Pornography Throughout History
An Analysis of the Male Gaze & How it Has Evolved to Maintain Male Satisfaction
Introduction to Pornography
Men have always been the primary audience of pornographic content, with the male gaze being at the forefront. This presentation looks at pornographic content throughout history and how it relates to the male viewer as the consumer. Noting how the content of pornography changing as societal ideas change, to reflect the male want of pornographic content.
Early Pornography
The very first pornographic film was produced in 1896 by photographer Eugène Pirou (Blott-Wellens, 2021). The film shows a bride coley undressing as her impatient husband peers over a divider screen. Originally seven minutes long, what remains of the clip is only a few minutes due to degradation of the film. With no actual nudity shown in what remains (Blott-Wellens, 2021). The film denotes notions of purity, the undressing virginal bride, reflective of thoughts surrounding sex within that time period. The film was only screened at night in order to not shock younger viewers (Blott-Wellens, 2021), something we can see changing in the history of pornography.
1930's
Porn in the early years can be seen as ‘made by men, for men’. According to Brick Cullum (2016), Pornography in the 1930's was produced in a way to make men feel more masculine after the great depression. Porn was now an outlet for social and emotional release as this could not be gained in job losses. The result being subjugation of women in pornography. Allowing control and power back into mens lives. The gentleman's magazine ‘Esquire’ was extremely popular during this time for its pinups. Showcasing petite, airbrushed and half naked women gazing into the camera in a sexual manner. This a way for males to invest themselves sexually rather than emotionally. Something we still often see today.
Actress Marlene Dietrich in 1930 and her lusted after legs
1950's
Pornography developed in the 1950's, here we see different illustrations that solely appeal for the male. In 1953, the well known Playboy magazine was developed and thus the entire Playboy Bunny franchise. As the male mindset evolved so did the pornography fantasy. Women were now illustrated in revealing combat gear to coincide with the post WW2 era. Along with this, rival magazines such as New Man using Nazi propaganda. With kidnapped women in provocative lingerie and pristine makeup presented. This satisfied the male gaze with creating an atmosphere of women being portrayed as weak and needing to be saved. More or less relating to that of the recent war.
1970's
The 1970s introduced what was called the ‘Golden Age of Pornography’ within North America (Paasonen & Saarenmaa, 2007). It was within this time period that pornography moved mainstream with feature length films (Barnett, 2018). Box office hit, ‘Deep Throat’, marked the shift to more explicit pornographic films. Directed by Gerard Damiano, the film shows a young woman who discovers, via a doctors’ help, that her clitoris is in the back of her throat (Paasonen & Saarenmaa, 2007). The explicit nature of the film, and its subsequent success, highlight the shift in pornographic content. Still catering to the male gaze, the 1970s erupted into more intense pornographic films.
1990's
The internet has become an increasingly popular place for porn-seekers with the platform being used frequently since the 1980's. However, it was not until 1995 that the first ‘adult website’ was created. Danni Ashe was the founder and CEO of ‘Danni’s Hard Drive’, now retired. Ashe was a nude model and pornographic actress and started her adult internet site to promote herself as a stripper and dancer. Ashe emphasises that the adult internet business is about the buying and selling of traffic and content. Reinforcing that the content being sold and brought is women’s pornography and the traffic being male-dominated. This highlights the link between what men want to and the content (women) being provided for them.
Danni Ashe
Danni Ashe
2010
The backlash of female pornography became evident in the 20th century. This became prominent with Gail Dines' anti-pornography campaign in 2010, which was based off her book; ‘How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality’. Dines talks about how porn is getting increasingly violent, which negatively impacts how the consumers portray women. She emphasises the profound effect these harsh and degrading images have. Which results in influencing not only males' sexuality but their behaviour and attitudes towards women as well. Dines also discusses how porn negatively impacts the way women think about their own bodies. As pornographic images are being filtered into mainstream media/culture, women and girls are being reduced to sex objects. From this they are stripped of their own sexual identity. Dines' work highlights the negative aspects of female pornography that affect all women, at the expense of satisfying male needs in a male-dominated world.
OnlyFans
OnlyFans is an online subscription-based service that allows users to buy and sell personal content. Content creators receive direct income through both subscription fees, pay-per-view, and one-off requests from a single customer. While user content ranges anywhere from fitness to daily lifestyle posts, pornographic media is the primary advertised content on this platform. OnlyFans offers a safer and more ethical alternative than participating in mainstream porn production and on-street prostitution. OnlyFans allows women to take ownership of their bodies, giving them the choice and control over their content. Ultimately, women have been able to represent sex and pleasure from a realistic point of view, challenging the male gaze and its harmful discourses.
OnlyFans Logo
OnlyFans Logo
Feminist Porn
The current feminist pornography movement aims to reclaim mainstream pornography, challenging rigid discourses that have followed for decades. Feminist pornography focuses on creating an inclusive media of all bodies, gender, orientation, race and ability. These productions ultimately promote equality through sexuality, desire and liberation, exploring the female point of view which has been overlooked within mainstream pornography (Popolla, 2020). This type of porn strives to create media that is realistic and diverse of all sexual relationships, moving away from performances that centre around the male gaze and desire (Liberman, 2015). Ethical production of pornography is a key focus of feminist pornography which focuses on consent, respect of performers and fair pay both performers and producers (Shea, 2020).
The above sections shows how pornography has ultimately been ‘made by men and for men’. As societies ideologies have changed through time, so have mens fantasies and therefore pornography has been made to satisfy only the male consumer. This has influenced female oppression within the industry and enforced dominant patriarchal narratives. Although we have mainly looked into the content of porn for males, the same patterns are evident within the industries production process and consumerism. In recent times we can see feminist porn becoming more evident and allowing women to create content that signifies diversity and female pleasure. Looking deeper into these aspects of porn and how it impacts minority groups in society would be the next steps of understanding pornography through history.
Reference list
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Background. (2016). Danni Ashe Wallpaper. Background.
Barnett, V.L., (2018). ‘The most profitable film ever made’: Deep Throat (1972), organized crime, and the $600 million gross. Porn Studies, 5(2), pp.131-151.
Blot-Wellens, C. (2021). Avant-gardes et incunables. Available at: https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/149863-le-coucher-de-la-mariee-eugene-pirou-1896/ (Accessed: 5 October 2021).
Cullum, B., (2016). America Gets Off: The Great Depression as an Impetus for the Evolution of Pornography. CLA Journa,l 4, pp. 78-94
Dines, G. (2010). How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality’. Beacon Press. Boston.
Dines, G. (2010). Gail Dines Quotes. AZ Quotes.
icanvas. (2021). Deep Thorat Film Poster – Canvas Print. (Accessed: 7 October 2021) https://www.icanvas.com/canvas-print/deep-throat-film-poster-rad85#1PC6-40x26
Liberman, R., (2015). ‘It's a really great tool’: feminist pornography and the promotion of sexual subjectivity. Porn Studies, 2(2-3), pp.174-191.
Marlene Dietrich (1930) Available at: https://uca.edu/cahss/files/2020/07/2016-6-Cullum-America-Gets-Off.pdf(Accessed: 4 October 2021)
Mubi. (2021). Deep Throat. Viewed Date (08/09/2021) https://mubi.com/films/deep-throat
New Man (1965) Available at: https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lTH0nREdO4sC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=women+and+porn+in+the+1950s&ots=-__thYn_2w&sig=bVMtxeLGD9kW6qGoCIjlGWqIDfI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=women%20and%20porn%20in%20the%201950s&f=false(Accessed: 4 October 2021)
Paasonen, S. and Saarenmaa, L., (2007). The golden age of porn: Nostalgia and history in cinema. Pornification: Sex and sexuality in media culture, pp.23-32.
Popolla, M. (2020). Women’s pornography culture. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media and Communication, [Online].
Sarracino, C. and Scott, K.M., (2008). The porning of America: The rise of porn culture, what it means, and where we go from here. Beacon Press.
Varitey. OnlyFans Logo [Online Image]. Avaliable from: https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/onlyfans-ban-pornography-sexually-explicit-1235044904/ (Accessed October 5 2021).
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