Academics Catherine Lumby, Alan McKee and Katherine Albury and collaborated for three years on "The Porn Report." Besides the new image of the average porn consumer they're advancing, the three also dismiss the idea that no sane woman would look at porn unless asked to by their partner.
"One of the myths [about pornography] suggests that women aren't consumers but we have very clear evidence that there's a growing proportion of porn consumers who are women," Lumby said.
Although adult industry professionals reserved judgments on the book's accuracy, an informal survey revealed that they're in favor of more female fans.
"It's good for any industry to expand the customer base that it serves," adult industry publicist Wayne Hentai told XBIZ. "The problem with the adult industry, though, is that it's very hard to do any real, hard marketing research in this industry. There's still a lot of denial among the people who buy our product that they even watch porn, and even among the people who watch it and will fess up to it, it doesn't necessarily mean they'll be honest about the genres they watch."
"The Porn Report" bases its arguments on a survey of more than 1,000 Australians. Despite its claim that women are a growing audience for porn, the book maintains that men still compose a majority of fans – but the difference is narrowing.
Adult talent manager and performer Lisa Ann told XBIZ she agreed with the book's assertion about a growing female audience, and she applauded it.
"Yes, I do believe a woman enjoying the visual sex we provide is an awesome way for women to reach new levels of enjoyment and comfort with sex," she said. "Who decided that porn was just for men, anyway?"
