Mainstream of Consciousness

All that glitters can be cold.

Much is made of the significance, importance and — some might say — necessity of adult entertainment being accepted as just another component of modern society. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that as pornography becomes more “mainstream,” anti-porn crusaders and their government lackeys will have fewer fronts on which to attack a commodity that is as old as society itself. After all, John Q. Public wants his porn, and not much is considered “obscene” by juries anymore. And since adult entertainment makes up a healthy percentage of mainstream-industry profits, doing away with the adult industry conceivably could compromise the economy as a whole.

On their faces, all of those arguments are valid, but in the larger picture, they’re part of an enormous — and very sharp — double-edged sword.

I’m sure I’m not telling readers anything they don’t already know when I opine that part of what has made the creation and distribution of pornography an immensely profitable endeavor is its subversive, clandestine nature. There’s an element of danger and taboo that clings to the material. In some cultures, public nudity and physical manifestations of desire are accepted as normal, natural components of the human experience. But in most societies, hardcore sexual behavior and its accoutrements are regarded as “dirty,” shameful pursuits that belong in dark, private spaces out of the public view (with the notable exception of titillation in advertising, of course). Consequently, the adult-entertainment industry traditionally has attracted entrepreneurs who revel in rebellion and resolutely cling to a general disdain for the rules of polite society. Even today, with porn consumption at an all-time high, many of the people who work in the industry strive to present shocking, “in your face,” “bad boy/girl” images that would not be tolerated in any mainstream industry – except, perhaps, Hollywood, music and professional sports. They take great pride in being as poorly behaved and defiant as possible, often because it brings them and their products the notoriety they crave yet otherwise might not be able to garner.

Like it or not, the U.S. retains a puritanical culture that makes the adult industry a difficult milieu in which to operate. (How many pornographers' family members, friends and neighbors know what they do?) That atmosphere promotes a community ethos in which deviance often is applauded. The problem with that is once the behavior becomes comfortable, it’s difficult to see it for what it is: an unpopular, uncomfortable veneer that serves a temporary agenda. Once the goal is attained, the actor can drop the charade — except by then the behaviors may be ingrained, much like the way a pet dog sits up when offered a treat because he’s learned sitting up gets him what he wants. When people use antisocial, misogynistic behaviors to get what they want, they probably won’t stop relying on those tactics when they’ve achieved the goals that spawned them.

And there’s the rub. If porn becomes “mainstream,” at least two things are likely to happen: The material will become just another mainstream commodity, and “bad boy” pornographers will become mildly interesting pariahs like Barry Bonds, Paris Hilton and Hank Williams Jr. Those people are famously arrogant, petty and generally unpleasant, and nobody really wants to be around them unless there’s significant, immediate benefit to be gained. Bonds remains in baseball because he’s still slugging (although observers condemn his relationship with the truth), Williams occasionally releases a worthwhile song (although he’s notoriously abusive to almost everyone around him, including his audiences), and Hilton’s still tabloid fodder (mostly because everyone seems to be trying to figure out what they found so fascinating about her in the first place). Is this really a fate to which anyone aspires?

So I wonder: Is the “mainstreaming” of porn really a good idea? Yes, mainstream acceptance of adult content would make producers’ and distributors’ lives easier, but it also would bring more well-funded competition into the marketplace and might lessen demand for the product. And it’s likely that porn would "go corporate” and pick up all of the baggage that entails: Small operators would be forced from the field, boards of directors would take control, and the adult-industry insiders who now take such glee in rebellion would have to clean up their acts and behave or get out.

As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.”

—Kathee “Wet Blanket” Brewer

(This column originally appeared in the September 2007 issue of AVN Online.)