Reports say 31,000 people applied for a job just 48 hours after a sex toy company announced it was looking to pay someone to watch hours of porn.
Apparently, the job is for someone to gather information on aspects of porn videos including positions, duration, the ratio of men to women, and hair colors.
Here’s a screenshot of the actual job posting:
Job posting on a porn site called “BedBible”
The adult toy and entertainment site, called “Bedbible,” claims they’d pay quite well, too, for someone to watch the top 100 most viewed porn videos and take down a variety of statistics from the videos.
The data will reportedly be used to conduct an in-depth report about tendencies/statistics in porn videos. Anyone aged 21 or over can apply for what some are calling this “dream job.” Applicants from allover the world applied to the fully remote position. “Bedbible” also said they’d keep in contact daily/weekly with the individual.
Head Content Creator at “Bedbible,” Edwina Caito, said, “Pornography is a billion-pound industry around the world, so we came up with the idea of learning more through real-life examples… We chose to explore the most common sex positions in the top 100 most viewed videos to create a fair representation of people’s porn preferences. We’re sure we’ll learn some interesting statistics from our research such as what types of roleplay the actors have, number of orgasms, and any fetishes covered.”
It’s clear that this job appeals to many adults, given that over 31,000 people applied for the job, but what isn’t clear is where the porn content will come from that will apparently be watched for research.
The site itself doesn’t host any pornographic content, so which videos will porn reviewers be subjected to watch?
If the 100 popular videos will be sourced from some of the most popular and mainstream porn sites, porn reviewers could be in for a shocking surprise.
What kind of content is featured in popular porn?
Given what is immensely popular in the porn world today, it’s possible the porn reviewers who think they’re signing up for an easy, sexy job will be subject to view hours and hours of the most violent, degrading, and misogynistic content out there.
Let’s look at some popular porn stats.
To start, let’s talk about the content of porn. Is it mainly sensual but explicit sex—like “Bedbible” applicants might expect—or is extreme content more popular and common?
One team of researchers with the same question analyzed hundreds of the most popular porn scenes and found that 88.2% contained physical violence or aggression while 48.7% contained verbal aggression.Bridges, A. J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C. & Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update. Violence Against Women, 16(10), 1065–1085. doi:10.1177/1077801210382866Copy
Another study estimated that nearly 40% of videos analyzed on Pornhub, a globally popular porn site, contained visible aggression or violence, while 25% contained verbal aggression.Shor, E., & Seida, K. (2019). 'Harder and Harder'? Is Mainstream Pornography Becoming Increasingly Violent and Do Viewers Prefer Violent Content? Journal of sex research, 56(1), 16–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1451476Copy And yet another study suggested that 45.1% of Pornhub videos and 35.0% of videos on XVideos—the world’s most visited porn site—depicted violence or aggression.Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A Descriptive Analysis of the Types, Targets, and Relative Frequency of Aggression in Mainstream Pornography. Archives of sexual behavior, 49(8), 3041–3053. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy And as each of these studies agreed, women were almost always the targets.
Did you follow that?
Even by the lowest estimate, that still means that more than 1 in every 3 porn videos depicts sexual violence or aggression.Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A Descriptive Analysis of the Types, Targets, and Relative Frequency of Aggression in Mainstream Pornography. Archives of sexual behavior, 49(8), 3041–3053. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy In fact, according to a study that analyzed porn titles alone, 1 out of every 8 titles suggested to first-time users on porn sites described acts of sexual violence.Vera-Gray, F., McGlynn, C., Kureshi, I., & Butterby, K. (2021). Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography. The British Journal of Criminology, azab035. doi:10.1093/bjc/azab035Copy
While some studies have examined violence in porn by analyzing the content of porn videos, others have estimated the prevalence of violence in porn by asking porn consumers how frequently they see certain types of behaviors depicted in the porn they watch.
For example, a recent Australian study found that 70% of young people reported frequently seeing men as dominant, 34% frequently see women being called names or slurs, and 11% reported frequently seeing violence or aggression toward a woman that was nonconsensual. Another 13% of young people reported seeing aggressive nonconsensual sex “occasionally” when they watch porn, so together the study found that 1 in 4 young people have had repeated exposure to depictions of violent, nonconsensual sex within the last year of their lives.Davis, A. C., Carrotte, E. R., Hellard, M. E., & Lim, M. (2018). What Behaviors Do Young Heterosexual Australians See in Pornography? A Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of sex research, 55(3), 310–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1417350Copy
While the amount of violence shown in porn is troubling, what is perhaps even more disturbing is the portrayed reactions to that violence. One study found that 95% of the targets of violence or aggression in porn appeared either neutral or appeared to respond with pleasure.Bridges, A. J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C. & Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update. Violence Against Women, 16(10), 1065–1085. doi:10.1177/1077801210382866Copy In other words, porn is sending the message that sexual violence is just a part of sexual pleasure.
Not only that, but if “Bedbible” is looking to learn about what’s portrayed in popular porn videos, female pleasure isn’t a part of that, and twisted misrepresentations are popular “fetishes.”
Racist stereotypes, LGBTQ+ misrepresentation, unequal pleasure
Only 18.3% of women in popular porn videos (compared to 78% of men) were shown to reach climax, according to one study.Séguin, L. J., Rodrigue, C., & Lavigne, J. (2018). Consuming Ecstasy: Representations of Male and Female Orgasm in Mainstream Pornography. Journal of sex research, 55(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1332152Copy And of course, one of the most consistently popular porn themes is “teen,” which research shows is becoming increasingly popular, and includes the portrayal of underage characters.Walker, A., Makin, D. A., & Morczek, A. L. (2016). Finding Lolita: A comparative analysis of interest in youth-oriented pornography. Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 20(3), 657–683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9355-0Copy
In addition to the abusive behaviors consistently shown in porn, porn often promotes a number of other problematic sexual narratives. Porn sites are full of videos that not only portray but normalize and fetishize incest, unequal power dynamics, and a variety of situations where marginalized or vulnerable people are abused or taken advantage of.
For example, porn often presents sexual orientation or gender identity as a fetish, dehumanizing those who are not cisgender or heterosexual rather than normalizing them as people deserving of equal love and respect. Whether using degrading slurs to describe transgender people, or the common theme of “girl on girl” content that’s actually catered to the male gaze, porn regularly exploits those in the LGBTQ+ community and caricaturizes, mischaracterizes, and co-opts their experiences as entertaining fetishes rather than legitimate lived experiences.
Additionally, porn often depicts and profits from blatantly racist narratives. According to researchers who performed a content analysis of more than 1,700 scenes from two of the world’s most popular porn sites, videos featuring Black people disproportionately emphasize violence and aggression, perpetuate harmful racist stereotypes, and often depict Black people as “worse than objects.”Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2021). Worse than objects: The depiction of black women and men and their sexual relationship in pornography. Gender Issues, 38(1), 100-120. doi:10.1007/s12147-020-09255-2Copy
The porn industry often fetishizes race, reducing people of color to sexual categories that often focus on damaging stereotypes.xHamster. (2018). xHamster trend report 2018. Retrieved from https://xhamster.com/blog/posts/745297Copy Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2021). Worse than objects: The depiction of black women and men and their sexual relationship in pornography. Gender Issues, 38(1), 100-120. doi:10.1007/s12147-020-09255-2Copy Zhou, Y., & Paul, B. (2016). Lotus blossom or dragon lady: A content analysis of “Asian women” online pornography. Sexuality & Culture, 20(4), 1083-1100. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9375-9Copy Abujad, I. M. (2021). Desiring empire: The colonial violence of “Hijab pornography”. In N. Zouidi (Ed.), Performativity of villainy and evil in anglophone literature and media (pp. 55-69). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-76055-7_4 Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76055-7_4Copy
A significant portion of the porn consumed by millions of people every day reinforces the message that sexual violence, misrepresentation, and racist stereotypes are a normal part of porn fantasies and what “good sex” is supposed to be, making it more challenging for many young people to prepare for healthy sexual relationships where their consent and boundaries are respected.
As our society continues to reckon with rape culture, gender inequality, racism and the things that perpetuate all of it, it’s important that we start to recognize the role that porn plays in normalizing this. What could “Bedbible” possibly hope to learn from popular porn videos that isn’t toxic and misrepresentative?
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