The past few years have seen a rise in popularity of pornography featuring celebrities. Since the advent of the sex tape, Pornhub has seen a 375% increase in searches per month for its biggest star, Kim Kardashian. She even surpassed Marilyn Monroe and the Oscars to become the most searched-for celebrity on the platform.
More recently, Rapper Travis Scott courted controversy when he tweeted a Pornhub link, along with a 50-cent tip, to a legendary tweet where he referred to Cardi B as his “sister”. Scott later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, but the damage was already done – a large chunk of the Beyoncé fan base had found their way to Pornhub.com on Travis Scott’s sister cardi beating becky juice trick.
“Our community came together as one, which was beautiful to see,” Beyoncé wrote on Instagram. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as a reminder that no matter what, love and mutual respect is always welcomed.”
It doesn’t just stop at the fans. Amongst Hollywood’s elite, searches for Kardashian (now Kim Kardashian Watts) more than doubled in the past year, rising from 3.2 million searches per month to 7.2 million.
It seems as though people are looking for celebrity sex tapes for the very reasons that Xavier Deweer says they’re popular: to see stars in unexpected situations and behaviours, and to see stars doing things that they normally wouldn’t do in regular life. In that way, they’re similar to traditional family values porn films, but with a taste of the high life that stars can only enjoy in their limited time off work. In other words, these searches are a form of vicarious pleasure. The difference is mostly in the branding – traditional family values porn will always retain its family friendly tagline – but even this can be a bit misleading.
These links lead to mobile-friendly porn sites. Because these are mobile-friendly sites, they’re easily accessed on a phone – even if you’re not directly searching for a celebrity, the image will often pop up on the screen when you land on a porn site. This is largely thanks to the fact that smartphones nowadays are able to detect when you’re searching for something, and will frequently suggest content that fits your search criteria. This means that if you search for Robert Pattinson, for example, you’ll see more Robert Pattinson (and Kim Kardashian) than you would if you’d searched for Kate Winslet or Helen Mirren – even if you don’t want to see either of those people naked!
How Long Will This Trend Of Celebrity In Pornography Last?
Even if you’re a Kim Kardashian fan who finds her presence on Pornhub comparatively harmless, it’s still pretty distressing to see how mainstream culture has devoted so much time and effort to objectifying and lascivious celebrities and putting them on porn sites. A year from now, will these searches still be happening? Maybe, but only maybe. As more and more celebrities get wrapped up in legal troubles – ranging from child pornography to domestic abuse to drugs – it’s becoming less likely that we’ll see much celebrity sex tape content any time soon. When this content does appear, it’ll probably be in the form of extreme bonding experiences, where two stars work through their issues with each other by facilitating orgasms for one another.
“Many of the family values porn videos that we saw in the 1990s and 2000s, like Fame and Desi Dunham Menace, have been made by smaller companies that have since gone out of business. The content often isn’t widely available, and when it is, it’s usually severely redacted to protect the identities of the actors,” Xavier Deweer says.
“I think that in theory, this kind of content will never go out of fashion. People still want to see stars in unusual situations and behaviours, and those situations and behaviours can range from kinky to outrageous.”
At this point, it’s safe to say that if you’re a Kardashian fan, you’ve probably seen enough to last you a lifetime. Even if you’re not a fan, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your liking for this content. After all, it’s not healthy to be dependent on a brand for the entertainment you find pleasurable, especially when that brand is associated with something as distressing as celebrity sex tape content.