Women's erotica

Women’s erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to heterosexual women. When erotica is directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available from a variety of media including websites, books, short stories, films, photography, magazines and audio. The content may cover many aspects of sexuality, from relationships to fetishes; the main idea being to convey sex from a woman’s perspective, or to feature female sexual fantasies.

Websites

Because of the privacy and anonymity offered by the internet, women have increasingly embraced erotic material online. In 2003, Nielsen Netratings noted that more than a quarter of all porn surfers were female. The first women's erotica subscription-based website, Purve, was launched in 1998. The site featured photos of nude men culled from gay sites, articles and sex advice. Sssh.com, a similar subscription site that features original movies and photographic content, was launched in 1999 by Angie Rowntree, who was later inducted into the Adult Video News Hall of Fame, Internet Founders Division, in recognition of her efforts to help establish and grow an online market for women’s erotica. In 2015, Sssh.com became the first porn-for-women site to win the XBIZ Award for Best Alternative Site. The first women's adult directory was Ladylynx which featured links to galleries and site reviews. Kara's Links, a similar directory site, began operating soon after.