How Sex Stunts, Podcasts and MAGA Porn Stars Are Rewriting Porn’s Rule Book

As a porn star, I have long been acutely aware of how important it is to be attuned to the latest and hottest industry trends. If you want your content to be viewed by fans, rise to the top of the SEO charts and ultimately pay the mortgage, it’s absolutely vital that you stay responsive to the changing and evolving desires and fantasies of your audience.

With that in mind, here is my assessment, as a porn performer and producer, on the hottest trends dominating the business right now.

Stunt and Event-Based Viral Content

Porn is both more popular and more reviled than ever. Case in point: Lily Phillips became the target of virulent mainstream outrage whilst also clocking up phenomenal viewing stats for banging 100 men in a day; then, in a rare moment of vulnerability, was shown weeping immediately afterwards in a documentary made about the stunt. That doc moved her into the mainstream, even if it served as a cautionary tale.

Perhaps predictably, another porn star has now gone one (zero) better, with Bonnie Blue having sex with over 1,000 men in one day.

Sex podcasts & TV crossovers

The hottest trend in podcasting right now is sex. See Adam22 and Lena the Plug, who started bedding their podcast guests “after the episode” on their “extremely adult” podcast, Plugtalk. The tactic has driven traffic to their OnlyFans so effectively that everywhere you look, there are traffic-driving, clickbait-filled safe-for-work (SFW) podcasts… that end with exclusive NSFW sex scenes.

OnlyFans, having realized that porn stars are using SFW platforms to drive tons of traffic to their NSFW content, is doing the same in reverse. The subscription site has now pumped money into its SFW platform, OFTV. On the OFTV homepage, you’ll see talk shows, cooking shows and beauty tutorials—think blow dries, not blow jobs. OFTV hasn’t become Netflix, but it has grown exponentially in the last year. And as the Valley and Hollywood continue to converge, you’ll see more crossovers.

Demure—and ethical—porn

Pop culture’s viral moments trend at light speed in our industry. Internet-based sex workers and performers have always relied on SEO for growth; we jump onto the trend bandwagon hard and fast—see my viral pandemic scene where I went door-to-door exchanging sexual favors for toilet paper. One of the big keywords in recent months was “demure,” thanks to the Jools LeBron soundbite (OK, and the Ralph Fiennes monologue too). As TikTok exploded with videos of girls showing all the ways they’re “demure,” porn stars responded with scenes featuring conservative clothes and takes on the “tradwife” aesthetic.

The demand for ethically-produced and authentic content also continues to soar. Searches for “ethical porn,” according to PornHub’s “Year in review,” increased by 92 percent last year, “respectful sex” by 61 percent, and “authentic sex” by 43 percent. There’s a growing appetite for consensual, realistic portrayals of intimacy, a shift reflecting broader societal conversations about consent.

(It’s also worth noting that searches for “coworker” spiked by 92 percent, per PornHub, and this theme was also the subject of many porn fans’ requests to their favorite creators. It’s clear that inter-office hookups have become taboo following the #MeToo movement. Predictably, then people want to watch colleagues going at it on their desks).

Porn crackdowns—very not demure—and a MAGA moment

It’s grown harder to watch adult content in the U.S. in recent years, even though porn has clearly become more culturally prevalebt. Multiple states now force porn sites to collect user IDs before allowing people to access their sites, for example. Lawmakers have claimed they need such identification to prevent children from watching adult content. Nobody seems to care that kids can use VPNs.

The fight will likely grow more intense this year, given the influence of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 on the new Trump administration. This document at one stage had the media speculating President Trump could ban the porn industry entirely. That seems hyperbolic, but I have no doubt that anti-porn activists, emboldened by MAGA values, will push more legislation to try to regulate us out of business.

Despite the traditional conservative hostility to the porn industry, dozens of adult performers came out in favor of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda. Their politics mostly come down to finances. As one adult performer told me before the election, she was planning to vote Trump for a lower “overall tax burden.” In other words, Trump is as controversial and divisive a figure in Pornland as anywhere else.

Vertical videos and AI innovation

In the midst of all the sensationalism and shameless behavior, it’s easy to miss how practical porn is. With platforms like TikTok and Instagram driving media consumption habits, vertical video (shot to be viewed on a phone held upright) has become a game changer: We know people watch smut on their phones, so we make sure to film a portion of our content in a phone-friendly manner.

In other advances, the adult film industry is increasingly vocal about the need for discussions around AI regulation. Adult content creators are increasingly grappling with issues like deepfakes and piracy. But we are also embracing what the current AI landscape can do for our businesses—using AI chatbots to help with fan interaction, creating licensed digital duplicates of themselves that they can sell access to online, and creating epic fantasy scenes using AI backgrounds that could never before have been possible.

In summary: Porn is a massive, multi-billion dollar business in America these days. And, like all the best American businesses, it’s driven forward by pressure to succeed and the desire to make money.