As per Part One and Two of my porn history series, porn has always been a pioneer in technological advancements. Throughout time, humans jerked off to clay statues, cave drawings, and even used bread loaves as dildos (I’m not kidding). It wasn’t until the internet got popular in the ‘90s that things really got interesting. Welcome to the history of porn, part 3 of my series.
Last time, we left off exploring the rise of sexual liberation in the ‘70s and the popularity of public peepshows. Movies like Debbie Does Dallas graced theatres and set a precedent for the porn that we love and know today. In Part Three of the series, we’re taking a deep dive together into the welcoming waters of internet porn. Ready to get wet? Good, me too.
It All Began With A Big Bang
I don’t mean the same Big Bang that literally created all things on earth, although it was pretty prolific. The Big Bang of the porn industry happened in the 1970s and 1980s when pornstars started becoming household names. While performers like John Holmes have since passed, others like Nina Hartley have seen continued success well into the modern day.
Pornstars were akin to celebrities and their actions started spilling into the everyday lives of the mainstream population. Sex wasn’t just something you did under the blankets with the lights off anymore. Sex was celebrated, and the more taboo it was, the better. People were paying a lot of money to fulfill their fantasies with performers who strived to do exactly that.
What Dreams May Cum
Let’s go back in time again for a minute. When you were younger, do you remember being warned about the dirty back room of the local video store? The one in my hometown was just as sketchy as any other. And there wasn’t even a door! Just a simple red curtain draped over the doorway, blocking the view to thousands of experiences that’d make my dreams come true.
Back then, you’d get within a foot of that curtain and get ushered away by a concerned video store clerk, or worse, by your parents. At home, you’d turn the television on at 2am to catch a nipple amongst the distorted on-screen images. Honestly, it’s really only the nostalgia of these moments that makes them remarkable.
Then out of nowhere, video stores were shutting their doors and fuzzy 2am TV was a thing of the past. What precipitated such a sudden shift? Well, the internet, of course. But it still wasn’t the world wide web that we know today. It was eager porn enthusiasts that ushered in the next big thing and that was peer-to-peer file sharing.
Share Some Porn History With a Friend
It’s exactly what it sounds like, too. In the ‘90s, a shared family computer was a coveted thing. I was lucky enough to be the only member in the house who had any interest in the digital world. While my mom thought I was hanging on ICQ with my friends, I was making contacts and gaining a porn library.
Electronics like cameras and video recorders were affordable now and it was easier than ever for performers to shoot their own smut. The combination of increasing internet bandwidth, mounting collections of physical media, and personal PCs outside of the workplace created the perfect recipe for porn to thrive. Do you have any of your antique porn files still kickin’ around?
After a few more years, dozens upon dozens of chat rooms existed with the sole purpose of sharing photos and movies. Of course, things were still limited by slow dial-up connections, and downloading one short scene could take literal hours. But once the 2000s hit and DSL was here, dial-up was reserved for the boonies. Welcome to the Digital Age, thanks for joining me.
Porn History on the World Wide Web
And here, my friends, is where all the magic happens – the introduction of full-fledged porn sites. While Naughty America VR would come about two decades later, the original site was founded as SoCal Coeds. The online smut site revolution was about to change for the better. Now you could pay a monthly price and get access to hundreds of videos, photo galleries, and pornstars.
There were some earlier sites to mention though since I’m trying to be thorough. Sex.com was founded in 1994 and it was a way for members to share photos and GIFs. What’s interesting is that the site still exists today and works more like Instagram combined with a porn clip site. Bang Bus joined the club in 2002 and produced the popular spin-off site Bang Bus.
Despite the fact that the industry was rolling right on track, it was still expensive to host video collections online and the quality was subpar. This brought on the rise of solo and non-nude performers creating high-quality photo galleries instead that were hosted on sites like MetArt and LightSpeed.
The Era of the Tube Site
Technological innovation was at an all-time high, especially in the porn industry. But there were things going on in the mainstream too that would blow every door open. YouTube launched in early 2005 and the proto tube site made it easier than ever to share content with other people. Streaming was the new mode and it was here to stay.
Like any good thing though, there’s always something or someone to come along and change things up again and that was Pornhub. In 2007, no one could have expected this mega network to completely take over the industry. With its sister sites YouPorn and RedTube, users could now watch professional pornstars and lesser-known amateurs in their most intimate moments.
It’s likely that the emergence of porn sites is what caused physical porn sales to drop. In only a few short years, DVD sales dropped by a whopping 80% and it left big-named studios, like Evil Angel, scrambling to recoup some of their lost sales. This caused a push in production that inevitably created what seems like an unending online library to be shared with anyone of age.
The Modern War Against Cyber Porn
A big issue with the ever-growing age of cyberporn was the fact that it was accessible to anyone. While that doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world (I was pretty happy about it), unsupervised youth with a bit of tech-savvy could also get their hands on it. This was a major concern for social justice groups who were anti-porn and needed a scapegoat for their cause.
Then there was porn addiction. You could now get a quick, digital shot of dopamine that was easily habit-forming. And since it didn’t have a name yet, there was no way for anyone to know how detrimental it could be for a chunk of the porn-watching population. Since then, studies show that people who watch porn a lot tend to struggle with sexual relationships with partners.
Considering porn, in one way or another, has been around for thousands of years, why would porn addiction only be a problem now? It must be the approach. After all, it does take far longer to bake a loaf of bread and fuck yourself with it than it does to type in the URL to a website and get instant gratification with the click of a button.
Strap In & Get Ready For the Ride
Where can we possibly go from here, you might ask? Naughty America VR is definitely on the right track. Porn has always played a big part in society, from ancient cultures carving dicks into oil jugs to horny couples recording themselves having sex and uploading it online. And since you’re a virtual reality geek like me, you know things are just getting started. Happy fapping!
