The Impact of the Internet on Pornography and its History-Bhargav Patel

The Impact of the Internet on Pornography and its History

   Pornography is a probably the highest grossing industry globally as it has a revenue of 100 billion dollars, with $3000 being spent on it every second.¹ Materials showing sexually explicit themes are known as pornographic materials. William Haynes was known as the father of Modern Pornography.¹

   The first picture of a naked woman was taken in 1838. The 1^st actress to pose nude was Adah Isaacs Menken.¹ The first pornographic video had no sex in it. It was a video of a women stripping. Interestingly, the first video to show any form of sex was released in 1910 by Germans and was called “Am Abend”. It showed 10 minutes of anal sex.

   In the 1950s more and more risqué porn started to surface following WWII. A similar pattern was seen during the Civil War, where pornography became more popular. Playboy (magazine) by Hugh Hefner was a phenomenon that started in 1953 and till date continues to be published.² And in the 1960s and 1970s XXX theaters and big budget movies started appearing. Then in the 1980s VHS and Beta Max led to amateur home video pornography which resulted in the decline of big budget pornos. ¹

   Then in 1990s everything changed with the introduction of the internet and DVDs. Internet further declined the big budget pornos since explicit material was now available online for free. The 2000s was a huge turning point for pornography as internet became efficient and fast and free online porn websites became available. People now had access to free porn videos and any pornographic material.

   Though with the introduction of the internet many problems started arising. People got a little too kinky and started to upload videos that were deemed obscene. Children at a very young age would be exposed to explicit material which they should not be viewing that may unintentionally pop up on websites. People exchanging nude pictures with one another in so called private chat rooms might end making the rounds of social networking sites and cause a big problem for the person involved. There is even cartoon porn thanks to the internet.

   The phenomenon known as “sex sells” became even more popular with the internet. With the internet everyone had been exposed to pornography and therefore it became a viable marketing strategy. Nowadays every other commercial has some explicit material put in for no reason but to make it appeal to the majority of viewers.

   As discussed in class the whole concept of “sex sells” objectified women. It portrayed women as just parts – breasts or butt. The internet played a major role in objectifying women through unrealistic portrayals in pornos or pictures. This all ties in to what we see today in the real world. Pornography is all around us and mostly objectifies women be it in a commercial about food to condoms to clothes. The internet has just taken this concept and multiplied it by 100 as every other site contains some form of explicit material.

Reference

1.     Moore, Crystal . "The Contemporary Crisis in Sexuality." . (accessed April 29, 2014).

2.     Moore, Crystal . "The Sexualized Society." . (accessed April 29, 2014).