Claire Hoffman writes in Portfolio:
“It’s not just a man thing,” agrees Samantha Lewis, the C.E.O. of Digital Playground, who estimates that 45 percent of her Web-based sales (which include site subscriptions and DVDs sold online) are to women. “As each year goes by, we’re realizing, Oh my goodness. The percentages are climbing.”
I ask Adella at Digital Playground how they arrive at those figures. She replies: "We draw our information from a number of sources – 1.) marketing survey / product registration cards 2.) trade shows and appearances 3.) online sales."
I don’t believe the figures. I believe that female purchases of porn are insignificant. I don’t know that. That’s just my intuition.
I am sure some women watch porn. I just don’t think that they spend (for themselves) more than a tenth as much as men do on porn. Why would they? Their natures are different. Women are not turned on by naked men as powerfully as men are turned on by naked women. Women generally don’t seek anonymous sex while most men are happy to have sex with beautiful and anonymous women.
Let’s say I’m right. Why would porn companies inflate the percentage of female vs. male customers? For the same reason they talk about "couples porn." Not because it makes females or couples more likely to buy porn, but because it makes the solitary male addict-losers who are their principal customers feel better about themselves.