Voice Fetish & the History of Phone Sex
Did Alexander Graham Bell think people would get horny?
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This is a weekly newsletter from me, Dani Faith Leonard , a comedy writer, film producer, and performer. It’s an extension of the live comedy show ADULT SEX ED that I’ve hosted since 2018. The show is about plugging the holes in our education as adults, so I’ll be doing just that (if you want to know more about this newsletter, here’s a description on substack). Ready to get a little smarter? Okay, let’s go!
One of my girlfriends requested this very specific topic (you can made topic suggestions in the comments, too!). She is really turned on by voices and would rather receive audio messages from a man she’s into than pics or sexts. Some voices are a turn-off, even if what they’re saying is hot. So, how common is it to prefer audio erotica to porn? And is a voice fetish a thing?
It turns out, there is such a thing as a voice fetish and it can fall under a few different categories:
Auralism = sexual arousal or excitement by sound (similar to voyeurism = sexual arousal by sight). Auralism is a general term that can refer to any type of sound that people find sexually arousing, from moaning to sex noises to audio porn.
Acousticophilia = a fetish involving sounds. Arousal can occur from any type of auditory stimulus, like music, poetry, speaking in foreign languages, accents. In rare cases, this can cause some issues. If a common noise is triggering sexual arousal, it can be distressing (I guess most inconvenient boners are). Certain people can also be aroused by sounds that most people might find displeasing, like screaming or verbal abuse. The key difference is that with acousticophilia, the sound that’s causing the arousal doesn’t necessarily need to be sexualized. ASMR often falls under this category. So does THIS video on tiktok of a man growling.
Ecouteurism = being sexually aroused by eavesdropping, often on people having sex. Like listening to your neighbors getting crazy putting you in the mood.
Audio erotica is have a resurgence in the past few years, possibly because we’re so bombarded by images on our screens all day that it’s just something different (it’s also accessible for the visually impaired). Years before internet porn, AI sexbots, ASMR videos, and audio erotica books ready for download, an industry popped up that catered to people who would rather talk with people who they can’t see. Although late night commercials advertising 1-900 numbers aren’t as prevalent today, the phone sex industry used to bring in a billion dollars per year. Let’s look at a quick history of phone sex!
People have been telling horny stories and making hot sounds since the beginning of time. Erotic stories in literature have been around for centuries (this can be its own newsletter), and surely people read those stories out loud and talked dirty to each other. When the telephone was invented, it provided an opportunity for a new industry, but not right away because of the pesky operator acting as an intermediary. However, there are reports from the 1900s of switchboard operators fielding proposals from male callers they had never met who just enjoyed their sexy voices.
Cut to the 1970s and one telephone company in the United States, AT&T, had a monopoly that required governmental intervention. The company had to split up in 1982, which provided opportunities for enterprising people to snatch up premium-rate numbers, allowing them to charge per minute. Soon, you could call these numbers and reach a psychic who would read your fortune, get the sports scores, or have some phone sex!
One of the first phone sex performers was Gloria Leonard, a former stockbroker and porn performer (fantastic combination!), and the publisher of High Society Magazine. She would use her sexy voice to record the preview of the magazine and by 1983, half a million calls were coming in per day at seven cents each.
By the end of the 1980s, nearly all of the major local phone companies in the United States were actively involved in the adult industry. Per-minute billing was provided by phone companies (in the U.S., using 976, then 900 numbers), so there was an incentive to edge the caller and not bring them to orgasm in order to extend the call. Phone sex operators are considered sex workers and are sometimes also called fantasy artists, adult phone entertainers, and audio erotic performers. Performers would frequently have specialties, which would help the dispatcher choose the provider when a call came in.
An industry leader was a company called ATN, which converted a former Toys“R”Us warehouse in Miami into a phone sex hub. They had up to 600 operators on the lines all day and porn videos playing on TVs. Honestly, it sounds like a tech bro’s dream office and I like to think they kept a few of the toys around.
The internet basically crashed the phone sex industry, but some services still exist. And with the rise of the gig economy driving more people into sex work, phone sex is a relatively safer segment of the industry to be in. Of course, phone sex also exists outside of the industry. It can fuel a long distance relationship or just be appealing to people like my friend, who just gets more turned on by voices. People who have phone sex with their partners also might be open to exploring more aspects of their sexuality than they are willing to in person.
So, are certain voices naturally sexier than others? A study from 1979 revealed that both sexes seem to be more attracted to people with deep voices. Here’s the thing about this particular fetish: voices are inherently unique and very individual. So if you’re more of a Fran Drescher than a Scarlett Johansson, not to worry—someone is into it.
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I would fucking LOVE to be paid for giving hot convo-head. Think
I’d be really good at it, especially for nerds, given my deep voice, high interest in what turns you on, and broad education and interests. Physics make you wet?
Shakespeare turn you on? How about some astral plane blending? And exploring the edges of intimacy? Shared kundalini orgasms? Ending up so completely fucked that you can hardly move? You know who you are...
Ooh, I think I just wrote my first ad!