Monday, Jul 9, 2012    Text size: 

NEW YORK — Five industries are making bank on selling sex to women according to a new Forbes report.

Citing the “trend,” Forbes said movies, print, music, pharmaceuticals and hotels are now pumping millions of ad dollars into seducing women to buy sex-related products that include everything from books to female Viaga.

“Sex sells. It’s a phrase as old as advertising, but until now it’s mostly been about male lust. Now we’re seeing a new trend: selling sex to women. Businesses big and small are realizing that women have sexual desires — and there’s money to be made off it," Forbes' Kate Taylor wrote.

The article points out the obvious hot products like the bestseller “Fifty Shade of Grey,” as an example of part of the print frenzy that will pay author EL James $20 million in royalties by the end of the book’s first six months — along with another $5 million for movie rights.

And new male stripper movie, “Magic Mike,” that offers up naked beefcake and strippers, clearly targeting the bacheleorette set, raked in $39.1 million it’s opening weekend, with 73 percent of the audience made up of females moviegoers.

Music has alway been seductive, but new female artists including Lady Gaga and Ke$sha with raunchy lyrics like “I want to ride your disco stick,” are apparently striking an erotic chord with women. 

Forbes also spotlighted Minaj’s video for Super Bass loaded with poolside male eye candy. The group’s CD went quadruple platinum in May, having sold more than 4 million digital copies, launching Minaj as the first female on Forbes’ 2011 Hip Hop Cash Kings list.

Of course fantasy always plays well to women. The article said that hotels have caught wind of the trend pointing to a $2,000 a night stay in Hotel Max’s BDSM room — booked solid for the next month.

Women are also looking to improve their sex drive giving pharmaceuticals a boost, according to the New York Times. Forbes said “Companies have poured millions of dollars into the quest of the ‘female Viagra,’ but haven’t yet managed to be approved by the FDA. The solutions that companies are offering aren’t the most legitimate (the line between burning and tingling — pain and pleasure? — still seems unclear in the case of a cream mentioned by the Times article), but they are meeting a demand.”

Orgasm Inc. director Liz Canner told Fobes that when “big discoveries” are made, she believes millions or billions of dollars are going to be made.