The Porn Revolution

Abstract

In the 1970s, a remarkable change in mainstream cinema was wrought by an iconoclastic commercial revolution. This revolution resulted in previously clandestine pornographic films becoming (relatively) mainstream, and a brief period began in which such material was considered acceptable fare for couples visiting the cinema — as opposed to the raincoat brigade that traditionally constituted the porn audience. Leaving aside the gender politics of such material, going to these films was seen as a specific rejection of the hypocritical sexual attitudes of an earlier generation. Within a few years, the burgeoning video market made such material accessible in living rooms, where its primary function — arousal for the purposes of masturbation or coitus — might be indulged in private. This period of ‘porno chic’ was typified by celebrities (Sammy Davis Jr, for example) being seen at such films as Gerard Damiano’s Deep Throat in 1972, but its appeal quickly faded, as the new mainstream audience became alienated as much by the repetitive and poorly made nature of most of the films as by their ideology. Women’s sexual arousal in such films was invariably bogus — female orgasm could always be faked, and often was — while male porn stars, because of the demands of the material, had to obtain erections and ejaculate; the ‘money’ or ‘cum’ shot was obligatory.