-core erotic videos, made expressly for women viewers, sell at the rate of approximately 10,000 copies a month.)

Meanwhile, science is finally buying into the idea that women are at least as stimulated by porn as men. (…read more, cnn.com)

Updates 07.29.09: The article got put on the front page of CNN monday, after being #5 most read friday. Check out the almost 20,000 views and over 100 comments this article’s post got on Jezebel! Revel in the conservative blogs calling me and Nielsen/NetRatings liars! Win.

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19 Comments - COMMENTARY is DESIRED

  1. Ms Nughty — agreed. it’s to be expected that they unfairly link to ONE side of the argument/discussion. hopefully someday they’ll grow up and truly present facts and news aside from what’s clearly their MORAL linking opinions/practices. but at least sex-positivity and female self-individuated sexuality made one inroad this entire damn year. it’s more than a cynical girl can hope for these days…

    they should hire me for a monthly piece. could you image the traffic, controversy and fun!?

  2. My name is Claudia Lamb. I produce the afternoon news at KGO radio in San Francisco, the ABC affiliate.

    I’m hoping you are available at : pm (PT) this afternoon to discuss why women like their porn, and why they’re reluctant to admit it. There would be a brief Q & A with our anchors, Bret and Rosie.

    You can reach me at (415) 216 – 1300, or via email.

    Thank you for your time.

    Best,

    Claudia

  3. First time caller.
    My tag team partner likes to ‘bate while reading romance novels. So, is this common ? Being a guy, I would always have to put the book down first.

    So now are you going to become someone else with this notoriety. Guest shots
    on tv shows. Maybe your own series. Become an advocate in Washington. Make
    the Porn biz more Disney oriented. Mix with kings and queens. Champion of
    the poor in porn. i enjoy the reads

  4. I can’t believe they moved this to the front page of CNN today! what a great start to my week! thanks, everyone — and I’m loving the conversation here. I’ve got a ‘recommended porn for women’ post that I’ll be posting here in a bit.

  5. Well, if porn is finally becoming accepted as not being an assault on women and that women are now permitted to participate in its creation without persecution, how long before women are allowed to have sex in other for-profit ventures without being ostracized by their own sex for doing so? American’s don’t force women to wear burkas, but we do deny them the right to have sex on their own terms, and we throw them in jail for using their bodies to earn a living no different from what a sports star does. I don’t mean to preach, but I will never understand why women aren’t absolutely outraged by laws against prostitution.

  6. I have seen a very large amount of porn over the years but I can definitely say there are more than a few not so good looking guys and even the odd not so good looking girl in it

  7. Yesterday when I saw your Tweet about this on my blackberry, I was about ready to rip a laptop out of some poor commuter’s hands and run to the nearest WiFi hot spot to read it.

    At home, far removed from possible assault charges, I was able to enjoy the article. It’s wonderful, and just too cool that it’s on CNN!

    Now, excuse me while I check out a few of the sources you mentioned…

  8. haha, thank you! this is amazing in so many ways. the article made #5 on CNN most read today and put Comstock Films (mentioned in the piece) in the lead on Amazon’s indie films list. YAY!

    I love my GETV shirt which reads, “I was Internet famous once.” that works for me :)

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