Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography

Erotica has existed since man first was able to think. A once large industry has now burst out as a giant in entertainment due to the Internet. Most people with access to the net has seen pornography either intentionally or accidentally. This list takes a look at some of the more obscure facts surrounding pornography. NOTE: This list may be Not Safe For Work. The images are mostly okay but the text is definitely not.

While nude images of humans have existed for as long as civilization, it was not until the Victorian era that pornography in the sense that we know it existed. Prior to the 19th century, there were a few laws regarding sexual behavior, but none regarding images of sexuality. The Victorians were a prudish bunch and they outlawed depiction of nudity for all but the upper class, who they felt had the moral strength to cope with the images. When Pompeii was discovered – with all of its nude statues, they were quickly moved off to The Secret Museum in Naples. Despite this, pornography was very popular in the Victorian world, but people were discreet with their use of it.

Considering the fact that Australia is an open democracy, it is illegal to sell any X-rated materials (or to rent them) in all but two of the states there. The two states which do allow it are the ACT and Northern Territory. Because of a discrepancy in Australian law, it is not illegal to own or transfer X-rated material across state lines, so ACT and the Northern Territory are home to almost all of Australia’s porn mail order companies. In 2007, the Government made possession of some X-rated material illegal for certain aboriginal communities.

The porn industry is a very powerful one – so much so that it has had major parts to play in the “format-wars” over the years. Not only did it play an important role in the HD-DVD vs Blue-ray war, but it helped secure the victory of VHS over Betamax. With a market of well over 50 billion dollars a year, it is no surprise that porn producers hold much sway in entertainment. Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball, and basketball franchises.

Contrary to what many people say, the countries with the easiest access to hardcore pornography also have the lowest sex-crime rates in the world. A good example of this is Japan where a study in 1995 found: “[s]ex crimes in every category, from rape to public indecency, sexual offenses from both ends of the criminal spectrum, significantly decreased in incidence. Most significantly, despite the wide increase in availability of pornography to children, not only was there a decrease in sex crimes with juveniles as victims but the number of juvenile offenders also decreased significantly.”

There are two main core non-governmental groups that oppose pornography: religions and feminism. Both of these groups claim that pornography can be addictive, characterized by an over-use or abuse of pornographic material. They believe that five steps in addiction exist, and that they ultimately can lead to cheating on a partner or even sexual crime (contrary to the above evidence). Feminists also believe that pornography is demeaning to women. The Roman Catholic Church considers the viewing of pornography to be a “grave offense” – in other words, viewing pornography leads to damnation.

The average male pornstar makes anywhere between $50 – $1500. They are paid per scene (not per hour) and generally are not paid royalties. On the other hand, women can make up to quarter of a million dollars a year and some female pornstars have become so wealthy that they have retired young and rich. The richest porn star is Jenna Jameson who recently sold her $30 million club to Playboy for an undisclosed sum.

If you are male and want to get into a career in pornography, your chances of being accepted for mainstream porn are tiny. If, however, you are willing to do gay porn, there is a huge hole in the market and you will find that unless you are incredibly hideous, your opportunities are huge. But back to straight porn. If you want to get a job as a straight male pornstar, you are most likely to do so by taking an attractive female with you who says that she is only willing to perform if you are involved. The high demand for attractive women will get you a foot in the door.

On average, 50% of hotel guests order pornography on their televisions. A survey of Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn hotels found that nearly 70% of their overall profits from room services come from the hire of porn movies. In some countries where it is illegal to broadcast or have pornography, hotels are exempt in order to accommodate the “needs” of their foreign clients.

The total number of pornographic websites is around 4.2 million at the time of writing. That totals up to around 370 million individual pages of porn. On a daily basis, there are around 68 million search requests for porn, and 2.5 billion spam porn emails. 20% of men admit to viewing porn at work during the working week, while 13% of women admit the same.

In the early days of the film porn industry, people called “fluffers” were employed by film studios to “arouse” the male participants prior to filming scenes. They would perform sexual acts on the actor. They were also required to keep the actors “cleaned up” between scenes and were normally considered to be part of the makeup department. While fluffers are almost entirely a thing of the past, there are some studios that still employ them – particularly in “gang bang” type scenes. Digital cameras and drugs like Viagra have removed much of the need for fluffers.