Pornhub Searches For 'BBW,' Or Big Beautiful Women, Increase 10%: Is The Ideal Body Type Changing?

A person's porn history can tell us a lot about society’s beauty standards, according to Pornhub and Mic.com.

The two sites argue that 2015 has been “a major year for body positivity,” from the love people have shown for plus-size models, like Tess Holliday and Denise Bidot, to the more than 9,000 posts tagged to #effyourbeautystandards — and that’s just on Instagram. It's not so clear, however, if this shift has made its way to porn. So Pornhub analyzed its users' data to see if there were any changes in trends.

The results showed that “big beautiful women” (BBW) searches have increased by 10 percent in the United States since May 2013. Across the globe, BBW searches have increased by 47 percent, with an even higher increase among sub-continents of Africa and Asia. While BBW searches tend to occur less in Asia, in Japan, these searches have increased 162 percent over the course of the last year.

Not only do users seem to be searching more for “curvy ladies,” but they’re also searching for older women: “MILF” and “mature” ranked higher among the top 20 search terms. These two factors, curves and age, are the opposite of what we've known society to prefer, which in the U.S. is thin, young women. A recent study suggested that this may be out of our (men's) control: From an evolutionary perspective, thinness signals better health, youth, and fertility.

“Like it or not, porn is a part of the dialogue that informs society’s notions of beauty and ideal body type,” Pornhub said.

You can check out the infographics below for a greater breakdown of the site's data.