The Magic of Audio Porn
Why the rise of aural porn could change the way we think about sex. And why you should try it.
Audio porn is booming in quarantine. The new rise in audio porn could be a sign of escapism, self-care, or both. From audio clips from real-life sex to guided masturbation, erotic stories and ASMR, audio porn has no singular definition — as long as it’s focused on sound only.
The storytelling of written erotica and audio porn are what bring people to them, especially in times like these. Stories detach us from reality and nurture our fantasies and imagination. The possibility to connect is much stronger in the form of a story. Daydreaming appears to be an essential tool for people to function and thrive. No wonder we’re getting excited about audio porn in quarantine.
Changes in the arena of sex
Sex has been defined by visuals in porn, naked, sexualized bodies in our feeds, TV advertisements, album covers, and billboards for decades. Every new medium creates a new narrative. Porn changes the ways we understand and think about sex. Thus, this rising format of porn will probably change our narratives surrounding sex, as well. While visual porn is produced for the male gaze, many new audio porn companies are owned by females and cater to a mostly female audience.
The mainstream porn industry is infamously known for its unethical and exploitative working conditions. Could audio porn be the answer to the ethics crisis in porn? Probably not completely, because the production lines of audio porn are just as difficult to trace as visual porn. However, audio porn has democratized the making of porn, and has had consent in the basis of all of it for years. New audio porn companies like Quinn and DipSea have very strict guidelines for working conditions and consent. While bigger companies are starting to get a hang of this format of porn, it has been a very community-led format until recent years. We can’t predict where the future of audio porn will be going, but with a new medium there’s always hope for more ethical execution.
While the regular, free, often un-ethical porn doesn’t encourage us to feel empathy towards its actors (or victims), the fictional side of audio porn could develop your empathy skills. While we all realize, that visual porn isn’t real or non-fiction, it’s sometimes difficult to really internalize that. Visual porn can seem realistic in the way it uses real people in real-life situations. While some porn has a clearly fictional plotline, others try to hide the fiction in the situation.
It’s been proven study after study, that reading fiction will make you more empathetic. Because aural porn involves your imagination with its fictional stories and lack of visual cues, it could also increase your empathy in a way that the often derogative, sexist, ableist, and racist visual porn cannot.
Bringing your solo game to the next level
“There is evidence that people get more sexually aroused by more intense stimulation,” explains Nicole Prause, PhD. This would mean that visual porn affects us more strongly than audio porn. However, many of us have become desensitized to the imagery of porn, and need to get a more substantial hit to feel satisfied or aroused by it. That’s where aural porn can come to play. It could be the solution if nothing quite “does” it for you anymore. And even if it does, it’s a completely different experience. If you’ve gotten tired and used to your porn routine, here’s how you can mix things up.
In the same way, that sight deprivation by using a blindfold heightens your senses during sex, using audio cues instead of visual ones can really bring your solo-sex experience to the next level. Non-visual porn deliberately leaves a lot more to the imagination and makes you focus on what your hearing and feeling. This can make porn feel more participatory instead of it feeling like something you’re observing from the sidelines.
Aural porn can make you feel more in tune with your body and your sexuality. People want to be immersed. They want to get involved in a story, to carve out a role for themselves, to make it their own. While POV porn and other more inclusive camera tricks can make visual porn more inclusive, you’re still observing something that is outside of you. With aural porn, the story automatically involves your imagination to fill in the holes of the plot and immerses you by letting you do the fantasizing.
Thus, audio porn could make you more immersed and tuned into your body and sexual fantasies. This will help you have more positive, empowered sexual experiences with yourself and your partner(s).
Aural porn will change your sex life
We see highly edited, purposefully posed, and prepped bodies on our screens day in and day out. With aural porn, you can get a break from the constant comparison and hyperfocus on the physicalities of sex. You can start to appreciate the sounds, the breaths, and the sighs, instead of obsessing over the way our bodies look in certain angles, or the sizes of arbitrary organs and pieces of tissue. This could really liberate you from comparing yourself to the hypersexualized imagery we’re bombarded with daily. Giving less attention to the visual side of porn can help you learn to appreciate and accept your body. And your partner’s.
Because our society is so visual, we sometimes forget to use our four other senses. Instead of focusing on how your partner looks “so hot”, you could learn to appreciate the way they feel and sound. Their softness and their hardness. The hotness of their breath in your neck. The sighs and the moans you make and the ones you get in response.
Listening to aural porn can help you tune into your imagination in solo and partnered sex. If you have trouble letting go and emptying your mind off of your stressors during sex, learning to fantasize through aural porn could help!
Moreover, porn in the form of an audio story will challenge you to imagine the visuals yourself. We’re so used to sexual visuals, ideas, and ideals being handed over to us ready-made, that it can feel difficult to create those visuals in your imagination. Many women feel a disconnect between their bodies and their minds, between the psychological and physical arousal. You can exercise that connection with listening to audio porn mindfully and in a safe space.
You can also try listening to audio porn with your partner(s), to get in sync. This could be especially helpful if you’re trying to get into roleplaying or want to spice things in the bedroom with novelty.
Sex that includes you
Right now, the visual is defining the majority of our sexual imagery and ideas. However, sex is a lot more than what we can see. Trying audio porn out will give you an experience through which you can see sex and sexuality in new ways.
The rise of aural porn can make us understand sexual experiences outside of our own. Audio porn is inclusive to those with visual impairments, for example. With more people experiencing and understanding different ways to enjoy sex, we’ll have a more inclusive idea of what sex is and can be. The mainstream media often paints imagery of sex with a heteronormative and patriarchal paintbrush, but new forms of media and porn can shake up those existing ideals.
While all types of porn have started representing broader depictions of pleasure, audio porn gives the reins to you. When your listening, you have control over imagining the people’s features, body types and races. In many audio porn sites, you can choose the genders and accents of the voices, and go through dozens of categories to find a story that fits your fantasy. Unfortunately, there is a lack of non-binary content in many of the audio porn sites. However, with its rise in popularity, we can expect an answer soon to the demand of stories using they/them pronouns and gender-neutral vocabulary, as well.
Audio porn leaves more room for subjectivity and imagination. You can learn to be more present and sensitive, with listening instead of viewing. If you’re feeling a disconnect in your arousal, or are tired of the bombarding of patriarchal and heteronormative imagery, audio porn could be for you. And you can listen to it anywhere.
While removing the visuals does not remove our society’s sexual imagery, stereotypes, or ideals, they can help you detach from them or at least add your own spice to them. In the safety of your own mind.
