Pornography, for so long a bit part villain, a certified, but shrouded ‘outsider’, has taken on in these days of internet collateral revelations, very much a central role in the story of the world. There was a time when porn was top shelf, back room, bungled in the holly bushes or shoved down the backs of cisterns in public toilets. Though not any more, pornography is now an omnipresent viral demigod, no longer in hiding, it’s the kingpin, of the online era. We are told in the plethora of online statistical surveys on porn that each day around 70 million search engine requests, 25% of all internet searches, have one aim, and that is to find videos and pictures of people involved in erotic acts. Statistically, it is likely that your mum, your son, your brother, aunt, and their friends, occasionally use Google for gawking at porn. Statistically, they probably wouldn’t admit it in public. Despite the apparent conventionality of wanting to secretly look at naked men and women, or people copulating, porn is still deemed as abnormal, aberrant and immoral by a fraction of society, by most religious groups, and by many countries, including Thailand where it is illegal. There is also much ambivalence concerning this resilient taboo, morally speaking, some people just can’t make their minds up which parts of porn are actually ‘wrong’.
Modern pornography’s antecedents go back to prehistory – late erotic drawings were found in caves in France dating back around 35,000 years – though it’s thought that early erotic imagery was public, not private, and therefore a different kind of facility (often called erotica, not pornography, when said to be created for artistic reasons, rather than as a muse for stimulatory exercise). The discovery of early erotic drawings is of importance to historical anthropologists as the drawings are proof of a psychological evolutionary leap, the transformation from the exclusively procreative sexual proto-human, to the self-aware erotic human. Explicit erotic Roman artefacts, including depictions of oral sex, prostitution and bestiality (an infamous statue of the satyr Pan copulating with a goat) and all other manner of erotic imagery said to be the greatest haul of early pornography, was excavated in the 1860s in Pompeii. At the time it was deemed a stain on humanity and incontrovertibly immoral, the great haul, including the zoophile Pan, was locked in a ‘secret cabinet’ in the national museum of Naples until 1960 when it was briefly allowed out during the sexual revolution. The artefacts were hidden and released many times after the 60s, always eliciting controversy, until the year 2000 when authorities decided the pieces could be viewed by the public – with permission.
It was the Victorians that came up with the modern concept of pornography, and in 1857 (the same year pornography was made illegal under the ‘Obscene Publications Act’) the word was first seen in Webster’s Dictionary. It was said that the Romans thought their (pornographic) art beautiful, they displayed it for the public and also decorated their houses with it, though the priggish Victorians who outlawed all images of sexual acts, were shocked by Roman dissolution, stating that such images would “corrupt and deprave the minds of the uneducated public.” Nevertheless with the printing press hard at work, erotic images, some with text, thrived underground throughout Western Europe. In France the notorious libertine and sexual revolutionary, Marquis de Sade, was writing ‘political pornography’ that fictionalised men of leisure, usually with a venerated social standing, gorging themselves in masochistic acts with other men, women and children. His work has been called “vile pornography” by some critics, although many think his work is pivotal, including philosopher and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, who wrote that Sade’s books were an important treatise on man and woman’s struggle with what the body desires and what the mind condemns, the reconciliation between autonomy and universal ethics. Sadomasochism is now a pornographic genre, testament to how his highly original oeuvre of erotic fantasy has caused an inexorable swell in the underbelly of sexual thought.
The first pornographic movie was made by William Kennedy Dickson, who was at the time working for Thomas Edison. Dickson invented the mutoscope, aka, the ‘What the Butler Saw’ machine that showed flickering images of women undressing (softcore). Obscenity laws against pornography became more lax in many developed countries in the 1970s, and when video hit our homes in the 80s pornography bid a final farewell to the shameful realm of the public-bog-osphere…well almost. And with ever developing technologies, the camcorder, home computer, CD ROM, etc, porn and its pledge of ‘instant gratification’ invited itself into the secret world of every online household. The erotic imagination was manifest to its fullest extent, online, offering irrefutable evidence to any Googling human just how sexually obsessed or even perverse the world really was. Despite the internet’s veil of secrecy it lends to its users, the statistics alone are cogent proof of our rampant (albeit sometimes limited to just voyeurism) carnality, more so than sexologist Alfred Kinsey’s groundbreaking surveys in the 60s on what American people really want. It is well known that porn actually drove the internet, it is/was the net’s very sustenance, its bread and butter, marching it towards the point it has now reached, which is porn saturation.
When do erotic images become pornography? The difference between the two, we are told, is “artistic merit”. Chambers Dictionary expands, telling us that pornography is “material intended to arouse sexual excitement”, though in response to this, in one of his sketches, the ever cynical comedian Bill Hicks ventured, “I got news for ya…that defines every television advertisement I’ve ever seen,” which is a point worth considering, in Thailand as well as Hick’s America where, if we agree with the Chamber’s definition, porn is pretty much ubiquitous in the media.
Once pornography is defined where do we draw the line between what is ‘good’ porn and what is ‘bad’ porn? Why does it even exist in the first place, and why is much of it so dissimilar to our conventional sexual habits? Most people accept images of bikinis in soda pop adverts, the same people probably accept films that show two titillated people having ‘missionary’ sex, but should we condone movies from Japan that go under the tag line ‘schoolgirl rape’ (simulation movies), or midget porn, or simulated violence, or extreme fetish porn?
If porn is a tangible reflection of human sexual desire then this must mean, if we are to believe those that condemn pornography, that there is something wrong with the desires of human nature itself. If we were to trawl internet porn sites for a month, we might conclude that humanity is sick, not exactly candid, and hell-bent on actuating sexual misdemeanours. If there is a robust market for simulated rape porn, then what does that say about men partial to that genre…and don’t leave out women, surveys show that some women enjoy watching these kinds of films, too, while other studies show that a large percentage of men fantasise about raping women, and women (31% -57%) have fantasies about being raped or having coercive sex.
Did porn create the beast, or did the beast create porn? If indeed, there is a beast to speak of. If we are to believe there is, then should a person feel he/she has transgressed for merely imagining sexual acts with an acquaintance, or perhaps ‘exploiting’ or ‘controlling’ someone they met in the bank at lunchtime? We could call this ‘imaginative reality porn’, the prequel to online videos perhaps. The imagination cannot be repressed, or indicted, but its creation, porn, can, and is being in countries such as Thailand. In fact, since recorded history began authority has been repressing seemingly universal sexual urges. Why?
Influential French sociologist and philosopher Georges Bataille, author of seminal work on sexuality called ‘Eroticism’ (1957) and cult status porno-philosophic novella, The Story of the Eye, explains that behind our sexual acts are deeper motives than orgasm and ego padding. Sex and desire, says Bataille, is always entwined with violence and the fear of death (the most violent thing of all). The act of erotic sex is a stark rejection of the discontinuity (death) of ourselves, it is an act of violence, he says, when during erotic acts we futilely try and become continuous beings. It is a transgressive act, it both repels us and attracts us, says Bataille, because it is taboo, because it signifies our finite place on earth (death, the oldest taboo) and encourages rejection of this status. Imagine the orgasm as a statement that says ‘I WILL NOT DIE!’ Bataille argues that the breaking of taboos can free us and often exhilarate us. Erotic acts or imagining ourselves in erotic acts – pornography – is a way of becoming in-human, our way of momentarily circumventing our mortal fears. He goes on to say that both laughter and erotic sex are the ‘sacred poles’ that release us from our earthly binds, he calls them ‘explosions of joy’.
This is one explanation of our inseparableness with eroticism and pornography. Bataille’s theories have always been controversial and have met with both laudation and scepticism amongst academia. Though Bataille can be praised for discussing a humane and universal subject that is rarely broached, studied, or even talked about. Considering the amount of pornographic films, porn statistics, and porn health warnings on the internet, it is difficult to find any articles discussing the meaning of porn and its attendant morality issues. The UK Guardian did however take up the mantle, though the conclusions were grim: porn is dehumanising, exploitative, a sad sanctuary, an unhealthy obsession, proof of absence of real love, fear of women, and loss of control in life. The article also invoked American serial killer Ted Bundy’s last ditch attempt to get out of the death penalty by basically saying ‘Pornography made me do it.’ Anyone with a leaning for porn after reading the piece might be tempted take up self-flagellation. The article discusses ‘men and porn’ and its various negative impacts on men as viewers and women as the exploited, though it doesn’t discuss women as viewers of porn or participants in the creation of porn. You might think after reading the piece that women had no active part in porn except being abused, while ironically, men were abusing themselves. Nor does it mention that the porn industry is likely the only industry where women get paid a lot more money than men for doing practically the same job.
Some feminists have decried all genres of pornography saying the industry exploits women, suggesting that it maddens men with thoughts of violence and gives them an unrealistic and potentially dangerous (false) belief in their power over women. Nadine Strossen, feminist, former (first female) President of the American Civil Liberties Union, recognised by Vanity Fair and other magazines as one of America’s most influential women, disagrees. Strossen, author of the book ‘Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights’, says of the great taboo: “I absolutely agree that women should not be viewed as objects of any sort including sex objects,” though she adds that, “I believe we have the right to be full and equal human beings with full access and participation in every sphere of life, one of which is sexual. Just as men can be sexual beings, I think women can be as well. Censoring pornography undermines, rather than advances, women’s fight for equality.”
She explains that she, “do[es] not see all pornography as conveying unmitigated misogynistic messages,” and admits to watching porn herself saying that she finds it “physically beautiful, the way one might find paintings of nudes physically beautiful.” Talking of censorship, Strossen says, “There’s always this hypocrisy at the bottom of all calls for censorship, because those who advocate censorship are themselves the most massive consumers of – and, in some cases, creators of – materials they think are too dangerous for others to see.”
The learned Victorians were under the impression they were saving the uneducated people of Western Europe from porn abjection, just as the present Thai government is saving Siam’s proles from sexual corruption and moral bankruptcy. Strossen believes that there has always been a kind of elitism and classism intrinsic to the act of censorship. She defends the human right to enjoy pornography, though does not defend all pornography, some porn is “bad” she says, and that is why we need to redefine the term pornography as the word has become “demonised”, it is presently a collective term for multiple meanings.
Sasha Grey, a world famous porn star (outspoken defender of porn), who has also acted in Hollywood films including Steven Soderbergh’s ‘The Girlfriend Experience’, writes on her official MySpace page: “I have a huge appetite for sex and self-exploration. I wanted to express my sexuality as a strong woman, to push my own boundaries and see which part of my psyche would take me
to my next euphoric sexual experience. I wanted to do all of this in a sex positive way.” She writes that despite the controversy surrounding the porn industry, she decided to become part of it. She performed her fist scene in 2006. “Many people in society believe that I am a victim,” she says, but writes that she was not sexually abused, she is not on drugs, and the acts she performs are always consensual. “I am a woman who strongly believes in what she does – it is time that our society comes to grips with the fact that ‘normal’ people (women especially) enjoy perverse sex.” Grey often talks openly about her vocation and the nature of her job, although she is one of few in the industry who is outspoken. After contacting various porn stars during the writing of this article just one replied – now retired – first stating that she was fearful the interview might not be “legitimate”, but she also had reservations talking openly about the porn industry as this in itself is “taboo”.
It is well known in Thailand that sex is a taboo subject, especially for women to talk openly about sexual preferences. Sasha Grey’s candid sexual convictions might seem somewhat ‘nar darn’ shameless to the average Thai. The MOC, Ministry of Communications, excels in blocking websites, mostly porn – though other victims of web excision (ostensibly for ethical reasons) have included social networking sites including Adult Friend Finder and Camfrog. After weeks of faxes, emails and telephone calls the MOC finally severed communication with us, and so we might never understand their aims, judgements and high values. Alexander Shytov, a law professor working in Thailand, explains something of Thailand’s fuzzy obscenity laws. “Thai criminal law prohibits pornographic business and in doing so it is not different from many countries of this world,” he says, adding that their rationality is to “avert the great harm which can be caused by the spread of the pornographic plague.” Shytov writes that it is illegal to distribute ‘obscene’ images in Thailand, though difficult to remedy when the accusation is vague. “Thai penal code does not provide any definition of what is obscene. According to Thai courts, the standard of obscenity is contained in the characteristic of being ugly, indecent and shameful.”
Shytov tells of a case where a woman displays her breast even though there is a cover over her sexual organ, though the courts deemed the scene “provocative” and “not appropriate”. They came to the decision that the picture had the “intention to tempt directly by awakening sexual lust; it is considered to be obscene according to the meaning laid down in Section 287(1).” Pornographic materials, he says, into Thai culture threatens the accepted standard of sexual behaviour. It threatens the basic ideas on social behaviour expressed through the dress code. He adds that pornography undermines the whole system of social control, including law.
Despite Thailand’s redux of Victorian era sanitation Bangkok based journalist Andrew Drummond reported on his website late last year that American porn producers in Thailand are, and have been hard at work for some time. Drummond details the arrest of American Tony Poer, creator of well known Asian porn sites, who was arrested by the Cyber Crimes Division of the police in Pattaya last year. But no sooner than the Pattaya Post reported Poer would be spending 20 years in jail for making porn, harbouring guns and drugs, he was quickly released into the night. The Pattaya newspaper reports were also exhumed from the internet. The papers didn’t state why they removed the reports. Drummond’s investigative articles on pornography in Thailand explain that Adult Webmasters regularly come to Thailand ‘on safari’, and seem to have immunity conferred on them despite the country’s strict laws and vastly popularised impregnable ethical stance. Poer, in his defence exclaims on Drummond’s site: “All [actresses] were willing and all were compensated well. They could make a lot of money. It’s not my fault that the girls are poor. You should take that up with the Thai government.”
Educated critics of porn may have you believe that porn has ‘corrupted and depraved the minds of the uneducated public’, though that might be a question only you can answer. Do you feel you are uneducated? Do you feel corrupted and depraved? There are also a handful of commentators on pornography that say the internet has “liberated the erotic imagination”, these critics talk of a “pornotopia” a place we are free to explore all our sexual desires, free from the censorious eye of the government, our friends . . . or even our partners. Engineers are already working on more interactive kinds of porn according to a BBC documentary, there’s also talk of a skin like suit, something like a wet suit, with electronic membranes and pulses which gives the wearer the sense of being touched. This will be the ultimate in cyber sex we are told, the zenith of technology sensuality _ disengaged, guilt free, disease free, made to order sex, and as Woody Allen commented (on masturbation), “sex with someone you truly love.” Though maybe you see that as a brutally, lonely place; a cold loveless fantasy in a sad fetishised world… Or, maybe you don’t. The future will be an interesting place.
• Nearly half of all UK internet users regularly watch porn.
• In America 80% of 15-17 years regularly watch porn.
• The industry in the US alone is worth around 16 billion dollars.
• 12% of all websites are pornographic.
• 42.7% of internet users watch porn.
• Each year, in Los Angeles alone, more than 10,000 hardcore pornographic films are made. 400 films come out of Hollywood each month.
• In 2006, China (where porn is illegal) was the country with the highest porn revenue of 27 billion dollars. South Korea was second.
• A Kinsey Institute survey showed that 80% of people are fine with using porn though less than 20% feel bad after watching porn.
• 57% of American pastors in one survey said that addiction to pornography was the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation, while 37% admitted in another survey it was a personal struggle.
• Thailand IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) says that Thailand hosts the fifth largest amount of child pornography in the world.
