By Holly Richmond, Ph.D., and Stephen Duclos, LMFT
If you haven’t noticed, sex as we know it is changing. There are powerful, influential and paradigm-shifting thought leaders projecting their voices worldwide, and those voices are female. Not only are the rules for consent changing, but the rules for pleasure as well. Women—particularly in the sextech field—are leading the way. One profound shift in contemporary sexuality is in Virtual Reality (VR) adult entertainment. We are stepping away from standard porn that caters to the straight male gaze with over the top dramatization of what women like in bed, to female-centric films that depict the nuanced complexity of female sexuality. Much of this content is written by women, directed by women and produced by women. The storylines are diverse and multicultural, and body types varied, with a focus on pleasure not performance. The ubiquitous 2-D porn that most of us watch on our phones is about to be a dinosaur. It can’t be converted to 360-degree, immersive VR content, so the script must be rewritten, literally and figuratively. Now is the time to wipe the slate clean and start over with women in mind.
VR Porn for Pleasure
VR is the tip of the iceberg of somatic technology (body-based technology). It takes sexual fantasy from watching and visualizing from a distance, to experiencing and feeling like you’re in it. This shift is pivotal for women’s sexuality, catering more to mind/body arousal rather than pure visual stimulation. VR porn can provide a sense of sexual mastery, competency and sexual self-efficacy.
VR porn is the perfect place to enter into fantasy and curiosity and bring sexual experimentation to life. For someone who has always wanted to be in the middle of an orgy, take that next step in BDSM or role playing, VR encourages erotic fantasy without the consequences or stresses of involving another person. Empowering women with experience and knowledge in VR can be a safe play before asking a partner or saying ‘yes’ to a new sexual experience IRL.
Therapeutic VR Porn
We know from our research into erotic fantasy that men tend to want to act out their sexual fantasies, while women do not. VR adult content allows women to have the best of both worlds. More than men, women need to understand how their sexuality functions in order to explain it to their partners. The cultivation of arousal and desire in masturbation and fantasy increasingly allows a woman to develop competency beyond vibrators and magazine articles.
As sex therapists and sextech consultants, we have been working closely with leaders in the VR adult industry to create content that is both entertaining and educational—”edutainment”—such as Virtual Sexology, that takes women through common sexual scenarios and allows them to focus on pleasure, both solo and with partners. This type of content merges eroticism and learning, delivering a unique and innovative platform that has the opportunity to change the way people experience porn, and broaden expectations of what porn is capable of. With VR, there is the possibility of experimenting with a sense of mastery, something that just isn’t possible with 2D therapeutic content. VR is essentially kinesthetic sexual learning—patients feel like they’re doing rather than watching, especially when they’re immersed in 5K POV content, something progressive VR porn providers like Reality Lovers are beginning to offer.
For the past year we’ve been experimenting with the power of VR, which is gaining recognition as a promising, cutting-edge tool for sex therapy. The potential for women is significant as we consider the impact of VR therapy for sexual and relational concerns including low libido, pain during intercourse and body image issues, as well as a sense of overall shame about their sexual preferences, or lack thereof. We believe adult VR content that bridges the gap between education and entertainment is likely to be part of the solution. Additionally, the ability to potentially home-treat patients via video-conferencing platforms and, hopefully, more affordable VR goggles, can result in a positive and effective change in sexual health, especially for those in rural areas without the resources of a local sex therapist.
Immersive technology like VR allows us to connect mind and body together—no matter the distance between parties—for entertainment and pleasure or therapy and education. We anticipate the possibility of solving more physical and psychological sexual issues in the coming years with VR technology. And as VR continues to progress and the ability to connect physical devices and “feel” virtual sex goes mainstream, our sexual culture and sexual health will improve and evolve. The rules around adult entertainment and what’s considered taboo are changing. Women are poised to not only understand their own sexuality better, but to feel empowered by VR porn and the sextech revolution and recognize that we are only at the beginning of what’s possible.
