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I know all the arguments. In the day John Holmes was a well known porn star. There was debate over whether his dick was natural or not. One of his porn characters was a detective Johnny Wadd. Some porn moves actually had a plot and dialogue.
'Women produce and direct porn movies ' was always one of the defenses of the porn industry,. Organized crime was always part of the pom industry. Before Internet video tape distribution.
I remember all of it. Nothing you can do or say will make me blush.
There was a battle over censorship. Harry Reems who payed in Deep Throat was hounded for obscenity.
Actor Harry Reems (born Herbert Streicher) made history in 1976 when he became the first American actor ever convicted of federal obscenity charges for his role in the 1972 adult film Deep Throat. His legal battle became a landmark First Amendment issue that defined the era's censorship wars.
But this is a separate discussion. And this has more to do with cultural propriety and what women are socially allowed to do. Or rather... how much other women, socially punish women for doing porn. I think women are much meaner to porn actresses than men are. I don't have research to back that up though.
But the short history of graphic porn (porn in writing was as old as writing).
1) 1850'ies. First it was prostitutes who made commissioned jobs for clients. Much like they'd previously sat for painters. How forced these women were by pimps is anyone's guess. Probably a mix. But being a prostitute was often the only available option for lesbians who wanted to be indipendent. These pictures eventually ended up being mass produced and sold globaly.
2) 1896. Porn films come. Same story
3) 1953 Playboy is published, tip toeing around the obsessenity laws. That's why it looked like it did. All power was in the hand of the publisher. And women were handsomely rewarded for it. Being a porn model became an elite activity and these women became both socially shunned, as well as stars.
4) 1957 both USA and the UK passes obsenity laws clamping down on porn. The rest of western Europe goes in the exact opposite direction. Porn becomes increasingly arty on the European continent.
5) 1967 Denmark removes all censorship for porn. Sweden is close behind. We get an explosion of especially Scandinavian porn. I once listended to a lecture by one of those early pioneering directors in Denmark. Porn becomes both a feminist counter-cultural free art expression as well as patriarchal opressive exploitation of women. At the same time. Basically, shit directors start getting problems attracting actresses and they get pushed out of business. Leaving only the guys who treat the women well. Which is nice. A few of the porn film directors are women.
6) 1970's porn becomes mainstream and socially acceptable to watch by normal people. We get porn films with a-list Hollywood actresses. People like Marylin Chambers. We get a lot of everything. Both good and bad.
7) 1980's everyone is on drugs and AIDS comes. Maffia move in on the distribution. Women with their shit together get out and find other paths in life. People like Annie Sprinkle. The women still in the business are increasingly mentally unstable. It gets really sad and seedy.
8) 1990'ies, with Madonna's Sex we get a re-awoken interst in porn and an attempt to re-create the joy and creative environment of the 1970'ies. The stigma from doing porn has now largely vanished. This was when I was young and in the cool arty Stockholm queer scene.
9) 1996. With the Internet the money from porn largely evaporated. There was so many women who loved working in porn, there were too many producers chasing too few buyers. So it was reduced to largely a hobby business for enthusiasts. The porn industry is still huge. So there's loads of money. But the chances of a porn star making a living off it is miniscule. The good news is that it completely removed the maffia from the porn industry. Becuase there's barely any money in it. Most porn is made by a woman with a camera doing low budget shoots with her friends.
10) 2023... Now AI porn has come and it will now be even less money for porn producers.
Sorry for the long reply. I wasn't sure of some of this myself, so I had to do some research. ChatGPT helped a lot. I just enjoyed studing so much I wrote this largely for my own amusement. Sorry about the self indulgance.
In our liberal western democracies with wide latitude in speech and behavior you are free to make and watch porn, even physical abuse of women. Almost any fantasy you want o get your little pecker up.
It is your choice. My views have changed over time.
If a masochist gets consensually beaten on camera where's the victim? Who's being abused?
In Sweden (and a bit later Denmark) masochism was a mental diagnosis until 2010. Then it was reclassified as a perfectly healthy sexual interest. Whether or not it was abuse comes down to other factors rather than just simply someone getting beaten and degraded on camera.
I just think it comes down to that we have a Christian heritage in the west. So we're all trained by the culture to be uncomfortable about sex and be encouraged not to explore our own sexuality. That makes the western disconnect between what people like to watch and what they're publicly open about enjoying, such a discrepancy.
It is interesting that BDSM porn is controversial. While watching a boxing match on TV is not. I don't think these activities are all that different for the participants.
