(CNN) — Female desire isn’t new, and it’s certainly not a trend, but in 2024, female sexuality has taken over the reigns of popular culture.
It seems fitting that this year – at least culturally speaking – should end with the release of Babygirl. The film, released on Christmas Day in the US (January 10 in the UK), stars Nicole Kidman as a powerful businesswoman who becomes sexually submissive to one of her interns.
Director Kidman said at a press conference during the Venice Film Festival screening in August that “this film is told through the female gaze.” “That’s what makes it so unique and freeing for me.”
“Baby Girl” is directed by Dutch filmmaker Halina Rein, who said at the same press conference that she hopes the film will address the “huge orgasm gap” that exists between men and women. said.
From the banned books of the late Irish novelist Edna O’Brien to Jane Birkin’s orgasmic vocals on 1967’s Je t’aime moi non pluse to rapper Cardi B’s spit-inducing lyrics. While there have been many expressions of female sexuality throughout history, in ‘WAP’ these are often the exception rather than the rule.
But over the past 12 months, clear examples of female desire have simultaneously swept from the fringes and into the mainstream. From film to television to music to literature, the female gaze has been fully promoted without shame, secrecy, or euphemism.
Here are some highlights from 2024.
sound of desire
One of the singers whose popularity has skyrocketed this year is Chapel Lawn. Spotify’s monthly listener count was hovering around 1 million in January, but now it’s just over 43 million. Key to Roan’s success was its authentic representation of queer relationships, with sexual references such as “I heard you like magic/I’ve got a wand and a rabbit” Interspersed with lyrics, this is an homage to two popular vibrator styles.
Pop princess Sabrina Carpenter didn’t mince words either. When Carpenter announced her album “Short and Sweet” on Instagram in August, it was accompanied by the caption “4 days of ovulation,” a reference to the record’s “Come on me.” /It means camaraderie,” which was a perfect sentiment for the ultra-sexual lyrics. Frankly, he said, “I’m very excited.” The album went straight to number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
Summer 2024 will be soundtracked by Tinashe’s “Nasty,” in which Tinashe repeatedly asks someone to “match her freak.” Meanwhile, in September, FKA Twigs released the single “Eusexua” from her upcoming album of the same name. In an interview with British Vogue earlier this year, the musician explained that he coined the word as a way to describe a feeling of “euphoria” so great that one can “transcend human form.”
Women whispering (and shouting) sweet nothings aren’t just limited to music. Subscription-based audio erotica app Quinn launched five years ago and says its revenue has increased 440% in the past two years after a series of celebrities, including actors Andrew Scott and Victoria Pedretti, voiced its stories. Masu.
“Talent started wanting to talk to us about voiceovers,” Quinn founder and CEO Caroline Spiegel said in a phone call with CNN. “It was a big change…I don’t think it could have happened sooner. Women’s desire existed in small places throughout history, but now it exists everywhere and is no longer hidden. It’s much clearer.”
This is exactly what Mr. Spiegel believes it should be, and is very much in line with Mr. Quinn’s values. “We believe that sex is a healthy, happy part of life and should not be relegated to the dark, scary corners of the internet,” she said. Said.
“Sex content doesn’t have to be overly graphic or disturbing and can be used simply as part of a media diet.”
That’s probably because Spotify’s annual “Wrapped” feature shows that the top audiobooks of 2024 (both US and global) are the sexy “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas. This may explain why it was a “romantasy” book about fairies. In fact, four of this year’s top 10 U.S. audiobooks were romance novels, three of them by Mars, earning him the honor of being the streaming service’s top global author.
The temptation of small screens
On TV, Starz’s adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s best-selling book, Three Women, is a show that puts women’s pleasure first, unraveling the complex reality of three characters’ very different sex lives. There are many.
On Disney+, the film adaptation of British romance novelist Jilly Cooper’s book Rivals, set in 1980s England, received the highest praise for female pleasure. Cooper has long written mainly about female desire, but this year, her salacious visions have been given new life with shoulder pads, an unironic mustache, and screaming xenophobia on the small screen. It was.
Elsewhere, ‘Bridgerton’ returns for season 3 and is set to become a global hit thanks to a groundbreaking sex scene between newly engaged Penelope Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (played by Luke Newton). It became a headline. This scene depicts Penelope’s first time championing consent and respect without compromising bitterness. It lasted just under six minutes on TV, and according to the actor, a chaise lounge broke during filming.
page turning
While society has led us to believe that sexuality is traditionally the domain of the young and lithe, with wet skin and cropped tops, 2024 challenges that notion. I did.
Miranda July’s novel All Fours is a requiem for perimenopausal desire. The film follows the protagonist, a married and successful mother, who goes on an ultimately unsuccessful road trip, during which she falls in love with a younger man who works at a rental car company. Despite their chemistry, Davie, a young married man, is unwilling to sleep with her, and the unnamed protagonist ends up masturbating furiously, unsatisfied.
“As a man, I don’t get what I want anymore,” she once lamented.
The novel quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Perhaps because it gave voice and insight into a period of life that is underappreciated and rarely discussed.
Also edited by actor Gillian Anderson, “Want” is a gateway into the soul of what women really long for but don’t always feel like they can say. The 174 anonymous sexual fantasy entries are just a small portion of the 800 submissions Anderson received from around the world, ranging from the more popular daydreams (threesomes) to the surreal (robots) to the quiet. It ranges from heartbreaking (from a cold to a longing for praise). husband). In her foreword, Anderson wrote that she hoped the book would “start a new conversation about sexual power.”
The science of female sexual pleasure
That discussion, and the increased emphasis on women’s sexual pleasure, could be well advanced by 2024, said Dr. Justin Lehmiller, a social psychologist and senior fellow at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Sexuality, Gender, and Reproduction. .
According to Lehmiller and a recent study on female masturbation, the topic of female sexual experience and self-pleasure is less taboo than ever.
Lehmiller pointed out that there is a growing market for sex toys and products aimed at increasing female satisfaction. “This shows how mainstream women’s joy has disappeared,” she added in a phone interview with CNN.
Lehmiller points to women’s emancipation as a major change factor in terms of women’s sexual freedom, citing oral contraceptives and economic and educational benefits for women, but that is not the whole story. She said psychology and sex therapy are now predominantly female fields, and the way women perceive pleasure has changed dramatically.
“In the past, these fields were dominated by men who had very different ideas about what brings pleasure to women. They had a lot of fundamental misunderstandings,” Lehmiller explained. “A century ago, Freud was the biggest voice. He had a lot to say about the female orgasm and how women should experience pleasure. But women were at the forefront of this field. The conversation changed.”
And they no longer speak quietly among themselves.
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