Pornhub's trick to shed light on the orgasm gap may leave some men a little... blue
Welcome to Porn Week, Mashable's annual close up on the business and pleasure of porn.
Knowledge of the orgasm gap isn't new but, unsurprisingly, it's still very real. For cisheterosexual couples, men typically orgasm 95 percent of the time, but for women that number drops to 65 percent, according to a 2016 study from the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
This is why on the weekend of August 8, which is International Female Orgasm Day, Pornhub and creative agency Bar Ogilvy plan to bring awareness to this discrepancy. The tube site will interrupt their videos most viewed by straight men at the 40 percent timestamp — to highlight how approximately 40 percent of cishet women don't orgasm during sex with their partners.
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"Researchers demystified the female orgasm decades ago by highlighting the importance of clitoral stimulation and foreplay for women to reach The Big O," said Corey Price, VP of Pornhub in a press release. "Yet, in straight relationships, women are still getting the short end of the stick in nearly half of all of their sexual encounters."
In addition to interrupting videos, Pornhub also asks women to go to the campaign landing page endtheorgasmgap.com and "reward" men who made them orgasm with an official certificate. Kind of like Awards for Good Boys but without a trace of irony.
"In a time when women are working towards equality on many fronts, the orgasm gap struck us as a somewhat overlooked matter. This proved to be very motivating for our creative team," said Nuno Riça and João Amaral, creative directors at Bar Ogilvy, in a press release. "And with Pornhub’s reputation of tackling so many important issues, this was just as 'on brand' as it gets."
"The party shouldn’t end as soon as the man reaches orgasm, which is why we're encouraging straight men to do their research to ensure everyone gets over the finish line," said Price. "For visual learners, you can check out one of the thousands of female orgasm instructional videos on our site."
For more information on making a woman orgasm and closing the gap, users can visit Pornhub's Sexual Wellness Center.
Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Bluesky.
