Why is that porn is so powerful? As much as people might want to deny this, we are awash in porn in today’s world. It is the single most consumed thing on the internet. I don’t even think anything else comes close. There are many blogs out there by people who are both promoting porn, and those who are trying to escape the influence of porn. In many ways the internet world is a good reflection of the schizophrenic nature of erotic enticements. We love them, but we hate them too. We have those who want to eliminate all porn, and those who want to enjoy as much porn as possible. The internet, which is here to stay, and has created a permanent change in the world, will ensure that porn will be ubiquitous from now on, probably until the end of time. Any attempts to curb this phenomenon most likely will be futile.
It used to be that one had to either order something through the mail, or visit an adult book store in order to purchase something, if he (and it was pretty much always a he) wanted to consume some porn. Magazines like Playboy and Penthouse were available at the local newsstand, but you still had to commit the act of buying one in public, and thereby risk being seen. Finding good porn was not an easy task. It took a bit of effort.
First, with the rise of videos and dvds players, and now, with the internet, everything has gone private. Anyone, male or female, can view as much erotic material as they wish in the complete privacy of their home. Girls can become amateur erotic models now, by simply submitting a half naked photo of themselves online. The proliferation of Tumbler sites devotes to nothing but self shots is more than a testimony to this. Scarlott Johansson’s recent cell phone photos are another sign that even the most affluent of women, a celebrity to boot, enjoy engaging in their own occasional amateur erotica. So we are now seeing the phenomenon of more and more women enjoying erotic imagery and even creating their own for other’s consumption. In the past most women would have read material, such as romance novels, for their illicit erotic fix, and that is still true for a great many today, but more and more are enjoying, and admitting to enjoying, at least some visual stimulation. It is an interesting result of the easy access to online porn.
Now, as I have said before, I think most porn is rather trashy, but there are some good erotic things out there, even explicit erotica. So why is this good stuff so powerful, so alluring. I think it comes to down to one thing: beauty. We crave beauty. We want to see beautiful things. We enjoy beauty. We derive a certain pleasure from viewing beautiful bodies. And good erotica is diffused with beauty: beautiful women, beautiful men, beautiful imagery. It is an idealized world, true, but still it is a world we long to see. For millennia we have desired these things. Modern technology has now made it possible for us to indulge these ancient and basic desires in a whole new way. It has truly been a revolution.
So I will be interested to see how the porn wars rage on, lead by those who think they can somehow eliminate this phenomena from our world, against those who not only enjoy seeing erotic things, but even create erotic images themselves. For me, I will just continue to enjoy as much beauty as possible, including erotic beauty.
The Chase 
irvoneil said:
Interesting post. And those are nice photos indeed. Obviously the element of shame has been dispensed with in our western society, since so many ordinary people (as opposed to performers) don’t hesitate to display themselves so nakedly. It certainly wasn’t so thirty or forty years ago..even twenty years ago.
The urge to gaze at beauty is simply part of human nature. As you say, porn is fascinating because it relates to our deepest urges to see beauty (or ugliness, too, because some people find that erotic). And porn relates to the urges to see and be seen. It is hell to be invisible, unless one is H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man who uses such power to cause havoc. We can no more eliminate these urges for visibility than the other basic necessities of our existence.
But beauty disturbs people too, fills them with fear and envy. Case in point: in NYC’s Time-Warner Center, there are enormous statues by Botero of a huge naked semi-obese man and naked semi-obese woman. These are acceptable to the local and tourist masses who gather there to take cellphone pictures in front of the statues’ genitals, with the tourists sometimes even clasping the genitals (the male statue’s member, originally dark bronze, has been thusly worn down to a golden sheen). But if there were god- or goddess-like statues instead, figures of equal height of incomparable idealized beauty–statues of classic physical beauty such as used to be popular in art circles–I have no doubt people would protest them and call them pornographic.
It takes courage to gaze on beauty and admit to one’s envy in its presence. Too many people instead choose to call such beauty evil, and label it porn. I’ve never really liked the word pornography, and (to little avail) suggested as its replacement the neologism “sexography.”
Anyway, we admire athletes performing well on the field; why not admire the beauty of people in the act of sex? Or simply posing naked?
I have worked in the erotica business for many years, so I’ve given this stuff quite a bit of thought. Thanks for giving me a stimulus for this comment. I hope I didn’t go on too long.
Racer X said:
Irvoneil,
Thanks for the comment. I agree with what you have to say, especially the uncomfortableness that many feel regarding nudity. We only have to think of John Ashcroft’s attempts to cover up the nude statues in the Department of Justice to remind ourselves of this strange conflict we have with nudity.
Your example of the statues of obese people being acceptable is quite interesting! I agree, if they had been beautiful nudes, there probably would have been more controversy.