Here’s part of an excellent article about porn for women by the Vagenda team for New Statesman. It’s not that women don’t like porn. It’s just that women don’t often like bad porn that participants aren’t getting off on.

“…If the assumption is that we get off on love, then this idea that women don’t “get” porn isn’t that surprising – it’s rarely lauded for its ability to make searing insights into the depths of the human psyche. Other sciency-type people claim that women like to be able to project themselves into the situation, while men will simply objectify the actors. If this is indeed the case then it’s no surprise that some women are left cold when trying to imagine themselves spontaneously orgasming because they love being ejaculated on that much. At least with books you can imagine that the characters are having a good time, rather than watching actors who are not.

Even if you’re lucky enough to be watching a clip that features a face, the hollow look behind the eyes will often reveal that the orgasm is indeed fake. And yes, we can tell.

The argument that men get off on sexual imagery and that women get off on feelings is a convenient one because it essentially means that there’s no point making porn with us as its target audience, and that the porn industry can thus continue trotting out the same bland scenarios in which pneumatic women are pounded mercilessly by alarming colossal phalluses or, failing that, a variety of household objects.

Maybe what we really need to do is make some porn in which the female participant is not subjugated and looks as though she really fancies the person she’s shagging and is having a smashing time. We’re not asking for plot and character complexity to rival Wuthering Heights, just something that’s not quite as cock-centric as most porn. Once we do that perhaps the small but ever-increasing demand for better porn will grow…”

Full article here.