Porn - Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink (29 page)

But, then, there is no specific, isolated moral problem with pornography, but only with art and art’s relationship to culture. And the problem may well then be with the material reality of art’s production; that is, capitalism. But that is another, much longer, story.

NOTES

1
George Bataille,
The Story of the Eye,
trans. J. Neugroschal (London: Penguin, 1977); Jim Clark (dir.)
Debbie Does Dallas
(School Day Films, 1978); de Sade.
The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom and Other Writings
, trans. A. Wainhouse and R. Seaver (London: Arrow Books, 1990); Julio Medem (dir.)
Lucía y el Sexo
(Alicia Produce, 2001).

2
Bernardo Bertolucci (dir.)
Last Tango in Paris
(MGM, 1973); Grimaldi, Antonio (dir.)
Caos Calmo
(
Quiet Chaos
) (Fandango, 2008).

3
Emmanuelle Arsan,
The Best of Emmanuelle
, trans. L. Blair and A. Hollo (Bungay: Chaucer Press, 1980); Pauline Réage,
The Story of O
(London: Corgi, 1972); D. H. Lawrence,
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
(London: Penguin, 1997).

4
50 Cent. “P.I.M.P., Snoop Dogg Remix,”
Get Rich or Die Tryin’
(Interscope Records, 2005).

5
Virginie Despentes and Coralìe Despentes (dirs.)
Baise-moi
. (Canal+, 2000).

6
Although certain films may well fulfill this role, for example
Lucía y el Sexo
and J.-J. Beineix (dir.)
Betty Blue: 37°2 le matin
(Gaumont, 1986).

PART VI

PORN AND TECHNOLOGY

ROGER T. PIPE

CHAPTER 15

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Busty Latin Anal Nurses in Leather and Glasses

Technological advances have changed our lives in ways too numerous to count. From transportation and communication to entertainment and cooking, we use devices today that were unheard of just three decades ago. Technological advances have been both master and servant to the changing “needs” of the public. While many advances improve our lives in ways that are unquestionable, others create convenience or extravagance. Far from being “needs,” the latter developments create new markets and thrive on a society ready to consume whatever is new. The question remains whether technology is driving our desires or being driven by them. Did we really want 400 cable channels, heated cup holders, and microwave popcorn, or do we crave it now because such things are available to us?

Perhaps nowhere have these changes become as acute as in the world of pornography. At virtually any point on the entertainment technology curve one can easily find pornography at the cusp. Eager to take advantage of any method that will allow them to improve and personalize their material, pornographers have ventured bravely if sometimes blindly into whatever new frontier lies ahead.Technical advances have given pornographers the ability to deliver their product directly to the end user, cutting out what were once the primary forms of delivery for their merchandise, the adult theatre and retail store, and has had far-reaching ramifications not only for the adult entertainment industry, but also for the end user. Newly developed modes of content delivery have continually reshaped the porn industry by allowing it to cater material to an ever-narrowing audience in a cost effective manner. This fact, however, has also enabled modern pornography to develop in much more specific and fetish oriented ways. So the question begs to be asked: Is modern pornography driven by the narrow niche fetishes of its new audience, or is it driving them into uncharted territories simply by showing the audience that such “wonders” exist?

The 1970s:Adult Film Theatres

Even though magazines and pulp paperbacks were the preferred form of pornography throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the audience craved moving pictures. Though “stag films” existed in the early days, they lacked a delivery system enabling them to thrive. Often shot in 16mm, these films were difficult to obtain and could only be viewed by those who owned the proper projection equipment. A better system for delivering adult films was needed and the most obvious answer was to mirror mainstream Hollywood and use adult movie theatres to reach the audience.

Despite being the best mode of delivery for pornographers at that time, adult theatres were few and far between in the 1970s. They were primarily located in large urban areas, and local zoning ordinances often forced them to be tucked away in less than desirable neighborhoods.The crowds who regularly attended such theatres were notorious as well.The stereotype of the single male clad in a trench coat to conceal his masturbatory activity was so pervasive that it lives on today. Fans in search of harder-edged porn (in contrast to the cable-friendly, couples marketed, “softcore” movies) are still commonly referred to as “raincoaters.” As if long drives to questionable neighborhoods and unsavory audience members were not enough, adult theatres were not popular with politicians, who often sought to shut them down. Pornography was seen as immoral, undesirable, and a magnet for other criminal behavior.To further diminish the adult theatre as a quality outlet for adult product, frequent raids by law enforcement for anything from prostitution sweeps to drug searches kept all but the most ardent fan away.

The year 1973 changed all that. It ushered in a Golden Age in adult films with
Behind the Green Door
and
Deep Throat
. Both films had relatively high production values. Both also helped usher in the “porn star,” with leading ladies Marilyn Chambers and Linda Lovelace. More importantly, however, both films were massive cross-over success.Though only shown on a few hundred screens nationwide,
Deep Throat
and
Behind the Green Door
became overnight sensations. These films were the first to find an audience beyond the typical adult theatre patron and generated mainstream buzz that led to a brief period of “porno chic.” Porn had, to some extent, gone mainstream. Suddenly, “normal” people and even some high-profile celebrities were seen attending adult films. Although this was a step forward for the pornography industry as a whole, most moviegoers still faced limited and less than optimal access to even the most popular adult films.

In many markets, the lack of outlets for adult material effectively limited audiences to a single choice. Since the primary delivery system was limited by distance and often suppressed by legal entanglements, it was difficult for theatre owners to offer much of a choice to their patrons. Theatres would run a popular adult film for weeks or months at a time.
Deep Throat
, for example, ran continuously for sixteen years at the Aladdin Theatre in Portland, Oregon, beginning in 1975. Its run at the Aladdin ended only when the theatre closed its doors in 1991.Though few theatre owners went that far, the medium inherently limited the viewers’ choice to a few select titles, titles that the theatre owner would have considered as having the broadest appeal.

Because of this, adult theatres amounted to a quite limited distribution system for pornography. This limitation also affected the creative possibilities of the product. With perhaps a thousand possible outlets, the few adult films made in the early 1970s needed to appeal to the broadest possible audience in order to maximize profits. While mainstream Hollywood produced films in a variety of genres, such as comedies, horror films, action/adventure films, and family features, the adult film industry had to hit its entire target audience with every shot. There was little freedom for sexual exploration given that each film, in order to be a financial success, would have to fit with rather broad sexual interests. In some ways, of course, all explicit sex on film was new and exciting to the mainstream audience, but having to target a broad audience meant that most (if not all) adult films conformed to a rather standardized form of sexual intercourse. Although anal intercourse, oral sex, lesbian sex, and a smattering of S&M were sometimes involved, most adult films offered little in the way of variety.They were intentionally vanilla, trading on the novelty of explicit sex while avoiding any fetish that might limit their appeal. Of course, there was no need to appeal to specific fetishes or appeal to niche-oriented audiences. They were, after all, the only game in town.

The 1980s: Home Video/VHS

Adult theatres remained the predominant delivery source for adult movies until the 1980s. The new decade ushered in the advent and subsequent saturation of VCRs, and adult films were suddenly available to a new audience.Viewers no longer had to risk questionable neighborhoods or risk being seen sneaking into adult theatres only to watch pornography surrounded by strangers. The full length feature film that was once available only in the theatre could now be transferred to video tape and thus be viewed in the privacy of the home.The level of awkwardness and potential danger was dramatically reduced. Fans in search of erotic thrills merely had to slip behind the swinging saloon doors or through the beaded curtains at the “adult” section of their local video store.

With home video recorders replacing adult theatres as the primary delivery method for adult films, a few thousand viewing outlets suddenly ballooned into several million. The audience was no longer locked into specific show times or titles selected by theatre owners.They were free to view movies at home at any time of the day. Renting a VHS tape generally cost only a fraction of what a ticket at the theatre did, so fans were able to afford to see multiple titles during a given week.While theatre owners were limited by time and could often show only one title per week, video store owners could stock hundreds or even thousands of adult titles.With increased distribution possibilities for this larger audience came an increased demand for more product. Spurred on by the increased privacy that now accompanied the viewing of pornography, porn fans were freer to seek out new and more experimental sexual themes. Studios raced to keep up with demand and began to experiment with new formats and more specific titles. Producers still had to appeal to a relatively broad audience, but the medium and marketplace allowed them to target audiences more specifically than ever before.

Throughout the 1980s the home video explosion pushed pornography in new directions. Home use of VCRs had been virtually unheard of at the start of the 1980s, but rose quickly. By 1985,VCRs had already penetrated 10.5 percent of television households in the US.
¹
As the number of VCRs in America rose from under 2 million early in the decade to over 62 million (roughly two-thirds of American households) by the end of the 1980s, the need for new adult product increased dramatically. And with an increased audience came a product that could, and often did, appeal to a wider variety of sexually explicit themes.

Though the audience grew and a broader range of sexual themes were touched upon, 1980s video porn still followed certain, albeit rather loose, templates. VHS pornography bore many similarities to its 1970s predecessor. Most still followed scripts and basic plot formulas remained unchanged. Pornographers tried to sprinkle sexual variations into their product, but did so cautiously to make their product as broadly appealing as possible. A typical example of this came in the form of the “mandatory lesbian scene.” At some point in virtually every video feature came a scene with two or more women together. Conventional wisdom was that most members of the audience had an interest in seeing some form of lesbian exploration in each film. While this practice would later be called into question when pornography became more specialized, it remained in place throughout most of the 1980s. Exploration into other sexual variations would become more popular as porn expanded throughout the decade.

Anal sex was always a leading contender. A frequent area of exploration in early adult films, anal sex became a full-time focus in the new video-dominated pornographic landscape of the 1980s. No longer just a flavor in the sexual stew, anal sex became the main course. Titles like
Caught From Behind
and
Between the Cheeks
took the existing formula for adult films and greatly narrowed its focus.
²
Though plot and character development were always secondary (if not tertiary) concerns in adult films,VHS pornography began to abandon them altogether.These traditional elements were replaced by specific sex acts that became the foci of many video releases. Individual titles now focused on anal sex, lesbian sex, oral sex, and other broadly categorized fetishes as producers expanded the scope of adult movies and began to specialize. If these new genre-specific features of the late 1980s seemed narrowly focused, this was nothing compared to the massive changes that lay on the horizon.

The splintering of the adult movie industry during the late 1980s would accelerate in the 1990s.The video tidal wave all but washed away celluloid pornography and drowned the adult theatres. Home video viewing and adult “arcades” replaced them as the viewing medium of choice. Viewing adult movies at home or in X-rated video arcades was simpler, cheaper, and offered greater discretion.These delivery methods gave rise to new kinds of adult movies. “Gonzo” and “Wall to Wall” pornography would dominate 1990s adult cinema.

Part of what drove these changes was the fact that, as video cameras became smaller, lighter, and cheaper, pornographers were able to shoot product that was unthinkable just a few years earlier. The use of handheld cameras enabled directors of gonzo porn to become characters in their own movies.They became sexual proxies for their audience, sharing their fetishes, failures, and fantasies with viewers watching at home. These projects had strong voyeuristic qualities and allowed the viewer to see sex from angles unheard of in the days of stationary cameras and full film crews.The movies also tended to focus on either specific sex acts or, more commonly, specific body parts. Easier to shoot and less expensive to produce, the new medium of video allowed pornographers to seek out smaller audiences looking for specific elements that had been missing or underrepresented in prior pornographic efforts.

Audiences craving large breasts no longer had to sit through an entire film to see one well endowed starlet. Entire movies and complete lines of product were now dedicated to busty vixens of every shade. Frustrated admirers for firm derrieres were no longer forced to watch in utter horror as the camera skipped over the object of their desire. There were now entire series devoted to long, loving camera shots of women from angles that were previously either impossible (as heavy cameras were not made for such anatomical exploration) and impractical (for every one butt lover in the audience, producers still risked alienating ten customers who could care less) to capture. From
The Adventures of Buttman
to
Breast Worx
gonzo porn had taken the focus away from mere fantasy stories involving sex and placed it on more narrowly appealing fetishes.
³