With most of the country practicing social distancing and isolating at home to reduce the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, not only has porn consumption increased but so has the interest in these quarantined fantasies.
Searches containing “coronavirus” and “corona virus” have continued to grow since Jan. 25 of this year, according to Pornhub statistics. Since then, over 9.1 million searches for either “corona” or “COVID” have been recorded on the popular tube site; searches spiked on March 5 with over 1.5 million.
For adult entertainment companies that survive primarily on creating niche content, recognizing a mass fetish early on is key. Indie producer KandysKisses.com has been consistently producing fetishized content for over eight years by capitalizing on trends. For over a month now, KandysKisses has been creating coronavirus-themed porn—the site’s “Quarantined!!!” video is the top fantasy seller on Clips4Sale, and their coronavirus-themed videos on Pornhub have over 300,000 views, meaning this trend isn’t dying down anytime soon.
“This is not going to be over for the foreseeable future, so half of my shoots are going to be with masks and the other half without masks,” says Dr. Grey of KandysKisses. “You gotta have a little bit of foresight. For instance, yoga pants, when they first came out I couldn’t go to yoga studios no more. I knew that was going to be a big fetish so I shot like 300 of those yoga pants videos over a year. I just went on a yoga pants binge. Same thing with the coronavirus. With anything that’s trending you need to be not only a trend-follower but a trendsetter.”
Not taking themselves too seriously is key, especially when the theme is something as serious as a pandemic. “What do you do when you’re locked up? So you have these scenarios, OK we’re locked up and now we gotta populate the nation to save the economy,” says Dr. Grey. “I like to have a funny twist to my stuff. I don’t want it to be too serious, but it’s definitely selling, sales have picked up because of it.”
Doing her part to encourage cleanliness during the novel coronavirus pandemic, adult actress Rebecca Vanguard took the #hornyhandwashingchallenge on Twitter to the next level. “It was just cute girls washing their hands. So, I wanted to take it a bit further. I got fully naked and shook my tits around,” says Vanguard. “Then, I thought… slow-motion! Everything is better in slow-mo so I asked my boyfriend to hold the camera for me, soaped up my hands, and got to work. So far, my viewers enjoy the comedy.”
Only leaving the house when absolutely necessary, Vanguard has been spending most of her time on the computer webcamming, chatting with her fans, and, of course, creating more XXX content from home. During this time of self-imposed quarantine, Vanguard says she plans to make more socially-conscious coronavirus-themed clips, focusing on “content centered around cleanliness” while also “keeping them very topical.”
Describing herself as an indie porn producer, Larkin Love says her workday hasn’t changed much since the novel coronavirus outbreak. “Most of my content is solo or shot with my fiancé, Alex Saint. I shoot my videos and photos myself in my own home and run my Onlyfans, Snapchat, and websites from my personal computer and cellphone,” says Love. “You could say I have the perfect job to weather the storm in situations like these.”
Though her job remains the same, the pandemic has certainly impacted what she films. Love has reimagined the nurse fetish with a coronavirus twist; she stars in her most recent (and highly sought-after) porn clips as “Head Nurse Olive De Cox,” who performs a rather explicit COVID-19 test on an airport traveler. “The videos are porn parodies, heavy on comedy and stupid puns, and fans have said that they lighten the tension everyone is feeling about the pandemic,” says Love. “They’re some of the most popular videos I’ve shot in the last six months.”
Fans have not only responded well to the clips, they’ve requested more coronavirus-themed content. With that in mind, Love’s planning her next shoot as a “girlfriend experience POV role play” to distract her partner, taking his mind away from the chaos of the world. “I think something like that would be comforting to my fans,” says Love. “I can’t fix the world for everyone, but I can be a pleasant distraction!”
To help the adult entertainment community through a potentially difficult time, Model Outreach Coordinator Amberly Rothfield published a COVID-19 financial survival guide online. Though solo artists and indie producers might be doing well, many sex workers’ profit margins may be negatively impacted by social-distancing requirements. “Many strippers and those that work on set are very scared during these times. My aim is to help them create a plan,” says Rothfield. “I’m so proud of this industry. I see so many models shouting-out smaller models who are struggling. I also see so many companies promoting more models and all of us coming together. I think of all the industries, we’re taking it very seriously, but also taking care of all of us in the porn family.”
As a business and marketing consultant to sex workers, Rothfield is advising performers to put more content online and fast; with everyone trapped indoors, the online business is booming. “In every crisis, the entertainment industries have blossomed, and this is the time to cash in and ensure your financial future,” says Rothfield, who encourages models to create coronavirus-themed content. “It is highly searched and topical, and really a great way to redirect the fear to something fun. Parody has always been a way for us to exercise those negative emotions.”
