Prehistoric humans depicted what was important to them on cave walls: pictures of animal herds, depictions of deities – and penises and vaginas. Lots and lots of penises and vaginas.
Porn has always existed and probably always will. And the available technology will always influence what our porn is like. The internet is
where most people watch porn today, and it is changing the way it is both made and consumed.
In September, Hugh Hefner decided to stop publishing nudes in Playboy, starting in March 2016. The company that revolutionized American sexual norms ended its over 60-year run as a porn entity. The switch to a more conservative men’s interest magazine was because of the availability of online sex videos. The way porn is being made and consumed is changing.
“Maybe the internet has killed the porn magazine,” said Jack Lamon, a worker and co-owner of the Come as You Are cooperative sex shop in Toronto. Lamon has worked there since 2001and has seen firsthand how the porn industry has evolved. “I don’t think Playboy is relevant to the conversation around porn, and hasn’t been for a long time.”
Lamon says that in the last 10 years, digital technology has changed how porn is produced. More access to online content shut down major producers, but DIY amateurs with camcorders quickly filled the void. This allowed those who didn’t like mainstream porn to create their own, and different categories started to emerge.
One of the biggest was feminist porn, which Lamon describes as “Porn made by people with an eye to feminism, politics and a woman’s gaze, rather than mainstream porn, which is almost exclusively catered to men and made by men.”
Feminist porn is one of the largest growing genera and shows how accessible porn is becoming not only to consume but also to make. Someone getting involved in this movement is Caitlin K. Roberts, a sex educator from Toronto who runs SPIT, an “alternative porn collaborative,” that produces “mindful, healthy erotica.”
SPIT came about because of available technology and a lack of interest in mainstream pornography. A friend who wanted to start a porn magazine approached Roberts, but she knew that wasn’t realistic.
“When we did the research there was absolutely no money in having an erotic magazine,” Roberts said. “Even Playboy doesn’t have an erotic magazine.”
So Roberts and her partner set up a website that tried to set itself apart from the mainstream and with a mission. To create porn that broke free of the traditional blonde, white, fit actors doing the same three sex acts formula.
“Some of it is really slow; some of it is not always with men and women. There’s genderqueer, disabled, trans people, and we recognize that without fetishizing those people. That’s the goal, to have authentic, real porn. It’s orgasms you can feel good about.”
SPIT is nearly three years old and continues to make alternative feminist porn videos and photo sets. They have been well received and are currently working on a series of educational porn videos which act as a visual sex ed.
Carlyle Jansen has seen the rise of alternative and feminist porn. For nearly 20 years she has run Good For Her, a female oriented sex store in Toronto. Despite the internet, she continues to sell a lot of porn.
Sales have increased, which is odd because of how much free online porn there is,” Jansen said. “I think people are buying more porn because they don’t like what’s online that’s free.”
Jansen said honest depictions of real couples; people of colour and of different genders and sexualities can be more appealing to not only these groups, but also anyone tired of mainstream porn’s clichés. This different style also draws in a lot of women, which is having a noticeable effect.
“The porn industry is shifting, it’s deciding it wants to cater more to women,” she said. “Also the consumer is becoming a lot more educated about what they want to see.”
Toronto Vice Studios could be seen as a traditional porn company. Its video’s star straight men and women, who all have small frames and breasts. But even the biggest porn production company in the GTA is sticking to ethics in their production for socially conscious reasons, knowing that their audience is more educated than ever before.
Sandra Carr, the office manager for Toronto Vice Studios referred to a study done by the Economist magazine that showed porn is
the first sexual experience most teenage boys have. She says the porn industry shapes sexual norms, and they had responsibilities because of that.
“Those of us in the pornography industry have a responsibility
to produce high-quality pornthat promotes sexual liberty, but discourages violence against women,” Carr said. “We stay away from any content that is violent or non-consensual, or sets a bad example for society.”
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