List of pornographic sub-genres

The following are common sub-genres of pornography. This list is far from comprehensive, as there are many, many different kinds of pornography available, and any given piece of pornography may include elements of more than one genre.

In general soft-core refers to pornography that does not depict penetration or extreme fetish acts, and hard-core refers to pornography that depicts penetration and/or extreme fetish acts.

Softcore pornography generally depicts naked or semi-naked women in sexually alluring poses, but does not show sexual contact or penetration. They are typically depicted in a glamorous way, hence the term glamour photography.

The most common type of hardcore pornography is that depicting heterosexual acts of vaginal sexual intercourse and oral sex between one man and one woman. Other sub-genres of pornography are:

• Age-oriented pornography
  • Lolicon anime pornography featuring drawn images of children or characters that appear to be children.
  • Mature features female performers who are in their 40s and 50s and in some cases over 60.
  • Teen, also known as "barely legal" porn, caters to consumers who are primarily attracted to 18 and 19 year-olds, and, indirectly, to ephebophiles or pedophiles, as the performers are often depicted in such a way as to appear considerably younger than they are.
  • Twink gay pornography that features very young-looking performers.
  • MILF or "Moms I'd Like to Fuck" features older women in fantasy scenarios with younger men
  • Child pornography is pornography involving children, and both possession and manufacture (which involves the sexual abuse of children) are illegal almost everywhere
  • Lolita porn features legal women pretending to be underage girls — also known as lollipop

• Anal pornography
  • Anal features primarily male-female anal sex scenes.
  • Ass to mouth shows the transfer of a performer's penis or object from another performer's anus to their mouth in a single shot.
  • Gape shots feature scenes of anal sex with a focus on the recipient's anus "gaping".

• Bisexual pornography
  • Bisexual pornography generally features a mix of gay and straight scenes but may also include in addition lesbian and gay/straight group scenes.

• Body-feature oriented pornography
  • Big Beautiful Women (BBW) features performers generally considered overweight.
  • Big-breast (also called big-boob and big-bust)
  • "Big butt" pornography features women with large buttocks, and eroticises the buttocks and anus, and thus often overlaps with anal pornography
  • Leg pornography has an extreme emphasis on women's legs and feet.
  • Tiny tits features women with very small breasts

• Bondage pornography
  • Bondage features performers tied up or constrained in various ways.

• Fetish pornography
  • Bestiality pornography, features human/animal sex and is illegal in many countries.
  • Clothed female naked male pornography features naked men apparently being humililated by clothed women
  • Enema pornography eroticises the giving and receiving of enemas
  • Incest pornography sex between people closely related to one another, in reality or fantasy. Often the topic of pornographic pulp fiction.
  • "Watersports" features sexual activities involving urine such as "golden showers" (couples urinating on each-other).
  • Scat features defecation and playing with, or consumption of, feces, in reality or fantasy.
  • Preggo refers to pregnant performers and may include lactating woman.

• Gay pornography
  • Gay is usually male homosexual pornography, sometimes using straight actors (i.e. Gay-for-pay). Acts depicted typically include oral and anal sex.
  • "Bareback" gay pornography features performers who don't wear condoms.
  • Bear gay pornography that features large hairy men.

• Group pornography
  • Bukkake involving models (usually female) being ejaculated over by many men.
  • Double penetration depicts simultaneous anal or vaginal penetration
  • Gang-bang usually depicts numerous (more than five) men having sex with one woman (the opposite is usually called a "reverse gang-bang").

• Lesbian pornography
  • Typical "lesbian" porn, features lesbian, bi-sexual, and straight actresses (gay-for-pay) and is typically aimed at male consumers which is why it is usually grouped with "straight" porn.
  • There is also pornography made particularly for lesbian viewers, which tends not to feature the cliches of straight porn.

• Pornographic pulp fiction

• Race-oriented pornography
  • Asian features performers with Asian features and/or ancestry
  • Ebony, also known as black, features performers with African-American or Sub-Saharan African features and or ancestry
  • Interracial features interacial couples with black and white couples being the most common.
  • Latina features female performers from Latin American countries such as Mexico.

• Reality porn
  • Alternaporn features models with tattoos, piercings, unusually colored hair, gothic or punkrocker look, etc.
  • Amateur (although most apparently "amateur" pornography is actually produced by prosessionals)
  • Exhibitionist Pornography feaures models, particularly woman, displaying their breasts or genitals in public, as well as depictions of sex in public. The Girls Gone Wild series of videos is an example of this style of pornography.
  • Pro-Am features professionally directed and produced pornography featuring amateur actors.
  • Gonzo involves a first-person cameraman/performer perspective
  • Reality porn refers to real or faked 'amateur' encounters (e.g. Bang Bus). Includes pornographic home movies.
  • Upskirt and Downblouse features footage up woman's skirts or down their blouses, supposedly covertly shot, though typically staged to avoid legal problems.
  • Voyeur depicts real or faked images taken with a camera that appears to be concealed.

• Spanking pornography

• Transsexual pornography
  • Transexual porn features pre-operative transexuals, also referred to as chicks-with-dicks, most often with male co-stars.

Other categories

• Classics are porn films from the 1970s and sometimes 1980s now considered classics.
• Compilation a collection of short scenes, usually themed to a particular fetish such as anal or cum-shots
• Cum-shot features a collection of ejaculation scenes
• Cum swapping trading semen from mouth to mouth
• Fisting features the insertion of an entire hand into a performer's vagina or anus.
• Full Feature Two hour video that usually has a story or plot
• Hentai a catch-all term for various forms of Japanese pornography, including H-manga, H-anime and H-computer games. Western usage tends to treat it as a synonym for "Japanese pornography", but in Japanese "hentai" literally means "dirty mind."
• Interactive pornography, available in computer CD-ROM and DVD format, allows the viewer to select the particular acts performed at any one time, sometimes with the camera providing a first person view.
• Oral sex features mostly fellatio (blow jobs) scenes though sometimes includes cunnilingus.
• Poser porn is pornography made using 3D computer graphics, usually with the 3D art program Poser, made to representat people in various sexual acts.
• Solo features performers masturbating.
• Vintage erotica is generally pre-1970s pornography, especially early twentieth-century black and white photographs and stag films.