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Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of Human sexual activity, sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,"Kids Need Porn Literacy"
– Marty Klein, ''Psychology Today'', 30 October 2016 pornography is presented in a variety of media, including pornographic magazine, magazines, erotic art, art, Erotic literature, literature, Erotic photography, photography, Spoken word album, audio, Pornographic film, film, Cartoon pornography, animation, and Sexual content in video games, video games."The Evolution of Pornography"
– Robert Weiss (therapist), Robert Weiss, ''Psychology Today'', 2 July 2020 A distinction is often made as to whether to classify adult content as pornography or erotica."What Distinguishes Erotica from Pornography?"
– Leon F Seltzer, ''Psychology Today'', 6 April 2011 Throughout the history of erotic depictions, various groups within society have considered them to be noxious, and made attempts to have them suppressed under obscenity laws, censored, or made illegal. Such groundsand even the definition of pornographyhave differed in various historical, cultural, and national contexts. In the late 19th century, a film by Thomas Edison which depicted a kiss was denounced as obscene in the United States, while Eugene Pirou, Eugène Pirou's 1896 film ''Le Coucher de la Mariée, Bedtime for the Bride'' was received very favorably in France. Starting from the mid-twentieth century, societal attitudes towards sexuality have become more lenient in the Western world, and legal definitions of obscenity made limited. In 1969, ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol became the first film to depict unsimulated sex and receive a wide theatrical release in the United States. This was followed by the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), a time period when many high quality pornographic films played in Adult movie theater, theaters and became part of popular culture. The introduction of home video and the Internet pornography, Internet in the late 20th century led to worldwide growth in the pornography business, generating billions of dollars annually.
In 2001, commercialized pornography in the United States accounted for over US$2.5 billion, this included the costs for production of various Multimedia, media, and associated Sex toy, products and Sex work, services. In 2006, the worldwide revenue from pornography was estimated at 97 billion dollars, with the U.S. estimates at around $10–$12 billion. In 2018, pornography in Japan was estimated to be worth over $20 billion.
The industry in the U.S. employs thousands of Pornographic film actor, performers along with production and support staff. It has its own industry publication, AVN (magazine), ''AVN''; a trade association, the Free Speech Coalition; and an award show, the AVN Awards. Apart from coverage from mainstream press, the industry also receives considerable attention from private organizations, government agencies, and political organizations. In the 2020s, issues of popular pornographic sites hosting content by unscrupulous uploaders, and cybersex trafficking have been reported.
- OED, 2021 The more inclusive word ''erotica'', sometimes used as a synonym for "pornography", is derived from the feminine form of the Ancient Greek adjective ), derived from (), which refers to lust and sexual love. In informal language, ''pornography'' is often abbreviated to ''porn'' or ''porno''.
Depictions of a sexual nature have existed since prehistoric times, as seen in the Venus figurines and rock art. A vast number of artifacts have been discovered from ancient Mesopotamia depicting explicit heterosexual sex.
Glyptic art from the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic Period frequently shows scenes of frontal sex in the missionary position. In Mesopotamian Ex-voto, votive plaques from the early second millennium BC, the man is usually shown entering the woman from behind while she bends over, drinking beer through a straw. Assyria, Middle Assyrian lead votive figurines often represent the man standing and penetrating the woman as she rests on top of an altar. Scholars have traditionally interpreted all these depictions as scenes of hieros gamos (an ancient sacred marriage between a god and a goddess), but they are more likely to be associated with the cult of Inanna, the goddess of sex and prostitution. Many sexually explicit images were found in the temple of Inanna at Assur, which also contained models of male and female sexual organs.
Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art, but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti. The final two thirds of the Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001), an Egyptian papyrus scroll discovered at Deir el-Medina, consist of a series of twelve Vignette (literature), vignettes showing men and women in various sexual positions. The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292–1075 BC) and its high artistic quality indicates that it was produced for a wealthy audience. No other similar scrolls have yet been discovered.
''Fanny Hill'' (1748) is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel." It is an erotic literature, erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England as ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure''.Wagner, "Introduction", in Cleland, ''Fanny Hill'', 1985, p. 7. It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. The authors were charged with "corrupting the King's subjects."
When large-scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the Ancient Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of human sexuality, sexuality and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper-class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children, and the working classes.
After the modern invention of photography, photographic pornography was also born. The Parisian demimonde included Napoleon III's minister, Charles de Morny, who was an early patron that displayed photos at large gatherings.
The world's first law criminalizing pornography was the English Obscene Publications Act 1857 enacted at the urging of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Act, which applied to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Ireland, made the sale of obscene material a statutory offence, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The American equivalent was the Comstock Act of 1873''The Comstock Act'' which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. The English Act did not apply to Scotland, where the common law continued to apply. However, neither the English nor the United States Act defined what constituted "obscene", leaving this for the courts to determine.
Before the English Act, the publication of obscene material was treated as a common law misdemeanour and effectively prosecuting authors and publishers was difficult even in cases where the material was clearly intended as pornography. Although nineteenth-century legislation eventually outlawed the publication, retail, and trafficking of certain writings and images regarded as pornographic and would order the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale, the private possession of and viewing of (some forms of) pornography was not made an offence until the twentieth century.
Historians have explored the role of pornography in social history and the history of morality. The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the Hicklin test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Although they were suppressed, depictions of erotic imagery were common throughout history.
Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. A pioneer of the motion picture camera, Thomas Edison, released various films which were denounced as obscene in late 19th century America. Two of the earliest pioneers were Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner directed the earliest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name "Léar". The 1896 film showed Louise Willy performing a striptease. Pirou's film inspired a genre of risqué French films showing women disrobing and other filmmakers realised profits could be made from such films.
Sexually explicit films opened producers and distributors to prosecution. Such films were produced illicitly by amateurs, starting in the 1920s, primarily in France and the United States. Processing the film was risky, as was their distribution. Distribution was strictly private. In 1969, Pornography in Denmark, Denmark became the first country to abolish censorship, thereby decriminalizing pornography, which led to an explosion in investment and of commercially produced pornography. However, it continued to be banned in other countries, and had to be smuggled in, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs.
Nonetheless, and also in 1969, ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sexual intercourse to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. The film was a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of ''Last Tango in Paris'', an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years after ''Blue Movie'' was made.
Data from 2015 suggests an increase in pornography viewing over the past few decades, and this has been attributed to the growth of Internet pornography since widespread public access to the World Wide Web in the late 1990s. Through the 2010s, many pornographic production companies and top pornographic websites—such as Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn—were acquired by MindGeek, which has been described as "a monopoly".
The scholarly study of pornography, notably in cultural studies, is limited, perhaps due to Feminist views of pornography, the controversy about the topic in feminism. The first peer-reviewed academic journal about the study of pornography, ''Porn Studies'', was published in 2014.
The Filmmaking, production and distribution (business), distribution of pornography are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it has in political circles are matters of controversy.
In the United States, the sex film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. An analysis by MetaCert, a company that specializes on internet safety, revealed that the United States was the country that hosted the most porn, accounting for 60 percent of all websites containing pornographic content.
In Europe, Budapest is regarded as the industry center.
Piracy, the illegal copying and distribution of material, is of great concern to the porn industry. The industry is the subject of litigation and formalized anti-piracy efforts.
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The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Regulating hardcore pornography is more common than regulating softcore pornography. Child pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and some countries have restrictions on rape pornography or animal pornography.
Disseminating pornography to a minor is generally illegal. There are various attempts to restrict minors' access to pornography, including protocols for pornographic magazines or stores. One way this may be bypassed by minors is that many online sites only require the user to tell the website they are a certain age, and no other age verification is required. The Child Online Protection Act would have restricted access by minors to any material on the Internet defined as harmful to them, but it did not take effect.
The adult film industry regulations in California require that all actors and actresses practice safe sex using condoms. It is rare to see condom use in pornography. Since porn does better financially when actors are unprotected, many companies film in other states. Miami is a major area for amateur porn. Twitter plays a big part in an actor's success: because Twitter does not censor content, actors can post freely without having to self-censor, unlike on Instagram and on Facebook.
In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order, either against all mail from a particular sender, or against all sexually explicit mail, by applying to the United States Postal Service.
Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the 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.
The UK government has criminalized possession of what it terms "Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, extreme pornography", following the highly publicized murder of Murder of Jane Longhurst, Jane Longhurst.
Pornography can infringe into basic human rights of those involved, especially when sexual consent was not obtained. For example, revenge porn is a phenomenon where disgruntled sexual partners release images or video footage of intimate sexual activity, usually on the internet, without authorization from the other person. Lawmakers have also raised concerns about "upskirt" photos taken of women without their consent. In many countries there has been a demand to make such activities specifically illegal carrying higher punishments than mere breach of privacy or image rights, or circulation of prurient material. As a result, some jurisdictions have enacted specific laws against "revenge porn".
"No Copyright Protection for Pornography: A Daring Response to File-Sharing Litigation"
Intellectual Property Brief. Retrieved 1 March 2012. Some courts have held that copyright protection effectively applies to works, whether they are obscene or not, but not all courts have ruled the same way. The copyright protection rights of pornography in the United States has again been challenged as late as February 2012.
Views and opinions of people on pornography are various; and differ according to the demography of the people concerned.
Feminist perspectives on sex markets: pornography
, Sexual exclusionary feminists charge that pornography presents a severely distorted image of sexual relations, and reinforces sex myths; that it always shows women as readily available and desiring to engage in sex at any time, with any man, on men's terms, always responding positively to any advances men make. They argue that because pornography often shows women enjoying and desiring to be violently attacked by men, saying "no" when they actually want sex, fighting back but then ending up enjoying the act—this can affect the public understanding of legal issues such as consent to sexual relations. In contrast to these objections, other feminist scholars argue that the lesbian feminist movement in the 1980s was good for women in the porn industry. As more women entered the developmental side of the industry, this allowed women to gear porn more towards women because they knew what women wanted, both for actresses and the audience. This is believed to be a good thing because for such a long time, the porn industry has been directed by men for men. This also sparked the arrival of making lesbian porn for lesbians instead of men. Furthermore, many feminists argue that the advent of VCR, home video, and affordable consumer video cameras allowed for the possibility of feminist pornography. Consumer video made it possible for the distribution and consumption of video pornography to locate women as legitimate consumers of pornography. Tristan Taormino says that feminist porn is "all about creating a fair working environment and empowering everyone involved." Feminists "ranging from Betty Friedan and Kate Millett to Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer and Jamaica Kincaid" supported the right to consume pornography. Feminist porn directors are interested in challenging representations of men and women, as well as providing sexually-empowering imagery that features many kinds of bodies. In a 1995 essay for ''The New Yorker'', writer Susan Faludi argued that porn was one of the few industries where women enjoy a power advantage in the workplace. "'Actresses have the power,' Alec Metro, one of the men in line, ruefully noted of the X-rated industry. A former firefighter who claimed to have lost a bid for a job to affirmative action, Metro was already divining that porn might not be the ideal career choice for escaping the forces of what he called 'reverse discrimination.' Female performers can often dictate which male actors they will and will not work with. They'' make more money than ''us''.' Porn—at least, porn produced for a heterosexual audience—is one of the few contemporary occupations where the Gender pay gap, pay gap operates in women's favor; the average actress makes fifty to a hundred per cent more money than her male counterpart. But then she is the object of desire; he is merely her appendage, the object of the object."
Real Your Brain on Porn
Retrieved 2019-04-14. *
The first law that legalized pornography
(Denmark) History * Law
American judge orders parents to pay $30,441 for disposing adult son's porn collection
(27 August 2021). Associated Press. Sociology * * Technology
From teledildonics to interactive porn: the future of sex in a digital age
(2014-06-06), ''Theguardian.com, The Guardian'' {{portal bar, Art, Books, Erotica and pornography, Film, Human sexuality, Internet, Literature, Sex work, Television Pornography, Sexuality
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of Human sexual activity, sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,"Kids Need Porn Literacy"– Marty Klein, ''Psychology Today'', 30 October 2016 pornography is presented in a variety of media, including pornographic magazine, magazines, erotic art, art, Erotic literature, literature, Erotic photography, photography, Spoken word album, audio, Pornographic film, film, Cartoon pornography, animation, and Sexual content in video games, video games."The Evolution of Pornography"
– Robert Weiss (therapist), Robert Weiss, ''Psychology Today'', 2 July 2020 A distinction is often made as to whether to classify adult content as pornography or erotica."What Distinguishes Erotica from Pornography?"
– Leon F Seltzer, ''Psychology Today'', 6 April 2011 Throughout the history of erotic depictions, various groups within society have considered them to be noxious, and made attempts to have them suppressed under obscenity laws, censored, or made illegal. Such groundsand even the definition of pornographyhave differed in various historical, cultural, and national contexts. In the late 19th century, a film by Thomas Edison which depicted a kiss was denounced as obscene in the United States, while Eugene Pirou, Eugène Pirou's 1896 film ''Le Coucher de la Mariée, Bedtime for the Bride'' was received very favorably in France. Starting from the mid-twentieth century, societal attitudes towards sexuality have become more lenient in the Western world, and legal definitions of obscenity made limited. In 1969, ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol became the first film to depict unsimulated sex and receive a wide theatrical release in the United States. This was followed by the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), a time period when many high quality pornographic films played in Adult movie theater, theaters and became part of popular culture. The introduction of home video and the Internet pornography, Internet in the late 20th century led to worldwide growth in the pornography business, generating billions of dollars annually.
In 2001, commercialized pornography in the United States accounted for over US$2.5 billion, this included the costs for production of various Multimedia, media, and associated Sex toy, products and Sex work, services. In 2006, the worldwide revenue from pornography was estimated at 97 billion dollars, with the U.S. estimates at around $10–$12 billion. In 2018, pornography in Japan was estimated to be worth over $20 billion.
The industry in the U.S. employs thousands of Pornographic film actor, performers along with production and support staff. It has its own industry publication, AVN (magazine), ''AVN''; a trade association, the Free Speech Coalition; and an award show, the AVN Awards. Apart from coverage from mainstream press, the industry also receives considerable attention from private organizations, government agencies, and political organizations. In the 2020s, issues of popular pornographic sites hosting content by unscrupulous uploaders, and cybersex trafficking have been reported.
Etymology
The word ''pornography'' is a conglomerate of two Ancient Greek words: ( "prostitute" originally "purchased", related to "to sell", from the Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European root ''per-'' "to hand over", alluding to the notion of a person sold), and ( "a writing, recording, or description"). Thus meaning depiction of prostitutes or prostitution ( ). No date is known for the first use of the word in Greek; the earliest attested, most related word one could find in Greek, is , , i.e. "someone writing about harlots", in the ''Deipnosophists'' of Athenaeus. The Modern Greek word () is a reborrowing of the French . "" was in use in the French language during the 1800s. The word did not enter the English language as the familiar word until 1857 or as a French import in New Orleans in 1842. The word was originally introduced by Classics, classical scholars as "a bookish, and therefore nonoffensive, term for writing about prostitutes", but its meaning was quickly expanded to include all forms of "objectionable or obscene material in art and literature". As early as 1864, ''Webster's Dictionary'' defined the word as "a licentious painting", and the Oxford English Dictionary definitions being: from obscene painting (1842), description of obscene matters, obscene publication (1977 or earlier).- OED, 2021 The more inclusive word ''erotica'', sometimes used as a synonym for "pornography", is derived from the feminine form of the Ancient Greek adjective ), derived from (), which refers to lust and sexual love. In informal language, ''pornography'' is often abbreviated to ''porn'' or ''porno''.
History
Depictions of a sexual nature have existed since prehistoric times, as seen in the Venus figurines and rock art. A vast number of artifacts have been discovered from ancient Mesopotamia depicting explicit heterosexual sex.
Glyptic art from the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic Period frequently shows scenes of frontal sex in the missionary position. In Mesopotamian Ex-voto, votive plaques from the early second millennium BC, the man is usually shown entering the woman from behind while she bends over, drinking beer through a straw. Assyria, Middle Assyrian lead votive figurines often represent the man standing and penetrating the woman as she rests on top of an altar. Scholars have traditionally interpreted all these depictions as scenes of hieros gamos (an ancient sacred marriage between a god and a goddess), but they are more likely to be associated with the cult of Inanna, the goddess of sex and prostitution. Many sexually explicit images were found in the temple of Inanna at Assur, which also contained models of male and female sexual organs.
Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art, but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti. The final two thirds of the Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001), an Egyptian papyrus scroll discovered at Deir el-Medina, consist of a series of twelve Vignette (literature), vignettes showing men and women in various sexual positions. The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292–1075 BC) and its high artistic quality indicates that it was produced for a wealthy audience. No other similar scrolls have yet been discovered.
''Fanny Hill'' (1748) is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel." It is an erotic literature, erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England as ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure''.Wagner, "Introduction", in Cleland, ''Fanny Hill'', 1985, p. 7. It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. The authors were charged with "corrupting the King's subjects."
When large-scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the Ancient Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of human sexuality, sexuality and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper-class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children, and the working classes.
After the modern invention of photography, photographic pornography was also born. The Parisian demimonde included Napoleon III's minister, Charles de Morny, who was an early patron that displayed photos at large gatherings.
The world's first law criminalizing pornography was the English Obscene Publications Act 1857 enacted at the urging of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Act, which applied to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Ireland, made the sale of obscene material a statutory offence, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The American equivalent was the Comstock Act of 1873''The Comstock Act'' which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. The English Act did not apply to Scotland, where the common law continued to apply. However, neither the English nor the United States Act defined what constituted "obscene", leaving this for the courts to determine.
Before the English Act, the publication of obscene material was treated as a common law misdemeanour and effectively prosecuting authors and publishers was difficult even in cases where the material was clearly intended as pornography. Although nineteenth-century legislation eventually outlawed the publication, retail, and trafficking of certain writings and images regarded as pornographic and would order the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale, the private possession of and viewing of (some forms of) pornography was not made an offence until the twentieth century.
Historians have explored the role of pornography in social history and the history of morality. The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the Hicklin test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Although they were suppressed, depictions of erotic imagery were common throughout history.
Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. A pioneer of the motion picture camera, Thomas Edison, released various films which were denounced as obscene in late 19th century America. Two of the earliest pioneers were Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner directed the earliest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name "Léar". The 1896 film showed Louise Willy performing a striptease. Pirou's film inspired a genre of risqué French films showing women disrobing and other filmmakers realised profits could be made from such films.
Sexually explicit films opened producers and distributors to prosecution. Such films were produced illicitly by amateurs, starting in the 1920s, primarily in France and the United States. Processing the film was risky, as was their distribution. Distribution was strictly private. In 1969, Pornography in Denmark, Denmark became the first country to abolish censorship, thereby decriminalizing pornography, which led to an explosion in investment and of commercially produced pornography. However, it continued to be banned in other countries, and had to be smuggled in, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs.
Nonetheless, and also in 1969, ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sexual intercourse to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. The film was a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of ''Last Tango in Paris'', an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years after ''Blue Movie'' was made.
Data from 2015 suggests an increase in pornography viewing over the past few decades, and this has been attributed to the growth of Internet pornography since widespread public access to the World Wide Web in the late 1990s. Through the 2010s, many pornographic production companies and top pornographic websites—such as Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn—were acquired by MindGeek, which has been described as "a monopoly".
The scholarly study of pornography, notably in cultural studies, is limited, perhaps due to Feminist views of pornography, the controversy about the topic in feminism. The first peer-reviewed academic journal about the study of pornography, ''Porn Studies'', was published in 2014.
Classification
Based on the content, pornography is generally classified as either Softcore pornography, softcore or hardcore pornography, hardcore. Both forms often contain Nudity in film, nudity. Softcore pornography contains nudity or partial nudity in sexually suggestive situations, but without explicit sexual activity, sexual penetration or "extreme" Sexual fetish, fetishism, while hardcore pornography may contain graphic sexual activity and visible penetration, including unsimulated sex scenes.Subgenres
Pornography encompasses a wide variety of genres. Pornography featuring heterosexual acts composes the bulk of pornography and is "centred and invisible", marking the industry as heteronormative. However, a substantial portion of pornography is not normative, featuring more nonconventional forms of scenarios and sexual activity such as "'fat' porn, amateur porn, disabled porn, porn produced by women, queer porn, BDSM, and body modification." Pornography can be classified according to the physical characteristics of the participants, fetish, sexual orientation, etc., as well as the types of sexual activity featured. Reality and voyeur pornography, animated videos, and legally prohibited acts also influence the classification of pornography. Pornography may fall into more than one genre. Some examples of pornography genres: * Alt porn * Amateur pornography * Bondage pornography * Ethnic pornography * Sexual fetishism, Fetish pornography * Group sex * Reality pornography * Porn parody * Sexual orientation-based pornography ** Gay pornography ** Lesbian pornography ** Bisexual pornography * Transgender pornographyCommercialism
Economics
Revenues of the adult industry in the United States are difficult to determine. In 1970, a Federal study estimated that the total retail value of hardcore pornography in the United States was no more than $10 million. In 1998, Forrester Research published a report on the online "adult content" industry estimating $750 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. Studies in 2001 put the total (including video, pay-per-view, Internet and magazines) between $2.6 billion and $3.9 billion. , pornography is becoming one of the biggest businesses in the United States; billions of dollars are spent annually on the industry's cable and satellite networks, theaters, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex magazines, and Internet sites. , the porn industry was believed to bring in more than $13 billion on a yearly basis in the United States. CNBC has estimated that pornography was a $13 billion industry in the US, with $3,075 being spent on porn every second and a new porn video being produced every 39 minutes. A significant amount of pornographic video is shot in the San Fernando Valley, which has been a pioneering region for producing adult films since the 1970s, and has since become home for various models, actors/actresses, production companies, and other assorted businesses involved in the production and distribution of pornography. The pornography industry has been considered influential in deciding format wars in media, including being a factor in the VHS vs. Betamax format war (the videotape format war) and in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war (the high definition optical disc format war, high-def format war). Ron Wagner, Director of IT at a California porn studio: "If you look at the VHS vs. Beta standards, you see the much higher-quality standard dying because of [the porn industry's support of VHS]... The mass volume of tapes in the porn market at the time went out on VHS."Technology
Pornographers have taken advantage of each technological advance in the production and distribution of visual images. Pornography is considered a driving force in the development of technologies from the printing press, through photography (still and motion), to Satellite television, satellite TV, home video, other forms of video, and the Internet. With commercial availability of tiny cameras and wireless equipment, "voyeur" pornography established an audience. Camera phone, Mobile cameras are used to capture pornographic photos or videos, and forwarded as Multimedia Messaging Service, MMS, a practice known as sexting.Computer-generated images and manipulations
Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely computer-generated imagery, computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering. Further advances in technology have allowed increasingly photorealistic 3D figures to be used in interactive pornography. Until the late 1990s, digitally manipulated pornography could not be produced cost-effectively. In the early 2000s, it became a growing segment, as the modelling and animation software matured and the rendering capabilities of computers improved. 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'' video game.3D pornography
The first pornographic film shot in 3D was ''3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy'', released on 14 April 2011 in Hong Kong.Consumption
The vast majority of US men use porn. According to The Huffington Post, 70% of men and 30% of women watch porn. Sources: # # # https://web.archive.org/web/20130116164054/https://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/ # # Quite probably, the majority of US population between ages 18 and 35 use porn at least once a week. According to a study from 2002, the majority of Norway, Norwegian population uses pornography. A survey conducted in 2008 on the use of pornography in 18- to 26-year-old American men shows that 87% of the participants view pornography at least once a month and nearly half view it at least once a week.Production and distribution by region
The Filmmaking, production and distribution (business), distribution of pornography are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it has in political circles are matters of controversy.
In the United States, the sex film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. An analysis by MetaCert, a company that specializes on internet safety, revealed that the United States was the country that hosted the most porn, accounting for 60 percent of all websites containing pornographic content.
In Europe, Budapest is regarded as the industry center.
Piracy, the illegal copying and distribution of material, is of great concern to the porn industry. The industry is the subject of litigation and formalized anti-piracy efforts.
Effects
Research concerning the effects of pornography is concerned with multiple outcomes. Such research includes potential influences on rape, domestic violence, sexual dysfunction, difficulties with sexual relationships, and child sexual abuse. While some literature reviews suggest that pornographic images and films can be addictive, insufficient evidence exists to draw conclusions. While it has not been proven that either porn or masturbation addiction exist, porn or masturbation compulsion probably exist. Several studies conclude the liberalization of porn in society may be associated with decreased rape and sexual violence rates, while others suggest no effect, or are inconclusive.Online.Pdf.
/ref>
Laws and regulations
The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Regulating hardcore pornography is more common than regulating softcore pornography. Child pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and some countries have restrictions on rape pornography or animal pornography.
Disseminating pornography to a minor is generally illegal. There are various attempts to restrict minors' access to pornography, including protocols for pornographic magazines or stores. One way this may be bypassed by minors is that many online sites only require the user to tell the website they are a certain age, and no other age verification is required. The Child Online Protection Act would have restricted access by minors to any material on the Internet defined as harmful to them, but it did not take effect.
The adult film industry regulations in California require that all actors and actresses practice safe sex using condoms. It is rare to see condom use in pornography. Since porn does better financially when actors are unprotected, many companies film in other states. Miami is a major area for amateur porn. Twitter plays a big part in an actor's success: because Twitter does not censor content, actors can post freely without having to self-censor, unlike on Instagram and on Facebook.
In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order, either against all mail from a particular sender, or against all sexually explicit mail, by applying to the United States Postal Service.
Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the 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.
The UK government has criminalized possession of what it terms "Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, extreme pornography", following the highly publicized murder of Murder of Jane Longhurst, Jane Longhurst.
Pornography can infringe into basic human rights of those involved, especially when sexual consent was not obtained. For example, revenge porn is a phenomenon where disgruntled sexual partners release images or video footage of intimate sexual activity, usually on the internet, without authorization from the other person. Lawmakers have also raised concerns about "upskirt" photos taken of women without their consent. In many countries there has been a demand to make such activities specifically illegal carrying higher punishments than mere breach of privacy or image rights, or circulation of prurient material. As a result, some jurisdictions have enacted specific laws against "revenge porn".
What is not pornography
In the U.S., a July 2014 criminal case decision in Massachusetts, Commonwealth v. Rex, 469 Mass. 36 (2014), made a legal determination of what was not to be considered "pornography" and in this particular case "child pornography". It was determined that photographs of naked children that were from sources such as National Geographic (magazine), National Geographic magazine, a sociology textbook, and a nudist catalog were not considered pornography in Massachusetts even while in the possession of a convicted and (at the time) incarcerated sex offender. Drawing the line depends on time and place; Occidental mainstream culture got increasingly "pornified" (i.e. tainted by pornographic themes and mainstream films got to include unsimulated sexual acts).Copyright status
In the United States, some courts have applied US copyright protection to pornographic materials.Goussé, Caroline (16 February 2012)"No Copyright Protection for Pornography: A Daring Response to File-Sharing Litigation"
Intellectual Property Brief. Retrieved 1 March 2012. Some courts have held that copyright protection effectively applies to works, whether they are obscene or not, but not all courts have ruled the same way. The copyright protection rights of pornography in the United States has again been challenged as late as February 2012.
STIs prevention and safer sex practices
Performers working in List of pornographic film studios, pornographic film studios undergo regular testing for Sexually transmitted infection, STIs every two weeks. They have to test negative for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, and hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, C before showing up on a set, who are then inspected for sores on their mouths, hands and genitals before commencing work. The industry believes this method of testing to be a viable practice for safer sex, as its medical consultants claim: that since 2004, about 350,000 pornographic scenes have been filmed without condoms, and HIV has not been transmitted even once because of performance on a set. Dr. Allan Ronald, a Canadian doctor and HIV/AIDS specialist who did groundbreaking studies on transmission of STIs among prostitutes in Africa, said there's no doubt about the efficiency of the testing method, but he felt little uncomfortable: "because it’s giving the wrong message — that you can have multiple sex partners without condoms — but I can’t say it doesn’t work.” Pornographic actress Nina Hartley, who has a degree in nursing, stated that the amount of time involved in shooting a scene can be very long, and with condoms in place it becomes a painful proposition; as their usage is uncomfortable despite the use of Personal lubricant, lube, causes friction burn, and opens up Skin condition#Lesions, lesions in the genital mucosa. Advocating the testing method for performers in the industry, Hartley said, "Testing works for us, and condoms work for outsiders." Emphasizing that performers in the industry take necessary precautions like Pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP and are at lower risk to contract HIV than most sexually active persons outside the industry, many prominent female performers have vehemently opposed regulatory measures like Measure B, which sought to make the use of condoms mandatory in pornographic films. The usage of condoms at work has been called an occupational hazard as they cause micro-tears, friction burn, swelling, and yeast infections; which altogether makes one more susceptible to contract STIs.Views
Views and opinions of people on pornography are various; and differ according to the demography of the people concerned.
Feminist views
Many Feminism, feminists, including Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, argue that all pornography is demeaning to women or that it contributes to violence against women, both in its production and in its consumption. The production of pornography, they argue, entails the physical, psychological, or economic coercion of the women who perform in it, and where they argue that the abuse and exploitation of women is rampant; in its consumption, they charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment.Laurie Shrage, Shrage, Laurie (Fall 2015),Feminist perspectives on sex markets: pornography
, Sexual exclusionary feminists charge that pornography presents a severely distorted image of sexual relations, and reinforces sex myths; that it always shows women as readily available and desiring to engage in sex at any time, with any man, on men's terms, always responding positively to any advances men make. They argue that because pornography often shows women enjoying and desiring to be violently attacked by men, saying "no" when they actually want sex, fighting back but then ending up enjoying the act—this can affect the public understanding of legal issues such as consent to sexual relations. In contrast to these objections, other feminist scholars argue that the lesbian feminist movement in the 1980s was good for women in the porn industry. As more women entered the developmental side of the industry, this allowed women to gear porn more towards women because they knew what women wanted, both for actresses and the audience. This is believed to be a good thing because for such a long time, the porn industry has been directed by men for men. This also sparked the arrival of making lesbian porn for lesbians instead of men. Furthermore, many feminists argue that the advent of VCR, home video, and affordable consumer video cameras allowed for the possibility of feminist pornography. Consumer video made it possible for the distribution and consumption of video pornography to locate women as legitimate consumers of pornography. Tristan Taormino says that feminist porn is "all about creating a fair working environment and empowering everyone involved." Feminists "ranging from Betty Friedan and Kate Millett to Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer and Jamaica Kincaid" supported the right to consume pornography. Feminist porn directors are interested in challenging representations of men and women, as well as providing sexually-empowering imagery that features many kinds of bodies. In a 1995 essay for ''The New Yorker'', writer Susan Faludi argued that porn was one of the few industries where women enjoy a power advantage in the workplace. "'Actresses have the power,' Alec Metro, one of the men in line, ruefully noted of the X-rated industry. A former firefighter who claimed to have lost a bid for a job to affirmative action, Metro was already divining that porn might not be the ideal career choice for escaping the forces of what he called 'reverse discrimination.' Female performers can often dictate which male actors they will and will not work with. They'' make more money than ''us''.' Porn—at least, porn produced for a heterosexual audience—is one of the few contemporary occupations where the Gender pay gap, pay gap operates in women's favor; the average actress makes fifty to a hundred per cent more money than her male counterpart. But then she is the object of desire; he is merely her appendage, the object of the object."
Religious views
Religious organizations have been important in bringing about political action against pornography. In the United States, religious beliefs affect the formation of political beliefs that concern pornography. According to Christianity Today, "[...] Protestant men today who attend church regularly are basically the only men in America still resisting the cultural norm of regularized pornography use." However, a study by The Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture in the US found that of Christians that attend church, Protestants had a higher rate of viewing pornography in the last week than Catholics.See also
* Adult animation * ASMR#Etymology, ASMR erotica * Cartoon pornography * Effects of pornography * Erotic comics * Erotic hypnosis * Erotic literature * Erotic photography * Eroticism * History of erotic depictions * History of human sexuality * Literotica * Mobile porn * Right to sexuality * Sex in advertising * Sex worker * Sex-positive feminism * Sex-positive movement * Sexual and reproductive health and rights * Sexual Freedom Awards * Sexual revolution * Webcam model * Women's pornographyReferences
Further reading
Advocacy
* * Both of Bright's books challenge any equations between feminism and anti-pornography positions. * * * * Student run newspaper. * * Performance artists and literary theorists who challenge Dworkin and MacKinnon. * Defends the availability of pornography, and condemns feminist anti-pornography campaigns. * * * * * ::''Review of Strossen's book'': * Critique of Stoltenberg and Dworkin's positions on pornography and power. * ::''Also as'': *Opposition
* Assiter advocates seeing pornography as epitomizing a wider problem of oppression, exploitation and inequality which needs to be better understood. * An argument for approaches to end harm to women caused by pornography. * (Online version before inclusion in an issue.) An illustration of Catharine Mackinnon's theory that pornography silence's women's speech, this illustration differs from one given by Rae Helen Langton, Rae Langton (below). * A critique of the pornographic industry within a Immanuel Kant#Moral philosophy, Kantian ethical framework. * A variety of essays that try to assess ways that pornography may take advantage of men. * Pdf. A description of Catharine Mackinnon's theory that pornography silence's women's speech, this description differs from the one given by Alex Davies (above). * * Pdf. An argument that pornography is one element of an unjust institution of the subordination of women to men. * Preview. An argument that pornography silences women therefore acting as an infringement of free speech (see Davies above, and Langton, also above). * * A defence of the Dworkin-MacKinnon definition and condemnation of pornography employing putatively relatively rigorous analysis. ::''See also'': A criticism of Vadas' paper. * An argument that pornography increases women's vulnerability to rape. * A representation of the causal connections between pornography and violence towards women. *Neutral or mixed
* Collection of papers from 1982 conference; visible and divisive split between anti-pornography activists and lesbian S&M theorists.Real Your Brain on Porn
Retrieved 2019-04-14. *
External links
Commentary * Interactive web site companion to a ''Frontline (U.S. TV series), Frontline'' documentary exploring the pornography industry within the United States. Economics * Government * Berl Kutchinsky, Kutchinsky, Berl, Professor of CriminologyThe first law that legalized pornography
(Denmark) History * Law
American judge orders parents to pay $30,441 for disposing adult son's porn collection
(27 August 2021). Associated Press. Sociology * * Technology
From teledildonics to interactive porn: the future of sex in a digital age
(2014-06-06), ''Theguardian.com, The Guardian'' {{portal bar, Art, Books, Erotica and pornography, Film, Human sexuality, Internet, Literature, Sex work, Television Pornography, Sexuality