WWW- Porn is everywhere. Whether you like it or not, the American adult entertainment industry is growing faster than a weed in a bed of roses. To give you an idea, the industry generated $12.6 billion in revenue in 2005 alone, according to a report released by the Adult Video Network.
From video sales to strip clubs, magazines to cable channels, pay-per-view to sex toys and even the latest, cell phone and iPod porn, sex is more accessible than ever before.
For many women, porn is a big mystery. We often ask, what is the appeal to porn, other than curiosity? What's so great about watching a woman get penetrated in every possible cavity by several different men at the same time? Why do people spend $50 on a DVD of Paris Hilton giving fellatio in night vision?
To shed light on these great mysteries, my friends and I attended the holy pilgrimage of T & A: the annual Adult Video Network convention, or AVN.
The gargantuan size of the convention floor-there were hundreds of booths, many two stories tall, with giant photographs of naked women-was at once intimidating and curiosity-piquing. Fans who stood in serpentine lines were hugged and greeted by porn stars from big names like Hustler, Vivid Video, Club Jenna, Red Light District and Digital Playground. In the lesser-known booths, porn stars showed their onlookers how to use sex toys and engaged in acts that are most definitely illegal in public places.
I was smack-dab in the middle of a porn fan's Mecca, and the worshippers weren't pious believers toting prayer books, but, by and large, excited middle-aged men armed with digital cameras and camcorders.
Okay, I thought, that seems right. Middle-aged men are big porn fans. Fine, they're not hurting anyone. If they want to watch "Spear in the Rear" or "Brazilian Fat Asses" (both real porn titles) in the privacy of their own homes, good for them.
Then, they made it my business.
While walking around the gay porn section-in which I felt most comfortable, as it was the least crowded and most amiable of all-my companions and I came upon one of those sex swings. I've always been curious about those things, so I decided to go and sit on it. My friend snapped a picture of me sitting on the swing and, immediately, like a swarm of locusts, came three or four men with cameras, just snapping away at me.
"Hey!" I yelled. "I'm not a porn star!" The men acted like they didn't hear me and just sauntered on to the next booth. I thought to myself, Hey, that's what I get for wearing a skirt to a porn convention.
I felt so dirty, so used. It wasn't like I was demonstrating the Tongue 2000 for them. I wasn't asking for it. I wondered how the women who do ask for it-women who get paid to be the fantasy whom men and women alike pay $12.6 billion a year to see naked and on their knees-felt when random men who masturbate daily to their videos come up to them for autographs and pictures.
Hustler video star Joanna Angel doesn't mind the dark, creepy side of the industry. At least not on the outside.
"My family wasn't too enthused about it," Angel said of getting into porn after starting her own Web site in college. "Some of my aunts and uncles stopped talking to me after they found out I was in the industry."
But Angel said she loves what she does and does not feel uncomfortable during filming because she and the director talk beforehand about what she will and won't do on-camera.
We didn't get a chance to talk about exactly what she does and doesn't do. But judging by the state of the porn industry as of late, and what sells most, I'd say she'd have to do just about anything to stay in the business.
One hypothesis I had before the convention was that a majority of porn is degrading and violent. From my own experience, the majority of porn I've seen in adult stores is not sexy; rather, it is painful to look at. There are few or no videos that lack anal intercourse, gangbangs or some sort of physical domination-more specifically, bondage or stuffing a woman's head in a toilet.
At the convention, my hypothesis was realized. I wasn't surprised.
But why does it take a woman being hog-tied and gagged or hit with a paddle or penetrated with a large foreign object to get a man aroused anymore? Have we become so completely oversexed, so completely desensitized to nudity and intercourse that we need violence and degradation to get us off?
I grabbed a catalog from a vintage porn movie dealer and looked through porn video titles from the '70s and '80s, to get a feel for the progression of hardcore porn. The porn of old was much more tasteful (judging by the titles and cover photo only) and classy and, actually, sexy. I could see how this could turn someone on-it was natural, old-school sex: a man and a woman, or two women, or two men, having sex. There were no ridiculous ejaculation-in-the-eye shots (aka "million-dollar shots") on the cover or disturbing titles that read "Just Turned 18" or "My First Porn." What happened over the last 30 years?
Accessibility.
Whereas in the '70s and '80s, one had to physically go to a store and buy or rent an adult film, nowadays we are so bombarded with sex and porn that we can download it on our video iPod and watch it during class. And, if that's not enough, we can get porn on our cell phones if we want to.
Just like sex between a couple gets old and needs to be spiced-up and reinvented to keep things fresh, if one is an avid porn watcher, one would probably need more stimulation to get off as time progresses. In most cases, this usually means harder, edgier, more violent porn.
And, with the revolution of the Internet, there's no walking into a store and facing a human person when you purchase "Hitter in the Shitter" (real title).
The industry knows this.
A majority of the pornography on the market today arouses men with visuals and situations that demean women. Period.
Until we are faced with the reality of the absurdity and accessibility of our pornographic choices, people will continue to need more and more stimulation to get them off.
I'm not pressing for the industry-or the consumer-to pass a law outlawing hardcore porn. Hardcore porn, while a bit unhealthy, satisfies a curiosity. But when it's in the wrong hands-like that of a sex offender or child-it can lead to some disconcerting outcomes.
I'm not asking for porn outlets to begin requiring background checks before allowing people to purchase adult movies.
Individuals should be allowed to decide what's right for themselves.
But until the industry refrains from making women feel violated (me) and alienated (Joanna Angel) in one way or another, I'll save the $50 I'd spend on "Pirates" and tip a stripper at the Rhino instead.
