Why so many young men want to have sex with mums.

There’s something about MILF porn that has struck a nerve among young men, and it’s about more than just that iconic scene in the movie American Pie when the acronym was first introduced to us.

MILF: Mum I’d Like to Fuck. (Because we are a feminist website I’d like to point out that there is a term for dads as well. DILF: Dad I’d like to Fuck.)

As acronyms go it’s not very creative but these are young men we are talking about and when it comes to matters of sex, it’s best to keep things simple.

Young men have been fantisising about having sex with their friend’s mums way before the 1999 release of American Pie. Think of the movie Class, the song Mrs Robinson and so many other popular culture references to it.

In fact MILF porn has increased in popularity by 87 per cent over the past four years, according to data collected by GameLink.com.

It seems the 1999 movie American Pie and the discussion and story line about the MILF just came at the right time. Online porn was just starting to appear and now that it is the main way in which pornography is consumed, it makes sense that this particular genre of bawdy viewing is reaching peak popularity.

Plus the fact that many modern mums are looking pretty fine, thanks to our cultural obsession with anti-aging strategies and the embracing of getting older.

Nothing is more attractive than confidence and MILFS have it in spades.

Then there was the release of the porn series Who's Nailin' Paylin?, a reference to US politician Sarah Palin which increased the popularity of MILF porn on the site by an astounding 357 per cent.

Now that, I don't get. It must be an American thing.

MM confessions: How much sex are you having? Article continues after this video.

I recently watched a movie called Adoration which on first viewing shocked the hell out of me. It's about two older women who are best friends. Each has a son. The sons grow up and before you know it these women are banging each other's kids and after battling their desires they end up making peace with their relationships.

This story originated in France, which explains a lot.

It took a couple more viewings for me to appreciate the idea of young men having sex with older women. It makes sense when you consider the research showing that men reach their sexual peaks in their twenties and women in their forties.

However that's only true if we don't have young kids in our forties. Kids cancel out all sexual peaks, is what I've found.

I was really hoping nobody used Freud to explain this because it's just entirely gross but they did.

Clinical psychologist Peter Kanaris told Broadly, "The classic take is the Freudian one. The child seeks to connect sexually with the opposite-sex parent—so the male child [seeks to connect] with the mother. What prevents us from seeking the mother is the fear of castration by the father. The [MILF] fantasy could be looked at, in a way, as conquering the castration anxiety—saying, 'I'm really going for the mother figure.'"

Sex therapist Jack Morin, author of The Erotic Mind told Broadly, for unknown reasons we develop a primary core sexual theme that will really act as a substantial turn-on throughout much of our lives.

There's also the idea of sex with mums being taboo, which may also explain why some mums look to younger men for passionate relationships later in life.

I'm not mad at the fact they've chosen to release this particular statistic ahead of Mother's Day. It's hard to feel attractive first thing in the morning, wearing our new fluffy pink robe and matching slippers but as I sip my coffee and pretend to like the gifts my kids have selected for me from the Mother's Day store at school, I will be warmed by the secret knowledge that somewhere out there is a hot young man who would look at me in my fluffy pink getup, my crow's feet and crazy hair and think to himself...I'd still have a go.