TROUBL

I write for a porno magazine. Granted, I’ve only been at it briefly, but for freelancing it’s fairly lucrative, and it’s easy, too. I’ll admit, I’ve seen some weird stuff, but I try not to judge people for their sexual appetites. People like what they like, and even if I don’t agree with it, it’s not my place to butt in. But, after watching Boogie Nights for the first time a few nights ago (I know, it’s about damn time!), I got to thinking about the porn industry these days, and what it says about our culture.

Boogie Nights was grounded in the reality of the porn world in the late 70’s and early 80’s, so the vast gulf between the industry in those days and what’s happening now is telling. Today’s pornography is mostly hardcore, close-up, air-brushed, heavily edited scenes of overly tanned, bleached blonde, fake-breasted and male-enhanced performers doing really dirty things to one another. It is almost nothing like what I tend to think of as “real sex.” Of course, there are plenty of regular people who have crazy dirty sex, but those people don’t all have fake tans, boobs, and erections. Most people have sex that’s more like what I saw in Boogie Nights - sensual, erotic and satisfying sex with less artifice thrown in. Those scenes looked like slightly above-average people having a good time. Today, watching porn is like watching Barbie and Ken go at it mercilessly for hours. What’s changed?

For instance, in Boogie Nights, our main character, “Dirk Diggler,” is recruited into the industry mainly on the size of his, um, member, which is still typical of the trade. But having such a large “asset” wouldn’t have helped him if he hadn’t been able to perform at the drop of a hat, as many times as necessary. Compare that with the present day, where if a performer isn’t into the scene, he just pops some Viagra. In Boogie Nights, Dirk and his first costar, Amber Waves, improvise the technical aspects of their scene as they go, making decisions about what to do next as they go along, whereas in modern porn, everything is so specialized that the actors have no leeway to do what they want. Films are titled according to what specialty they cater to, so the actors must film the scene in whatever way the movie dictates, with virtually no choice of position or personal preference.

In Boogie Nights, everyone is natural. The women have no implants or Botox injections. But these days there is only a small corner of the market devoted to “real breast” films. Fake breasts have actually become the norm. Nothing is left up to fate, or genetics, or even personality anymore. Everything is formulaic, pre-fabricated, and just plain fake. Why has pornography evolved in such an over-the-top direction? I wonder, in this industry, has the supply changed to meet the demand, or have we just learned to accept what we’re given? There will always be a demand for pornography, but do we as a people want to
watch these superhuman sex toys, or do we just take what we’re given?

I’m sure the internet has a lot to do with these changes. Magazines and production companies everywhere are going out of business because they just can’t compete with the internet, where porn is easy to get and easy to make. Mainstream pornography has to up the ante to compete: the biggest and best male performers, the bustiest of beautiful women, and the craziest action around all have to be on film, or film-makers and performers will stop making money. And yet, if one really steps back and looks at what the industry considers and offers to the public as “the best,” it’s mind-boggling. Fake boobs, fake tans, bleached hair, shaved genitals, chemically-induced hard-ons, heavy editing, air-brushing–hell, even some of the famed “money shots” are faked in high budget pornography! But why? Is fake really better than real? How do double D sized breasts on a 95 pound actress of today turn us on more than the smaller, softer, natural breasts on Amber Waves in Boogie Nights?

Are we trying not to waste time on getting to know the performers, preferring to just see over-sized sex organs to get us off as quickly as possible? Or are we terrified, with all we hear in the news about perverts and sex criminals, of actually being turned on by a real person? Is it easier to objectify porn stars to keep our feelings uninvolved? Or are we just big capitalists, wanting the biggest bang (pun intended) for our buck? Is this healthy?