Porn Perspectives

A Re-Introduction

Your favorite porn blogger is now more accessible than ever! The powers that be over at Indierotica.com will be syndicating this blog on their site (since the best hangover remedy is evidence of last night's transgressions and a good dose of porn theory).

It's a marriage of pictures.parties.sex.evidence + pornography.economics.feminism.technology.

To acquaint new readers with my writing, I'll start with the basics. I've been studying pornography from an economic and feminist angle for many years. The application of these two disciplines makes the most sense to me, since pornography is above all a capitalist enterprise, interested in turning profits. At the same time, the product being sold is a commotization of sex, a very socially- and politically-loaded act. Particularly for women. Hence the feminism.

While lots of people undertake feminist deconstructions of pornography, and a few people are interested in understanding how profits are made in the industry, I straddle both worlds. My view is that this is the only way to truly understand porn as a social, economic, and political presence in our world.

After years of study, my findings are underwhelming, at least on the surface. After scrutinizing the porn industry from multiple angles, submersing myself in the porn world, my basic conclusion is as follows: s'ok.

In other words, I have not been able to identify anything imbedded in the industry which indicates there is anything inherently wrong with pornography.

Sure, there are lots of things wrong with porn--women are often mistreated and poorly represented, the shame around the industry relegates it to "seedy underbelly" status, and hell, most porn is just plain bad. But none of this is inherently embedded in the industry itself. So the project becomes the identification of positive forces in the industry and the development of strategies to nurture those positive forces. I have a number of ideas on that front, which will become clear as one peruses my posts.

Part of this project is discussing, debating, and engaging with different perspectives. For those interested in more detail around my research and findings, my thesis is available for download here. For those interested in making thoughtful and provocative (or reactionary and incendiary) comments, at the end of each entry you can link back to the original post to make comments.

I love it all, so visit often and write lots.

xoxo

The latest recommendation

I had the pleasure of stumbling across Tinto Bass's masterpiece "Monella (Frivolous Lola)" the other night. The cover is what did it for me--is there really anything better than girls in skirts on bicycles? It turns out the answer is French-cut panties, at least according to Bass.

The film itself was surprisingly good. Everyone has their own definition of pornography, but this film is definitely of the very soft-core variety (which can often be way hotter than explicit hard-core since there's an element of imagination). An exuberant and compelling actress, good acting, AWESOME music, and utterly hilarious moments...it's all a girl needs in a porn! The film is in Italian, but the subtitles somehow only add to the allure.

Anyone tired of the drivel churned out by the mainstream porn industry will find this film refreshing and life-affirming. The film has its priorities straight--sex is supposed to be fun(ny)!

Finally Using the Internet for Something Useful?

Porn is finally starting to lose its stronghold on the Internet as the most popular destination, according to the Economist. (At the same time, the Economist's headlines suggesting that people are losing their interest in porn are extremely misleading.)

If one accepts the argument porn often drives technological innovation, then what does it mean when porn no longer dominates that technology's market? According to the Economist, a sign of a medium's maturation is when people start using it largely for non-sex-related pursuits. Wit MySpace and Facebook, social networking sites which are increasingly top destinations online.

Note that the above graph charts percentages, not absolute hits. So what we're looking at is not necessarily an absolute decline in the popularity of Internet porn, but rather a decrease in the ratio of porn site visits to non-porn site visits.   

Even while the Internet per se may not be the gurgling cauldron of sex it once was considered, this does not necessarily mean that people are losing their interest in porn:

Once a new medium becomes popular, its usage is no longer dominated by porn. Although this may soon be true for the web, however, it is not true for the internet as a whole. Much pornographic content may simply have shifted from the web to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, for example.

I would also posit that oversaturation of low-quality pornography may be driving people to technologies which enable faster and easier access to the content they want to see. OnDemand and peer-to-peer technology has gained market share in recent months, as I previously reported.

I've never been a fan of Internet porn as a product--the medium is thrilling, but the lower barriers have resulted in a market flooded with low-quality product. Only time will tell, but I see this shift in market share as a sign of both a maturing technology and a more discerning market.

Alt-Porn History Lesson

Some historically-minded porn connoisseurs have taken it upon themselves to set the record straight about how SuicideGirls fits into the chronology of Alt(ernative)-Porn.

While many point to SG as the first alt-porn site, the timeline constructed by AltPorn.net aims to reveal SG for the derivates they are. The timeline is an interesting bit of history--at the same time, one can't minimize the importance of SG as the first site to popularize alt-porn, if not invent it.