Lots more women are enjoying porn – and this is why it’s great for your sex life
Watching the X-rated clips is helping women explore their sexuality and connect with others to talk about what they want in the bedroom
MORE and more women around the world are watching porn - and it's helping them have a better sex life.
Viewing the X-rated clips is helping women explore their sexuality and connect with others to talk about what they want in the bedroom, new research suggests.
A study of 28 women of different sexual orientations looked at how they watched porn.
Researchers found that the online videos encouraged them to embrace their sexuality and discuss new ways of improving their sex lives.
Diana Parry, a professor in recreation and leisure studies at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: "We know from existing research that women are one of the fastest growing groups of people consuming online pornography and this study helps us understand some of the reasons they are doing so.
"It also seems clear that technology has enabled women to explore pornography on their own terms and to explore aspects of their sexuality that are new to them."
Having a healthy sex life can help women feel good about themselves as well as reduce their stress levels, according to sex therapist Louise Mazanti.
She told The Sun Online: "To be in touch with your body and your sexuality gives you a sense of pleasure and sense of fulfilment that is really important in order to feel good.
"It is both a physical thing and about your identity and your self-esteem.
"It is important that you get in touch with the deeper potential of pleasure within your body because it helps you connect more deeply with yourself.
"In an orgasm there are a lot of different hormones that are released that partly reduce stress and partly increase a sense of wellbeing, belonging and a general sense of feeling good."
Not only does watching porn and having a healthy sex life improve boost your happiness, it also improves your relationships.
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"Porn is quite important for women because we don't fantasise enough, we don't engage with sexual imagery and porn can really help us simply by starting our imagination to think about sex," Louise added.
"It helps us to reclaim our own sexual identity instead of waiting to only develop that when you are with a partner.
"We become so dependent on being in a relationship and that's actually dis-empowering in terms of owning your sexuality.
"When we are in touch with our sexuality we bring so much more to the relationship because we aren't just waiting for our partner and when they want sex.
"It [porn] allows them to bring much more sexual energy to the relationship and that is something that makes a relationship thrive."
Parry and her team also found that the privacy offered by smartphones and laptops also made women feel more comfortable exploring different types of porn.
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The research was conducted as part of a larger study looking at how digital technology allows women to access porn online.
"It's important to understand that society still has a very traditional idea of women's sexuality, with views that are typically more accepting of men's needs and desires," Diana said.
"Digital technology appears to have the ability to highlight women's sexuality in a way that we haven't seen before."