A new genre the New York Post calls "prestige porn" is putting women over 40 at the center of highbrow erotica about sexual dominance and desire, in movies, books and upscale boutiques, the Post reported Oct. 27. Sex therapist Brianna Makówka told the Post it is taking off because people feel disconnected from their bodies after so much time in screens, and luxury branding gives them permission to be curious about what they want.
Picture "Fifty Shades" for women who are running a household and a career and have zero tolerance for knockoff handbags or faked orgasms. That's the Post's pitch, anyway.
Take Rachel, a 41-year-old family medicine doctor in Bergen County, New Jersey, who spoke to the Post. She plays XXX-rated audiobooks like Jessica Knoll's "Helpless" and Sarah J. Maas's "A Court of Thorns and Roses" while driving alone, and streams movies like "Baby Girl" and shows like "Industry" while doing laundry. "It's become like my therapy," she said. Her group chat is "full of moms who trade [sex content] recommendations."
The Post says the era of prestige porn means Oscar winners like Nicole Kidman, 59, and Olivia Colman, 52, can appear in once-unthinkable graphic scenes for studios like A24. Knoll, who has made millions writing crime thrillers, is now writing about sex acts in her bestselling new book "Helpless," per the Post.
The latest entry is "Wicker," an "absurdist romantic comedy" starring Colman as a frustrated spinster and Alexander Skarsgård as a man made of straw. The Post says its steamy trailer went so viral in July that doctors warned people against pleasuring themselves with "trees or shrubs." The film opens nationwide Oct. 30, with advance screenings, some with vibrating seats, selling out.
Reddit reports say theaters are full of older women, according to the Post, whose reporters saw a screening room in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, full of female retirees. "Very enjoyable," said one 74-year-old moviegoer named Joyce, who withheld her last name. "My kids read your paper."
Makówka, a licensed sex therapist who specializes in kink therapy, told the Post that between social media, dating apps and remote work, "we're living in screens so often that our bodies are reminding us how important they are to our full being." Framing sex as luxurious, she argued, gives people, especially women, permission to engage with it more openly. "It's giving a lot of people permission to get curious about asking, 'What is it that I want from sex?'" she said.
Per the Post, Bloomingdale's sells a $108 "arouse stimulating serum" alongside its Louis Vuitton purses, and Revolve stocks anal beads next to Isabel Marant. Maude, the sexual wellness line that was one of Sephora's first, sells lube and vibrators at Ulta Beauty next to Naomi Watts's Stripes, a line created for post-menopausal libidos. Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop sells a $55 "Sex Oil."
Jennifer Zuccarini, who runs the lingerie brand Fleur du Mal, said her three New York boutiques are routinely "crowded" with older women coming straight from luxury stores like Chanel and Dior. Shoppers often come in for a simple bra and leave with $300 leather handcuffs, she told the Post. "Luxury helps legitimize sexual taste and preferences," Zuccarini said.
There is one more twist: the genre refuses to call itself porn. The Post notes that Colman and Skarsgård both call "Wicker" a "romance," and HBO describes "Industry" as a "gripping and provocative" drama.
Makówka is fine with all of it. "Maybe it's okay to seek this out," she said. "That is healthier, psychologically, for everyone."