I have, to close friends, talked about the future of porn, and I’ve often mentioned that I feel the next logical step is for the emergent and fast-growing erotica-for-women industry to branch out into movies. I’ve always found it particularly amusing when the argument is raised that “women just aren’t into visual porn.”

The argument is based on the idea that women do not find visual media arousing, which (if anyone has ever been involved in fandom can attest) is utter bullocks. The fangirls I know spend hours upon hours creating picspam posts and photo manips, not to mention the champion “screen cap” heroes of legend. If women don’t “do” visual, please to be explaining to me girls who have their bedrooms plastered with posters of Justin Beiber. Because last I checked, pictures are a visual medium.

But the myth persists, and until porn is created that women actually enjoy, it will continue to persist. And as long as companies like Vivid think “porn for women” equals bad costumes, bad scripts, weak plots and porn-perfect, hairless bodies, persist it will. The result being that such productions will get half-hearted support because they are the only things on the market other than indie-porn/agit-porn, and women will still talk about how they hate “porn”, and industry watchers will crow in victory at their misguided assumptions based on false data.

But fandom ran over those assumptions while no one was looking. Slash (M/M) fanfiction in particular has put a new spin on “porn for women”, although classic pairings like MSR (Mulder/ScullyRomance) keep the het rolling. Fandom gave us the phrase PWP (“Porn Without Plot”) for a reason! But what fanfic has that most mainstream porn vids don’t have is a strong romantic connection between very well developed (har har) characters. It’s the thread that ties the “porn” of fanfic together with romance novels.

In short, very generally speaking, the key to a woman’s libido isn’t just through her libido. It’s through her heart.

The romance and erotica industries get that. They’ve played to it for years. We just need a few producers to see the light and create that porn series which crosses Supernatural or Harlequin with XXX porn, be it het or queer.

That doesn’t mean the road is going to be easy, or even pretty. Exhibit A is this example, het porn aimed for the romance novel market, but it is EXACTLY what I am talking about, in terms of production model:

New Sensations Romance [link NSFW] from adult film company, New Sensations [also, need I say, NSFW].

Now, if you click the link for any of those trailers you let me warn you now: holy fuck that is some really BAD ACTING right thar. I could not watch any of them all the way through without sporking my eyes out; but fortunately for my eyeballs that wasn’t necessary since it is all standard romance novel fare so we know the plot anyway. (It is pretty clear they did not get actors willing to do porn, but rather porn performers who want to be actors, but props for trying I suppose. If these vids make any money, I vote for reinvesting it into acting lessons for those brave souls.)

Quality is NOT the point, though. The point is: mark your calendar. This is the start of it, this is the beginning of a revolution in porn that I lay money will become a major, major player both in mainstream porn and in the entertainment industry itself. The quality issue will have to be overcome, because most women I know who want this kind of movie don’t want poor production values and terrible acting. But the producers who make this stuff will figure that out fast, or go out of business…and there is too much money to be made to pack up and go home if the first trial runs are not blockbusters.

I personally have a whole business plan all ready to roll to take advantage of this trend, I just don’t have backers. Boy howdy, don’t I wish I did!

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