The one news item about the Internet the never seems to die is this controversy about kids and pornography. I may not be qualified to take part in this debate; I’ve never seen any porn on the web, I’m not inclined to go looking for it. I don’t think I’m missing anything though, porn is the same as it’s always been. I don’t think there’s been anything really new in the world of porn since the domestication of the donkey. So let’s consider porn in general and that may shed light on the debate about porn and the ‘net.
Porn comes in three classes: hardcore, softcore and National Geographic. All three classes have always existed, the only thing that’s changed over the years is availability.
Sixty years ago, when my dad was a lad, he and his friends had to content themselves with National Geographic, waiting for it to arrive each month in the mail, hoping for a photographically-enhanced feature about unclad or semi-clad aboriginal women in the tropics. As often as not the issue would be devoted to mountaineering or polar exploration, and they would have to resort to imagination and hope for another four weeks.
Flashing ahead 30 years to my own youth, there was no porn in the house where I grew up, but some dads in the neighborhood subscribed to Playboy and we would find back issues neatly stacked in basement workshops, next to the Skilsaw and the Black and Decker drill. We would peruse these carefully and just as carefully put them back where we had found them.
It was about this time that Penthouse magazine appeared behind the drug store counter to give Playboy a run for its money and Playboy got dirtier, hoping to fend off the competition. All the boys in my neighborhood exulted in the benefits bestowed by the invisible hand of the free market. Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione, Adam Smith – what a combination.
I grew up near a railroad line and sometimes in winter a coal train would founder in deep snow and stall. Cabooses were still used then and when a train got stuck and was left for a few days, we boys would find our way into the caboose, looking for flares. On one occasion, we came upon the brakemen’s stash of pornographic magazines. We immediately forgot about flares. We hauled the magazines off to a backyard fort and started reviewing. No Playboy or Penthouse here – this was real hardcore porn. I’d never even heard of these titles. And the pictures! These magazines had photos on the cover that were worse than anything I’d seen in the deepest recesses of Penthouse. I didn’t want to admit it to my friends, but I thought if this is really what S-E-X is all about, then maybe I should give some more thought to celibacy and the priesthood.
My brush with hardcore was a turning point, it signaled the end of my interest in porn. After that, even the softcore stuff seemed ridiculous. I had satisfied my curiosity, I was getting older, my attention moved on to other pursuits – like real girls. The guys who continued to be interested in porn seemed immature, cases of arrested development.
Today there’s porn on the Internet and kids are looking at it. I think the biggest danger is that we adults will make too big a deal out of it. Ninety-eight percent of kids who surf porn on the ‘net will look at it and move on when they’ve seen enough. It gets old pretty quick. As for the other two percent, well, they’ve always been there and they’ll seek out porn, whether it’s on the Internet or in a locked box in the basement of the Library of Congress.
There’s an old saying that says treating a cold will make it go away in seven days, but a cold left to itself will hang on for a week. On-line porn is a similar, minor ailment that can be treated with the same prescription.
Hardcore, Softcore, National Geographic
The one news item about the Internet the never seems to die is this controversy about kids and pornography. I may not be qualified to take part in this debate; I’ve never seen any porn on the web, I’m not inclined to go looking for it. I don’t think I’m missing anything though, porn is the same as it’s always been. I don’t think there’s been anything really new in the world of porn since the domestication of the donkey. So let’s consider porn in general and that may shed light on the debate about porn and the ‘net.
Porn comes in three classes: hardcore, softcore and National Geographic. All three classes have always existed, the only thing that’s changed over the years is availability.
Sixty years ago, when my dad was a lad, he and his friends had to content themselves with National Geographic, waiting for it to arrive each month in the mail, hoping for a photographically-enhanced feature about unclad or semi-clad aboriginal women in the tropics. As often as not the issue would be devoted to mountaineering or polar exploration, and they would have to resort to imagination and hope for another four weeks.
Flashing ahead 30 years to my own youth, there was no porn in the house where I grew up, but some dads in the neighborhood subscribed to Playboy and we would find back issues neatly stacked in basement workshops, next to the Skilsaw and the Black and Decker drill. We would peruse these carefully and just as carefully put them back where we had found them.
It was about this time that Penthouse magazine appeared behind the drug store counter to give Playboy a run for its money and Playboy got dirtier, hoping to fend off the competition. All the boys in my neighborhood exulted in the benefits bestowed by the invisible hand of the free market. Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione, Adam Smith – what a combination.
I grew up near a railroad line and sometimes in winter a coal train would founder in deep snow and stall. Cabooses were still used then and when a train got stuck and was left for a few days, we boys would find our way into the caboose, looking for flares. On one occasion, we came upon the brakemen’s stash of pornographic magazines. We immediately forgot about flares. We hauled the magazines off to a backyard fort and started reviewing. No Playboy or Penthouse here – this was real hardcore porn. I’d never even heard of these titles. And the pictures! These magazines had photos on the cover that were worse than anything I’d seen in the deepest recesses of Penthouse. I didn’t want to admit it to my friends, but I thought if this is really what S-E-X is all about, then maybe I should give some more thought to celibacy and the priesthood.
My brush with hardcore was a turning point, it signaled the end of my interest in porn. After that, even the softcore stuff seemed ridiculous. I had satisfied my curiosity, I was getting older, my attention moved on to other pursuits – like real girls. The guys who continued to be interested in porn seemed immature, cases of arrested development.
Today there’s porn on the Internet and kids are looking at it. I think the biggest danger is that we adults will make too big a deal out of it. Ninety-eight percent of kids who surf porn on the ‘net will look at it and move on when they’ve seen enough. It gets old pretty quick. As for the other two percent, well, they’ve always been there and they’ll seek out porn, whether it’s on the Internet or in a locked box in the basement of the Library of Congress.
There’s an old saying that says treating a cold will make it go away in seven days, but a cold left to itself will hang on for a week. On-line porn is a similar, minor ailment that can be treated with the same prescription.