Make Love Not Porn

including some exerpts from (and reactions to) Cindy Gallop's discussions...

There’s a chicken-&-egg question about porn: does it depict things that are already pervasive, or does it set new trends that otherwise would not exist? This would be akin in the 'real world' to manufacturers creating demand for a product themselves by creating it then marketing it as a 'must-have' item versus simply reacting to a demand in the market that hasn't been addressed.

I like the example of the de rigeur porn facial being recognized as an adolescent or cartoonish thing that adults don’t bother with unless they’re being deliberately (and mutually) campy. Like, who really does that in real life?

Maybe the younger, impressionable people, who have seen this for so long that they take it as being accepted acceptable behaviour and activity?

One recognized example of porn overturning social norms within a selected population is the avalanche of bareback porn that has swept like a tidal wave through gay porn, and which has helped to erode a quarter century of careful “condom discipline”. Condomless sex is once again the norm (or close to it). One could argue that this is simply a return to pre-epidemic norms, or a depiction of pre-existing norms that never actually went away but which are no longer perceived as being beyond the pale. Or it could represent something else entirely: the increasing “specialization” of sex preferences, with practitioners self-selected according to preferred sex practice and other characteristics (such as sero-status, hence the term “sero-sorting”). Is this a good thing? Does it “create community” or does it objectify people by taxonomizing and commodifying by their preferred repertoire of sex practice(s). And more importantly: does it help or hinder the search for Mister/Ms. Right? What about the sudden norm of having a watersport or fisting scene or eight in every new porn video that comes out? Is is a matter of certain activities becoming the norm, thus boring, therefore something additionally bizarre or extreme is required to keep the revenue flowing?

For the generations that weren't permanently scarred by the AIDS crisis, bareback porn is most likely considered the norm. It's been de rigeur for a decade or so, long enough for a generation of young gay men to take it as normal behaviour. It seems that one hears non-stop how big a failure the condom campaign appears to be for the younger generations who see HIV/AIDS as something completely treatable, or at least controllable. The fact that barebacking seems to be becoming more pervasive would indicate, at least to me, that a popular specialization can very quickly become a generalization.

The same seems to go for fisting and fetish: these were things that one never really saw in standard porn (and only in extreme hard-to-find libraries) but now seems to show up in more and more stuff done by Falcon, Titan, BelAmi, etc. etc. They were formerly known as extreme practices. I'm trying to figure out why they are becoming more and more popular; is it because more people are doing it or because the production companies are trying to create a market for stuff that is unique, therefore will continue strong sales because the general bad acting-oral-rimming-anal-orgasm routine is getting a little boring?

I've talked to some of my poz buds about this; in certain circles fisting is becoming a normal practice simply because it is essentially safe sex; and for many poz guys, barebacking is a common and accepted practice, as some studies have shown that serosorting only becomes an issue in poz guys that have an active HIV status.

So many things to consider. Maybe it is just a matter of having more to select from and creating niche markets, but for sure more extreme sexual and kink practices are becoming more the norm in mainstream porn.