diff --git a/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py b/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
index 29b4d02a1a..715ca29d30 100644
--- a/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
+++ b/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py
@@ -98,14 +98,14 @@ class WSGIRequest(http.HttpRequest):
         self.META['PATH_INFO'] = path_info
         self.META['SCRIPT_NAME'] = script_name
         self.method = environ['REQUEST_METHOD'].upper()
-        _, content_params = cgi.parse_header(environ.get('CONTENT_TYPE', ''))
-        if 'charset' in content_params:
+        self.content_type, self.content_params = cgi.parse_header(environ.get('CONTENT_TYPE', ''))
+        if 'charset' in self.content_params:
             try:
-                codecs.lookup(content_params['charset'])
+                codecs.lookup(self.content_params['charset'])
             except LookupError:
                 pass
             else:
-                self.encoding = content_params['charset']
+                self.encoding = self.content_params['charset']
         self._post_parse_error = False
         try:
             content_length = int(environ.get('CONTENT_LENGTH'))
diff --git a/django/http/request.py b/django/http/request.py
index d6ce49d755..2440b11758 100644
--- a/django/http/request.py
+++ b/django/http/request.py
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ class HttpRequest(object):
         self.method = None
         self.resolver_match = None
         self._post_parse_error = False
+        self.content_type = None
+        self.content_params = None
 
     def __repr__(self):
         if self.method is None or not self.get_full_path():
@@ -278,7 +280,7 @@ class HttpRequest(object):
             self._mark_post_parse_error()
             return
 
-        if self.META.get('CONTENT_TYPE', '').startswith('multipart/form-data'):
+        if self.content_type == 'multipart/form-data':
             if hasattr(self, '_body'):
                 # Use already read data
                 data = BytesIO(self._body)
@@ -296,7 +298,7 @@ class HttpRequest(object):
                 # empty POST
                 self._mark_post_parse_error()
                 raise
-        elif self.META.get('CONTENT_TYPE', '').startswith('application/x-www-form-urlencoded'):
+        elif self.content_type == 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded':
             self._post, self._files = QueryDict(self.body, encoding=self._encoding), MultiValueDict()
         else:
             self._post, self._files = QueryDict('', encoding=self._encoding), MultiValueDict()
diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
index ce2a68fe44..acf195803b 100644
--- a/docs/ref/request-response.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -84,6 +84,20 @@ All attributes should be considered read-only, unless stated otherwise.
     from ``GET`` or ``POST``) will use the new ``encoding`` value.  Useful if
     you know the form data is not in the :setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET` encoding.
 
+.. attribute:: HttpRequest.content_type
+
+    .. versionadded:: 1.10
+
+    A string representing the MIME type of the request, parsed from the
+    ``CONTENT_TYPE`` header.
+
+.. attribute:: HttpRequest.content_params
+
+    .. versionadded:: 1.10
+
+    A dictionary of key/value parameters included in the ``CONTENT_TYPE``
+    header.
+
 .. attribute:: HttpRequest.GET
 
     A dictionary-like object containing all given HTTP GET parameters. See the
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.10.txt b/docs/releases/1.10.txt
index adebc46e66..009020444f 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.10.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.10.txt
@@ -299,6 +299,11 @@ Requests and Responses
   :meth:`~django.http.HttpResponse.seekable()` to make an instance a
   stream-like object and allow wrapping it with :py:class:`io.TextIOWrapper`.
 
+* Added the :attr:`HttpResponse.content_type
+  <django.http.HttpRequest.content_type>` and
+  :attr:`~django.http.HttpRequest.content_params` attributes which are
+  parsed from the ``CONTENT_TYPE`` header.
+
 Serialization
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/tests/requests/tests.py b/tests/requests/tests.py
index 8113cb7685..5f49cbf23c 100644
--- a/tests/requests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/requests/tests.py
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ class RequestsTests(SimpleTestCase):
         # and FILES should be MultiValueDict
         self.assertEqual(request.FILES.getlist('foo'), [])
 
+        self.assertIsNone(request.content_type)
+        self.assertIsNone(request.content_params)
+
     def test_httprequest_full_path(self):
         request = HttpRequest()
         request.path = request.path_info = '/;some/?awful/=path/foo:bar/'
@@ -72,14 +75,24 @@ class RequestsTests(SimpleTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(repr(request), str_prefix("<HttpRequest>"))
 
     def test_wsgirequest(self):
-        request = WSGIRequest({'PATH_INFO': 'bogus', 'REQUEST_METHOD': 'bogus', 'wsgi.input': BytesIO(b'')})
+        request = WSGIRequest({
+            'PATH_INFO': 'bogus',
+            'REQUEST_METHOD': 'bogus',
+            'CONTENT_TYPE': 'text/html; charset=utf8',
+            'wsgi.input': BytesIO(b''),
+        })
         self.assertEqual(list(request.GET.keys()), [])
         self.assertEqual(list(request.POST.keys()), [])
         self.assertEqual(list(request.COOKIES.keys()), [])
-        self.assertEqual(set(request.META.keys()), {'PATH_INFO', 'REQUEST_METHOD', 'SCRIPT_NAME', 'wsgi.input'})
+        self.assertEqual(
+            set(request.META.keys()),
+            {'PATH_INFO', 'REQUEST_METHOD', 'SCRIPT_NAME', 'CONTENT_TYPE', 'wsgi.input'}
+        )
         self.assertEqual(request.META['PATH_INFO'], 'bogus')
         self.assertEqual(request.META['REQUEST_METHOD'], 'bogus')
         self.assertEqual(request.META['SCRIPT_NAME'], '')
+        self.assertEqual(request.content_type, 'text/html')
+        self.assertEqual(request.content_params, {'charset': 'utf8'})
 
     def test_wsgirequest_with_script_name(self):
         """