After breaking up in 2017, Laurel Zoff Pelton wasn't ready to jump right back into the dating world.
«I was still grieving. I felt very lonely, but I tried to break the bad habit of seeking closeness with people when I knew it was not real,» the 31-year-old voice actress tells Euronews Culture from the USA.
That's when she first discovered audio porn.
The concept is quite simple: take all the elements of an erotic story, add sound effects from mainstream porn and a lot of different fantasies, and it will be a new form of non-visual pornography.
The stories range from the hyper-realistic to the downright absurd: «It could be anything from 'I'm just trying to do my laundry…' to 'I'm a vampire,'» says Laurel Zoff Pelton.
According to her, in this type of content has an added level of intimacy.The speaker seems to be talking directly to the listener, creating an intimate bond.Also, Zoff Pelton identifies as a non-binary person, and she liked the lack of visual cues, as in classic porn.
“Audio porn, and porn in general, has been a way for me to tap into different parts of my identity,” she says. “It has also helped me as a part of the kinky community, as a non-binary person, learn and explore new sexual and gender aspects that I enjoy in a truly safe space where it's just me and someone else who created this environment.»
Zoff Pelton is not alone — in recent years, audio porn, or audio erotica as it is also called, has been rapidly gaining popularity among women and non-binary people — those who often remain outside the discussion when it comes to sexual pleasure.
Women — at the helm of the audio porn industry
The concept of audio porn is nothing new — hotlines for phone sex have been around for decades, but its popularity has grown exponentially with the ubiquity of smartphones.
Almost all audio erotica apps and websites say their target audience is women. Most of them are founded and run by women. This is surprising considering that in 2021 women made up only about 14% of startup founders.
Although women are often the targets of porn films, they are very rarely behind the camera when making decisions. This means that the mainstream porn industry is not up to the task of creating content that appeals to female viewers or gender non-conforming viewers.
“When watching visual porn, there is a risk of starting to compare yourself to actors and feel like you don’t live up to the standards of beauty presented on screen, or feel no identification with actors,” says sex therapist Lee Noren, who runs an online program for people. with low sexual desire.
Lee Noren told Euronews Culture that she's been increasingly recommending audio erotica to her clients lately: «Not only is it a great way to explore your sexuality in general, but it's also a great way for clients who have never masturbated and for clients who find that visual porn is something they don't want to explore yet because they feel like it's going to be too graphic, that it might make them feel insecure in a way. something less explicit».
Between realism and immersion
The French co-founder of Femtasy, a Berlin-based audio erotic site, says she got the idea when she learned that some women watch traditional porn with their laptop screen turned off so they can hear the sounds without seeing the image.
«Nina Julie Lepic, co-founder of Femtasy, has done a lot of research on why people prefer audio over video,» says Lisa Demma, editor-in-chief of the portal. «Some of them said, 'I used to go to Pornhub and just close my laptop so I couldn't see the video because what was shown there was very hurtful or just disturbing'».
Since inception in In 2018, Femtasy released hundreds of erotic audio clips to subscribers in the UK, Germany and France. Its content is divided into three main categories: stories, sounds, and guided masturbation.
«It always surprises me that in audio people in general want to hear the nasty part of sex,» Lisa Demma told Euronews Culture. «They want to hear head bangs on the wall, the clumsiness of couples. But at the same time, our content that works best is always the most elaborate, the most polished.»
Femtasy uses the binaural audio recording technique for a number of stories. With it, the microphones are located approximately where a person's ears are, and the recording is in stereo. Thus, the listener perceives the sound more naturally.
«You can hear a voice in your right ear and then a person walking behind you and then descending towards you, and you can spatially perceive sounds,» explains Lisa Demma. The result is a completely immersive experience that is nearly impossible to replicate with visual porn.
Germans jump in right away, French need poetry
Femtasy produces content in three different languages: English, German and French. But the content for the markets of different countries differs not only in this.
«The writing style is very different,» says Lisa Demma. «In Germany, everything is straight forward, there is no need for a specific context. People are looking for more practice, for example, doggy style, threesomes, etc. And in France, they need poetry. They need a little more context, descriptions, characters are given more time. Between In France, listeners are also addicted to practices that we categorize as more advanced, such as getting caught, emotional danger, group sex, and the like.
In the UK, listeners are often looking for audio porn about specific BDSM practices, continues Lisa Demma. «It amazes me more and more how perverted people are, it's something that doesn't change. So the more perverted we get, the more people like it.»
How to make it sound sexy?
Audio -porn can be different in style and quality: it can be just a phone conversation or a recording of two people having sex, overheard from a distance. Some stories may sound like audiobooks, with clear narration and erotic voiceovers.
One of the English-speaking writers and voice actors of Femtasy, under the pseudonym Michael, shared with Euronews Culture that it is often small gestures and non-verbal sounds that can bring people to orgasm.
«Being sexy in such things is not so much talking as not talking, holding back, that's the sexiest thing,» he says. «Knowing that someone is trying to control themselves, it can be really sexy. For example, take a breath, or release tension, or add swear words, do it like a human being.» .
Changing the outlook on sexual health
The release of audio content for adults is still fraught with certain difficulties. Lisa Demma says that Femtasy tried several times to release an app for smartphones, but it was blocked in the App Store. Now they have a website that «looks like an app». The company's Instagram account has also been shadow-blocked frequently.
But there is hope that in the future, sexual health and pleasure (especially for women, transgender people, and non-binary people) will no longer be demonized. For example, Demma says Femtasy is currently discussing whether their subscription is covered by social security in Germany.
WHO has for many years considered sexual health «fundamental to the overall health and well-being of individuals, couples and families, and to the social and economic development of communities and countries.» Peer-reviewed research has shown that sex has a positive effect on physical and mental health, can reduce stress, boost self-esteem, and even make you smarter.