|
I actually took a class in Victorian pornography in literary works as well as a couple of early pornographic films.
Frankly, other than technological advances and some changes to alter the thinly veiled plot, I don't think much has actually changed at all, but rather it has only changed enough to cater to the audience. There is more variety, but overall it's the same. But I don't really study the porn industry today, though.
From many of the films in the Victorian England, much of it was very explicit, but because the technology was so new at the time, close up shots and other type of film techniques that we take for granted are less seen or seen more than usual as a way of showing off skill (the camera, not the penis)
I mean, things change with time, but I found that early porn and the mediocre porn today had many similarities (on an academic level). I looked at how the films focused on seducer and the "fallen woman". But looking at pornograpy from the beginning of film to just before the rise of the feminist moevement, it was pretty normal to see a man in a superior job seduce a younger female employee (if you want to see something really really really really funny, try to find "The Casting Couch". It's a silent porno film. SOO FUNNY). But after the Florence Nightingale and other suffragette movements, you see porn shift towards a more 'violent' aspect towards woman because free women became such an important issue. Even prostitution was at a greater demand from the suffragettes, indirectly.
So, yes, pornography has changed, but not by a whole lot. It's only a response to political and social issues that happen. Look at "Pirates" for example; response to "Pirates of the Caribean". But I still find that this idea of "violence towards women" to be rather unsettling. And considering that there are snuff films and fake rape type stuff for certain crowds, I worry what kind of society we live in that produces such violence from freedom.
|