Porntifications

Posted by mikezillion at December 26th, 2007

I truly appreciate living in California. Our Supreme Court just verified what we all knew already; malls are public places, and the public has a right to express itself according to the legal protections of the First Amendment in any mall. “A shopping mall is a public forum in which persons may reasonably
exercise their right to free speech,” said Justice Carlos R. Moreno, summarizing the 4-3 majority ruling. In the case which raised the issue, a San Diego mall was ruled to have violated the First Amendment rights of protesters handing out leaflets inside the mall.

Yes, my next trip to the mall may be disrupted. I think that’s a small price to pay for freedom of speech. I despair to think one day I might be so old and crotchety that my concern over personal discomfort could interfere with my sense of the importance of free speech.

My next question: what about public places online?

Posted by mikezillion at December 13th, 2007

Seth Godin’s postings always entertain, and sometimes point out useful resources, but this one surprised me. There’s no question that the adult entertainment industry is in the throes of violent upheaval. My inclination has been to go with my strengths and produce original and unique content that feeds the interests of my preferred niche. That’s based on seeing my agenda as a producer with known connections and a solid audience. But Seth’s right; opportunity comes when times change. Now I have to ruminate about the actual implications of these changes in the industry, and how best to leverage them. (Humph!)

Technorati Tags: media, chaos, publishing, adult entertainment

Posted by mikezillion at December 2nd, 2007

Bareback is the norm in straight porn. It is also the driving business model of several edgier gay porn companies. This split comes as a result of the higher level of awareness in the gay community about the dangers of barebacking. Some gay consumers get off on the danger of barebacking, either in their porn or in their personal lives. I don’t know of any studies, but I imagine that the popularity of bareback sex in porn has increased the popularity of bareback sex in real life.

Straight consumers don’t really seem to consider it a sexual act if some body fluid isn’t shared. At the moment, straight porn companies are hard-pressed to sell safe sex porn. Instead, the industry has turned to testing performers. That works for the performers, but it is a cop-out when it comes to social responsibility. Instead of eroticizing bareback sex, we as an industry could be demonstrating the broad erotic potential of safe sex.

The social networking sites are also split between bareback and safe sex seekers. Now a company called Safe Sex Passport is capitalizing on the popularity of bareback sex and the fear of disease with a service that will certify people as disease-free for a membership fee of $75 and a testing fee of about $200 or so. They claim to have over 15,000 registered members already.

It will be interesting to see how this new business model develops.

Posted by mikezillion at November 8th, 2007

According to an article in Forbes, Sumner Redstone, the Chairman of Viacom believes that copyright protection is the incentive which drives the creation of content. To me, that seems backwards.

I would say that copyright drives the production of much mediocre market-driven content (including a lot of pornography) but is actually a disincentive to true creative content creation.

If someone has something to say, and wants to get it said, any limitation on how many people are exposed to it will just frustrate the creative process. This is unlike child protection legislation, which filters an audience by the appropriateness of the message for the viewer. A creative artist wants everyone in the appropriate target audience to see. It is the folks who market the expression as a product who benefit from copyright protection.

On the other hand, if someone has nothing to say, but wants money for saying something people enjoy hearing, copyright is a true friend.

Perhaps this has implications for the writers strike?

Posted by mikezillion at November 8th, 2007

I was watching this documentary about how advertising targets the hidden desires of the masses. It occurred to me that pornography essentially gives away what advertising and PR (and maybe religion) only suggests in order to gain and hold an audience. Propaganda is mass persuasion based on individual hidden desires. According to the emerging theories of attention economy, pornography would be an obvious threat to any influencer seeking power.

Posted by mikezillion at October 16th, 2007

The Folsom Street Fair is urging supporters to contact their sponsor, Miller Brewing Company, to counter protests from religious organizations about this gorgeous promotional poster for the popular annual leather community event. Apparently some people think it is sacrilege to parody a painting of a scene from the bible. What part of “icon worship” don’t they get?

Posted by mikezillion at August 27th, 2007

One of my new favorite blogs is Behind Kink, published by the good folks who run Kink.com out of the beautiful San Francisco Armory Building. They’ve been doing for video blogging what “Got Milk” did for television commercials. For example, a recent posting includes a great behind-the-scenes video about how they evaluate straight male talent for their productions. (Sometimes I’m really glad I’m gay!)

Posted by mikezillion at July 10th, 2007

I know, I know. What the hell is a porn blog doing covering Disney? Well, not linking to them, for one thing. But the fact is that Disney’s “Toontown” has over a million unique users, and charges them all $9.95 a month for access, but the company has decided to abandon the subscription model in favor of an advertiser-supported solution. This is a noteworthy switch in tactics. There may well be significant implications for all the porn publishers who use subscription-based services to sell their products.

Posted by mikezillion at June 3rd, 2007

Exhibitionism is becoming part of normal expressive sexuality, but it’s starting to affect our children in negative ways. Given the trend, it may be that exhibitionists with alternative body types, such as the popular Suicide Girls site, could help pave the way to a more accepting and healthy body image for all of us.

Posted by mikezillion at May 13th, 2007

It’s more about the changes in distribution than it is about the actual content, in this case. I’m stoked to see James Patrick Kelly’s novella, Burn, won the Nebula Award this past weekend. This is the first time I’m aware of seeing a piece which has a Creative Commons License and is distributed via podcast win such a prestigious award. Things are changing, and as long as you pay attention, there is no change that is not for the better.