Like this, but bigger and way more naked.The porn industry differs from most media industries in a myriad of ways. One being there is a lot of competition between companies. I would argue that the porn industry could be as close to perfect competition as an industry can get. Since the Internet (which was made for porn)it has lowered the cost of entry into the pornography market. Especially with amateur sites all a person needs is a webcam. The more traditional production companies now have to compete with over 4.2 million websites. The over saturation of products has created a need for niche markets and the creation of Internet rule #34. The porn industry in total in 2006 made roughly $13.3 billion.
Pornography is a commodity. It is produced, sold, sometimes even marketed. But unlike other goods and services, porn is scandalous. While it may not be illegal today (depending on the regionif you are under 18) the illicit connotation has never evaporated. Prior to the Victorian era pornography did not exist as we know it; erotic images, sculptures, and literature were not really distinguished from other forms of art. Sex used to be something that happened, like death, and as a natural part of human existence that, again like death, had certain mores that went along with it. The Victorian moral repression of sexuality is just one factor in the creation of modern pornography. What was the other?
Mass production
Certainly the level of detail to arouse an individual varies considerably, but given that quality is preferred (this is true of all art) the cost of producing high quality works has traditionally been time and labor intensive. Add in with that the legal risks present in much of Europe, the costs were often prohibitively high for artists. Pretenses of artistic merit or models for painters were necessary for erotic photographers. Over 50 euphemisms for "penis" are used in the erotic novel or Fanny Hill, although almost as much criticism was due to the female protagonist enjoying her sexuality without consequences as was to the erotic descriptions, if not more. Not to mention that the author was jailed, while bootlegs were created on rogue printing presses. To this day Fanny Hill is one of the most reprinted books in the English language. Fleeing from the risk of prosecution, pornography went underground. It wasn't until the mid-twentieth century that pornography began to be accepted into the mainstream in the United States, due in no small part to the feminist movement, with magazines like Playboy and films like Behind the Green Door leading the charge as the Supreme Court ruled against censorship.
So, why porn? Well, if you've ever watched anything on a video cassette, you owe it to porn. The ability to watch a pornographic movie in your own home was nothing short of revolutionary and one of the reasons for its success over the rival platform BetaMax, which was less porn-friendly(!). If you've ever watched anything on Hulu, you ought to thank porn, one of the major players in promoting streaming video online. The modern comic book industry has its roots in the circulation of Tijuana Bibles. Whatever your position on onanism, the cultural and economic significance of pornography warrants investigation and discussion.
Avenue Q
Pornography Statistics
Rule Number 34
Profits in the Industry
Prohibited Areas
Terms of Service
Arousing Food
Art
Playboy
Tijuana Bibles
