History MediaNotes / Pornography

* An interesting snapshot of the state of pornography as an industry can be found in Creator/DavidFosterWallace's longform essay "Big Red Son"[[note]]Collected in ''Consider the Lobster'' (2005), originally published in the September 1998 edition of ''Premiere'' magazine as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment"[[/note]] about his attendance at the 15th Adult Video News Awards (the closest thing the porn industry has to the Oscars) in January 1998. This essay is especially interesting as it describes porn ''just as'' the Internet was starting to revolutionize it, and describes several trends that would continue through the first era of Internet porn (i.e. before the rise of porn streaming sites). It's also at once quite deep and quite funny in Wallace's characteristic way.

* An interesting snapshot of the state of pornography as an industry can be found in Creator/DavidFosterWallace's longform essay "Big Red Son"[[note]]Collected in ''Consider the Lobster'' (2005), originally published in the September 1998 edition of ''Premiere'' magazine as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment"[[/note]] about his attendance at the 15th Adult Video News Awards (the closest thing the porn industry has to the Oscars) in January 1998. This essay is especially interesting as it describes porn ''just as'' the Internet was starting to revolutionize it. It's also at once quite deep and quite funny in Wallace's characteristic way.

* An interesting snapshot of the state of pornography as an industry can be found in Creator/DavidFosterWallace's longform essay "Big Red Son" (collected in ''Consider the Lobster'' (2005), originally published in the September 1998 edition of ''Premiere'' magazine as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment"), about his attendance at the 15th Adult Video News Awards (the closest thing the porn industry has to the Oscars) in January 1998. This essay is especially interesting as it describes porn ''just as'' the Internet was starting to revolutionize it. It's also at once quite deep and quite funny in Wallace's characteristic way.

* An interesting snapshot of the state of pornography as an industry can be found in Creator/DavidFosterWallace's longform essay "Big Red Son" (collected in ''Consider the Lobster'', originally published in ''Premiere'' magazine as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment"), about his attendance at the 15th Adult Video News Awards (the closest thing the porn industry has to the Oscars) in January 1998. This essay is especially interesting as it describes porn ''just as'' the Internet was starting to revolutionize it. It's also at once quite deep and quite funny in Wallace's characteristic way.

* An interesting snapshot of the state of pornography as an industry can be found in Creator/DavidFosterWallace's longform essay "Big Red Son" (collected in ''Consider the Lobster'', originally published in ''Premiere'' magazine as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment"), about his attendance at the 1998 AVN Awards (the closest thing the porn industry has to the Oscars). This essay is especially interesting as it describes porn ''just as'' the Internet was starting to revolutionize it. It's also at once quite deep and quite funny in Wallace's characteristic way.

Imagine, if you will, a world where there are no photographs or videos. A world where paper itself is an expensive, rare commodity and mass printing is impossible. This was the world through most of human history. If you wanted to see people engaging in sex acts you actually had to see them in person. To be ThePeepingTom was often your ''only'' option. Orgies, though often thought of as wild, decadent parties ''may'' have served less for randomly hooking up with people and more as a way to get people in the mood to be with their partner in a world without pictures or video to help out. As pointed out before -- having children was important and a symbol of status, and back then some people probably had just as much [[TheLoinsSleepTonight trouble getting into the mood]] as modern humans do. While peeping toms are creepy, and orgies go against modern religious feelings, these ''may'' have served as primitive pornography -- but this really can only be speculated about with few records.

-->--'''''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio Jacobellis v. Ohio]]''''', [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15356452945994377133&q=378+U.S.+184&hl=en&as_sdt=3,39#p197 378 U.S. 184, 197]] (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart, J.]]''', concurring in the judgment) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was Creator/LouisMalle's 1958 drama ''The Lovers'' , a popular {{French film|s}} that involved some (in retrospect fairly tame) sex scenes and a plotline that depicted [[SympatheticAdulterer a married woman's adultery in a sympathetic light]]. The State of UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} officially declared the film obscene and prohibited it from being shown in theaters, and then prosecuted the manager of a UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}-area arthouse when he showed it anyway. He was convicted, but Supreme Court overturned the conviction on the grounds that the film was not obscene--but the members of the majority all presented different reasons for why ''The Lovers'' was not obscene. Of thee, Stewart's was the most quotable. (Incidentally, Stewart himself was from Ohio--the only Ohioan on the Court at the time.) Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio Jacobellis v. Ohio]]''''', [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15356452945994377133&q=378+U.S.+184&hl=en&as_sdt=3,39#p197 378 U.S. 184, 197]] (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart, J.]]''', concurring in the judgment) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was Creator/LouisMalle's 1958 drama ''The Lovers'' , a popular {{French film|s}} that involved some (in retrospect fairly tame) sex scenes and a plotline that depicted [[SympatheticAdulterer a married woman's adultery in a sympathetic light]]. The State of UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} officially declared the film obscene and prohibited it from being shown in theaters, and then prosecuted the manager of a UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}-area arthouse when he showed it anyway. He was convicted, but Supreme Court overturned the conviction on the grounds that the film was not obscene--but the majority all presented different reasons for why ''The Lovers'' was not obscene, of which Stewart's was the pithiest. (Incidentally, Stewart himself was from Ohio--the only Ohioan on the Court at the time.) Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobellis_v._Ohio Jacobellis v. Ohio]]''''', [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15356452945994377133&q=378+U.S.+184&hl=en&as_sdt=3,39#p197 378 U.S. 184, 197]] (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart, J.]]''', concurring) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''Jacobellis v. Ohio''''', [[https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15356452945994377133&q=378+U.S.+184&hl=en&as_sdt=3,39#p197 378 U.S. 184, 197]] (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart, J.]]''', concurring) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''Jacobellis v. Ohio''''', 378 [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S.]] 184, 197 (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart, J.]]''', concurring) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''Jacobellis v. Ohio''''', 378 [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S.]] 184, 197 (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart J.]]''', concurring) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''''Jacobellis v. Ohio'''', 378 [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S.]] 184, 197 (1964) ('''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart Stewart J.]]''', concurring) (on the meaning of "hardcore pornography").[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

-->--'''Justice Potter Stewart''' in the case of ''Jacobellis v. Ohio'', 378 U.S. 184 (1964) on hardcore pornography.[[note]]Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, "...and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was ''The Lovers'' (1958), a popular {{French film|s}} that led some people in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates to file a lawsuit because they considered it pornographic. Stewart was a little bummed that this would be the quote he would be remembered for despite all his other work over the years, but he still accepted the fame.[[/note]]

'''It is especially important to remember that fiction is not reality.''' There is a danger with pornography if a person has trouble [[CannotTellFictionFromReality differentiating what is fiction from what is reality]] - and many people [[BookSmart use pornography for years]] before actually getting the chance to experience sex. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes/{{consent}} is a tricky issue. Because pornography is private, a person may not realize that what they enjoy seeing or reading about might not be what your lover or society may agree with, and [[PoorCommunicationKills not checking on this ahead of time with your partner can destroy a relationship and lead to uncomfortable or even dangerous results]]. It's smart to [[BoringButPractical start off slow]] in an intimate, sexual relationship and ''talk'' about your personal kinks first before doing them, to give a person a chance to react or say no[[note]]and if they say no, respect it and move on with your life[[/note]]. The chance to have sexual activity with a new partner - especially for [[TheirFirstTime the first time]] - rarely means a person's perfect porn fantasy is about to come true.

A quick note: There is a section near the end titled ''Porn is made up, not real''. This is a very important section to read if you enjoy pornography, but are lacking in RealLife experience. To put it simply here - watching an [[ActionGenre action movie]] in ''no way'' prepares you on how to handle a terrorist situation in RealLife, so in no way should you expect the porn you like to prepare you for any real life sexual experience. Always expect [[RealityEnsues reality to be real]], not fiction.

A quick note: There is a section near the end titled ''Porn is made up, not real''. This is a very important section to read if you enjoy pornography, but are lacking in RealLife experience. To put it simply here - watching an [[ActionGenre action movie]] in ''no way'' prepares you on how to handle a terrorist situation in RealLife, so in no way should you expect the porn you like to prepare you for any real life sexual experience.

Erotica in literature has been around a long time -- some people consider portions of Literature/TheBible (the ''Song of Solomon'', specifically[[note]]Such as "Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies" [=SoS=] 4:5, [=NIV=].[[/note]]) to be this. Some works often considered to be pornographic are actually meant to instruct more than to arouse, such as the ''Literature/KamaSutra'', the ancient Hindu work on sexual positions. More on this type of literature can be found on the EroticLiterature page. Many distinguish erotic fiction from pornography, but as with almost everything involving sexual subject matter, the differences can be subjective -- for instance the "trashy" RomanceNovel has been cited by some to be a kind of pornography itself due to [[CoitusEnsues gratuitous sex scenes]] and [[StrictlyFormula formulaic]], distilled romance [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools designed to arouse passions in the reader]]; but this is a hot topic as some dissenters feel pornography must include visual imagery, or that [[OpinionMyopia books that they like can't possibly be porn]].

The Internet was not without its own negative effect on the pornography industry. Much like how the Internet could get information into people's hands for free, killing magazine and newspaper sales, porn became free-- affecting adult bookstore sales. Pornographic magazine subscriptions dropped slowly over a period of years-- by 2015, after 62 years, ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' stopped including nude pictures, concentrating instead on the articles people always claimed they got the magazine for.[[note]]They reversed their decision more than a year later, but went out of business in 2020 anyway.[[/note]] Adult bookstores have since reduced their magazine and video departments, and concentrated more on equipment, lubrications, etc. Also, the Internet (unfortunately) made it ''much'' easier for bad folks to make & trade [[PaedoHunt child pornography]]. As the nature of pornographic artwork in relation to live-action material is a highly controversial subject, it's important to note for clarification's sake that most first-world countries treat child porn art (be it drawn, rendered, a still image, animated, etc.) as equal to its live-action counterparts from a legal perspective at the federal level. Japan is notorious even among its own population for being one of the only exceptions to this standard, and its laws surrounding live-action child pornography are infamous for being far more lenient than other countries[[note]]Case point: Creator/NobuhiroWatsuki was convicted of possessing child pornography and only had to pay a fine of $1,739.36 USD.[[/note]]. On the other hand, child pornography art in the United States is in the gray area: On a federal level, such art is only illegal if declared "obscene" under law and in use beyond mere possession, and state laws vary.

We're not going to define what it looks like here - the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts United States Supreme Court]] gave up trying, so who are we to try? Best we can say is that it generally involves either naked people or people dressed in certain ways with the sole intent of producing sexual desire, while engaging in sexual acts. Almost everyone, regardless of leanings, feels that porn is ExplicitContent, and [[NotSafeForWork Not Safe For Work/Kids, etc.]]

We're not going to define what it looks like here. The [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts United States Supreme Court]] gave up trying, so who are we to try? Best we can say is that it generally involves either naked people or people dressed in certain ways with the sole intent of producing sexual desire, while engaging in sexual acts. Almost everyone, regardless of leanings, feels that porn is ExplicitContent, and [[NotSafeForWork Not Safe For Work/Kids, etc.]]

'''It is especially important to remember that fiction is not reality.''' There is a danger with pornography if a person has trouble [[CannotTellFictionFromReality differentiating what is fiction from what is reality]] - and many people [[BookSmart use pornography for years]] before actually getting the chance to experience sex. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes/{{consent}} is a tricky issue. Because pornography is private, a person may not realize that what they enjoy seeing or reading about might not be what your lover or society may agree with, and [[PoorCommunicationKills not checking on this ahead of time with your partner can destroy a relationship and lead to uncomfortable or even dangerous results]]. It's smart to [[BoringButPractical start off slow]] in an intimate, sexual relationship and ''talk'' about your personal kinks first before doing them, give a person a chance to react or say no. The chance to have sexual activity with a new partner - especially for [[TheirFirstTime the first time]] - rarely means a person's perfect porn fantasy is about to come true.

'''It is especially important to remember with pornography that fiction is not reality.''' There is a danger with pornography if a person has trouble [[CannotTellFictionFromReality differentiating what is fiction from what is reality]] - and many people [[BookSmart use pornography for years]] before actually getting the chance to experience sex. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes/{{consent}} is a tricky issue. Because pornography is private a person may not realize that what they enjoy seeing or reading about might not be what your lover or society may agree with, and [[PoorCommunicationKills not checking on this ahead of time with your partner can destroy a relationship and lead to uncomfortable or even dangerous results]]. It's smart to [[BoringButPractical start off slow]] in an intimate, sexual relationship and ''talk'' about your personal kinks first before doing them, give a person a chance to react or say no. The chance to have sexual activity - especially for [[TheirFirstTime the first time]] - rarely means your perfect porn fantasy is about to come true.

'''It is especially important to remember with pornography that fiction is not reality.''' There is a danger with pornography if a person has trouble [[CannotTellFictionFromReality differentiating what is fiction from what is reality]] - and many people use pornography for years before actually getting the chance to have sex. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes/{{consent}} is a tricky issue. Because pornography is private a person may not realize that what they enjoy seeing or reading about might not be what your lover or society may agree with, and [[PoorCommunicationKills not checking on this ahead of time with your partner can destroy a relationship and lead to uncomfortable or even dangerous results]]. It's smart to [[BoringButPractical start off slow]] in an intimate, sexual relationship and ''talk'' about your personal kinks first before doing them, give a person a chance to react or say no. The chance to have sexual activity - especially for [[TheirFirstTime the first time]] - rarely means your perfect porn fantasy is about to come true.

As computers became entertainment machines adult [[VideoGameGenres video games]] started to appear, and in an [[AvertedTrope aversion]] to TheRuleOfFirstAdopters did ''not'' drive the new industry. Among the earliest games to make news was ''Custer's Revenge'' (1982, by Mistique), a third-party game for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}. The game involved moving Custer across the screen to have sex with an Indian woman. Women's groups and Native Americans were particularly displeased with the implied rape ''and'' Custer's Revenge outsold Mistique's other adult titles due to the controversy. [[Creator/{{Atari}} Atari]] took notice of this, but before it could act either way, Mistique and most other small gaming companies went out of business in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983. Most early pornographic games were hampered by the limits of technology at the time -- graphics took up space. Some InteractiveFiction games such as ''VideoGame/LeatherGoddessesOfPhobos'' were pornographic in nature, despite being mostly or only text. StripPoker simulators (in the west) and Strip Mahjong simulators (in the east) were popular because they only required four or five low-res graphics of a person in various states of undress programmed into an already-existing game. Eventually processing power caught up and better graphics were used, but by this time most major console makers didn't feel a need to create pornographic content games because their systems are profitable enough by themselves, and learned from Atari and ''Custer's Revenge'' to reserve the right to screen all titles for their systems. Creator/{{Acclaim}} released ''BMX XXX'' with fanfare in 2002, which featured bare breasts both digital and video-- which led to retailers like Walmart refusing to stock the game[[note]]Creator/{{Sony}} refused to sell the game for its UsefulNotes/{{Playstation 2}} unless it covered up the breasts, but oddly enough family-friendly Creator/{{Nintendo}} released the nude version for [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube Gamecube]].[[/note]]. Small gaming studios still produce sexual games, but the fact that these games continue to be controversial with the public, most major stores won't sell [[UsefulNotes/AdultsOnlyRatingESRB Adults Only-rated]] titles, plus the feeling that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids video games are primarily for kids and teenagers]] anyway has kept pornography out of mainstream video gaming.

The motion picture appeared in the late 1880's and pornography quickly followed. Theaters started showing a late-night pornographic movie -- a much cheaper alternative to a strip show because the theater did not have to find, pay or deal with models and strippers and replace them when they got "old". Eventually theaters which played only adult films opened up -- while people felt uncomfortable going to a theater to watch pornography with a group of strangers, many still did. In the 1970's pay-per-view came into being, where a scrambled channel -- this was changed to a flat blue screen in the late 1980's -- would be unscrambled upon calling your cable provider and agreeing for the charge to be on your bill -- major sports events were publicly advertised, but pornography was the money maker[[note]]The scramble was not perfect, and sometimes [[PoorMansPorn people would sit watching the scramble for a glimpse of a breast, etc. ]]In some cases, since the signal was analog, slightly mistuning the channel would result in a near perfect video, albeit without sound[[/note]]. In the 1980's Video Cassette Recorders made it possible to watch pornography in your own home, effectively driving the videocassette industry. If you didn't want to buy the videos, most "Mom and Pop" video stores had a back room where you could rent a movie or had a folder you could choose a video from. The video camera, as with the Polaroid Camera before it, allowed for the creation of [[HomePornMovie personal pornographic films]].