Pornography

[2] The word pornography was originally used by classical scholars as "a bookish, and therefore inoffensive term for writing about prostitutes",[7] but its meaning was quickly expanded to include all forms of "objectionable or obscene material in art and literature".

[18] The oldest artifacts, including the Venus of Hohle Fels, which is considered to be borderline pornographic, were discovered in 2008 CE at a cave near Stuttgart in Germany, radiocarbon dating suggests they are at least 35,000 years old, from the Aurignacian period.

[e][31] "pornography is sometimes characterised as the symptom of a degenerate society, but anyone even noddingly familiar with Greek vases or statues on ancient Hindu temples will know that so-called unnatural sex acts, orgies and all manner of complex liaisons have for millennia past been represented in art for the pleasure and inspiration of the viewer everywhere.

[39] Beginning with the Age of Enlightenment and advances in printing technology, the production of erotic material became popular enough that an underground marketplace for such works developed in England with a separate publishing and bookselling business.

[39] The working and lower classes in France produced pornographic material en masse with themes of impotency, incest, and orgies that ridiculed the authority of the Church-State, aristocrats, priests, monks, and other royalty.

[39] During the Victorian era (1837–1901), the invention of the rotary printing press made publication of books easier, many works of lascivious nature were published during this period often under pen names or anonymity.

[58] Some of the popular publications from this era include: The Pearl (magazine of erotic tales and poems published from 1879 to 1881); Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess (1870) by Alfred de Musset; and Venus in Furs (1870) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose name the term "masochism" was derived.

This was partly due to the efforts of Anthony Comstock, who became a major figure in 1872 and held great power to control sexual related activities of people including the choice of abortion.

[74] The Victorian attitude that pornography was only for a select few is seen in the wording of the Hicklin test, stemming from a court case in 1868, where it asked: "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences".

[78] The Parisian demimonde included Napoleon III's minister, Charles de Morny, an early patron who delighted in acquiring and displaying erotic photos at large gatherings.

[95] In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol became the first feature film to depict explicit sexual intercourse that received a wide public theatrical release in the United States.

[106] In 1988, the Supreme Court of California ruled in the People v. Freeman case that "filming sexual activity for sale" does not amount to procuring or prostitution and shall be given protection under the first amendment.

[116] Before the 90s, Usenet newsgroups served as the base for what has been called the "amateur revolution" where non-professionals from the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the help of digital cameras and the Internet, created and distributed their own pornographic content independent of mainstream networks.

[115] magazines artwork photography literature audio internet film/videos adult movie theaters animation sex shops video games In 2000, the total annual revenue from the sales and rentals of pornographic material in the US was estimated to be over $4 billion.

[122] Some of the major companies and hotel chains that were involved in the sale of adult films over pay-per-view platforms include; AT&T, Time Warner, DirecTV from General Motors, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, Westin and Hilton Worldwide.

[177] One of the world's leading anti-pornography campaigners, Gail Dines, has stated that "the demand for porn has driven the development of core cross-platform technologies for data compression, search, transmission and micro-payments.

[189][190] Many of the innovative data rendering procedures, enhanced payment systems, customer service models, and security methods developed by pornography companies have been co-opted by other mainstream businesses.

[244] In many countries there has been a demand to make such activities specifically illegal carrying higher punishments than mere breach of privacy, or image rights, or circulation of prurient material.

[249] It was determined that photographs of naked children that were from sources such as National Geographic magazine, a sociology textbook, and a nudist catalog were not considered pornography in Massachusetts even while in the possession of a convicted and (at the time) incarcerated sex offender.

The industry believes this method of testing to be a viable practice for safer sex as its medical consultants claim that since 2004, about 350,000 pornographic scenes have been filmed without condoms and HIV has not been transmitted even once because of performance on set.

[255][256] However, some studies suggest that adult film performers have high rates of chlamydia and/or gonorrhea infection, and many of these cases may be missed by industry screening because these bacteria can colonize many sites on the body.

Professional female performers have called the use of condoms on a daily basis at work an occupational hazard as they cause micro-tears, friction burn, swelling, and yeast infections, which altogether, they say, makes them more susceptible to contract STIs.

[284] In contrast to the objections, other feminist scholars "ranging from Betty Friedan and Kate Millett to Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer and Jamaica Kincaid" have supported the right to consume pornography.

A former firefighter who claimed to have lost a bid for a job to affirmative action, Metro was already divining that porn might not be the ideal career choice for escaping the forces of what he called "reverse discrimination".

[304] According to psychologist and author Giorgio Tricarico, as an individual moves through various life experiences, their psyche approaches wholeness or the state of "non-differentiated"—a realm of unified, impersonal consciousness—considered belonging to the sacred or divine.

[315] The masculine and the feminine principles of the self have been identified to the deities Shiva and Shakti, who make-up the two sexual polarities; by establishing a connection between the two, for the flow of erotic energy (as in the case of an electric circuit between positive and negative terminals for the flow of electric current), in one's own being—by the means of sexual stimulation—through "erotic visualization" or "ritual copulation", the self would "divest" from its body identity and realign into the "bipolar being", which, then represents a unit microcosm mirroring the nondual macrocosm; thus an individual in being one with the absolute experiences bliss-considered as the power of the goddess (Shakti) in a tangible form.

[330] Many religions have long and vehemently opposed a wide range of sexual behaviors, as a result religious people are found highly susceptible to experience great distress in their use of pornography.

[331] When a sexual shaming event occurs, the person attributes causation to oneself, resulting in self condemnation, and experience feelings of sadness, loneliness, anger, unworthiness, and rejection, along with a perceived judgment of their self by others.

[l] A central concept in Hinduism, purushartha, advocates pursuit of the four main goals for happiness: dharma (virtue), artha (riches), kama (pleasure), and moksha (freedom).

[356] Women are found to prefer men who are taller, stronger, appear highly masculine, and are in roles that can provide resources while being protective (CEO, doctor, athlete, lawmen).