How have furloughed workers been filling their time? In part, by watching porn.
According to data gathered by the analytics team at Pornhub, the internet’s biggest porn site, traffic from DC area domains was up 6.32 percent overall the week of January 7 to 11 as compared to pre-shutdown averages. It seems like users are squeezing in a little extra me time before breakfast, and there was a 12 percent spike after midnight.
The site’s in-house statisticians note that certain categories were popular among DC viewers, including a 71 percent increase in “outdoor,” a 66 percent jump in “threesome”, and a 60 percent uptick in old/young. Perhaps there’s some creative use for our shutdown national parks and inquiries about, erm, bi- or tri-partisan dealmaking in there?
At a time when a historic amount of women were elected to Congress, Pornhub tells Washingtonian, visits from women ticked up, too, at 4.2 percent above the average. Feminism comes in all stripes, I guess.
Viewership was up nationally as well—perhaps a reflection of the fact that most of the federal workforce is outside the DC region? Overall, US traffic was up almost 6 percent. Pre-shutdown data was gathered from the weeks of December 3-7 and 10-14 so that holiday traffic would not affect the results.
So, if you’re stressed out from the shutdown, here’s a little piece of advice from Pornhub on how to turn those missed happy hours into fappy hours: “If you find yourself with some extra time due to the government shutdown, just remember that here at Pornhub we’re always HARD at work!”
Brittany Shepherd covers the societal and cultural scene in political Washington. Before joining Washingtonian as a staff writer in 2018, Brittany was a White House Correspondent for Independent Journal Review. While she has lived in DC for a number of years now, she still yearns for the fresh Long Island bagels of home. Find her on Twitter, often prattling on about Frasier.
