This article contains discussion of adult content, pornography, and female sexuality. It includes a link to an adult platform intended for those aged 18 and over.
The first thing Anna Richards will tell you is that she never set out to be a porn director. The second is that the content she makes is probably not what you picture when you hear those words – and she’d be right on both counts.
Since its launch in 2015, FrolicMe, an independent, female-founded porn site, has been quietly rewriting the rules of adult content.
No uncomfortable pop-ups or the usual shame spiral.
Instead: “It’s adult content reimagined – sensual, ethical, and created with women in mind, celebrating female pleasure,” Anna said.
The kind of thing you watch and think, oh, so this is what it was supposed to feel like.
Today, Anna still funds, films and runs it all out of London – over 600 films, each inspired from a written story by an actual erotic author, and made for women who have never seen themselves truly considered in adult film.
Cast your mind back to the early 2010s. You’re a woman, you’re curious, and you go looking online. What you find is not what may be on offer now.
Tube sites were widely available on the internet by that point, growing on a diet of user-uploaded content and the result, Anna said, was a version of pornography that had been engineered for one specific type of viewer.
“They were sites that very much catered to the male gaze. Very focused on objectifying women. The imagery was gratuitous. And they were pushing that because they were chasing traffic – that was the holy grail,” Anna said.
For Anna, the word pornography became associated with one thing only – “the male vision of instant gratification.”
“This is not what porn is. It’s what porn has come to be, which for women, is a complete turn-off, not a turn-on,” she said.
This was until the idea that erotic content could also be beautiful, or slow, or actually focused on a woman’s pleasure, started to feel within reach.
Then Fifty Shades of Grey was in everyone’s hands.
“We can’t ignore the impact that book had on opening up women’s conversations about erotic sex. It opened doors and got conversation happening in quiet neighbourhoods globally.
“You couldn’t go onto a beach without seeing that synonymous silver, black and grey book cover and thinking, “I know what she’s reading.”
Combined with greater access to digital devices, the appetite for more female-focused sexual content online began to boom and almost nothing was being made to feed it.
Anna, being a marketing creative, noticed the gap – but more than that, she noticed that the people making content had fundamentally misunderstood what women were actually looking for.
“The brain is our biggest sexual organ and mainstream pornography has never once tried to engage it.”
She’s talking about context – the slow build of wanting someone, the texture of a fantasy, the sense of who these people are to each other before the camera gets close.
For a lot of women, it is less the backdrop to desire and more the whole point of it.
“Women adore being taken through a fantasy,” she said.
“You’re not just presented with an instant graphic image. There’s no understanding of how this couple arrived here, what the desire between them means, the authenticity of the lust playing out in front of them.”
Without that, she said, the whole thing falls flat.
On set, things work differently to how you might imagine. Anna makes it clear that the models are involved in shaping the scenes thoroughly, not just turning up and performing them.
“The core essence is that collaborative vision – that awareness, the communication, the understanding and the openness. Having that dialogue with models well before they even get to set is key.”
The content itself spans across thirty categories, all feeding into female desire: from stranger sex and voyeuristic fantasy to lesbian and bisexual scenes – even softer romantic content.
“I hate labels,” she said.
“But I have categories, because if you know what you’re looking for, you should be able to find it.”
There’s a whole section dedicated to non-penetrative sex, because Anna is not interested in pretending that intercourse is the main event for most women.
“This has been hugely missed in the industry. If you’re really looking at women’s pleasure, a lot of that can happen without intercourse and through everything else.”
Toys and accessories also feature heavily throughout the films: “everything to enhance the pleasure for the woman,” Anna added.
None of this came easy. A decade of building something in an industry that mainstream platforms would rather didn’t exist, Anna said, had many challenges – money was one.
FrolicMe runs on subscriptions, something she is unapologetic about and affirms that this is something that keeps the platform ethical.
“Would you rather waste your time watching something you don’t really want to see for free, or come to a site you believe in and see something worthy of your time for a small cost?” she said.
The subscription model is how she pays everyone fairly – models, writers, the technical team – without needing outside investment.
“If you want to be ethical in your mindset, don’t support sites that take such a gratuitous view of women. Support those who are actually trying to make a difference.”
Female-founded erotic platforms that actually produce their own content – not license it, not rebrand it, but make it from scratch and stand behind it – are rare.
But, for Anna, this was the only way to not have to compromise on her vision.
“I didn’t want somebody else controlling the narrative,” she said.
Another problem Anna pointed to is how the term ‘ethical porn’ has become the new greenwashing – a label that platforms are claiming simply because it plays well.
“It has become a buzzword. But “ethical porn” as a term did not exist pre-Covid. This has come out of the fact that sites like mine who actually produce their own content.
“Always ask yourself who is actually making what you’re watching.
“How many sites do you go to where you can see the founder on the homepage saying: this is my vision, this is what we stand for?” she said.
Despite the challenges, FrolicMe has gained a respectable reputation amongst women – and couples.
“The response has been phenomenal. There are so many people out there who are curious about sex, but are unsure of where to go – with us you can explore a range of desires in a way that is very much focused on the connection of sex”
Anna also noted the platform has become popular amongst female sexual wellness and relationship therapists who actively recommend the site to clients.
“Porn is a fantastic laboratory when it comes to sex and exploring your fantasies. It’s all there for you to dip into and find out what does and doesn’t turn you on.
“Sometimes you don’t necessarily know until you start watching something and you realise that that particular kink, style, or fetish is more for you,” she said.
There’s also an unexpected rise in a certain demographic starting to find its way to FrolicMe: men.
“A lot of men are saying: this is great, I can watch this without shame,” Anna said.
“I think that’s been a big problem with tube sites – although they’ve courted the male gaze, a lot of men don’t necessarily feel good about themselves afterwards.”
But the objectification of women in pornography doesn’t exist in isolation, it’s a symptom of something much larger and much older.
“It’s not just in pornography. We have to look at our whole culture and openly explore how the objectification of women exists in so many societal spheres.
Anna hopes that from now, true representation of female desire in adult content will only grow.
“It’s becoming more and more important. History has shown us that women are gaining more agency over their lives which makes an ethical platform like mine, very much focused on female pleasure, even more valuable to actually exist.
Something that is staggering progress, Anna said, is the likes of big platforms dictating whose desire is allowed in the public discourse.
“We’re making strides but it’s still some way from where we need to be due to big corporations censoring out of fear or lack of knowledge.
“We need to chip away at the taboo and the shame that still hangs around female sexuality in order to be able to have real, sensible conversations openly – and that means in social media as well.
“Through sexual education and intelligent, meaningful conversations, we will help shape the future of how we talk about and enjoy sex.”
To find out more about FrolicMe, visit their website here
FrolicMe is an adult platform intended for users aged 18 and over. By clicking this link you confirm that you are of legal age to view adult content in your country of residence.
