Erotica Research Paper
Erotica is something that has been associated with material culture since the beginnings of mans ability to communicate through pictures. Recently though the line has been blurred and pornography has begun to take its place at the forefront of the sexual culture and in doing so has begun to spiral out on control in the social world. Erotica was always considered to be tasteful and was associated with rejuvenation and fertility whereas pornography is considered to be of the writing of prostitutes. Ancient ways in which to help make yourself a better person as a whole has been stripped down and used only for the sexual commonplace that is shown in the readings, the best example of this is the Kama Sutra. This book was supposed to show how
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an ideal man would live his life and love making was a small part of the overall whole outlook toward a better life. Pornography as a whole is making a mockery on a larger scale of what has already been done to the Kama Sutra, inadequacies and played on, beautiful people are unattainable and negative social and religious standpoints come hand in hand to deal with the product. The only positives are the economic gains that are made, but these are all at the cost of possibly creating people who are overly aggressive in their sexual behaviour, lose control of their reality because of an addiction to pornography and with that in mind begin to feel inferior because of the polished models that are on display every time they view pornography. Erotica, as mentioned, was the true birthplace for what is modern pornography.
Dating back to Pompeii there has been pictures of erotica, but this trend was a common through history on nearly every front of society. The rebirth was necessary in order to help promote the growth of society and everything contained within. From the 16th to 19th century with writing becoming more abundant among the people there began the spread of erotic writing, there was no longer simple basic use for pictures of eroticism, but the writing was the first indication that there was a lead change happening in practical use, to pleasurable use. The first film that was truly designated pornographic was a German film in 1910 called Am Abend but this was still very low scale during the time period. What is modernly called pornography began in large scale print during the 1950's with the beginnings of Playboy and Penthouse magazine, and on film began on a large scale level during the 1970's. Both of these items were modern twists but most importantly is that they were both new innovations in American culture as well. What was once predominantly an old world tradition began taking shape in a completely new and modern way in the new world. Pornography as we know it today, was born in America and continues to thrive thanks to multimedia within the country that allows it to be spread all over the
world. The multimedia which is used to help promote the spread of pornography throughout the world is another important factor that is often overlooked but now with the increased usage of the internet and the readily available product all over the world wide web it is hard to ignore the impact that pornography truly does have throughout the world. There are some people who believe that Sony's Betamax eventually lost to the VHS format because people who were making pornography films chose to use the VHS. There may have been other factors involved in the final decision with regard to movie storage but with this being a billion-dollar industry anything is possible to help sway the tide of technology. The latest developments that are helping to make the product more accessible to the public though is the use of the internet which can now allow people from Amsterdam to communicate in real time with those in Australia. This is bringing the world together but is also allowing the spread of pornography to happen virtually instantaneously and with that comes the moral dilemmas that involve safeguarding people from internet usage because this taboo material is so readily available. Peer to peer software is making any type of pornography available to anyone around the world and it is estimated that nearly 68 million searches on Google every day involve some essence of the word "porn." One way that is now being used in order to help protect children from using pornography online deliberately is the use of filter technology that is able to be set up by parents through encoding or even on the adult sites themselves with age verification technology. In reality though this plays a small part is being able to stop the use of pornography if children did want to see it, parents are sometimes very unfamiliar with computers because it could be something that is new to their generation and they've simply never taken an interest in getting to know the computer beyond checking e-mail. This idea is very commonly known and there is a growing emphasis on using the computer with your child and getting to know what they do and where they go in order to help safeguard any concerns they may come up with while surfing. By familiarizing yourself with the internet you'll be able to readily check the internet history in your browser and act accordingly should you need to set up any filters. With regard to age verification there is the requirement of having a credit card in order to verify you are at least 18 years in age so you can legally view the sites. This could work very well in theory but there is always the possibility of using a parent's credit card and not thinking twice about it because it's "only $3.95" and they would never notice. This can lead to far larger problems with regard to negative behaviour escalating. Another concern that comes with children using the internet unsupervised in the possibility of being drawn into the world of child pornography, something that has been gathering quite a bit of attention lately as it is completely unthinkable to use children in this fashion in our modern ethical world. Simple chat rooms can lead into encounters of "friends" that children have made online but are simply stalkers looking for prey to either use for themselves or for the profit of child pornography. These people take advantage of the innocence of children and exploit it for their own personal enjoyment and for all the world to see thanks to the internet and the wide regard that seems to have developed for an interest in child pornography. This is forcing parents to take measures to help a child grow up quickly and develop a keen sense of awareness so that they are able to determine the difference in peoples character. In reality we're forcing children to grow up at an accelerated rate, taking away their childlike innocence and pushing them into adult situations which could, in reality, lead to an interest in adult behaviour such as adult pornography itself. This cycle in now becoming a norm in modern culture, everyone is in a hurry to grow up well before their time is right. With this vast array of pornography at our finger tips at all times there is no doubt that some moral and religious concerns could arise. There are two very different stances on the idea of pornography, some view it as an art form that has been around for thousands of years and should be allowed to continue despite a recent uprising in naysayer's. These are the people though, who only look at a very specific sector of the industry in question, it's the wide spectrum that is unavailable to most people, except for those that search for it, that is truly troubling. It is also this material that brings in not only religious, but socially accepted norms of pornography among the cultures into question. Most pornography that is distributed on a large scale is basic hardcore intercourse but there are other elements in which there is R-rated pornography as well that can actually help to increase possibilities of aggression toward women. Women are viewed in the movies as subservient or even as resistant at first and then wishing to be dominated. If people view this material and take it to heart that this is the case of what women truly want for their sexual experience then rape is not far behind, which is another genre sometimes explored in these films. The idea of separating fantasy from reality may be something that may happen with a normal degree of ease but for some people it could be a question of physiological or psychological mind set that they have already and this is just triggering the mind into overdrive. Studies have shown that people who grow up watching and learning from pornography for their sexual experiences are likely to mimic what they have always known, and if this is the case where all they have seen in aggressive behaviour then that is what will be passed on by them into society. There will always be studies to refute this idea but for the most part we're a very visual set of people who interact directly with the material that is in front of us, a television-based world, so why would we question anything that was being set directly in front of us despite what morality may say from other groups of people. These other groups of people may be religious communities who are now beginning to accept the same ideas as that of society in regard to the effect of pornography, in regard to the violence that it creates through certain situations shown in pornography. Another stance from the viewpoint of the church is to make sure that people understand the difference between sex and sexual miscreants, which is what pornography is promoting. In the films and magazine it creates a world where casual intercourse is a norm and sex is something to be simply passed off to anyone who enters a room. There is no love involved, aggression again is a problem for the passion and respect that you're suppose to have for a lover is nonexistent in pornographic terms. Overall this material is making a mockery of traditional values that have stood for thousands of years and encouraging inappropriate behaviour with regard to one of the most precious gifts someone is able to give their spouse. The production, use and distribution of child pornography is widely regarded as immoral and barbaric by both those in a religious standpoint and social moralists. Children are supposed to be the worlds most precious gifts and that is being taken away by an underground world of people who in all essence of the world are mere cowards. They prey on children and enjoy doing so, there is nothing more disgusting in the world that a coward who beams pride about the fact. Recent crackdowns on child pornography are seemingly effective but the underground world of this trade is massive and there needs to be more dedicated resources focussed directly on the problem if we ever hope to get it under control and allow children to go back to their role of being young and enjoying their life. The main product of pornography though is the impact on material culture through the stars of these shows. Keeping in mind there are many different genres of pornography, since everyone seems to enjoy their own personal fetish, but for the most part these stars are surgically enhanced to help make themselves appear as the ideal woman in every aspect. What we are seeing is Barbie having sex all over the pornographic industry. This ideal woman with large breasts and a small waist is another creation on the part of the Western world. Throughout Europe most pornography uses realistic women who look natural, and this gives their product an almost amateur feel, but in North America the motto of, bigger is better, come true to life in the pornography industry. Watching these women have intercourse could be demoralizing for women in a relationship if couples were watching it together, it could also spur on the idea of men thinking they could do better than their current significant other by living through the fantasy world they are seeing before themselves. Overall the entirely fabricated women that are performing are doing nothing more than that, they've dressed themselves up for a show and are going to act to the best of their ability to the theme that is for the movie. Their changes may be permanent but they also plan on having many of these acting roles becoming recurrent. For anyone else in the world though these sex stars are now the standard of how people should look, what they should do and how to act prior, during and after intercourse. These women show their focus on the material world by knowing what it is they need in order to continue making a profit, if surgery and larger breasts are the answers then that is what will be done. These actions though continually beat down the norms for society that have been established because perfection is apparently only one surgery away and the bar for everyone else is now raised. In conclusion pornography is so set as a standard in our way of life that it is seen in nearly every medium as an accepted form and no longer regarded as smut on its base level of attractiveness, keeping controversial forms out of mind. The best example of this is Jenna Jameson, a woman who is world renowned for her staring roles in pornography movies but is now an author and is making attempts to cross over into main stream acting roles, thanks to her the barrier between people being socially uncomfortable dealing with pornography is disappearing. As mentioned earlier it is estimated that on an average day 68 million hits are made on Google's search engine with some regard to the word "porn" and in 2003 Americans are believed to have spent anywhere from 8 to 10 billion dollars on pornography. Both of these staggering statistics help to show that this industry is longer a back room in a video store but is full frontal to the world and every aspect needs to be taken into account so that we're able to accept and understand it fully as a society. Davis M., Clive and McCormick B., Naomi. "What Sexual Scientists Know... : About Pornography." The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Editor, Edward S. Herold, PhD Volume 3 (1) 1997.
Pellauer, M. "Pornography: An Agenda for the Churches" Religion Online. 1987.
Schlosser, Eric. (2003). Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labour in the American Black Market. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York.
an ideal man would live his life and love making was a small part of the overall whole outlook toward a better life. Pornography as a whole is making a mockery on a larger scale of what has already been done to the Kama Sutra, inadequacies and played on, beautiful people are unattainable and negative social and religious standpoints come hand in hand to deal with the product. The only positives are the economic gains that are made, but these are all at the cost of possibly creating people who are overly aggressive in their sexual behaviour, lose control of their reality because of an addiction to pornography and with that in mind begin to feel inferior because of the polished models that are on display every time they view pornography. Erotica, as mentioned, was the true birthplace for what is modern pornography.
Dating back to Pompeii there has been pictures of erotica, but this trend was a common through history on nearly every front of society. The rebirth was necessary in order to help promote the growth of society and everything contained within. From the 16th to 19th century with writing becoming more abundant among the people there began the spread of erotic writing, there was no longer simple basic use for pictures of eroticism, but the writing was the first indication that there was a lead change happening in practical use, to pleasurable use. The first film that was truly designated pornographic was a German film in 1910 called Am Abend but this was still very low scale during the time period. What is modernly called pornography began in large scale print during the 1950's with the beginnings of Playboy and Penthouse magazine, and on film began on a large scale level during the 1970's. Both of these items were modern twists but most importantly is that they were both new innovations in American culture as well. What was once predominantly an old world tradition began taking shape in a completely new and modern way in the new world. Pornography as we know it today, was born in America and continues to thrive thanks to multimedia within the country that allows it to be spread all over the
world. The multimedia which is used to help promote the spread of pornography throughout the world is another important factor that is often overlooked but now with the increased usage of the internet and the readily available product all over the world wide web it is hard to ignore the impact that pornography truly does have throughout the world. There are some people who believe that Sony's Betamax eventually lost to the VHS format because people who were making pornography films chose to use the VHS. There may have been other factors involved in the final decision with regard to movie storage but with this being a billion-dollar industry anything is possible to help sway the tide of technology. The latest developments that are helping to make the product more accessible to the public though is the use of the internet which can now allow people from Amsterdam to communicate in real time with those in Australia. This is bringing the world together but is also allowing the spread of pornography to happen virtually instantaneously and with that comes the moral dilemmas that involve safeguarding people from internet usage because this taboo material is so readily available. Peer to peer software is making any type of pornography available to anyone around the world and it is estimated that nearly 68 million searches on Google every day involve some essence of the word "porn." One way that is now being used in order to help protect children from using pornography online deliberately is the use of filter technology that is able to be set up by parents through encoding or even on the adult sites themselves with age verification technology. In reality though this plays a small part is being able to stop the use of pornography if children did want to see it, parents are sometimes very unfamiliar with computers because it could be something that is new to their generation and they've simply never taken an interest in getting to know the computer beyond checking e-mail. This idea is very commonly known and there is a growing emphasis on using the computer with your child and getting to know what they do and where they go in order to help safeguard any concerns they may come up with while surfing. By familiarizing yourself with the internet you'll be able to readily check the internet history in your browser and act accordingly should you need to set up any filters. With regard to age verification there is the requirement of having a credit card in order to verify you are at least 18 years in age so you can legally view the sites. This could work very well in theory but there is always the possibility of using a parent's credit card and not thinking twice about it because it's "only $3.95" and they would never notice. This can lead to far larger problems with regard to negative behaviour escalating. Another concern that comes with children using the internet unsupervised in the possibility of being drawn into the world of child pornography, something that has been gathering quite a bit of attention lately as it is completely unthinkable to use children in this fashion in our modern ethical world. Simple chat rooms can lead into encounters of "friends" that children have made online but are simply stalkers looking for prey to either use for themselves or for the profit of child pornography. These people take advantage of the innocence of children and exploit it for their own personal enjoyment and for all the world to see thanks to the internet and the wide regard that seems to have developed for an interest in child pornography. This is forcing parents to take measures to help a child grow up quickly and develop a keen sense of awareness so that they are able to determine the difference in peoples character. In reality we're forcing children to grow up at an accelerated rate, taking away their childlike innocence and pushing them into adult situations which could, in reality, lead to an interest in adult behaviour such as adult pornography itself. This cycle in now becoming a norm in modern culture, everyone is in a hurry to grow up well before their time is right. With this vast array of pornography at our finger tips at all times there is no doubt that some moral and religious concerns could arise. There are two very different stances on the idea of pornography, some view it as an art form that has been around for thousands of years and should be allowed to continue despite a recent uprising in naysayer's. These are the people though, who only look at a very specific sector of the industry in question, it's the wide spectrum that is unavailable to most people, except for those that search for it, that is truly troubling. It is also this material that brings in not only religious, but socially accepted norms of pornography among the cultures into question. Most pornography that is distributed on a large scale is basic hardcore intercourse but there are other elements in which there is R-rated pornography as well that can actually help to increase possibilities of aggression toward women. Women are viewed in the movies as subservient or even as resistant at first and then wishing to be dominated. If people view this material and take it to heart that this is the case of what women truly want for their sexual experience then rape is not far behind, which is another genre sometimes explored in these films. The idea of separating fantasy from reality may be something that may happen with a normal degree of ease but for some people it could be a question of physiological or psychological mind set that they have already and this is just triggering the mind into overdrive. Studies have shown that people who grow up watching and learning from pornography for their sexual experiences are likely to mimic what they have always known, and if this is the case where all they have seen in aggressive behaviour then that is what will be passed on by them into society. There will always be studies to refute this idea but for the most part we're a very visual set of people who interact directly with the material that is in front of us, a television-based world, so why would we question anything that was being set directly in front of us despite what morality may say from other groups of people. These other groups of people may be religious communities who are now beginning to accept the same ideas as that of society in regard to the effect of pornography, in regard to the violence that it creates through certain situations shown in pornography. Another stance from the viewpoint of the church is to make sure that people understand the difference between sex and sexual miscreants, which is what pornography is promoting. In the films and magazine it creates a world where casual intercourse is a norm and sex is something to be simply passed off to anyone who enters a room. There is no love involved, aggression again is a problem for the passion and respect that you're suppose to have for a lover is nonexistent in pornographic terms. Overall this material is making a mockery of traditional values that have stood for thousands of years and encouraging inappropriate behaviour with regard to one of the most precious gifts someone is able to give their spouse. The production, use and distribution of child pornography is widely regarded as immoral and barbaric by both those in a religious standpoint and social moralists. Children are supposed to be the worlds most precious gifts and that is being taken away by an underground world of people who in all essence of the world are mere cowards. They prey on children and enjoy doing so, there is nothing more disgusting in the world that a coward who beams pride about the fact. Recent crackdowns on child pornography are seemingly effective but the underground world of this trade is massive and there needs to be more dedicated resources focussed directly on the problem if we ever hope to get it under control and allow children to go back to their role of being young and enjoying their life. The main product of pornography though is the impact on material culture through the stars of these shows. Keeping in mind there are many different genres of pornography, since everyone seems to enjoy their own personal fetish, but for the most part these stars are surgically enhanced to help make themselves appear as the ideal woman in every aspect. What we are seeing is Barbie having sex all over the pornographic industry. This ideal woman with large breasts and a small waist is another creation on the part of the Western world. Throughout Europe most pornography uses realistic women who look natural, and this gives their product an almost amateur feel, but in North America the motto of, bigger is better, come true to life in the pornography industry. Watching these women have intercourse could be demoralizing for women in a relationship if couples were watching it together, it could also spur on the idea of men thinking they could do better than their current significant other by living through the fantasy world they are seeing before themselves. Overall the entirely fabricated women that are performing are doing nothing more than that, they've dressed themselves up for a show and are going to act to the best of their ability to the theme that is for the movie. Their changes may be permanent but they also plan on having many of these acting roles becoming recurrent. For anyone else in the world though these sex stars are now the standard of how people should look, what they should do and how to act prior, during and after intercourse. These women show their focus on the material world by knowing what it is they need in order to continue making a profit, if surgery and larger breasts are the answers then that is what will be done. These actions though continually beat down the norms for society that have been established because perfection is apparently only one surgery away and the bar for everyone else is now raised. In conclusion pornography is so set as a standard in our way of life that it is seen in nearly every medium as an accepted form and no longer regarded as smut on its base level of attractiveness, keeping controversial forms out of mind. The best example of this is Jenna Jameson, a woman who is world renowned for her staring roles in pornography movies but is now an author and is making attempts to cross over into main stream acting roles, thanks to her the barrier between people being socially uncomfortable dealing with pornography is disappearing. As mentioned earlier it is estimated that on an average day 68 million hits are made on Google's search engine with some regard to the word "porn" and in 2003 Americans are believed to have spent anywhere from 8 to 10 billion dollars on pornography. Both of these staggering statistics help to show that this industry is longer a back room in a video store but is full frontal to the world and every aspect needs to be taken into account so that we're able to accept and understand it fully as a society. Davis M., Clive and McCormick B., Naomi. "What Sexual Scientists Know... : About Pornography." The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Editor, Edward S. Herold, PhD Volume 3 (1) 1997.
Pellauer, M. "Pornography: An Agenda for the Churches" Religion Online. 1987.
Schlosser, Eric. (2003). Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labour in the American Black Market. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York.