What do Italian women search for on Pornhub

In 2020 Pornhub released the data concerning its female users in Italy, revealing the most frequent searches and the most searched categories, also compared to the male audience, along with the preferences on national territory. Despite the stigma that still surrounds the topic in our Country and the sensationalism and exaggerated tones with which porn is often treated, above all in relation to the female audience, the porn industry has now become part of the sexuality and approach to the pleasure of men and women. A trend also detected by Pornhub, which in 2017 replaced the Friendly With Female category with Popular With Women, which unlike the previous category, that contained the videos recommended for female audiences, collects the content that is actually most viewed by female users. In 2019, videos of this genre were viewed 65% more times than in previous years. The category is in eleventh place among the most viewed in the world. 

Even though Pornhub's data is three years old, as well as the success of a platform like OnlyFans, reveal women's search for safe places to express themselves and connect with their sexuality. But not only that, the future of porn, at least in its female component, will move less and less towards platforms and imaginaries built by men, preferring instead a new type of narration created by women for women and that focuses on female pleasure. 

The number of female Pornhub users region by region

The first data is not that surprising: on average, men use Pornhub more than women. Almost every Italian region has about 30% of female users, a percentage slightly below the world average. Pornhub also provides a detailed ranking of the most searched categories region by region by female users. If in Sicily, for example, the 'feet' category is searched on average 141% more times than in other regions, in Liguria the videos with 'toys' are a hit, while in Calabria 'hardcore' is quite popular. Or again, in Abruzzo, a lot of videos are searched with the keyword 'interracial couples', in Basilicata the 'Italian' category dominates, while in Lombardy the 'trans with guy' and 'trans with girl' sections stand out. 

What Italian women look for on Pornhub

The most popular search, not surprisingly, is 'Italian', followed by 'Italian dialogues' and 'milf'. As already noted in several studies, such as the one conducted by The Journal of Sex Research, there is a strong empathic component in the way women approach the products of the porn industry. For a female user, it is in fact important to note that the facial expressions of the actors, that the attitudes and body language appear natural, not fake, the result of true intimacy. The language element fits into this picture, in which even words play an important role in the excitement of the viewer. Beyond more or less unconscious reasons, watching porn in Italian, even more so if amateur, allows a greater and faster identification for Italian-speaking users, whose imagination is fueled by the vision of potentially realistic situations, and for this exciting. 

Among the most searched categories by female users compared to male users in Italy, dominate 'scissoring', 'pussy licking', 'popular with women', but also 'fingering' and 'lesbian', all categories that focus on female pleasure. The porn industry has long remained prerogative of the male universe also for the way in which women and their body are represented: not only unrealistic and generally fake, difficult to identify with, but also sexual intercourses where the climax consists only in the male orgasm and where the woman has the only job to take the get the man to that climax. In this type of vision, female pleasure has always remained secondary, and the woman often submissive, while the success of a category such as 'scissoring' reveals how female users want to see real female pleasure represented in a realistic way. 

It would be also interesting to understand how users consume the content, whether alone, with friends or with their partner. Another interesting factor could be the average age of users to understand which generation approaches the world of porn with more freedom and interest. 

The role of Pornhub for women

In enhancing a form of porn that includes and highlights female pleasure, Pornhub has sensed a need that had become pressing in many potential users. Nevertheless, the evolution towards a healthy and "equal" pornography, or at least not degrading towards women, is still far away. In general, the website, which belongs to Mindgeek, a Luxembourg-based company that also controls Youporn, Babes.com and RedTube, among others, for a monopoly worth over 30 billion euros, has never been particularly transparent about the contents that appear on its platforms or on the treatment of its sex workers. This is still an open and controversial debate. Do yuou rember the controversy of a few weeks ago sparked by Valentina Nappi on Twitter against Rose Kalemba, who for years had been asking PornHub to remove the videos in which she was raped, even when she was unconscious - videos that have collected over 400k views? Beyond the specific case, PornHub has a long history of revenge porn and child pornography cases, and even went so far as to state that searches such as "teen abused while sleeping", "drunk teen abuse sleeping" and "extreme teen abuse" are still active because the company allows "all forms of sexual expression that follow our terms of use, and while some may find these fantasies inappropriate, others are attracted by them and are protected by various free speech laws."