Porn is a bit of a boys’ club. It’s catered to men. The way it’s filmed, the way the people look and the way they sound. It’s not very, well, female gaze-y.
So when it comes to porn for women there aren’t a lot of places to look. We have our beloved bodice rippers, we can pay for ethical and ‘feminist’ porn or we can fantasise. One thing that you may not have thought of is, audio porn. Or audio erotica.
We’ve all heard of ASMR. But what about adding some sexiness to it?
Audio erotica is exactly what it sounds like – sexually-explicit audio content, normally within the plot of a story that also contains noises you’d otherwise expect to hear from traditional porn or a sexual scenario.
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There are plenty of places to get your helping of audio erotica, in fact their are subscription services like Dipsea and Quinn. Although, Quinn has overtaken the market by snatching up the “internet’s boyfriends” to narrate spicy stories in recent years.
This year alone, Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams and Conor Storrie, Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower, Tell Me Lies actor Costa D’Angelo, The Traitors hunk Robert Rausch, Reminders of Him star Tyriq Withers, The Pitt’s Shawn Hatosy and Outlander lead Sam Heughan.
Most recently, they’ve been teasing stars from the show on everyone’s lips, Off Campus.
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They even had our very own Andrew Scott host a fantasy-inspired spicy story in 2024, in the midst of the All of Us Strangers and Ripley hype. Quinn really knows how to pluck out the hottest boy in the moment and get them in front of the mic.
Quinn was founded by Caroline Spiegel in 2019 during her senior year at Stanford University, when she realised there was a severe lack of erotic material aimed at women. Since then, it has an average of 400,000 subscribers.
So what makes audio erotica so appealing?
Kate Moyle, sex and relationships expert for LELO, explains, “Audio erotica offers more of a chance to be less prescriptive with our desires and to shape fantasies and stories to fit our own visual preferences and likes.
“Visual pornography, whilst it works for some people, doesn’t work for many – often due to the fact that they find scenes or those involved in them more of a distraction which can deter from pleasure, than an attention pull, or people don’t find what they are watching relatable or erotic as it doesn’t connect sexually for them.
“In many ways, audio erotica can then offer users something more flexible or personal as descriptive terms can be used to shape our personal ideas of erotic which can be more of a turn on than viewing someone else’s interpretation of erotic.”
While it’s easy to roll your eyes at men and think that they are aroused differently to women this really isn’t the case. Men are not in fact from Mars nor are women from Venus. Every single person is different in what turns them on.
Sure, social norms can dictate what arouses men versus women. But there is no hard or fast rules about what turns people on.
“Gender ideas and gender norms have historically put female sexual pleasure second to men’s. The majority of pornography is also created with male viewers in mind, although there is a new wave of pornography such as that by Erika Lust which is being produced and directed with a more female focus.
“For many women audio erotica may also be something that they incorporate into their sexual routines to help them shift their thinking towards sex, helping to shift them from a neutral into a sexual headspace to help trigger desire.”
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If you listen to female-focused podcasts, then you may have heard ads that promote audio erotica apps. This prompts the question, is this form of pleasure more “socially acceptable” than what we would view as traditional porn. Katie isn’t so sure.
“The general levels of taboo and discomfort that we have around sex still strongly exist, and therefore by virtue anything to do with sex or sexual pleasure is often considered less socially acceptable – and so for some people, any type of erotica may be still considered taboo.
“The subject of pornography is something which brings up many often loaded conversations,” she admits.
Pornography is still a taboo subject and definitely adds to the damaging effect it can have on young minds who are watching it for the first time.
However, Kate tells us, “How someone considers their pornography use, whether viewing, reading or listening to erotica is about them and the role it plays in their life and pleasure and if it offers them a way to explore their sexuality and pleasure safely and without shame.”
Will you be giving audio erotica a try?