THAT HETEROSEXUAL MEN relish watching lesbian sex is a matter of common knowledge as well as social research. Anyone who picks up Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, or any hetero men’s sex magazine is apt to find pages of female-on-female action. Mainstream porn films traditionally feature at least one scene of two ladies getting it on.
It is not difficult to understand why so many heterosexual men enjoy lesbian lovemaking. “More female flesh,” is how a man I once knew succinctly put it. Straight men enjoy looking at women’s bodies, and lesbian action means more women to gaze upon. Another probable reason for the popularity of lesbianism in hetero men’s material is somewhat more troubling: many straight men harbor homophobic feelings or insecurities about their own sexuality such that scenes involving another man can be off-putting or threatening. Scenes that are female-only remove any possibility that the viewer could get turned on by another man.
While males enjoying lesbian action is a commonplace, its counterpart—women enjoying gay men’s pornography—is not as widely recognized. Yet there is evidence that ladies are looking at erotica created for gay guys in unexpected numbers. That evidence is not just anecdotal but solidly statistical.
Discussion12 Comments
Gay men hate being told they are like women. when men watch women on woman they do not want to be one of them but women Fully 55 percent of the women Neville interviewed and surveyed said they imagined themselves as male when watching erotic scenes of male-male sex.
gay and straight men do not think like women on this matter either
Very interesting to read as a Gay male myself, makes me feel good that not everyone thinks we’re hideous sinners (I’m originally from the panhandle of Florida however me and my Husband have been in the Northwest for well over ten years and it is so refreshing to see rainbow flags outside of churches and to just generally be accepted.
Thanks for writing this.
Informing article, but…. I wish it adressed whether or not it’s okay. Is it okay to watch gay porn as a straight woman? Or is it objectifying gay men?
I’m a child sexual abuse survivor. I don’t want to watch acts that were done to me be done to another person, because they trigger negative emotions in me. I also dislike straight porn because it often features an unequal dynamic featuring domination, infantilization, and dehumanization. Straight porn also skews towards incest themes, which brings up the past trauma.
Lesbian porn is no good, because it also heavily features acts done to me, and as I am still dealing with disgust towards my own female body, I cannot suspend my disbelief enough to believe that women feel anything enjoyable from porn sex – it all registers to me as forced and uncomfortable.
Despite this, I am not hateful towards all men, and still feel attraction towards them. I also feel attraction to women as well. But in person sexual interaction is too overwhelming for me, and so I end up watching gay porn, which features two equals without any element of me (female) to mentally “protect.”
Considering the incredibly high incidence of sexual abuse and assault on women, I’m willing to bet others feel similarly to me, and are a significant subset of female gay porn watchers.
I’m a guy and feel so bad that you are going through that just remember not all guys are bad but not all guys are good I hope you find a nice kind man that will keep you safe and comfortable while you are dealing with some things you are a woman capable of kindness and generosity all women are like roses they bloom if you water them with love and take care of them but if not they will wither you also have to remember that you are beautiful and smart again I am sorry for what you have gone through
Such an interesting post. Makes a lot of sense. I hope where there is trauma there can be peace.
I understand what you mean I am a female as well, have not been abused sexually though. So I might not completely understand, but maybe you should consider therapy and not have sex. I am not sure if that would be a trigger to you.
I was chatting to a youngish male gay friend once, who felt that straight porn, and for that matter straight sex, was a dynamic of two people not equal, that the man wielded more power and was therefore dominating or overpowering the woman. He felt that two men together posed less of that threat. It genuinely seemed to trouble him, outside of his sexual preference, and I thought he was onto something.
that’s so incredibly offensive, like how can you agree with someone literally saying “men and women aren’t equal”? consensual sex has nothing to do with rape. the logic here totally doesn’t add up: if your claim that someone who is physically stronger than the another person is inherently raping them by engaging in a sex act together had any merit, then it would make no difference what orientation the couple was unless they were miraculously identical in muscular strength, which is unlikely. this is so [messed] up, like literally explicitly sexist and infantilizing of women.
Your comment is from last year but I think they meant there’s an unequal dynamic SPECIFICALLY in p*rn. I’m not sure if you’ve seen those sites but on the front pages alone, you can see straight p*rn videos suggested where there’s a power imbalance and it seems that those videos are heavily pushed for viewers. It’s so easy to find rough, aggressive, degrading straight p*rn where the woman is the submissive one. Whereas content where the male is the submissive partner are much harder to find and much MUCH less graphic/intense. And this is further reflected in popular romance novels, erotica on the internet, etc. There is also the whole being-penetrated-equals-being-dominated belief system that a lot of men and women regardless of sexuality believe in. So there’s this inherent bias towards women (considering their equipment usually involves being penetrated during sex) that their role in the bedroom is submission. Let’s not pretend like these biases aren’t all around us. Misogyny in p*rn or any s*x related media is so extremely prevalent. I mean there’s even TV shows and movies where there’ll be scenes where a female character is r*ped.. Imagine the outrage if an extremely popular show (like Game of Thrones was a couple of years ago, and yes it featured more than one r*pe scene where a woman was the victim) or movie featured a graphic scene where an adult male was r*ped by another adult male or even by a woman.. The reactions from everyone would be wild. Yet it’s so normalized for women to be victimized in media that people are lowkey desensitized to it. It’s sickening.
Hi miaa yes definitely mainstream straight porn is mainly for men so it does show a power imbalance which isn’t true in real life (unless that’s how you like it) and I do agree with everything you have said.
I absolutely adore gay sex as well as any kind of anal sex/bdsm and so on, not in real life but when watching porn.
Watching Straight porn is kinda boring unless it’s real, I think that’s what gets me off, REAL PORN and gay porn seems more real to me! I want real feelings that is sexy!