Are Women On Board with VR Porn?

Image credit: NaughtyAmericaVR

Here’s an interesting revelation: Virtual Reality Sex is a Thing.  And Welcome to 2015.  I wonder if the Cubs will ever win a world series.

Well, that was actually a headline—from a month ago—of an article published on the Australian website of the women’s magazine Marie Claire.  The writer adds, “And I Tried It.”  So, marieclaire.com is letting its readers know about the advent of a “thing” called virtual reality sex. the web is now teeming with survey results about women using VR headsets, about them using them for porn, and about gender issues in VR, etc.

Great Expectations

Everyone is writing about the possibilities of women dipping their toes into the pool of VR porn, but not with incredible enthusiasm.  One article—about WANKZVR’s upcoming venture to produce women-oriented content—is called “VR Porn Doesn’t Have to Be Creepy.”

It’s great that the author of this article is on board with WANKZ and its mission, but the story opens by saying that as it stands, VR porn content is bad.  I can’t tell if the author is saying that the problem is that too much of the porn is male-oriented, or if an individual content is bad, and bad because it caters to male ideas of sexuality.

But it does argue that currently, VR porn has nothing to offer women—a generalization a lot of women fans may beg to differ with.

Then there’s the video by a stressed-out Brit in a cloth maroon hat entitled “VR Porn is Not for Women.”  She hated her trial with a headset–she expected to be able to control her POV character and thought the male character was too large.

Now, the article on WANKZVR’s new series did say that some women felt they were being violated by the male character, and I’m simply not sure how to react to this.

But in any case, these issues are more than just fodder for discussion–the future will indeed hold some major consumption of VR porn by our gal pals.  Research from the marketing firm SuperData, from earlier this month, shows that 41% of mobile VR users are women.  That says nothing of the content they’re using VR for, but it’s something.

Other research indicates that porn consumption by females isn’t exactly rare and that regular viewing isn’t tremendously rare.

Not All Women Think the Same

As we start to move toward a more integrated VR world, the prevailing notion, reflected by the articles above and several like them, is that the porn industry needs to cater to women, that porn that isn’t made expressly for women is insulting to them, that it is ridiculous and stupid and oblivious to the mind of a woman, as though they all share one.  WANKZ did some focus grouping while making its new scenes, but that’s far from a comprehensive scientific study.

The Marie Claire piece—as many available articles on the subject do—touched on the familiar and inevitable theme that porn mostly emphasizes the male’s pleasure and his perspective.  Yes, in porn, the movie is over when the guy comes all over the starlet’s face—yes, the storylines tend to be male fantasies.  There’s no question that these phenomena exist—the question is what they mean.

Image credit: Yummy Mummy Club

Image credit: Glamour

Ultimately, porn is there for watching sex action.  Isn’t there a space for fantasy?  Do general rules of propriety apply in porn?  Do most guys really relate to the character who blackmails his sister’s friend into sex?  If not, then couldn’t women watch knowing everyone’s rolling their eyes at the first six minutes of the movie?

But, to our point, VR porn can be thought of as even more male-fantasy-centric than standard porn, even if it is seen as a ticket into a more enlightened pornscape.  That’s because it tends to be for one person alone, and it privileges POV.  That creates a particular problem—if a woman wants to skip past male POV scenes, she’ll be skipping a lot that is out there.

As an aside, one would think that the mentality that takes straight/bi-curious women into strip clubs would motivate some to try male POV scenes for some kicks, but we’ll leave that as an aside.

When people talk about VR scenes “for women,” the mean female POV scenes.  Yeah, VR producers seem wed to POV.  But what but non-POV scenes, which allow viewers of either gender to watch the whole act playing out clearly?  These could prove palatable to more women, and those who want them will still have plenty POVs.

In the Marie Claire article and the video, above, the women found female POV scenes with a male.  That brings up a question.

Where do we get this notion that the only thing a woman is interested in is being penetrated by a man?  Where are lesbian-POV scenes, VR or otherwise?  What I’m saying is that people who call for Porn That Women Will Like are doing so based on assumptions and stereotypes that are as antiquated as the gender roles in male-oriented porn that are so roundly criticized.

It’s about one’s mindset

Look, I had a girlfriend who once described to me some of her favorite porn.  It was a well-known, long-running gonzo series that absolutely portrayed a cynical male fantasy.  She liked the conceit that was repeated in every scene, the dynamic it created, the men and women involved.

She was no dummy, no sap, a strong woman to be sure, but she went with the fantasy, male though it was, rather than recoiling from it.  I’m not saying other women should have the same mindset—I think, rather, than many already do.

I don’t know how my ex would feel about porn made for women, but my guess is that she might not notice any difference, and would generally like a scene based on particular, ephemeral traits, including the attractiveness of the actors of both genders.

The degree to which people “go with” porn, of course, varies.

I can illustrate this with a passage from the Marie Claire story.  The author describes her female POV encounter: “I spread open my very slender thighs and he puts his hand between my legs.  Then he strips off his shirt revealing his obligatory six-pack.”

If the guy’s muscles are obligatory rather than sexy, maybe porn just isn’t for you.

She continues, “It’s arousing.  Weird, but arousing.  However, there’s nothing sexy about the Google Cardboard virtual reality headset that is strapped to my head…”  No.  The headset is not the sexy part.  If you go into the experience looking to criticize it, you’re not meeting the artform halfway.  And this says nothing of the paragraph the author spent worrying that her flatmate would walk in her, which amounts to saying “I don’t really like porn, I’m not some weirdo.”

We are all here to enjoy VR porn. Image credit: VRBangers

Well, at long last, perhaps men meet porn more than halfway.  We put up with very dumb plots and bad acting because we are there to enjoy it.  I don’t know how gender-specific that mentality is when it comes to porn.

But while, of course, porn producers taking women’s (perceived) desires into account is a cheering—and necessary as a way of providing variety for all tastes—I am skeptical of the prevailing press coverage that says women and men are from different planets even when they decide to enter virtual reality.