Porn Perspectives

Porn Popular in Bible Belt

Can't say I'm surprised to read about a Harvard University study's findings that traditionally conservative states are high consumers of online pornography.  Eight of the top 10 states are conservative-leaning: Utah (staying strong at #1!), Alaska, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Dakota, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. Hawaii and Florida are the only two of the top ten which are politically liberal.

Here is a quick article about the study, a Mormon writer's thoughts on the issue, and the original study (PDF).

Porn-related activities and discussion is rife with contradiction; ask any pornographer, who will tell you that the Bible Belt serves up the best customers. God bless porn?

 

A billboard in the Deep South

Women Moving In

While the porn industry suffers from the same recessionary trends impacting the rest of the country, many porn companies who once could count on easy profits are having a tough time. Sales are down, and customers are turning to free content available online.

Some argue that this downturn will result in a return to quality in porn. Customers can get junky content for free online, so why would they pay for it? Instead, producers will need to present a product worth paying for. I've argued that women in particular understand this market for quality content. Supporting this claim, Good Releasing, sister to novelty toy company Good Vibrations (started in the 1970s and oriented towards female consumers), has announced a three new video production lines: Reel Queer Productions, HeartCore Productions and the PleasureEd Series.

According to Good Vibrations COO Jackie Strano, Good Releasing will feature quality content and leverage the expertise of legend Carol Queen, PhD. According to Strano:

“Good Releasing's titles showcase authentic and hot adult entertainment full of helpful information, lustful and unabashed sexualities, unapologetic desire, genuine pleasure, and screen burning chemistry.”

She added:

"Our films will offer viewers’ a unique selection of wide-ranging topics that provide open-minded information for a diverse audience, with special emphasis placed on mutual respect, enthusiastic participation and pleasure.”

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more women using the economic downtown as an opportunity to launch new ventures and introduce novel, high-quality content to the market. Now's a great time to get started.

Microsoft Stays Away from Porn

Microsoft: We do not have relations with that word...

A stir rippled through the blogosphere in response to a TechCrunch article stating that ads for Microsoft's Bing search engine appeared when people Googled the word "pornography," implying that Microsoft had purchased the word for advertising purposes.

Microsoft denies this, saying they did NOT buy pornography, the ad appeared because of key words "free videos", porn is evil, yadda yadda.

In one nice aside, according to CNet, Bing has a great video search engine which is perfect for finding porn. Nice tip!

Turning to Sexwork to Pay the Bills

According to Salon, women are increasingly turning to sex in order to make end's meet during the recession. While the idea of a hardworking woman stripping to pay off student loans or put food on the table is titillating, the reality isn't so cheery.

My hunch is that a lot of women who might consider dipping their toes into sex work will retreat quickly once they realize that this isn't for them. Some may have a tougher time getting out. Others may realize they've found their calling.

The dynamic of exploring porn during times of desperation underscores one of my central concerns around pornography. The industry is a "last resort" for some young women who run out of options. It's a way for a woman with few skills, no prospects, or no education to make decent money. As a result, it tends to attract women with few skills, no prospects, and no education. This in itself is not necessarily a problem.

There is a problem, however. Pornography does not create the situation women find themselves in, but it can worsen the situation for unsavvy ladies. Young women who may not have the life experience or perspective to understand what it means to indelibly document herself in a sexual context are given the opportunity to do just that. And there's no going back. This is where self-advocacy and mentorship within the industry are crucial. Knowledge is power!

The Increasing Female Audience

Violet Blue, who was one of the earliest porn bloggers and reviewers (check out her blog, TinyNibbles), reports on Oprah.com that women are becoming an increasingly large segment of the porn market. This trend is a longtime coming, but it's good news nonetheless.

I agree with Violet's claim that poor quality and social stigma are the largest detractors for potential female customers. Body image issues are also a detractor. At least some producers recognize the need to listen to their market (a novel concept to some in the industry):

Though I've sometimes felt that my job as a porn reviewer (for Web sites like FleshBot.com) is akin to being a canary in a bad-taste boys' club mine shaft, I've seen a change in quality in the past few years that I think is a direct reflection of the growing female audience. As more discriminating viewers, we've demanded better porn -- and lo, it is being made.

As the porn industry suffers at the hands of free Internet content and customer ADD, finding and appealing to new markets will be the key to survival. For too long, it has been easy to make money churning out low-quality content, since consumers had few alternatives and tended to buy whatever was available. I foresee a shift towards quality and consumer targeting, and women--those age-old consumer behemoths--will be the savior of many porn companies.

Porn on Planes?

Several US airlines have started offering Wi-Fi on board their flights, to the consternation of business travelers who enjoyed having one blessed place where they weren't hounded by their offices.

And as we all know, give them Internet and pornography quickly follows. Most airlines have set up content blockers on their networks to keep customers from viewing x-rated content online. (The more enterprising of passengers can easily download content to their laptops pre-flight, but no matter.)

But good ol' Virgin America is the airline intent on becoming synonymous with rhinestone-studded thongs, appointing itself the official airline of Victoria's Secret, who hosted a supermodel pajama party aboard a 2007 JFK-LAX flight. And so Virgin America will not be blocking porn on its Wi-Fi network.

Theoretically, passangers will exercise the discretion they typically display when refraining to look at adult magazines, masturbate, or hook up with fellow passangers.

But somehow I'm not so sure...Virgin America's ads point to a different sort of social code, one which magically turns its planes into flying discos upon the moment of liftoff....

Geeks suddenly become cool, and grumpy moms morph into hot babes from the '90s:

Flight attendants become foxy stewardesses in nearly-sheer white blouses which strain against their heaving bosoms:

People chat each other up through the seat-to-seat instant messaging on their entertainment consoles:

Women primp for clubbing later that night while people who met via seat-to-seat chat get to second base:

Douchebags like this get laid:

...as you can see, Virgin America's flights ensconce you in a wonderland of models in pajamas, available women, and casual sex. I think I understand why Virgin sees no need to block Internet porn--with all this, who really needs it?

via AVN

Showtime Getting Desperate

Showtime, are you out of ideas or something? Because filming a show about a porn director filming a remake of another porn movie sounds pretty desperate to me. People will watch pretty much anything with porn in it, so this seems like a pathetic attempt to show porn packaged as something intelligent.

"Deeper Throat" premiers today, on Valentine's Day (really, guys?). I don't have Showtime, but out of passive curiosity I'll see if someone posts a clip somewhere online in the next week.

NOVEL LELO CEO

Swedish novelty sex toy label LELO ("Lust Objectified") has named a global CEO, Kaja Wannberg. The company is quite prominent in its industry, with operations on multiple continents in 40 markets (including  Swedish government-owned pharmacies); this new position is aimed at expanding the company's global presence.

Wannberg comes from a finance backgound, and she has worked in banking, IT and management consulting, and as a CFO. I like the idea of a woman being able to move between industries, one of whom just happens to be a sex toy company. The novelty sex toy industry is nothing to sneeze at--t has actually done quite well in recent months, despite the overall economic downturn which has impacted seemingly every industry. (My favorite quote from a sex toy boutique owner: "Sex will always sell. You might tell yourself, ‘I can do without that $400 sweater, but I would still like to have that rechargeable vibrator.")

Who knows if the boom will last for the novelty sex toy industry, but I'm eager to see what Wannberg is able to do with the LELO brand. 

(via AVN and Reuters)

Music Industry: Finally Catching On

I've written previously about the porn industry's confrontation with online piracy, which occurred earlier than that of the music industry. The dynamics are similar - a media industry develops a business model around proprietary creative content. Then the Internet comes around, enabling users to share content with each other for free, drastically cutting the traditional model's ability to profit from each unit consumed.

The both industries followed a similar pattern in responding to this threat, though the porn industry was much more fluid in its response. When the problem first began, essentially with the advent of the Internet, large porn studios tried suing users who pirated their content. They quickly realized in the early '00s that this was a waste of time and started innovating business models which profited from online sharing. Some companies started giving away content, in exchange for promotional links driving traffic to their site (since in the Web world, traffic is everything). The industry adjusted, many businesses embraced the Internet, and others who were too stuck in their ways perished. Some of the behemoths still struggle to shift their focus away from DVDs, which are quickly becoming obsolete (movie industry--take heed!), and finding ways to generate revenue online.

Still other businesses are a bit craftier. They are realizing that the flood of online content includes a huge amount of junk which consumers must sift through in order to find what they want. Even consumers users are successful, this content has low production values and often is produced by amateurs. (I realize that many people are really into amateur porn right now, but I insist a large part of the appeal is the novelty and low cost - I expect interest in amateur porn to decline in the next few years.)

Smart businesses are realizing that instead of competing with the massive amount of free, low-quality content available--and really, what sensible businessperson would target a consumer who wants to pay nothing for product?--they should differentiate their content. Enter the return of high production values, attractive actors, and compelling content. There is a reason why Pirates, the most expensive porn movie of all time, was also the highest grossing. A market exists, but consumers are easily distracted by free access to naked ladies. What would impel them to buy crappy porn from a production company rather than spend an extra hour finding crappy porn for free online?

Offering them a different product will weed out those who are quality customers (people who appreciate quality and are willing to pay in order to get what they want),and those who are lost causes. (And this part may be pushing things a bit, but I'm gonna say it: You know who likes to buy stuff? And who appreciates pretty packaging, brand names, and attractive products? Women. The best consumers in the world. Gasp! Could women be the ones to save porn??)

Circling back to the music industry, the RIAA is following the path of the porn industry and has decided to stop filing lawsuits against petty pirates. One small step forward - now they need to figure out ways to make money in the new Internet world. The iTunes model is a start, but many customers dislike the limited selection and low-quality files (again we return to quality differentiation!). It will be a difficult task, as the industry is about 10 years late to the party, but we can probably keep an eye on the porn industry to get a clue as to where they are headed.

Does sex need a rescue package?

Larry Flynt and Joe Francis (hiss!) have put together a request for a $5 billion bailout for the porn industry. The argument? Americans can live without cars, but they can't live without sex. Our nation's happiness is at stake!

Arguably, the porn industry is doing just fine and doesn't really need to get bailed out of anything...but hey, free publicity and the small chance of getting $5 billion is apparently a decent enough incentive. Can't hurt to ask, right?

More, from CNN.