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There’s been lots more buzz lately about the porn HIV case. Fortunately, there are some places where a more reasonable and informed conversation is taking place. Rather than reiterate it all, here’s a few pointers.
Ernest Greene’s blog, with lots of great comments & discussion: here, here & here. That third link has pointers to some blogs by people who are actually performers in the mainstream het porn world, which gives them much more credibility in my eyes that, say, MSNBC on the topic.
Tony Comstock’s blog, with some very thoughtful input: here & here.
I also recommend pornochromatic, with two very insightful posts here & here. The second one proposes some ways to make the industry safer that seems to take both Ernest &
Continue reading it’s not an outbreak, dammit!
People are still getting riled up around HIV & porn. And two bloggers whose opinions I generally click with have come to two very different places on this issue.
Tony Comstock has some interesting stuff to say about the safety of porn performers and the general lack of response from the sex-positive world. He makes some good points- my experience is that the sex-pos community has generally focused on the experience of watching porn and how it can affect people’s sexualities, rather than talking about the experiences of the people who make porn. And he offers this:
I simply cannot see how the introduction of a camera makes it “sex-positive” for performers to do things that we would decry in any other circumstance. Would a
Continue reading more perspectives on HIV & porn
According to the Local, an English-language Swedish news source, child porn has been available from the country’s National Library.
It seems that during the 1970′s, child porn was legally produced and the National Library has a mandate to archive a copy of everything published in the country. And it turns out that anyone could request these magazines with nothing more than a letter stating why they want to see them, despite the fact that it’s illegal to possess, distribute, or show child pornography in Sweden.
Of course, the library is already working on figuring what to do. On the one hand, the legal requirement to preserve everything printed in Sweden doesn’t seem to make an exception for child porn. On the other hand, the laws
Continue reading Sweden’s child porn/library scandal
In one of those serendipitous moments, Tony’s comment reminded me of an article that was in the Advocate recently (sorry- link broken) about the effects of porn tube sites and pirated porn on the industry.
One of the long-standing advertising maxims is, of course, “Sex Sells.” And it’s true that sex is used to get people’s attention and/or convince them to buy stuff. It’s also true that when the only way for most people to get porn was to go to a theater or buy a videotape, there was a lot of money to be made. But as the Advocate article points out, the digital revolution has started to change that.
There are a few reasons for that. First, there’s a lot of free porn
Continue reading Porn Expectations, Part 3
A few weeks ago, I was participating in a panel discussion on porn at a local college and I’ve been thinking about something that one of the other folks brought up.
She was talking about how porn doesn’t show the intimacy and connection that are part of sex. And I 100% agree with her on that, with the exception of a few small companies such as Comstock Films. And as Tony Comstock pointed out on another post, his work places him outside the distribution channels and reach of the rest of the porn world.
At the same time, sex isn’t only about intimacy and connection. Don’t get me wrong- I think that sex with vulnerability and mutual passion is amazing. It can be an amazing
Continue reading Porn Expectations, Part 2
There’s a lot of discussion about the influence of porn on society. And there’s a lot of discussion about the unrealistic expectations that many people (especially younger people) have because of the messages that porn offers. While I think that many of these points make a lot of sense, I also think that there are some pieces of the bigger picture that often get left out.
Unrealistic Images
One of the critiques that I hear about porn is that it doesn’t provide realistic models for sex or relationships. And that’s absolutely true. You almost never see people in porn using lube, warming up before having sex (especially anal sex), or asking for something different. Porn sex is pretty formulaic, with activities and positions chosen more
Continue reading Porn Expectations
Porn has changed a lot over the years. First came the film loops that men watched in social clubs and at bachelor parties. Then we had the era of the classic movies that were filmed for the big screen. Next came the VCR revolution, which shifted the focus from movie theaters to the living room. This was followed by a drop in costs for cameras and other production equipment, which led to more people (mostly, but not exclusively men) making movies. And these days, it’s so easy and inexpensive to produce porn that there are about a zillion folks doing it, especially for the internet since online porn doesn’t need box covers, distribution channels or the other hassles of producing a physical product.
As internet
Continue reading gonzo porn, realtity shows, and extreme sports
From New Scientist
A recent article published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives takes a look at patterns in online porn and found some fascinating information. First off (but not too surprising), online porn use is higher among younger people and those who live in urban settings. On the other hand, a higher marriage rate correlates with fewer porn subscriptions, but so does a higher divorce rate.
What I find more interesting is that in areas where people report more regular religious attendance, the overall subscription rates are pretty much the same as elsewhere, but people in those areas shift their porn use to days other than Sundays
It turns out that there’s more porn use in the 27 states where “defense of marriage” amendments
Continue reading porn use higher among conservatives
I’ve been inspired lately and I’ve been reading a lot of articles and blogs about porn. The first thing that I have to say is that many of them seem to be written by people with very little actual information about the industry. I’ve been with Good Vibrations for 12 years now, and I’ve learned quite a bit about the porn world, so I can say with some authority that it’s much more complex than most of the portrayals of it would let you know.
There are plenty of anti-porn folks out there who make lots of sweeping statements about the experiences of women in porn. Of course, they almost always ignore the experiences of men in porn and the existence of gay porn, which
Continue reading we need some porn research
In the articles and blogs that I’ve read about porn, every so often, someone talks about the “cum shot“. For the most part, I see people talking about it as objectification of women, a way to humiliate the recipient (generally, this is an argument about humiliation of women since gay porn is consistently left out of that perspective), or proof that “actual sex” took place (since some people believe that sex = orgasm = ejaculation).
But here’s another way that you could look at it: sex is risky. That’s why sex educators talk about “safer sex” rather than “safe sex.” It’s all about risk management. I’ll acknowledge that if you want to be 100% safe, then you need to not have sex; the abstinence-only folks
Continue reading same view, different lenses
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