- [Hannah] People have called orgasms
a lot of different things throughout history.
(door creaking)
Heaven,
a little death. (woman screaming)
High tide.
But whatever you call it,
women are having a lot fewer orgasms than men.
Well, when they have sex with men.
So what's causing this female orgasm shortage
and what does it have to do with porn?
(upbeat music)
In a 2018 study of newlywed heterosexual couples,
87% of men reported consistently experiencing orgasms,
compared to only 49% of women.
This is consistent with an earlier study
where 95% of heterosexual men reported
that they usually orgasm during sex,
compared with 65% of heterosexual women.
Women are having fewer orgasms than men, but why?
No, it's not that the female orgasm
is a complex, elusive mystery.
Lesbian women reported orgasm 86% of the time.
And men and women take the same amount of time to orgasm
when they're masturbating on their own, four minutes.
Rather, it might be a matter of education.
Research suggests that people tend to mirror the sex acts
they see depicted in porn.
And when it comes to sex ed,
30% of teenagers in one study said
porn was their primary source of sex education.
So when most mainstream,
easily accessible porn focuses on male pleasure,
shows men having 65% more orgasms
and receiving more oral sex than women,
real-life sex can start ignoring female pleasure too.
And that's how sex can start to become synonymous
with penetrative penis and vagina intercourse
and other sex acts the focus on female pleasure
just get ignored.
And it's not just sex.
The orgasm gap can also be linked to masturbation.
According to one study,
a quarter of male respondents reported masturbating
almost every day, compared to 8.7% of women.
And just over 20% of women said
they had never masturbated in their lifetime.
- Masturbation is super important because
oftentimes we're not taught to explore our own bodies,
to know what titillates us and brings us pleasure,
let alone to communicate that with a partner.
But there's nothing to communicate if you don't know.
And the first way to really get to know yourself
and what brings you pleasure is to
♪ Touch your body ♪
- [Hannah] But masturbation's not only healthy,
it's a major part of wellness.
- Masturbation is mindfulness.
Mindfulness meditation has known effects
for lowering stress,
for increasing happiness,
and actually has a lot of physiological aspects
that occur in the body, including lowering cortisol,
the stress hormone,
which is the same thing that happens when you masturbate.
- [Hannah] So if porn helped create the orgasm gap,
can it also fix it?
- Bellesa Plus is a brand new market disrupting
platform of porn that includes
Bellesa Studios and partner studios
which has content geared both towards male
and female pleasure equally.
Bellesa's approach to closing the orgasm gap
is to put the power back into the performer's hands
and really allowing people to enjoy the sex
that they're having.
- [Hannah] Bellesa, where Bellesa Plus is hosted
is on a mission to close the orgasm gap
and achieve sexual equality.
Bellesa does this through its online platform
focused on female sexuality that offers erotic stories,
sex ed, sex toys sold through Bellesa Boutique,
and their original porn series "Bellesa House."
- "Bellesa House" depicts unedited, unscripted content
where the performers can actually
pick who they wanna work with
and they can have sex exactly as they want.
They communicate with their partner what they want to do.
And it's actually depicting for the audience
real sex that people wanna have.
- [Hannah] Porn attracts billions of viewers
and dollars in revenue each year,
giving it huge influence in both our lives and our economy.
With more comprehensive sex ed,
a culture that de-stigmatizes masturbation,
and porn that prioritizes female pleasure, it's possible
that women can start taking their pleasure
into their own hands and feel good doing it.
(frog croaking)
(cheerful instrumental music)