VLVL2 "...like a porno star" ? (237)

[jbor]

>> Why so? Frenesi's a film student (and promiscuous), and she runs a film
>> collective: she'd be aware of underground stag films and porn from overseas,
>> and probably quite a bit passed through the 24fps studios. John Holmes began
>> his career in 1965, and was definitely considered a "porn star" by 1969.
>> 
> Has anyone yet mentioned what was really driving the supply and demand
> for porno in the seventies? I wouldn't want to discount completely the
> technological input. Film- and video-making become cheaper and easier.
> But more important there had been a profound change in sexual behavior
> and mores only part of which was due to new technology. The incidence of
> sexual promiscuity materially took off in the seventies. You almost had
> to have been there to appreciate the change. It's hard to quite realize
> now that having sex with a reasonably desirable person one had been
> introduced to  became almost like shaking hands. The change was due to a
> number of factors that had gradually been building up and which at last
> converged and formed a critical mass at about the beginning of the
> decade. Chief among these was that promiscuous sex became much less
> dangerous. There were now fewer undesirable side effects. It was a
> regular window of opportunity for the licentious. The term safe sex of
> course had not yet needed to be invented. The herpes scare did not
> appear until late in the decade. Aids was years away. Birth control
> methods had become easier. Abortion was for the first time readily
> available and legal. Of great importance was the fact that being married
> was now significantly less vital to a woman's economic well being. She
> could support herself and her children on her own. Single women might
> decide why bother getting tied down. Married women reveled in the fact
> that it was no longer necessary to stick with the inert clod they had
> gotten stuck with in their youth. It would  be so much more exciting out
> in the world. And so it went. And it was great. Great while it lasted.
> Only thing was, after a while, another factor clicked into play. The old
> Orwellian idea that whatever is not forbidden is mandatory kicked in.
> Suddenly there was almost too much free sex available. The supply
> exceeded the demand as it were. And people naturally enough they began
> to ask themselves whether they were taking full advantage of the
> situation. Were they getting as much as they should? A lot of people
> came under a strain. Things weren't as exciting anymore for them and
> interest tended to flag. They began asking what was wrong with
> themselves.  And lo and behold in keeping with the great American way
> yet another unsatisfied need was felt and exploited. People would pay
> good money for something that would provide a bit of stimulation to
> their libidos. Something to renew the old sex urge to a state resembling
> that of the teen-ager. The porno business boomed.

The rise of feminism and all that "hippie free love" in the '60s played a
major part, too. Happenings, Warhol, Woodstock. It was what these '70s
adults, suddenly thrust into the work force and the financial
responsibilities of raising a family, had been used to when they were kids.
Wife swapping parties and infidelity (all those Updike novels, eg. _Couples_
in particular, even _Lot 49_) were already de rigueur in some circles in
"the swinging '60s".

best