Sunday, July 20, 2014

Porn is Fascinating

Porn is fascinating. The porn industry even more so. Honestly, why does it still exist?

Robert A. Heinlein, in Glory Road, writes:

"Any commodity is certain to be sold—bought, sold, leased, rented, bartered, traded, discounted, price-stabilized, inflated, bootlegged, and legislated—and a woman's 'commodity' as it was called on Earth in franker days is no exception. The only wonder is the wild notion of thinking of it as a commodity."

...

"Not only is whoring unknown elsewhere, but its permutations are unknown—dower, bridal price, alimony, separate maintenance, all the variations that color all Earth's institutions—every custom related even remotely to the incredible notion that what all women have an endless supply of is nevertheless merchandise, to be hoarded and auctioned."

It strikes me as even more strange that recordings of sex would be a commodity. Especially in today's world, where every exhibitionist in the first world can get easy access to multiple cameras and an Internet connection, why are there still people who pay for porn?

I can at least somewhat understand the popularity of camgirl sites - there's the possibility of some sort of emotional connection with the chatting, the ability to direct the action and have some fantasy fulfilled, and every moment produces new content. But it still doesn't make sense to me for recorded pornography. Perhaps it really is as simple as the production value. After all, there are people who will buy a Blu-ray even though they already own the DVD. Surely there's some well-lit, high definition amateur porn out there that would satisfy the lust for quality, right? Clearly, this demands additional research.