What exactly is softcore porn?
You may have seen or heard (largely from right-leaning tabloids) that porn (even softcore porn) is bad for you. It rots your brain, ruins your relationship, damages your health, hell… it pretty much destroys your life and does anything else bad that you can imagine.
Well, it turns out that these things aren’t exactly true.
For every ‘what is the world coming to’ article out there claiming that porn does irreversible damage, there’s a study to show that it doesn’t. It’s how we view porn, how we use it, and what we take away from it that has an effect, when porn is consumed in a healthy way, it’s not in any way bad.
It’s also important to consider the type of porn we’re choosing, and by this, I don’t mean, is it anal or orgy… I mean, is it ethical? Ethical porn means that every single person involved was looked after and cared for, meaning that they are free to work in a safe and healthy way. Ethical porn is always the best porn, no matter what floats your boat, which is why ethical sites like Frolicme.com are so valuable.
What is soft porn?
Softcore pornography definition or soft porn as it’s typically called, can be anything that you find sensual as well as sexual. It’s usually video, images or audio that concentrates on the less graphic elements of sex and pleasure and instead seeks to turn you on through suggestion, coupled with sexy images, sounds, or ideas. Soft porn can also venture into the real world too! This could mean anything from strip shows, burlesque, lingerie modelling, reading a romance novel or simulated sex – basically, if you find it a turn-on and it’s not all that graphic, you’ve found yourself enjoying soft core porn.
The emphasis is on the sensual appreciation of our bodies and the enjoyment of pleasure.
Softcore porn in any form does not cause irrevocable harm to your brain or your sex life — in fact, it might even be good for you. But, what are the benefits of consuming porn and how could soft core affect our sexual selves and our relationships?
Is softcore porn bad?
In a paper from 2008, two Danish researchers concluded that of 688 adults studied, viewing soft porn, listening to it, or consuming it through literature did not produce any negative mental or health effects. In fact, the researchers found a surprising positive correlation between the subjects’ porn viewing and increased sexual satisfaction, as well as self-reported benefits in other areas of their lives, such as feelings of confidence and overall happiness.
It can relieve stress?
Let’s face it. Life can be stressful, and from my experience, just drinking herbal tea, squeezing a stress ball, or taking a few deep breaths doesn’t tend to make the twists and turns of life all that much easier to deal with.
Masturbation to softcore porn relieves stress by releasing feel-good hormones, such as oxytocin and serotonin. These hormones not only make us feel good at the moment but they also contribute to our overall feelings of happiness and contentment. During orgasm and post-climax, we also produce neurotransmitters that promote relaxation, these also help to lower our blood pressure and induce feelings of sleepiness, this may explain why a post-pleasure nap is something we all lean towards after masturbation.
A study from ‘Medical News Today’ surveyed almost 800 adults and found a clear link between the quality of sleep after orgasm. After you climax, you have better sleep. Whether the orgasm experienced was a result of coupled sex, or porn makes no difference, so you can relax in the knowledge that soft porn not only helps you to live a more stress-free existence, it will also help you to get forty winks as well.
When you are stressed, your brain releases cortisol that blocks problem-solving and the ability to think clearly. In a study conducted by ‘Carnegie Mellon University, people who looked at sexy pictures experienced a reduction of 50% in their overall cortisol levels, meaning clarity of mind is another lesser-known benefit.
It helps you to explore your sexuality
There’s a reason that the first step in a lot of people’s sexual journey starts with looking at pornography. Unless you’re exposed to sexual practices outside of what you’ve been told is acceptable, it’s hard to become comfortable with your own sexuality, needs, and desires—or indeed, to feel that they are normal without seeking validation from some sort of outside source.
In our formative years, pornography is used as a way to gain an education. Sex ed is how we find out about the mechanics of sex—what goes where—pornography is how many of us begin to figure out how that relates to our sexualities. Pornography is not an ideal replacement for sex ed (because if you think Bait Bus is realistic, you’re in for a world of hurt), but it’s an excellent education as to what’s out there for you to explore.
It can help to boost your relationship
Soft pornography can reboot a couple’s sex life. It can give you both ideas or help you get to achieve an erotic reconnection. It also helps us to redefine our sexual tastes. As we get older, things change, our taste in music (believe it or not I don’t still have my walls covered in Hanson posters), food, fashion and… yes, you guessed it, our sexual preferences. Exploring new scenarios, kinks, or fetishes through pornography can help you to discover new pleasure horizons and allow your sex life to evolve alongside your partner.
What’s the difference between softcore porn and hardcore porn?
Softcore porn is less graphically visual and more suggestive.
A lot of the physical aspects of porn aren’t shown, or if they are, it’s more fleeting and romantic feeling. Instead, soft porn aims to imply the more graphic elements leading you to feel aroused through imagination and sensual inspiration. The keyword to think about here is ‘implied’. For porn to be considered soft, the focus must be on the idea of pleasure, it is more sensual and suggestive, and it’s this that creates a sense of eroticism and taboo.
That’s not to say soft porn is lesser in any way, it’s still sexual and can show penetration, masturbation and the stimulation and exploration of other erogenous zones. Soft porn’s goal is to excite the brain and fire our erotic imagination. We then experience a physical effect by way of arousal, thanks to our brains sending pleasure signals to our erogenous zones.
In most cases, softcore porn places emphasis on the ideas around pleasure and sex, it’s largely fantasy based and leaves a lot up to you. Hardcore porn is more visceral and spoon-feeds the viewer. Hardcore porn focuses more on the physical acts of sex and likes to show us exactly what happens. Hardcore takes you by the hand and leads you towards eroticism, everything is shown and nothing is off limits. Neither approach is better or worse, it is entirely dependent on the person watching.
Who watches Soft Porn?
Softer porn is for everyone. Regardless of how you identify, who you choose to go to bed with, or what’s between your legs!
There is a huge misconception that soft porn caters only to those of us whose favourite sexual flavour is vanilla and that only women watch it. This isn’t true, our preferences for porn vary wildly and there are no hard and fast rules as to who likes what. With over ten years of data showing the world’s sexual trends, Pornhub has revealed that despite what the average Joe on the street might think – women watch porn, and a lot of it. 1/3 of women regularly watch porn and on average, spend longer viewing material than men. The actual stat is 1:14 times more.
The most popular categories for women are… well, women. Regardless of how we identify sexually, we all love a bit of girl-on-girl action. Men love soft porn too, in fact (depending on their age) ‘soft porn’ is the preferred category of between 25% and 45.4% of male-based searches, showing us that soft porn knows no boundaries when it comes to sex or gender.
Where to watch soft core porn?
As always, though, making sure the porn you consume is of a high quality is everything, and this means ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all the performers and crew involved… remember this work for them! Choosing ethical porn is just a win-win situation. Everyone is looked after and you get to enjoy some fictional filth free from the worry that can come from visiting other porn sites. Frolicme is also a great start when it comes to watching soft core porn.
All in all…
As with a lot of things, moderation is key. Regardless of the type of porn you prefer, if you’re watching it 24/7, forgetting to shower and neglecting your real life, then, of course, that’s not exactly great. But, whilst there are cases of this happening, it’s definitely worth remembering that they’re not all that common.
Viewing softcore porn is, as we’ve discovered, a good thing for many people. It can help you in various ways, as long as you keep in mind that in the majority of cases, pornography, including softcore porn, is made for your enjoyment and entertainment. It isn’t supposed to be an educational tool, and if you remember that, then you won’t go too far wrong.
Soft porn is there to be enjoyed, be it alone or with a partner or partners, and can help to revolutionise your sexual repertoire, can make you feel more comfortable and confident in trying new things, can improve your imagination when it comes to fantasy and can be beneficial in a whole host of other ways.
The bottom line is that softer style porn is all about expanding your pleasure potential and making you feel good, and who wouldn’t like that?
Image taken from our Frolicme wet porn film Rainfall, of lovers caught in a summer shower and enjoy a passionate romp.
Annabelle wow! What a well researched and informative article, the way you conveyed your message was so relatable (I was nodding along in agreement as I read). Self pleasure is proven to be an important aspect of self care for too many reasons to mention. By watching soft porn and / or reading erotic fiction we can all kick-start getting to that pleasure pinnacle.
It’s lovely that we can source ethical soft porn and classy erotic material on the FrolicMe site – and buy sex toys too!