Which sexual terms do Czechs search for most?

Czechs are thoroughly at home online, and that includes searching for sexual terms and the rest of the vocabulary that goes with sex. The digital world lets us explore our sexual interests and fantasies — and share them — anonymously.

Which raises the obvious question: which sexual terms do Czech users search for most? Shifting attitudes to sexuality, better internet access and improving digital literacy give us a chance to look at what we, as a society, are curious about and drawn to.

In this article we look at the dynamics and the trends behind sexual searches in Czech search engines.

Porn videos

Before we can answer why people watch porn, we have to ask what porn actually is and who is watching it. Lawyers, feminists, priests and scientists have all tried to pin it down, and a satisfying definition still does not exist. However you define it, depictions of sexual behaviour have existed for centuries and across cultures. Pornography, it is said, documents an archetypal human interest in sexuality. But does that mean the reasons for its existence, or its function, have stayed the same over time? They have not.

The famous Kama Sutra, with its sexual illustrations, is known as erotic literature, yet it served mainly as an educational tool — a manual. In the brothels of Pompeii, explicit wall paintings of sexual positions worked as a “menu”, so that a shy customer could simply point at a picture to say what he wanted. And in the streets of Athens you could find phallic statues of Priapus, before which women knelt and prayed for fertility (1).

The modern West has removed explicit sexual imagery from everyday life. Today porn, as we know it, is used mostly by men. That does not mean women are absent from porn sites, but it is still men who find far more of their pleasure there. Where women look for theirs, we will come to below.

So why men? It may not surprise you that research suggests most men are more interested in sex than most women. More men than women masturbate, they do so more often, and more men reach orgasm. Biologically, men have developed a need for visual stimulation in order to climax. And because porn is an overwhelmingly visual medium, showing plenty of young and attractive performers and offering physical satisfaction with no strings or relationships attached, men seek it out more (1).

That said, it is not true that women are not aroused by watching porn at all. Almost without exception, women show physical signs of sexual arousal when watching porn films, indicated by increased vaginal blood flow. Many women also admit they prefer longer porn videos to shorter ones, largely because they like to watch the relationship between the performers build (1).

Most consumers look for porn because they enjoy feeling aroused; some use it for entertainment or as a distraction from work or other activities, and many use it to regulate their mood and feel better, even if only briefly.

Erotic stories

We said above that porn is watched mainly by men. In this section the roles are reversed and women come to the fore. Women get far more out of the sense of intimacy, mixed with a little fantasy, that comes from reading erotic stories and novels. It helps that erotic literature in all its forms has spread across the Western world over the past decade. Hundreds of thousands of women were swallowed up by the sexy, outlandish underworld of the submissive heroine in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. That success has pushed sales of erotic novels up by more than 30 per cent in recent years — a result both of the Fifty Shades effect and of the anonymity that e-readers offer (2).

Technology also made it possible for women to download and read this kind of writing without setting foot in a bookshop. You can read an erotic story on the bus and nobody has the faintest idea what is happening in your imagination. That shift has also allowed women to explore some of their own feelings about sex — which probably ties in with the finding that women who read romantic or erotic novels have up to 74 per cent more sex with their partners than those who do not. And which erotic stories do women search for most?

BDSM stories, stories about infidelity, incest stories and MILF stories (though those tend to be credited to men of all ages). And why does reading about sex matter so much? It is simple. These stories help women understand that what they think and feel is not necessarily wrong, and that other women — and men — feel much the same (2).

Sex shops

Sex shops and sex toys are seeing phenomenal growth. The Covid years helped, and so did the way mainstream television, film and celebrities threw themselves at the subject.

The rise is also fuelled by the fact that far fewer women are embarrassed to walk into a sex shop or to order online. Women aged from 16 to 70 are treating themselves to far more pleasure with adult toys. At the same time, the stigma that these products are merely a substitute for a partner was broken long ago by couples who use the toys now and then — which drives market growth too (3).

Growth is also credited to new products in the adult toy segment, to sexual health education and to self-love products. Affordable sexual wellness products are coming to market, including vibrators, dildos, masturbators, Ben Wa balls and other toys, and the stigma attached to selling aids for better sex is fading as well (3).

Nothing seems to stand in the way of the sex toy business and its growing popularity, not least because a generational handover is coming as millennials and Gen Z take over. Both generations see sex, and everything around it, quite differently from the boomers born between the 1940s and the 1960s. The sex toy market is also benefiting from the gradual erosion of the stigma around masturbation and female pleasure.

Sources:

1. Arash Emamzadeh. (2021). New Research: 8 Common Reasons People Use Porn, (https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/finding-new-home/202105/new-research-8-common-reasons-people-use-porn).

2. Candice Wiggett. (2013). Why do women read erotic fiction?, (https://www.news24.com/life/archive/why-do-women-read-erotic-fiction-20121107).

3. Eliana DOckterman. (2022). Adults Are Spending Big on Toys and Stuffed Animals—for Themselves, (https://time.com/6234061/toys-for-adults-popularity/).