There are a lot of women out there who find man-on-man pornography to be highly arousing. As some evidence of this, one of the biggest porn websites in the world, Pornhub, has reported that gay male porn is actually the second most popular category viewed by female visitors of the site. This has led many to wonder what it is that draws so many women to this type of porn. A new study published (appropriately enough) in the journal Porn Studies sheds some light on the answer.

In this study, 275 self-identified women who were watchers of gay male porn participated and were asked what they like about this type of pornography. Participants ranged in age from 18-74 and most were either heterosexual (41%) or bisexual (32%).

The vast majority of participants in this study (82%) reported a preference for gay male porn over all other kinds; however, most reported watching other types of porn, too. For instance, 68% also said that they watched heterosexual porn sometimes, while 53% reported watching lesbian porn as well.

So what did these women find so arousing about gay male porn? The most commonly reported reason was that they found the idea of two men having sex to be, well, sexy. In the words of one female participant: “I am attracted to males so seeing two of ‘em get it on together is like: BOOM, TWICE THE SEXY!”

The second most common reason for liking this type of porn was that both actors were perceived to be enjoying the sex and that the pleasure experienced by them (both physical and psychological) seemed to be more genuine or “authentic.”

Several other reasons were reported. For some, the appeal involved not having to worry about whether the women on screen were being exploited or objectified. For others, they enjoyed it because the lack of women on screen made it so they weren’t comparing their own bodies to anyone else’s.

Yet other respondents said it was simply an attraction to what they perceived as a “non-normative” or “taboo” type of sex (e.g., as described by one participant, it was all about seeing “a man getting enjoyment out of something that is not supposed to be pleasurable, i.e. anal penetration”). In addition, some said that they simply found the production value and plotlines to be better.

As you can see, there are a diverse range of factors that draw women of many sexualities to gay male porn. Indeed, the results of this study reveal that this type of porn may offer something unique to women that other forms of pornography do not currently do.

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To learn more about this research, see: Neville, L. (2015). Male gays in the female gaze: Women who watch m/m pornography. Porn Studies, 2(2-3), 192-207.

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