Pornography

This article is about pornography, material created with the purpose of sexual arousal. For alternate uses, see pornography (disambiguation).

File:PavonazzetoMarbleSculpture.jpg

Pavonazzeto marble sculpture, see Erotic art in Pompeii

Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφία pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) (also informally referred to as "porn" or "porno") is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica.

Pornography may use any of a variety of media — written and spoken text, photos, sculpture, drawings, moving images (including animation), and sounds such as heavy breathing. Pornographic films combine moving images, spoken erotic text and/or other erotic sounds, while magazines often combine photos and written text. Novels and short stories provide written text, sometimes with illustrations. In addition to media, a live performance may also be called pornographic.

Terminology

In its original meaning, pornography was literally "writing about prostitutes", from the classical Greek roots πορνη and γραφειν. It derived from a Greek term for men who chronicled the well-known "pornai", or skilled prostitutes of ancient Greece. In more modern times, the term was adopted by social scientists to describe the work of men like Nicholas Restif and William Acton, who in the 18th and 19th centuries published treatises studying prostitution and proposing to regulate it. The term retained this meaning in the Oxford English Dictionary until 1905.

The term then came to mean writing about anything sexual, especially in a base manner, when the creation, presentation, or consumption of the material was for sexual stimulation. The term now refers to sexually related material of all kinds, both written and graphical. The term "pornography" often has negative connotations of low artistic merit, as compared to the more esteemed erotica. Euphemisms such as adult film, adult video and adult bookstore are generally preferred within the industry producing these works (namely the Adult industry). Pornography can also be contrasted with ribaldry, which uses sexual titillation in the service of comedy. Having said that, the definition of pornography is highly subjective, with generally accepted works of art such as Michelangelo's David being considered pornographic by some people.

A distinction is sometimes made between softcore pornography and hardcore pornography. The former generally refers to materials that feature nudity and sexually suggestive scenes, while hardcore or X-rated pornography contains close-ups of aroused genitalia and sexual activities including penetration. Within the industry itself, informal classification breaks down even further. The distinctions may seem trivial to many people, but the precarious legal definition and differing standards at different outlets cause producers to shoot and edit different cuts of films and to first screen those differing versions for their legal teams. The internal rating decision is primarily made by considering the exposure of an erect penis, inclusion and duration of close-up shots of genitals and penetration, types of penetration, and the presence or lack of an external ejaculation.

In some jurisdictions the depiction of urination or defecation contributes to the conclusion that a particular image is pornographic (see e.g. Arizona Criminal Code [1], 9f, 11, in combination with [2], A2, and for Utah [3], 8h).

History

An erotic wall painting from Pompeii

Pornography has an extensive history. Sexual artwork is among the oldest known to exist; explicit photographs date to the beginning of photography and among the earliest films are works depicting nudity and explicit sex.

Nude human beings and sexual activities are depicted in some paleolithic art (e.g. Venus Figurines); however, it is not certain that the purpose was sexual arousal, as the images may have had instead a spiritual significance. There are numerous pornographic paintings on the walls of ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii. One notable example is a brothel in which the various sexual services are advertised in murals above each door. In Pompeii you can also see phalli and testicles engraved in the sidewalks, pointing the way to the prostitution and entertainment district, to aid visitors in finding their way (see Erotic art in Pompeii). Archaeologists in Germany reported in April 2005 that they had found what they believe is a 7,200-year-old pornographic scene depicting a male figurine bending over a female figurine in a manner suggestive of sexual intercourse. The male figure has been named Adonis von Zschernitz. [4]

Pornographic comic books known as Tijuana bibles began appearing in the U.S. in the 1920s.

File:Pb1253.jpg

The first issue of Playboy.

In the second half of the 20th century, pornography in the United States evolved from the so-called "men's magazines" such as Playboy and Modern Man of the 1950s. These magazines featured nude or semi-nude women, sometimes apparently engaging in the act of masturbation, although their genitals or pubic hair were not actually displayed. By the late 1960s, however, these magazines, which now included Penthouse, began to evolve into more explicit displays, eventually, by the 1990s, featuring sexual penetration, lesbianism and homosexuality, group sex, masturbation, and fetishes.

The first explicitly pornographic film with a plot that received a general theatrical release in the U.S. is generally considered to be Mona (also known as Mona the Virgin Nymph), a 59-minute 1970 feature by Bill Osco and Howard Ziehm, who went on to create the relatively high-budget hardcore/softcore (depending on the release) cult film Flesh Gordon.

The 1971 film The Boys in the Sand represented a number of pornographic "firsts." It was the first generally available gay pornographic movie. It was the first porn film to include onscreen credits for its cast and crew. It was the first porn film to parody the title of a mainstream movie (in this case, The Boys in the Band). And it is the only X-rated pornographic film to be reviewed by The New York Times.

Technology and pornography

Pornography has been a driving force behind the adoption of many technologies. Mass-distributed pornography is as old as the printing press. Almost as soon as photography was invented, it was being used to produce pornographic photographs.

The movie camera has also been used for pornography throughout its history, and with the arrival of the home video cassette recorder the pornographic movie industry grew massively, people being able not only to view pornography in the privacy of their own home without having to go out to a theater, but also to make their own pornography.

The fact that the adult industry has such a large consumer base has been used to suggest that it can affect even the development of technology. An oft-cited example is the suggestion that Sony Betamax lost the format war to VHS (in becoming the general home video recording/viewing system) because the adult video industry chose VHS instead of the technically superior Sony system.

Pornographic computer games have also existed almost since the start of the industry - some of the earliest were Mystique's Atari 2600 video games, including Custer's Revenge, Beat Em and Eat Em and Gigolo. The Japanese company Hacker International, which also published games under the name Super PIG, produced several pornographic titles for the Nintendo Famicom - three of these, renamed to Bubble Bath Babes, Hot Slots and Peek-A-Boo Poker, were distributed in the USA by Panesian.

However, such games were for a while no longer produced very often for current consoles, largely due to the increased costs and potential legal problems associated with developing a game without the approval of the console manufacturer. With the release of BMX XXX, pornographic video games have again begun to be produced. Leisure Suit Larry and Playboy: The Mansion titles for game consoles feature pornography.

However, pornographic games are now released mostly for personal computers, with Japanese pornographic (often called hentai games or merely H games outside of Japan) games of various genres being the largest category.

Erotic film producers are expected to play a major role in deciding the next DVD standard. Large outfits tend to support the high-capacity Blu-ray Disc, while small outfits generally favor the less-expensive HD-DVD. According to a 2004 Reuters article, "The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year, giving it tremendous power to sway the battle between two groups of studios and technology companies competing to set standards for the next generation" [5].

Photo manipulation and computer-generated pornography

A lot of pornography is digitally manipulated in sophisticated image editors such as Adobe Photoshop. This practice ranges from applying mild changes to photographs to improve the appearance of the models, such as removing skin defects, improving brightness and contrast of the photo, to extensive editing to produce photomorphs of non-existent creatures such as catgirls, or images of celebrities who may not have themselves ever consented to be filmed for pornography.

Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering.

However, until the late 1990s it could not be produced cost-effectively. In early 2000s it became a growing segment, as the modeling and animation software matured and rendering capabilities of computers improved. The strongest advantage of computer-generated pornography is the ability to realistically render sexual fantasies that are impossible or illegal to film in reality.

As of 2004, computer-generated pornography depicting situations involving children and sex with fictional characters such as Lara Croft is already produced on a limited scale. The October 2004 issue of Playboy featured topless pictures of the title character from the BloodRayne videogame. [6]

The Internet

File:DanniAshe1.jpg

Danni Ashe, model and adult website owner.

With the arrival of the Internet, the availability of pornography increased greatly. Many of the most successful internet entrepreneurs are those who operate pornographic internet sites, and the porn industry is usually credited as being the first to make money off the internet. As well as conventional photographic or video pornography, some sites offer "interactive" video game-like entertainment. Due to the international character of the Internet, it provides an easy means for consumers of pornography that is illegal in their country (or at least illegal without a physical proof of age) to simply acquire such material from sources in another country where it is legal or not prosecuted. See internet pornography.

The almost-zero cost of copying and shipping of digital data boosted the formation of private circles of people swapping pornography. This type of exchange is especially popular for material that is illegal, most notably child pornography and bestiality. With the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as Kazaa, pornography swapping has reached new heights. Free pornography became available en masse from other users and is no longer restricted to private groups. Large amounts of free pornography on the Internet is also distributed for marketing purposes to encourage subscriptions to paid content.

Since the late 90's, 'porn FROM the masses FOR the masses' seems to become another new trend. Cheap digital cameras, increasingly powerful and userfriendly software, and easy access to pornographic source material have made it possible for individuals to produce and share house-made or house-altered porn for next to no cost. This is most notable in the evolution of 3D rendered porn and the 'enhancement' of existing material (photographs/videos) by blending celebrities into them.

On the Internet, pornography is often referred to as pr0n which is misspelled p0rn — porn written with zero, a common style in a so called leet speak. One theory on the origins of this spelling is that it was devised to fool spam filters which blocked emails with the word "porn" from coming through to the recipient. However, since leet speak has performed similar mutations on a number of words, including those unlikely to feature in unsolicited commercial e-mails (0wned, r00t, n00b, d00d), it is likely that any transformation of "porn" to "pr0n" for spamming purposes is at best an independent invention.

According to Google, 68 million searches including some variation of the word "porn" occur every day.

Legal status

The legal status of pornography varies widely. Most countries allow at least some form of pornography and softcore pornography is usually tame enough to be sold in general stores and (in some countries) to be shown on TV. Hardcore pornography, on the other hand, is usually regulated. Child pornography is illegal almost everywhere and most countries have restrictions on pornography involving violence or animals.

Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the famous writer Salman Rushdie, have argued that pornography is vital to freedom and that a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography.

Most countries attempt to restrict minors' access to hardcore materials, so that it is only available in adult bookstores, via mail-order, in some countries over special satellite TV channels, and sometimes in gas stations. There may be an age limit for entrance, or the materials are displayed partly covered, and/or customers can not browse the materials. More generally, disseminating pornography to a minor is often illegal. Many of these efforts have been rendered moot by the wide availability of Internet pornography.

There are recurring urban legends of snuff movies, in which murders are filmed for pornographic purposes. Extensive work by law enforcement officials to ascertain the truth of these rumors have been unable to find any such works.

• Australia: Regulation of pornography has increased somewhat under the Howard government, but remains reasonably widely available. See censorship in Australia. Pornographic material may be bought and hired in Northern Territory and ACT, and may not contain fetish, violence or demeaning portrayals.
• Austria: It is not allowed to display youth-imperiling material or those which violate human dignity to persons under 18 years of age. As salesman selling such material you have to assure that persons under 18 years of age are excluded. Nudity is not assumed as such material.
• Canada: The only kind of pornography on the Internet that is illegal is child pornography. Laws for older media are different/obsolete, and vary from province to province, although they do not allow minors (age varies for province, usually 18 or older) to acquire pornographic material, and has resulting in most material being sold in adult stores, despite no actual law controlling the distribution.
• Denmark: In 1966 the ban on written pornography was lifted, and in 1969 Denmark was the first country in the world to legalise (hardcore) picture pornography.
• France: Movies containing extreme violence or graphical pornography are considered X-rated, may not be seen by minors and are shown only in specific theaters. Pornographic services incur special taxes on revenue (33% for X-rated movies, 50% for pornographic online services). Whether or not some movies should be X-rated is controversial; for instance, in 2000, the explicitly violent and sexual movie Baise-moi was initially not considered X-rated (only "restricted") by the French government, but this classification was overturned by the Conseil d'État ruling on a lawsuit brought by associations supporting Christian and family values.
• Germany: Child pornography is forbidden, where law defines a child to be a person up to the age of 14. Hard pornography (violence and animal related) may not be produced or distributed; possession is allowed. Hardcore pornography is restricted: Sellers have to make sure that the buyer is 18 or older and if the store is accessible by persons younger than 18, it may be sold by underhand dealings on explicit request only. Special parent privilege to show hardcore pornography to their children for educational purposes. The law defines pornography to be hardcore pornography, thus anything else is not restricted.
• Greece: Light pornographic magazines, calendars, and decks of cards are sold openly at roadside kiosks and tourist shops. Extreme or graphic pornography is generally restricted to adults or X-rated.[Nowadays most kiosks in Athens exhibit hardcore magazines and DVDs. Selling them is as shameful as selling condoms.]
• Hong Kong: Illegal if sold or shown to children under 18 of age.
• Hungary: Illegal if sold or shown to children under 18 of age. Illegal to show of genitals on magazines for the public, it has to be hidden somehow.
• Ireland: Pornography was illegal until the mid-1990s.
• Japan: Until the mid-1990s no genitals could be shown, but there is no taboo regarding sex and violence and also much less general concern about portraying teenagers as sexual beings (this applies to both out-and-out pornography and works dealing with other themes). Until recently, Japanese law prohibited the depiction of pubic hair in depictions of any forms of nudity, whether it be pornographic or not. For example, Japanese editions of men's magazines such as Playboy had to have any photographs with visible signs of pubic hair airbrushed out. This prohibition may explain some visual characteristics of many manga or anime where pubic hair is absent from nude pictures. Anime and pornographic photography are available for all people of all ages to buy reside in Game Magazines and other Japanese media.
• Malaysia: It is illegal in this country. However, these materials are being passed around and sold on the black market (pornographic video)
• Netherlands: The Netherlands has the most liberal rules governing pornography. It is sold openly at normal newsstands. Material involving animals has recently been declared illegal due to new animal-welfare laws.
• Norway: Hard pornography is currently illegal De jure but legal in practice; it is illegal to sell hard pornography but one is allowed to buy it on the Internet or take it abroad. Additionally, it is illegal to show hard pornography on cable TV while satellite TV remains a grey area and graphically demonstrates the legal ambivalence Norway shows towards hard pornography. When it is shown, digital text is used to obscure the screen, but this is easily circumvented by turning off the "Subtitle" function on the channel.
• Russia: Illegal production and distribution of pornography is explicitly prohibited, but because State Duma has repeatedly failed to pass a law regulating sexual materials, these issues remain in a grey area. De jure all pornography is allowed (including child porn), but de facto there are some limitations on where it can be sold and zoophilia and child porn are de facto prohibited. Openly sold erotic magazines usually do not display nipples and pubic area on covers. Most of the pornography is filmed in Saint-Petersburg where a law defines pornography as materials including rape, bestiality, necrophilia or child pornography, making all other subject matters legal erotica.
• Singapore: Pornography is illegal; even soft-core publications such as Playboy are banned.
• Sweden: Material involving animals is de-facto legal but subject to animal-welfare laws. Porn movies can be viewed beginning at age 18, there are no age limits for magazines.
• Switzerland: Pornography is legal, subject to exceptions: Making it available to people younger than 16 or to non-consenting audiences is punishable by a fine or up to three years in jail. The same penalty is applicable for the possession, sale, import, etc. of pornography involving sexual acts with children, animals, excretions or violent acts. There is an exception for pornography with cultural or scientific merits. See Article 197 of the Penal Code.
• United Kingdom: Hardcore pornography was illegal until 1999, when trade-barrier difficulties with regards to European Community membership ensured the relatively free movement of such goods for personal importation only. Legally, R18-rated videos are only available in licensed sex shops, but hardcore pornographic magazines are available in newsagents in some places. Purely textual pornography has not been prosecuted since the Inside Linda Lovelace trial of 1976. The Home Office plans to introduce legislation to ban violent pornography.
• United States: Hardcore pornography is legal at the Federal level unless it meets the Miller test of obscenity, which it almost never does. Local prosecution of and tolerance for pornography vary from state to state and city to city. Certain types of material/acts have been self-regulated out of mainstream porn so as to avoid legal problems. Pornographic materials may not be made available to persons under 18 years of age, or 21 in some jurisdictions. Some attempts at restricting pornography on the Internet have been struck down by the courts; see: Internet pornography.

The potential ability to create realistic images using computer graphics or digital manipulation led to some debates on its legality. For instance, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down in 2002 the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 that prohibited, among other things, simulated child pornography. The court ruled that it violated the First Amendment to ban material depicting fictional illegal conduct when no such conduct had been involved in production. However, in the UK, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 reached entirely the opposite conclusion, that if an image creates a convincing enough impression that it sexually depicts a child, it becomes an indecent pseudo-photograph of a child and is equally prosecutable under the law as an actual photograph.

The Internet has also caused problems with the enforcement of age limits regarding performers. In most countries, women and men under the age of 18 are not allowed to appear in porn films, but in several European countries the age limit is 16, and in the UK it is legal for women as young as 16 to appear topless in mainstream newspapers and magazines. This material often ends up on the Internet and viewed by people in countries where this constitutes child pornography, creating challenges for lawmakers wishing to restrict access to such material.

Anti-pornography movement

Main article: Anti-pornography movement

Criticisms of pornography come from three directions: conservatism, religion, and feminism. Religious conservatives decry pornography because they see it as immoral; sex is reserved for married couples, and pornography is thought to lead to an overall increase in what they consider to be immoral behavior in society. Lust caused or directed through pornography may be interpreted as an indication of dissatisfaction with a spouse and is demurred by many religious teachings (Christianity, Islam). Feminist critics generally criticize pornography as degrading to its subjects, and an example of a male-centered objectification of women.

The French philosopher Michel Henry calls pornography a collective profanation of life in his book Incarnation, a Philosophy of the Flesh.

Critics from both groups have sometimes expressed belief in the existence of "pornography addiction". While almost any human behavior can be taken to the level of an addiction and there are several popular 12-step programs for people who believe they may have this or other sexually related addiction problems -- many charge that the concept of "pornography addiction" is frequently raised not because it is scientifically sound but because it creates links between pornography and deviant behavior in the public mind.

Pornography and sex crimes

It has long been theorized that there may be a link between pornography, particularly violent pornography, and an increase in sex crime. This theory has relatively little empirical support and indeed Japan, which is noted for violent pornography, has the lowest reported sex crime rate in the industrialized world, which has led some researchers to speculate that an opposite relationship may in fact exist; that wide availability of pornography may reduce crimes by giving potential offenders a socially accepted way of regulating their own sexuality. Conversely, some argue that reported sex crime rates are low in Japan because the culture is such that victims of sex crime are less likely to report it (e.g. chikan [7]).

Japanese study

Milton Diamond and Ayako Uchiyama write in "Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan" (International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22. 1999) [8]:

Our findings regarding sex crimes, murder and assault are in keeping with what is also known about general crime rates in Japan regarding burglary, theft and such. Japan has the lowest number of reported rape cases and the highest percentage of arrests and convictions in reported cases of any developed nation. Indeed Japan is known as one of the safest developed countries for women in the world (Clifford, 1980). (...)

Despite the absence of evidence, the myth persists that an abundance of sexual explicit material invariably leads to an abundance of sexual activity and eventually rape (e.g., Liebert, Neale, & Davison, 1973). Indeed, the data we report and review suggest the opposite. Christensen (1990) argues that to prove that available pornography leads to sex crimes one must at least find a positive temporal correlation between the two. The absence of any positive correlation in our findings, and from results elsewhere, between an increase in available pornography and the incidence of rape or other sex crime, is prima facie evidence that no link exists. But objectivity requires that an additional question be asked: "Does pornography use and availability prevent or reduce sex crime?" Both questions lead to hypotheses that have, over prolonged periods, been tested in Denmark, Sweden, West Germany and now in Japan. Indeed it appears from our data from Japan, as it was evident to Kutchinsky (1994), from research in Europe and Scandinavia, that a large increase in available sexually explicit materials, over many years, has not been correlated with an increase in rape or other sexual crimes. Instead, in Japan a marked decrease in sexual crimes has occurred.

That hypothesis is challenged by a recent increase in sex crimes in Japan which, however, parallels an increase in all crimes. Also, there have been substantial movements to support victims of rape through laws and public education. Nevertheless, some in Japan have blamed the increase on violent pornography and indeed, some sex offenders report having been inspired by themes in commonly available pornography. The counter argument is, of course, that some sex offenders will likely use any defense they can to lower their culpability.

Pornographic conventions

Pornographic work contains a number of conventions. Although pornography targeted at heterosexual males often includes interaction between females, interaction between males is taboo. In hardcore materials, a male generally ejaculates outside his partner's body, in full view: the so-called "money shot". Penises are almost always shown fully erect (except where prohibited, e.g. in legal United Kingdom magazines). The choice of position is naturally geared to giving the viewer the fullest view of the woman, making the reverse cowgirl position, and the man holding the woman in a "dog-and-lamp-post" position among the most popular. Fellatio scenes usually involve the woman looking into the camera or at the man, for similar reasons. Especially in American or Japanese porn, women tend to be unrealistically vocal and loud during hardcore scenes.

In the "cheaper" magazines the copy accompanying the text is often derogatory to the female subjects: references to sluts, slags and whores abound.

These conventions apply to mainstream pornography. Homosexual and BDSM-related pornography, for example, often operate under different rules.

Pornography by region

Main article: Pornography by region

The production and distribution of pornography are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it plays in political circles are matters of controversy.

Sub-genres of pornography

Main article: List of pornographic sub-genres

In general, softcore refers to pornography that does not depict penetration or extreme fetish acts, and hardcore refers to pornography that depicts penetration and/or extreme fetish acts.

The main genres of pornography sold are:

• Amateur pornography
• Big-Breasts pornography
• Bondage pornography
• Fetish pornography
• Lesbian pornography
• Gay pornography
• Orgy pornography
• Race-oriented pornography, (e.g. Asian, black, Latino, interracial)
• Teen pornography
• Voyeur pornography, (e.g. hidden camera pornography, "upskirt" pornography)

See also

• Erotic art
• Erotica
• Glamour photography
• List of erotic authors
• List of gay pornographic magazines
• List of men's magazines
• List of porn stars
• List of pornographic book publishers
• List of pornographic film studios
• List of pornographic magazines
• List of pornography industry personalities
• Pornographic actor
• Pornographic movie
• Sex in advertising
• Sex worker

External links and sources

Free Porn

• Free Porn List Warning : Contains Adult Content

News

• "Archaeologist finds 'oldest porn statue'" by Krysia Diver, The Guardian, April 4, 2005
• Berkowitz, Ben: Porn Business Driving DVD Technology, Reuters, 2004.

Advocacy

• Andrea's Dworkin book Pornography: Men Possessing Women The feminist classic on pornography
• Anti-Porn resource Center big list of anti-pornography advocacy resources
• Feminist analysis of playboy by Linnea Smith
• Porn Myths: anti-porn advocacy page of feminist t-shirt designer "one angry girl"
• Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) - big list of resources on the sex industry (primarily focused on prostitution)
• Pornography and Sexual Violence by Robert Jensen
• Diana Russell's Pornography As a Cause of Rape from Diana Russell's book.

Government

• Attorney General's Commission on Pornography Final Report. July 1986 U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C. 20530.
• Kutchinsky, Berl, Professor of Criminology: The first law that legalized pornography (Denmark)

Sociology

• Beck, Marianna Ph.D., "The Roots of Western Pornography", part 2, history of pornography in the West.
• Diamond, M. and Uchiyama, A: Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22 (1999). Reports that a significant increase in the availability of pornography in Japan was accompanied by a decrease in sex crimes, in accordance with similar findings in other countries.
• Morality in Media paper with a number of sources that purports to show that there is a link between violent crime and pornography.
• Article:Pornography and Censorship in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy