November-December 2006 – The butcher, the baker, and the porn-filmmaker? Pornography is becoming so commonplace in our culture that, one day very soon, it may be seen as just another way to make an honest living.

That was the distressing message of a series of articles that appeared in The Denver Post. Titled “Pornopolis,” the articles examined the “rock-star status” of pornography and its influence on modern culture.

For staff writer Douglas Brown, the evidence of the ubiquity of pornography was clear: photos of nude celebrities on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine; the publishers of romance novels “starting lines of even steamier romance novels;” and the skyrocketing fame of heiress Paris Hilton based on the release of an explicit sex tape featuring her and an ex-boyfriend. Examples such as these are proof that porn has become a driving force in entertainment.

“The Pornopolis celebrates sex and sexuality. It encourages everyone, everywhere, to join the party and get nasty,” said Brown.

On the surface, the viewing of porn is still frowned upon by the majority of Americans. According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Morality in Media, 73% of U.S. adults consider it morally unacceptable to view pornography. 

But the poll also produced results that indicated that a potential shift was under way. First, one out of every five Americans (21%) considered it morally acceptable to view porn. Even more ominous, however, was that 44% of males ages 18 to 34 considered it acceptable. (For women in that age group, the percentage [23%] was considerably lower.)

“It is disturbing that so many younger males think it is morally acceptable to view pornography,” said Robert W. Peters, president of Morality in Media. “Since males are vulnerable to visual depictions of sex, however, perhaps it should not come as a surprise.”

Whether or not pornography has caused the “sexification” of our culture or is merely riding the wave created by the sexual revolution will be a matter for historians to settle in the decades to come. What is clear, however, is that porn has entered the modern Western vernacular as something far less of a sleazy pursuit than it was once considered.

After all, in the hit NBC sitcom Friends, porn was winked at as a harmless habit engaged in by the likeable male characters on the show. Soft-core pornographic encounters are not unheard of on network television, and cable dramas like Nip/Tuck (FX) regularly air sex scenes that, 20 years ago, required the purchase of a ticket at a seedy theater in a big city.

Brown noted: “It’s even the word ‘porn,’ which now is used to describe a variety of relationships consumers have with compelling things. The Canadian province of Quebec, for instance, promoted itself with the tag ‘Food porn’ in a recent advertising campaign. A Slate.com writer referred to The New York Times’ ‘Vows’ column as ‘bridal porn.’”

The porn industry now brazenly promotes itself as the sexually liberated kid sister of the Hollywood film industry. Thousands of people attend “adult” conventions and trade shows, where porn stars are treated like Hollywood stars. At the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this year, for example, porn stars traipsed down a red carpet on their way inside the event, to the delighted screams of fans.

Is it any wonder, then, that a fascination with all things sexual has become de rigueur? “Tupperware parties are ancient. Now suburban women nationwide host sex-toy sleepovers instead,” Brown said.

Nothing less than prostitution
The perversion of human sexuality inherent in pornography is offensive to many people, and not just Christians. Even some on the left end of the political spectrum routinely complain about the destructive nature of porn.

One such liberal is Gail Dines, professor of American Studies at Boston’s Wheelock College. Reading Dines’ articles on Web sites such as ZNet.org makes it clear that she is a staunch feminist and socialist. But she also despises porn.

“In pornography … what is being commodified is crucial to our sense of self. Whatever a person’s sexuality or views on sexuality, virtually everyone agrees it is an important aspect of our identity,” Dines explained. “In pornography, and in the sex industry more generally, sexuality is one more product to be packaged and sold.”

The degradation of porn even affects those who star in so-called “adult” films, Dines believes, even if they refuse to explicitly admit it. 

“Look at the industry’s biggest star, Jenna Jameson, who appears to control her business life. However in her book she reports that she was raped as a teenager and describes the ways in which men in her life pimped her,” Dines said. “Her desperation for money also comes through when she tried to get a job as a stripper but looked too young – she went into a bathroom and pulled off her braces with pliers. She also describes drug abuse and laments the many friends in the industry she lost to drugs. And this is the woman said to have the most power in the pornography industry.”

For academics like Dines and fellow liberal Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, porn is nothing less than prostitution. In an op-ed piece that appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Jensen and Dines, who frequently co-write articles condemning porn, said: “While pornography has never been treated as prostitution by the law, it’s fundamentally the same exchange. The fact that the sex is mediated through a magazine or movie doesn’t change that, nor does the fact that women sometimes use pornography. The fundamentals remain: Men pay to use women for sexual pleasure.”

A big money-maker
Apologists for pornographers often claim that the production of “adult” entertainment is an issue of personal freedom or even sexual liberty. Dines rejects such arguments.

“Nothing could be further from the truth; the pornography industry is just that – an industry, dominated by the pornography production companies that create the material, with mainstream corporations profiting from its distribution,” she said.

And there is tremendous profit in porn. According to the Web site Internet Filter Review, the revenue generated by pornography in America exceeds the combined revenues of all professional football, basketball and baseball franchises. In addition, porn revenues in the U.S. surpass those generated by the big three networks – ABC, CBS and NBC.

Like Dines, when it comes to the mainstreaming of porn, Brown points the finger at corporate America. “The adult entertainment industry every day harvests vaults of cash through the portholes of the mainstream corporations of America that own the hotels, and the satellite and cable networks of the country,” he said.

Dines stressed the confluence of pornographic entertainment and the more mainstream forms of entertainment. She said, “Through ownership of cable distribution companies and Internet services, the large companies that distribute pornography also distribute mainstream media.”

A prime example is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. “News Corp. is a major owner of DirecTV, which sells more pornographic films than [Hustler magazine founder and porn film producer Larry] Flynt,” Dines explained. “In 2000, the New York Times reported that nearly $200 million a year is spent by the 8.7 million subscribers to DirecTV. Among News Corp.’s other media holdings are the Fox broadcasting and cable TV networks, Twentieth Century Fox, the New York Post, and TV Guide. Welcome to synergy: Murdoch also owns HarperCollins, which published pornography star Jenna Jameson’s best-selling book How To Make Love Like A Porn Star.”

Beyond pay-per-view satellite and cable, of course, the Internet has also been a major engine driving the staggering economic success of the porn industry.

In fact, there seem to be very few areas of American life that have been left untouched by porn. Bradford Mudge, an English professor at Colorado University of Denver, said pornography “has exploded into every conceivable corner and niche of capitalism. …”

For Jensen, this is an ominous sign for our society. He said, “In a culture that pretends to have some commitment to basic human values, how could a genre that is getting more degrading and cruel also get more acceptability in the mainstream? I think it’s a turn in the culture.”