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No matter what your views are on pornography, one thing is certain; it has been around for centuries and it is not likely to disappear from society anytime soon. Whether you choose to let it into your life and bedroom is a personal choice that others, including your partner, should respect.

The word pornography literally means writing about prostitutes, from the Greek "porne" (prostitute) and graphein (write). The term however, was actually a fabricated word, coined in England around 1850, which soon came to have a negative connotation, referring to any material for sexual stimulation. In comparison the word erotica still implies a higher, though not always easy to quantify, essence.

(See my earlier women24 article on Porn vs Erotica)

If we explore the history of pornography we will see that as technological advancements in communication have evolved (printing, photography, movies, computers, internet, cell phones) these have been used these to create, present and circulate pornography. This has resulted in an increased dissemination of sexually explicit material, with the internet and related electronic media currently offering a tsunami of free porn.

Sexually explicit images have been around since humans have been able to draw or write. The Greeks and Romans certainly relished them, producing vases, paintings and statues and the first documented sex toys, dildos made out of leather, wood or stone sold to single women or women whose husband’s were away at sea or war.

Japan, China and India produced a large amount of art depicting sex between both men and women and same sex lovers. The Kama Sutra, a love and sex manual, written by Vatsyayana in India during the first centuries CE is probably the most famous. In Japan, Woodblock prints were the predominant form of erotic art, with a style known as Shunga, produced until the 19th century and the advent of photography.

By the 18th century the beginning of modern pornography was well on its way. The novels of John Cleland, Memoirs of a woman of pleasure and Fanny Hill were translated and frequently reprinted. The notorious Marquis de Sade dramatized the connection between sex and violence while artists like Thomas Rowlandson produced increasing numbers of lewd prints.

The invention of motion pictures was the next technological advance to revolutionize the way pornography is consumed. In the late 1800’s William Kennedy who worked for Thomas Edison created a peep show machine through which a continuous loop of film could be viewed. He later constructed the mutoscope, a hand cranked machine generating moving images by using a revolving drum of card illustrations.

These usually depicted women undressing or acting as an artist’s model. In the United Kingdom where they most frequently featured at seaside resorts, they were known as “what the butler saw” machines, a name taken from one of the best known reels.

Almost immediately after Auguste and Louis Lumiere invented motion pictures that could be projected onto a screen, the first porn films were produced. Amongst the first film makers were Eugene Pirou and Albert Kirchner. In 1896, Kirchner, under the alias “Lear”, directed Le Coucher de la Marie depicting a striptease and which inspired a spate of risqué French films.

Generally though, Pirou is not credited for being the first pornographic filmmaker. Dave Thomson in Black and White and Blue (2008) suggests that a thriving industry had sprung up in the South American brothels by the turn of the century and rapidly spread to Central Europe, however none of these films appears to have survived. The earliest surviving porn film probably is Argentina’s classic El Sartorio (1907). Three women frolic in a river and start fondling one another. A man dressed as a devil with a tail, horns and false whiskers, emerges out of the foliage and captures one woman. The film includes oral sex and close up shots of genitalia.

After WW1 more formulaic so called "stag films" appeared. These contained scenes of graphic sex. Targeted at men only, they were frequently screened at "stag parties". Although by the 1920’s stag flicks had developed into a thriving underground American industry, a determined attack by law enforcement agencies repressed the business until the 1960’s. The advent of 8mm and super-8 film resulted in widespread amateur productions. When pornography was legalized in the Netherlands in 1969 there was an explosion of commercially produced films which were smuggled into other countries.

The late 60’ to early 1980’s are referred to as the Golden age of Porn. Adult material became more main-stream, while access to birth control and the fact that STD’s had not become a subject of public concern contributed to a sexual revolution. In 1972 Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door become a social phenomena followed by The Devil in Miss Jones in 1973. These hardcore porn films were viewed by mixed-sex audiences generally receiving positive media reviews to the extent that drive-in theatres would brazenly advertise the latest adult features and were shown in mainstream public theatres.

Amidst the permeation of these hard core films, Italian director Bernoldo Bertolucci produced the Last Tango in Paris, destined to become an art-cinema classic. With Marlon Brando in the leading role, it portrays a level of sexual violence that drew international controversy when it premiered in New York in 1972. Generating both intense interest and moral condemnation it was featured on the cover of both Time and Newsweek magazines. ABC’s Harry Reasoner denounced it as “pornography disguised as art” while others like Vincent Canby of the New York Times praised it as the artistic expression of the “era of Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer.

Exploring anger, despair and pain it is not porn in the sense that porn is commercial entertainment designed to arouse, while this film is more likely to induce despair than sexual excitement. Regardless of Bertoluccis intentions and artistic aspirations the film was seized by the Italian police within one week of its release. The prosecutor defined it as “self-serving pornography” and Bertolucci put on trial for obscenity.

The arrival of videos and DVD’s in the later 1970’s and 80’s enabled more private viewing in one’s own home rather than in a cinema or hall. The internet has taken it to totally new level of accessibility and commercial enterprise.

Marina Green is Women24's Sensuality expert, to ask her a question click here.

Marina Green is also the owner of Whet Sensuality Emporium

How do you feel about pornography? Let us know is the box below…

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