List of pornographic subgenres

Pornography is commonly grouped into a number of distinct subgenres, typically categorized as either softcore or hardcore pornography.

Softcore pornography generally contains nudity or partial nudity in sexually suggestive situations, but not explicit sexual activity, sexual penetration or "extreme fetishism".

Hardcore pornography contains graphic sexual activity and visible penetration.

The majority of the genres in this list relate to hardcore pornography.

Overview

Pornographic films are characterized as either softcore and hardcore, which can contain depictions of sexual penetration or extreme fetishism. Subgenres can also be classified into the characteristics of the performers or the type of sexual activity on which it concentrates, and not necessarily on the market to which each subgenre appeals. Pornographic films are classified into a number of subgenres, each of which usually conforms to certain conventions, and each of which caters to particular markets.

Traditionally, pornographic films were made for a male market. A typical pornographic film featured a female performer on whom the film focused. Her male partner had no distinctive features other than a large penis. However, there has been an increase in female viewers over time, and there have recently been efforts to increase the sexualization of male performers also. New features such as men with smaller penises, charming facial features and well-built bodies are becoming predominant, as well as the emergence of feminist pornography.

Genre by physical characteristics

Big Beautiful Women (BBW), or chubby, plumper, fat pornography features thick overweight or obese women.

Big breast pornography, also called ginormous tits, big-boob or big-bust pornography, features women with large breasts. Some viewers prefer performers with breast implants, others prefer women who have naturally large breasts.

Big dick/cock pornography features men with large penises.

Big butt or Big ass pornography features women with large buttocks. This genre eroticizes the buttocks and anus, and it often overlaps with anal pornography.

Cameltoe pornography involves women with a large and/or prominent labia and/or clitoris.

Leg and feet pornography has an extreme emphasis on legs and feet. See: Other fetish section below

Small breast pornography, also called tiny tits, small tits, or titless pornography, features women with small breasts.

Race and ethnicity

Race-oriented pornography does not always feature performers who are actually of the race listed in the title. Performers are sometimes billed as being of a certain race, if their facial features, body shape, or skin color fit a publicly accepted idea of what people of that race look like. Some performers are billed as being of one race, and then of another, depending on the film.

Asian pornography features performers who are (or appear to be) Asian/Oriental or from the Far East such as Japan, China and Thailand. Much in domestic and exported to foreign markets.

Ebony or black pornography features performers who are (or appear to be) black. They can be sub-divided into African pornography, African-American pornography or Caribbean pornography.

European pornography involving performers who are (or appear to be) European with features from Western Europe or more commonly Eastern Europe.

Interracial pornography features sex between people of different racial backgrounds.

Porn Salad features performers of more than two ethnic groups, usually Latin, Ebony, European, Asian, involving international or global female perfomers.

Latina/Latin pornography features performers who are (or appear to be) from Latin America or Latin Europe which includes South America, notably Mexico, Cuba. Most are of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Native American or Mestiza descent.

Middle Eastern pornography features performers who are (or appear to be) from the Middle East. There is certainly an overlap with Arab pornography involving performers who are (or appear to be) Arabs from the Middle East or North Africa, and with Indian pornography.

Bi-racial pornography features a model who is biracial and not specifically racially defined. This may include Albinos, Southeast Asians, Aborigines or Red-heads.

Age

Mature pornography features performers aged 40 and over. A related type of pornography known as MILF (Mother I'd Like to Fuck) features women, generally of age 25 or older, in fantasy scenarios with younger men.

Teen pornography, sometimes referred to as Barely Legal, features young actors depicted as being aged 18 or 19. Eighteen years old is the youngest age to lawfully perform in sexually explicit films in many countries.

Erotic Preteen Video is non-pornographic (or simulated pornographic), live action, films consisting of models that are under the age of consent for actual pornography. Like adolescent and pre-teen pornography, it is not considered child pornography in countries where such films are legal to make and/or possess, and all parties involved gave consent.

Child pornography is commonly considered pornography involving children or teenagers who are under the age of consent for sexual relations (although in some countries such as the United Kingdom and United States the definition of child pornography includes subjects at or over the age of consent pretending to be younger). The United States considers any erotic entertainment with people under the age of 18 to be child pornography, even in states where the age of consent is considerably lower than 18 years old. Production, possession, and distribution of child pornography are illegal in many countries. In the countries where child pornography is illegal, simulated photographs ("pseudo-photographs") or lifelike edited images representing child sex are often illegal as well.

Sexual orientation

Pornography features an increasing variety of combinations of actors by their sexual orientation or rather, by the orientation of acts performed, such as lesbian, gay, and bisexual, in addition to more traditional heterosexual roles. Heterosexual porn accounts for the majority of produced film and video content in the industry.

Men with men

Gay pornography is usually male homosexual pornography, acts depicted typically include anal or oral sex. Men who perform in mainstream gay pornography often do not consider themselves gay or bisexual. See "Gay-for-pay".

Twink pornography features younger performers, and usually features young men under 30 who identify as gay or bisexual. Performers are usually clean-shaven, thinner and more effeminate than ones in mainstream gay pornography.

Bear features a combination of middle-aged, hairy or overweight males.

Yaoi male homosexual hentai designed to appeal to women and men.

Bara male homosexual hentai designed to appeal to men.

Women with women

Lesbian or girl-girl pornography features women engaged in sex together, but is typically aimed at a male audience. Women who perform in lesbian pornography often do not consider themselves lesbian or bisexual. See also Gay-for-pay.

Lesbian pornography made for women is usually made by women, and usually features women who identify as lesbian or bisexual. Lesbian pornography typically features a wider range of appearances and body types than is typical of mainstream pornography. Particularly, some pornography in this genre features butch women, who are almost never seen in mainstream pornography.

Multiple men and women

Bisexual: A woman or man who has sex with both men and women. Bisexual does not necessarily mean that a person is willing to be part of a threesome with both hetero- and homosexual contact or have two partners of opposite genders concurrently; these are forms of polyamory, though the former is what the term typically refers to in porn. The terms Bisexual and Pansexual are often used interchangeably; Pansexual refers to someone who is attracted to all genders, such as genderqueer, genderfluid and so on. The term is useful in porn when referring to people who are attracted to/have sex with women, men, and transsexual people.

Backgammon pornography features reverse bukkake, or men and women having multiple back sex.

Bukkake pornography usually depicts numerous men having sex with one woman, with multiple, usually 10 or more, men ejaculating on the female or male's face. Especially popular in post-World War 2 Japanese culture.

Threesome or 3some pornography features one man and two women (MFF). It is geared towards heterosexual men, who most typically define a threesome as such. A threesome is also depicted with one woman and two men (MFM) who all perform sex acts on each other (but not male on male). (MMF) is depicted with two men and one woman who all perform sex acts on each other (including male on male) considered a bisexual threesome (see Bisexual).

Gang bang pornography usually depicts numerous men having sex with one woman, or one man. A scene where many women have sex with one man is referred to as a "reverse gang-bang". Group sex pornography (including sex parties such as an orgy or a swinger party) features at least two men and two women (foursome or 4some), usually more, who all perform sex acts on each other.

Reality

Reality pornography refers to real or faked 'amateur' encounters. This category also includes pornographic home movies. Related genres include:

Amateur pornography originally referred only to pornography produced by amateurs but now also includes professionally made pornography designed to appear as if it were amateur. Pro-am pornography is subgenre of amateur pornography that refers to professionally made porn that features amateur actors/actresses, often appearing for the first time in a pornographic film.

Celebrity sex tapes are amateur or professionally made recordings of sex acts, as performed by a celebrity and their partner(s). These typically are leaked to the public via the Internet, with or without the celebrity's consent. A celebrity may allow such a recording to surface willingly, as part of a publicity stunt.

Exhibitionist pornography features performers, usually female exposing themselves in public and spans simple flashing to public sex. The Girls Gone Wild series is one example.

Gonzo pornography involves a first-person cameraman/performer perspective. Also see POV.

Homemade pornography is amateur pornography made in a persons home.

Upskirt and Downblouse pornography features staged filming up women's skirts or down their blouses while in public. Actual upskirt or downblouse shots may violate privacy laws in some countries.

Hidden Camera pornography involves shots that appear to spy or peep on a woman who is unaware she is being viewed or filmed while dressing, going to the bathroom, or showering; either at home or in a commercial place, such as a locker room, public restroom, spa (including spa treatments such as spraying, scrubbing, bikini waxes or Brazilian bikini waxes, and endermologie (also known as lipomassage or cellulite treatment)), or dressing room. Actual spying may violate privacy and/or trespassing laws in many countries. Voyeur or peeping Tom pornography is usually more staged with the subjects aware of the cameras, sometimes openly including this exhibitionist awareness. Voyeur pornography may also include shots of topless women on topless beaches who are unaware of the cameras but may legally be photographed due to the public setting.

Gloryhole pornography features women performing fellatio or other sexual acts on unidentified men through a small hole made in a bathroom divider. This genre also features male-on-male fellatio through a small hole made in a bathroom divider.

Revenge porn and hacked or leaked porn features sexually explicit images or video that is distributed without the consent of the subject. If the subject willingly gave the person distributing the material permission to possess, but not distribute the material, it is referred to as revenge porn. Hacked or leaked porn refers to material that the subject knows exists (i.e. for private use or for a significant other), but was obtained through hacking into a person's cloud storage or other such account and distributed without their permission.

Specific sex acts

Anal

Anal pornography features anal penetration with a penis, dildo, other objects, or some combination of them.

Ass to mouth (aka ATM or A2M) pornography shows the transfer of a performer's penis (or other object) from a second performer's anus to that same second performer's (or another performer's) mouth in a single shot. A variant of A2M is ATOM (ass to other mouth) where a performer inserts his penis directly from one recipient's anus into a second recipient's mouth.

Gaping in pornography refers to scenes of anal sex with a focus on the recipient's anus remaining open for a period of time after the erect penis or dildo is removed. A sub-set of gaping is the "'tunnel cumshot", wherein the male ejaculates directly into the gaping anus.

Pegging is a recently invented word which features a woman penetrating a man with a strap-on dildo.

Rimjob pornography centering around analingus.

Other sex acts

Deep-throating features the recipient taking the penis through the mouth into the throat, either as fellatio or irrumatio.

Double penetration (aka DP) pornography depicts simultaneous anal and vaginal penetration of one woman. Double Stuffed (aka DS), Double Vaginal (aka DV), or Double Anal (aka DAP) pornography involves the penetration of one orifice by two penises or other objects.

Fisting pornography features the insertion of an entire hand into a performer's vagina or anus. A sub-set of vaginal fisting attempts to photograph the female cervix immediately after the fist (or large dildo or speculum) is removed from the now-gaping vagina.

Oral sex pornography frequently features a person performing fellatio, and less frequently cunnilingus. Lingo pornography involving licking ears, lips, girl's vulva, or any other use of tongue.

Solo pornography features performers masturbating. Can also include auto-fellatio, that is, a man performing oral sex upon himself. Due to the positioning of the vagina and nature of the act, auto-cunnilingus is a lot rarer.

Insertion in pornography features performers inserting various odd objects into their anus or vaginas.

Other categories

Cartoon pornography depicts illustrated or animated fictional characters in erotic and sexual situations.

Hentai is the various forms of Japanese pornography, including H-manga, H-anime, and H-computer games. The term hentai is never used in this context in Japanese. The meaning of hentai is "perversion", "abnormality", or "metamorphosis". Yaoi is anime or manga that features gay males (although not necessarily pornographic). Yuri is the lesbian equivalent.

Interactive pornography, available in CD-ROM and DVD format, allows the viewer to select the particular acts performed at any one time, sometimes with the camera providing a first person view.

Virtual Reality Pornography provides an interactive digitally-generated immersive erotic experience, often side-by-side stereoscopic content shown from a participants point-of-view (POV).

Fetish/BDSM

Bondage and Discipline

Stocks features performers restrained in stocks. It is commonly used in foot fetish pornography, where a performer has their feet cast in stocks as their feet are being licked or tickled by another performer.

Bondage pornography features performers tied up or constrained in various ways. BDSM pornography depicts bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism. Femdom features BDSM scenes in which the dominant partner is female.

Japanese rope bondage is distinguished by its use of specific katas (forms) and aesthetic rules. Sometimes, asymmetric and often intentionally uncomfortable positions are employed to heighten the psychological impact of the bondage.

Domination and Submission

Facesitting when one partner sits on the other's face. This usually involves oral sex but can simply be an act of dominance, or a part of breathplay.

Sadism and Masochism

Rough sex pornography is similar to pornography featuring sadomasochism, and typically features a Top who humiliates and/or degrades a Bottom while being physically violent towards them. Typically featured are hitting, choking, name-calling and hair-pulling. Many of these activities might be based on rape.

Rape pornography features performers simulating rape. Rape itself is a crime in many countries. The viewing of this porn is illegal in many countries.

Spanking or whipping pornography involves spanking or whipping, generally of the buttocks, with the hand or with other objects such as belts, switches, paddles, brushes, or whips.

Guro or Gore is a genre of Japanese pornography involving blood, gore, disfiguration, violence, mutilation, urine, enemas, or feces.

Semen

Bukkake pornography involves a performer, usually female, onto whom several men or women (see Squirting) ejaculate, usually on the face.

Creampie (also called internal ejaculation or internal cumshot) pornography features ejaculation inside the vagina (vaginal creampie), mouth (oral creampie) or rectum (anal creampie) instead of the common cum shot, followed by the visible seeping or dripping of semen from the vagina, mouth or anus.

Cum-shot pornography features a collection of male ejaculation scenes.

Cum swapping pornography involves performers trading semen between their mouths.

Facial pornography involving male ejaculation onto a performer’s face.

Felching involves sucking semen from the vagina or anus and drinking it.

Other Bodily Functions

Menstrual or "red rhapsody" pornography features sexual activities involving women who are menstruating, with a focus on the menstrual blood.

Scat or "brown" pornography features defecation, manipulation of feces, or consumption of feces, in reality or fantasy; a well-known example is the 2 Girls 1 Cup video.

Milking pornography features lactating women being milked or milking themselves (not to be confused with milk enemas).

Watersports pornography features sexual activities involving urine, such as "golden showers".

Emetophilia pornography involving vomiting and gagging.

Squirt pornography involves women ejaculating.

Saliva pornography involves salivation and saliva.

Crying pornography that features participating actors crying.

Specific body parts

Foot fetish pornography features heavy emphasis on the feet of the participants, either in combination with kissing and genital sex or in the context of acts such as trampling or crush fetishism.

Hair fetishism is sexual arousal connected with hair, mainly: long head hair, pubic hair, hair cutting, and hair jobs. Foliage involves partner's masturbation (or further any manipulation) with semi-long or long female hair.

Papilophilia is pornography centred around nipples and areolae.

Clothing

Rubber/Latex pornography where the performers are wearing costumes made of latex, which usually covers the whole body often with openings for the vagina, anus, mouth and eyes.

Boot pornography includes women and sometimes men wearing boots for their sexual appeal. It is sometimes combined with BDSM features.

Bra pornography involves women or men dressed in bras.

Clothed female, naked male (abbreviated CFNM) pornography features naked men and clothed women; typically, the women humiliate and abuse the men or perform fellatio and/or handjobs on the men. The reverse of this, in which nude women interact with clothed men, is called Clothed male, naked female (abbreviated CMNF).

Diaper pornography involves performers wearing diapers, sometimes with an adult performer acting in the role of a "caretaker." This is often part of a Parent/Child dynamic as in Daddy/little girl or Ageplay.

Fursuit pornography involves one or more of the participants wearing an animal costume. These people are referred to as Furries.

High heel pornography involves women or men dressed in high heeled shoes.

Pantyhose/Tights/Stockings pornography involves women or men dressed in pantyhose, tights, or stockings.

Transvestite pornography features performers who cross-dress for sexual gratification, either for themselves or for their partners. Many men who like trans partners of any variety, known as tranny chasers, don't necessarily identify as gay themselves. This is why video stores might consider stocking transvestite subject matter in the straight section, as some straight men will have passive or active sex with another man as long as their partner appears to look like a woman to them, to some minor or major degree.

Roles

Arcane or occult pornography involves sexualized situations with an occult or magical tone or performers who costume themselves in keeping with the theme (for example, a male performer dressed as a wizard).

Babysitter pornography features usually teenage girls being exploited and having taboo sex with older, male employers.

Cheerleader pornography involves pictures of cheerleaders, both staged and real.

Incest pornography features sex between actors who portray a familial relationship. Incest itself is largely taboo, and is a crime in many countries. The viewing of this porn is illegal in many countries.

Jail/Prison/Police pornography involves people in police custody or inmates in jails or prisons in various sexual situations, such as strip searches or body cavity searches. These are often fake. Real jail or prison or police station shots or videos may violate laws in some countries.

Lolita pornography (also known as lollipop) features women who are 18 years old or slightly older, who pretend to be underage teen girls. The fetish centers around this fantasy portrayal. Lolita pornography that features actual teenage girls under the age of 18 is illegal in most countries and treated as child or youth pornography. Lolita pornography caters to ephebophiles. The name was coined from the title of the controversial book. The viewing of this porn is illegal in many countries whether or not the actors involved are 18 years or older; if they are pretending to be under 18 years old it is illegal to view this porn.

Medical pornography (often called Doctor or Nurse and Patient pornography) involves sexualized medical, often fake, including gynecological pelvic examinations, rectal examinations, and pelvic or gynecological ultrasounds. Real medical shots or videos may violate privacy laws in some countries.

Secretary pornography depicting sex between an employer and their secretary. These are typically staged, with actors playing the roles.

Subculture Alt porn features performers with tattoos, piercings, unusually coloured hair, unique haircuts or who have a goth, punk rock, hippie, raver, rockabilly/greaser, crusty, emo, scene, skater or stoner appearance. Many involved are members of the punk, goth, rave and even Kustom Kulture. Good examples of this are films directed by Bruce LaBruce, who is a punk himself and his work could also be seen as avant-garde cinema.

Teacher and Student pornography involves sexualized situations which take place between a teacher and a student, often fake. Real school shots or videos which are sexualized may violate privacy laws in some countries.

Bareback pornography features performers who are not wearing condoms.

Bestiality pornography involves the sexual attraction of humans to animals. Bestiality is illegal in many countries. The viewing of this porn is illegal in many countries.

Crush pornography features objects being crushed by an actress or actor, who generally plays an overtly dominant role.

Cuckold fetish pornography that involves a cuckolded husband.

Dwarfs or midget pornography features performers who are dwarfs/midgets.

Fisting involves the insertion of one partner's entire hand (or, less often, both hands or even a foot) into a vagina or the anal cavity.

Yiff or Yiffy pornography features "Furry" or anthropomorphic animals in an erotic or sexual context.

Jerk off instruction (also known as Jerk off Encouragement (JOI / JOE)) features a performer encouraging or instructing the viewer to masturbate, often culminating in a countdown at the end of which the viewer is invited to induce orgasm.

Filage pornography involves filature, smoothing or any satisfaction with man/women's vulva.

POV (Point-of-View) pornography involves camera angles designed to provide the viewer a view similar to that seen by one of the participants, whose face is never shown.

Smoking fetish involves performers smoking cigarettes, cigars, joints, and/or blunts.

Wetlook pornography involves clothed wet persons.

Whale song pornography involves young teen en-trill song with penisism, big dick fetish.

Enema pornography involves adults given enemas to others. Real shots or videos of true medical situations may violate privacy laws in some countries.

Preggo pornography features pregnant performers and may include erotic lactation as a fetish.

Tentacle erotica features tentacled creatures (usually fictional monsters) raping or otherwise penetrating women or men.

Tickling involves performers being tickled.

Transsexual/Transgender pornography features transwomen performers, who were assigned male at birth and who medically transitioned to female. They are most often featured with male partners, but are also featured with other transsexuals/transgender or cisgender women. Common phrases used to refer to these individuals are "chicks with dicks", "shemale" or "tranny", although these are considered pejorative among transwomen. Transsexual porn star Wendy Williams has stated that "transsexual Porn is classified as Straight Specialty."

Hermaphrodite, also known as herm, refers to pornography, typically hentai, that features persons with the genitalia of both sexes. The most common depiction of a hermaphrodite is a person with a female face, breasts, and build, and a penis (see also futanari), although there are other combinations. This type of pornography is almost exclusively hentai, as true hermaphroditic humans are not fertile and are not usually found in nature. Is also common of the furry genre. Futanari, "Hentai" females with a penis.

Snuff pornography involves the actual death of any of the participants, consenting or otherwise. Simulated death is not considered snuff. The existence of such content in commercially available pornography is widely considered an urban legend. In some areas, there are laws stating it is not legally possible to consent to be killed, and elsewhere it may still be legally dubious (see Armin Meiwes). The 1979 U.S. drama Hardcore showed this kind of film on its film. The viewing of this porn is illegal in many countries, and is condemned by the BDSM community as a whole.

Miscellaneous

Classics (sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Porn") are pornographic films from the 1970s and sometimes 1980s.

Compilations are a collection of pornographic scenes, usually themed to a particular fetish, taken from otherwise unrelated films. (For copyright reasons, compilations are often limited to clips from films published by a single company.)

Full-feature pornographic films are typically longer in running time and usually have a plot. Parody Porn is a subgenre that parodies mainstream film or television show using sexual puns.

Independent pornography is pornography produced by filmmakers unconnected to the major porn studios in a given country. It is often mislabelled "amateur pornography", though the producers and actors are often professional pornographic filmmakers and actors. (It is not always easy to distinguish between genuine amateurs and unknown professionals: often, the distinction is a matter of timing.) Japanese adult video or JAV is pornography produced in Japan for domestic consumption, though it has a large international audience as well. JAV has a number of features that place it in a unique genre when compared to pornography produced in other countries. Notably, because of Japanese obscenity laws, most Japanese pornography videos and photographs include a "mosaic" that blocks the view of the performers' genitalia. Uncensored JAV is also produced, though illegally. JAV has a diverse array of subgenres, many of which are the same as the subgenres in general pornography; however, there are also fetish and costume genres that are largely unique to the JAV milieu.

Vintage erotica is generally pre-1970s pornography, especially early-20th-century black-and-white photographs and stag films.

Extreme pornography is a term introduced by the UK Government, describing a classification of adult pornography that has become illegal to possess under new laws.

Women's Pornography sometimes referred to as Pro-Sex, Sex Positive Pornography, or Feminist Pornography - refers to a category of porn that is expressly produced for female customers, taking into account that male and female receptive and aesthetic needs may differ widely. Sometimes that involves, that the director and/or producer are women. Frequently, there is a focus on certain dos and don'ts for the production process (behind the scenes and on-screen) and the actions portrayed.