In the last several weeks, the Supreme Court heard a case regarding the rights of a business in LA to offer one-stop porn shopping.  Now personally, I'm neither a bible-thumping conservative nor am I a sex-obsessed liberal, but this did cause me pause.  This should be especially important to each of us, because you are reading my words on the greatest one-stop shop for porn that man has ever invented.  Within only a few clicks of the mouse, you're well within reach of every form, flavor, and perversion that a deranged mind can come up with.

          I don't intend to waste your time with any of the tired pornography standby's:
          1).        It is the systematic government authorized objectification of women
                      relegating women to a sub-male caste in a patriarchal society. 
          2).        It is a form of freedom of expression, and as such it is a
                      Constitutional right to participate or view. 
          3).        Where there is good, there must be evil.

          The reality is that porn is an outcropping our instinctive demand to reproduce and the limitations placed on us within a civilized society.  Does that make it right?  Not necessarily, but it does make it. 

          Cultural anthropologists have studied human sexuality deeply for only about a hundred years.  Before that, most of the probing topics were considered taboo.  Additionally, the ability to document was limited, so that the best society could do was a nude portrait.  What we do know is that most of what we find sexual come from two areas.  The primary is our reproductive survival instinct, while the second has to do with the excitement associated with breaking social mores. 

          Every species has one fundamental objective in life, and that is the continuation of its lineage.  This is a basic enough premise, and accounts for most of the traits that humans find arousing.  The most obvious traits man finds arousing are youth and breast size.  The aforementioned is a symbol of fertility, while the second is a critical trait for raising mammals. Although differing traits are important to women, the same basis is valid.  The size of a man’s genitals is a symbol of his strength and his fertility.  I can even remember an anthropological study which suggested human’s have pendulous testicles, because during the early days of hunter gathers, when society was more matriarchal, women selected men with large sacks.  It may seem counter intuitive, but the point was that it was a weakness, so men who overcome such an obvious weakness must have strength much greater than the others. The primary reason for arousal is important to note, because especially within the internet we see perversions, which do not lend themselves to the continuation of the species. 

          These are a result of the breaking of social mores.  The second source of interest in porn is a result of the anxiousness and repressed guilt from violating society’s expectations.  This is the more insidious one, and the one that we should be concerned about.  This is why garter belts are arousing.  They provide the impression that we are seeing more than we really are, and they appeal to our most basic voyeuristic nature.  The ability to taste the forbidden fruit.  Most of this curiosity is innocent enough and regulated by the FCC.  However, left unchecked this is the source of perversion that leads to any number of abhorrent behaviors.

          Is it any wonder that the evolution of pornography follows and drives the invention of information technology.  I'm not suggesting that Alexander Graham Bell intended the invention of the telephone for the sole purpose of asking his buddies, if they got some off that fat Victorian chick last night.  However, it would be naive to think that streaming video for internet was not driven by desire for discrete delivery methods of live action performance art (A.K.A. porn).  I will go a step further; the invention of still photography made it possible for the creation of the modern industry that has levied fortunes for Larry Flint, Hugh Hefner, and Bob Guccioni.  (Pardon my spelling, as I am not a subscriber to any of their magazines.)  As our ability to document and distribute has improved, the pornography industry has evolved.  It drives technology; it always has, and it always will.

          So what’s my message. I don’t think this is a civil liberty that the evil government is attempting to usurp, or a gateway to decadence leading to the decay of modern society.  I just know that that decision will affect this medium of communication, and we better be prepared.  So go back to your porn and get off my page.

- Rocinante



 

12/13 - Shouting Fire in the Internet Theatre

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