{{Short description|Pornography depicting sex acts between females}} {{onesource|date=February 2025}} thumb|Three lesbians having sex, with salami, in a vintage pornographic photo|250x250px '''Lesbian pornography''' is a form of adult entertainment that features sexual activity between women.'''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rutter |first=Jared |date=July 2008 |title=The New Wave of Lesbian Erotica |url=http://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/index.php?i=4724&m=&l=&p=82 |access-date=December 22, 2009 |work=AVN |pages=80–88}}{{dead link|date=April 2026}}</ref>''' Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience and is most often produced as erotic content aimed at heterosexual male, homosexual female, and bisexual audiences. Although it has also been found that many heterosexual females prefer this genre of pornography due to its greater focus on women's pleasure.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634607241292455 | title='Boys just ruin it': Exploring the popularity of lesbian pornography among straight women | date=17 October 2024 | doi=10.1177/13634607241292 | first=Rotem | last=Avgar | journal=Sexualities | volume=0 | issue=0 }}</ref>
Homoerotic art and artifacts depicting women have a long history, reaching back to various ancient civilizations. Every medium has been used to represent women having sex with each other. In contemporary mass media, this content is primarily disseminated through home videos (including DVDs), cable broadcasts, emerging video-on-demand and wireless markets, as well as photography websites and lesbian pulp fiction.
== Audience ==
Deborah Swedberg, in an analysis published in the ''NWSA Journal'' in 1989, argues that it is possible for lesbian viewers to reappropriate lesbian pornography. Swedberg notes that, typically, all-women films differ from mixed pornography (with men and women) in, among other things, the settings (less anonymous and more intimate) and the very acts performed (more realistic and emotionally involved, and with a focus on the whole body rather than just the genitals): "the subject of the heterosexually produced all-women videos is female pleasure". She argues (against Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cineman" and Susanne Kappeler's ''Pornography and Representation'', for example) that such movies allow for female subjectivity since the women are more than just objects of exchange.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Swedberg|first=Deborah|year=1989|title=What Do We See When We See Woman/Woman Sex in Pornographic Movies|journal=NWSA Journal|volume=1|issue=4|pages=602–16|jstor=4315957}}</ref> Appropriation by women of male-made lesbian erotica (such as by David Hamilton) was signaled also by Tee Corinne.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Henry|first=Alice|year=1983|title=Interview [with Tee Corinne]: Images of Lesbian Sexuality|journal=Off Our Backs|volume=13|issue=4|pages=10–12|jstor=25774959}}</ref>
Starting in 2013, Pornhub has published annual reports of user activities and found that the lesbian category has been consistently the most popular among female viewers since 2014 when gender statistics were first gathered (except in 2020 when the data was limited), and that women in general regardless of sexual orientation are more likely to search for lesbian-associated terms such as "scissoring" than men.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pornhub.com/insights/?s=year+in+review | title=You searched for year in review - Pornhub Insights | date=5 December 2024 }}</ref> Several articles, including those by ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Glamour'', and ''Women's Health'' magazines, have supported these findings through research of their own.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a34283/straight-women-who-prefer-lesbian-porn/|title=The Mysterious Straight-Girl Appeal of Lesbian Porn |date=22 January 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124034115/https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a34283/straight-women-who-prefer-lesbian-porn/|archive-date=24 January 2015|first=Rachel|last=Hills|website=Cosmopolitan}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.glamour.com/story/straight-woman-gay-porn/|title=Straight Women Can Like Lesbian Porn Too|work=Glamour|first=Haley|last=Swanson|date=25 July 2019|access-date=20 February 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112091334/https://www.glamour.com/story/straight-woman-gay-porn/|archive-date=12 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-love/a19947774/straight-women-lesbian-porn/|title=Here's Why Straight Women Might Prefer Lesbian Porn, According To Sex Therapists|work=Women's Health|date=16 June 2021|access-date=9 February 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210616164615/https://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-love/a19947774/straight-women-lesbian-porn/|archive-date=16 June 2021}}</ref>
== Mainstream inauthenticity == Mainstream lesbian pornography is criticized by some members of the lesbian community for its inauthenticity.<ref name=Webber>{{cite journal|last=Webber|first=Valerie|year=2012|title=Shades of gay: Performance of girl-on-girl pornography and mobile authenticities|journal=Sexualities|url=http://sexualities.sagepub.com/content/16/1-2/217.abstract|doi=10.1177/1363460712471119|volume=16|issue=1–2|pages=217–235|s2cid=144842110|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141208173823/http://sexualities.sagepub.com/content/16/1-2/217.abstract|archive-date=December 8, 2014|access-date=December 8, 2014|url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to author Elizabeth Whitney, "lesbianism is not acknowledged as legitimate" in lesbian pornography due to the prevalence of "heteronormatively feminine women", the experimental nature, and the constant catering to the male gaze, all of which counter real life lesbianism.<ref name=Webber/>
A study conducted by Valerie Webber found that most actors in lesbian pornography consider their own pornographic sex somewhere on a spectrum between real and fake sex, depending on several factors.<ref name=Webber/> They were more likely to consider it authentic if there was a real attraction between themselves and the other actor(s) in the scene,<ref name=Webber/> and if they felt mutual respect between themselves and the producers.<ref name=Webber/>
Authenticity in pornography is disputed because some assert that the only authentic sex has no motive other than sex itself.<ref name=Webber/> Pornographic sex, being shot for a camera, automatically has other motives than sex itself.<ref name=Webber/> On the other side, some assert that all pornographic sex is authentic since the sex is an occurrence that took place, and that is all that is needed to classify it as authentic.<ref name=Webber/>
Concerning the authenticity of their performance, some lesbian pornographic actors describe their performance as an exaggerated, altered version of their real personality, providing some authenticity to the performance.<ref name=Webber/> Authenticity depends on real life experiences, so some lesbian pornographic actors feel the need to create an entirely different persona to feel safe.<ref name=Webber/> Webber writes of Agatha, a queer actor in lesbian pornography who "prefers that the activity and ambiance of her performances be very inauthentic, because otherwise it feels 'too close to home{{'"}}, referring to the oppression and verbal abuse she is subject to by homophobic men in her daily life.<ref name=Webber/>
== Penetration == Like in straight and gay male pornography, there is an emphasis on penetration in lesbian pornography.<ref name=Webber/> Even though studies have found that dildos have minimal use in real life lesbian sexual activity,<ref name=Webber/><ref name="Greenberg">{{cite book|author1=Jerrold S. Greenberg |author2=Clint E. Bruess |author3=Sarah C. Conklin |title = Exploring the dimensions of human sexuality|id = 9780763741488|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning|year=2010|pages=489–490|access-date=January 21, 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6b36v8JHznIC&pg=PA489|isbn = 9780763797409}}</ref><ref name=" Zenilman & Shahmanesh">{{cite book | title = Sexually Transmitted Infections: Diagnosis, Management, and Treatment| publisher = Jones & Bartlett Publishers | year = 2011 | pages = 329–330 | access-date = November 4, 2012 |isbn = 978-0495812944| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lO5BND02eBwC&pg=PA329|author1=Jonathan Zenilman |author2=Mohsen Shahmanesh }}</ref> lesbian pornography prominently features dildos.<ref name=Webber/> According to Lydon, the ability to achieve orgasm clitorally, as opposed to penetratively, eliminates the need for a phallus and, by extension, for a man.<ref name=Webber/> For this reason, male producers continue to include, and male viewers continue to demand, a phallus as a central feature in lesbian pornography.<ref name=Webber/>
==See also== {{Portal|LGBTQ|Erotica and pornography}} {{commons}} {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * {{Annotated link|Bisexual pornography}} * {{Annotated link|Erotic literature}} * {{Annotated link|Erotica}} * {{Annotated link|Porn for women}} * {{Annotated link|Sex industry}} * {{Annotated link|Yuri (genre)|Yuri}} {{div col end}}
== References == {{Reflist|2}} {{LGBTQ fiction}} {{Pornography}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesbian pornography}} Category:Lesbian pornography Category:Pornography by genre Category:LGBTQ erotica