Sociologists have observed that pornography is becoming increasingly mainstream, especially among people who are now in their teens and twenties. No longer something for men to hide under a mattress, pornography is now considered, by many in these generations, to be a routine and regular part of everyday life for both men and women.
I was struck by this normalization of porn while watching a special on the technological challenges facing pornographers today. The show, Vanguard, does special in-depth reporting on a different topic each episode. Here is a screen shot of the most recent episodes available on Hulu. You’ll see that recent episodes cover the war, revolution in Cuba, and illegal and legal drugs:
I found out about the program because it was on the front page of Hulu:
So, just to be clear, this program was just plain ‘ol, regular programming for regular folk.
And the program treated pornography as if it was just any other industry; it could have been a discussion of the car industry in light of the economic downturn or pig farmers in light of swine flu.
It’s not that I necessarily think that the show should have been all “Oh and, by the way, we know this is porn and porn is bad OOGA BOOGA!” I was just shocked by how easily it brushed off any such concerns (with a few employees explaining that their job is just like any other job) and moved onto the “isn’t it interesting how the industry is coping with these new challenges.”
I feel like I’m having a tough time explaining it. If you’ve got 22-minutes, see for yourself:
(I’m sorry non-American readers! I know you can’t watch Hulu! You maybe able to watch it here.)
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See also our posts on pornification of everyday life here, here, and here.
