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Third of people watching gay porn are women, study finds

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It’s often assumed that men watch more porn than women, and that their viewing habits are kinkier.

But it turns out that this couldn’t be further from the case. According to a new study from the University of Leicester, a significant number of women are watching gay porn while they enjoy some “me time”.

This isn’t the first indication that some women are partial to male only scenes. Last year, Pornhub’s annual review revealed that over a quarter of their users were women. More interestingly, 37 percent of the viewers of gay male porn on the site were female. Given the fact that most men identify as heterosexual, this means that women are proportionally more likely to watch gay male porn than men.

Dr Lucy Neville, who lead the study, said:

There is growing acceptance that it is perhaps not quite as uncommon as first thought. 

For example, m/m [gay male porn] was the second most popular choice for women visitors to Pornhub for the last two years of viewer data... women represent viable secondary consumers of m/m porn.

Some of the reasons are pretty self-evident: it probably shouldn’t be surprising that a good number of women like looking at naked men.

Some study subjects also reported feelings of guilt towards female porn stars, which are avoided in all male scenes.

Dr Neville explains:

For a subset of women who are rape and abuse survivors, m/m is one of the few types of sexually explicit media they can enjoy without feeling triggered or re-traumatised.

Even more interestingly, the research revealed that over half of the women watching gay porn also imagine themselves as a man while masturbating, describing this as ‘empowering’.

H/T: IFL Science

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