a lot of different things throughout history.

(door creaking)

Heaven,

a little death. (woman screaming)

High tide.

But whatever you call it,

women are having a lot fewer orgasms than men.

Well, when they have sex with men.

So what's causing this female orgasm shortage

and what does it have to do with porn?

(upbeat music)

In a 2018 study of newlywed heterosexual couples,

87% of men reported consistently experiencing orgasms,

compared to only 49% of women.

This is consistent with an earlier study

where 95% of heterosexual men reported

that they usually orgasm during sex,

compared with 65% of heterosexual women.

Women are having fewer orgasms than men, but why?

No, it's not that the female orgasm

is a complex, elusive mystery.

Lesbian women reported orgasm 86% of the time.

And men and women take the same amount of time to orgasm

when they're masturbating on their own, four minutes.

Rather, it might be a matter of education.

Research suggests that people tend to mirror the sex acts

they see depicted in porn.

And when it comes to sex ed,

30% of teenagers in one study said

porn was their primary source of sex education.

So when most mainstream,

easily accessible porn focuses on male pleasure,

shows men having 65% more orgasms

and receiving more oral sex than women,

real-life sex can start ignoring female pleasure too.

And that's how sex can start to become synonymous

with penetrative penis and vagina intercourse

and other sex acts the focus on female pleasure

just get ignored.

And it's not just sex.

The orgasm gap can also be linked to masturbation.

According to one study,

a quarter of male respondents reported masturbating

almost every day, compared to 8.7% of women.

And just over 20% of women said

they had never masturbated in their lifetime.

- Masturbation is super important because

oftentimes we're not taught to explore our own bodies,

to know what titillates us and brings us pleasure,

let alone to communicate that with a partner.

But there's nothing to communicate if you don't know.

And the first way to really get to know yourself

and what brings you pleasure is to

♪ Touch your body ♪

- [Hannah] But masturbation's not only healthy,

it's a major part of wellness.

- Masturbation is mindfulness.

Mindfulness meditation has known effects

for lowering stress,

for increasing happiness,

and actually has a lot of physiological aspects

that occur in the body, including lowering cortisol,

the stress hormone,

which is the same thing that happens when you masturbate.

- [Hannah] So if porn helped create the orgasm gap,

can it also fix it?

- Bellesa Plus is a brand new market disrupting

platform of porn that includes

Bellesa Studios and partner studios

which has content geared both towards male

and female pleasure equally.

Bellesa's approach to closing the orgasm gap

is to put the power back into the performer's hands

and really allowing people to enjoy the sex

that they're having.

- [Hannah] Bellesa, where Bellesa Plus is hosted

is on a mission to close the orgasm gap

and achieve sexual equality.

Bellesa does this through its online platform

focused on female sexuality that offers erotic stories,

sex ed, sex toys sold through Bellesa Boutique,

and their original porn series "Bellesa House."

- "Bellesa House" depicts unedited, unscripted content

where the performers can actually

pick who they wanna work with

and they can have sex exactly as they want.

They communicate with their partner what they want to do.

And it's actually depicting for the audience

real sex that people wanna have.

- [Hannah] Porn attracts billions of viewers

and dollars in revenue each year,

giving it huge influence in both our lives and our economy.

With more comprehensive sex ed,

a culture that de-stigmatizes masturbation,

and porn that prioritizes female pleasure, it's possible

that women can start taking their pleasure

into their own hands and feel good doing it.

(frog croaking)

(cheerful instrumental music)