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Below this point is relevant Wikipedia Reference Material
Blog
A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are commonly
displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb,
meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function
as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links
to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for
readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many
blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog),
photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting)
are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of
blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.
As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112
million blogs.
History
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including
Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe,
e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum
software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads
are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some
have likened blogging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th
century.[citation needed]
1983–1990 (Pre-HTTP)
Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the
World Wide Web.It featured the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in
a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such
newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one
exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual:
Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of
interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its
serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong
similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool
places on the net chosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics
commonly associated with the term "blog".[citation needed][original research?]
It ceased operation after approximately 8 months. Brad Templeton calls the
newsgroup rec.humor.funny (which he founded) the world's oldest still existing
blog.
1994–2001
Main article: Online diary
Brad Fitzpatrick, an early blogger.The modern blog evolved from the online
diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most
such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few
called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of
the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal
blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized
as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle.[citation needed] Another
early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's
personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a
wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of
semi-automated blogging with live video together with text, was referred to as
sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.
Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game
programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger
protocol. Some of the very earliest bloggers, like Steve Gibson of sCary's
Quakeholio (now Shacknews) and Stephen Heaslip of Blue's News (still running
since 1995 with online archives back to July 1996), evolved from the Quake scene
and Carmack's .plan updates. Steve Gibson was hired to blog full-time by Ritual
Entertainment on February 8, 1997 , possibly making him the first hired blogger.
Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still
often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted
by date. One example of a news based "weblog" is the Drudge Report founded by
the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes
this classification. Another is the Institute for Public Accuracy which began
posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several
times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blog was the
tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend
Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites.
However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of
web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process
feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted
in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize
today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a
typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting
services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable
Type, Blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form,
"blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the
phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999.
This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit
one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread
during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the
near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online
diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog
community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blogger started LiveJournal in March 1999.
Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to
maintaining a "news page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999,
focusing more on a personal diary community.
Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999
(purchased by Google in February 2003)
Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other
pages easier — specifically permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This, together
with weblog search engines enabled bloggers to track the threads that connected
them to others with similar interests.
2001–2004
Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's
AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political
Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, and
Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blogging primarily on politics (two earlier
popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in
1998 and Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999).
By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to
appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blogging
community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly.
Established schools of journalism began researching blogging and noting the
differences between journalism and blogging.
Also in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond,
praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been
better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these
comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by
Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and
recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall's Talking Points
Memo.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media,
no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after
blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced
Lott to step down as majority leader.
The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news
dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead
the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media
having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to
material already published by the mainstream media.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in
breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking
measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right
divide of the political spectrum.
Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express
opinions on war and other issues, cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See
Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts
blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J.
Bradford DeLong.)
The second Iraq war was the first "blog war"[citation needed] in another way:
Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of
his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "warblogs"[citation
needed] gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often
offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources.
Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example,
bloggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism
demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.
Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events,
creating a secondary meaning of the word "blogging": to simultaneously
transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For
example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to
Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blog as I watch her on television.")
Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblogging."
2004–present
In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political
consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach
and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's
Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller
called "The blogging of the President," which covered a transformation in
politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began
regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached
print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In
the summer of 2004, both United States Democratic and Republican Parties'
conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the
publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews'
Hardball, formed their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog"
as the word of the year in 2004.
In 2004, Global Voices Online, a site which "aggregates, curates, and amplifies
the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media
often ignore" surfaced, bringing to light bloggers from around the world. Today,
the site has a relationship with Reuters and is responsible for breaking many
global news stories.
Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, to wit:
(television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60
Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military
service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented
evidence and arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it
said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs). Many
bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media,
both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and
others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his
pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily
Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In
counter-point, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass media personality who has moved in
the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential
blogger.
Some blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such
as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from
affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Similarly, during Hurricane
Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blogs which were located in New
Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and
an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the
Main Stream Media.
In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September
2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC
News launched a weblog for its editors, following other news companies.
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people
"could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan
Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
Types
A photo of Joi Ito's moblog.There are various types of blogs, and each differs
in the way content is delivered or written.
By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a
linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one
comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed
media types are called tumblelogs.
An Artlog is a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but
differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on Art work rather than text.
A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog
By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog
written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA is called a moblog.
Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs,
fashion blogs, project blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, legal blogs
(often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of
blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.
Legal status of publishers
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes.
Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a
corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR purposes are called
corporate blogs.
Blog search engines
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the
blogosphere), such as blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides
current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog
postings.
Blogging Communities and Directories
Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to
other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. A collection of local blogs
is sometimes referred to as a Bloghood.
Popularity
Recently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular.
There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as
well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion
from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to
become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly,
and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls,
since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem
it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.
Recently, through the mass popularity of sponsored post ventures such as
PayPerPost (now known as Izea) a large number of personal blogs have started
writing sponsored posts for advertisers wanting to boost buzz about new products
and services. It has revolutionised the blogosphere almost in the same way that
Google AdSense did.The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT
Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to
investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4
years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the
blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can thus be considered
the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a
similar function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are also given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming
links and Alexa Internet based on the web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August
2006, Technorati listed the most linked-to blog as that of Chinese actress Xu
Jinglei and the most-read blog as group-written Boing Boing. Gartner forecasts
that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who
maintain a personal website reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that
the novelty value of the medium will wear off as most people who are interested
in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the number
of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that
there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their
online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam"
— that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web.
It was reported by Chinese media Xinhua that the blog of Xu Jinglei received
more than 50 million page views, claiming to be the most popular blog in the
world. In mid-2006, it also had the most incoming links of any blogs on the
Internet.
Blurring with the mass media
Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism,
differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of
that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging
as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the
public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor the role
of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other
contributors to user generated content are behind Time magazine naming their
2006 person of the year as "you".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300,
according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a weblog
on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer
published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.
Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together
scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic
languages, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional Gaelic areas
as Kazakhstan and Alaska. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic
feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their
blogs, e.g., Salam Pax, Ellen Simonetti, Jessica Cutler, ScrappleFace. Blog-based
books have been given the name blook. A prize for the best blog-based book was
initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize. However success has been elusive
offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only sex
blogger Tucker Max cracked the New York Times Bestseller List.
Blogging consequences
The emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other
often unforeseen consequences. One area of concern is the issue of bloggers
releasing proprietary or confidential information. Another area of concern is
blogging and defamation. A third area of concern is employees who write about
aspects of their place of employment or their personal lives, and then face loss
of employment or other adverse consequences. A number of examples of blogging
and its sometimes negative or unforeseen consequences are cited here.
Defamation or liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers
concerning issues of defamation or liability. The courts have returned with
mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are immune from
liability for information that originates with Third Parties (U.S.
Communications Decency Act and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent
standards had to be met to unmask anonymous bloggers, and also took the unusual
step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law)
rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a
bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who
turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman
Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the
mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.
In Malaysia, eight Royal Dutch Shell Group companies collectively obtained in
June 2004 an Interim Injunction and Restraining Order against a Shell
whistleblower, a Malaysian geologist and former Shell employee, Dr John Huong.
The proceedings are in respect of alleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr
Huong on a weblog hosted in North America but owned and operated by an 89 year
old British national, Alfred Donovan, a long term critic of Shell. The Shell
action is directed solely against Dr Huong. Further proceedings against Dr Huong
were issued by the same plaintiff companies in 2006 in respect of publications
on Donovan weblog sites in 2005 and 2006. The further proceedings include a
"Notice to Show Cause" relating to a "contempt of court" action potentially
punishable by imprisonment. The contempt hearing and a related application by
the eight Royal Dutch Shell plaintiff companies for Dr Huong to produce Alfred
Donovan for cross-examination in connection with an affidavit Donovan provided,
was scheduled to be heard in the High Court of Malay in Kuala Lumpur on 17
August 2006. Donovan's principle weblog is royaldutchshellplc.com. In January
2007, two prominent political bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan were sued
by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad,
Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John
Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian
government. Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register"
all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their
interest. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.
In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in which she referred to a
politician (who had also expressed his views in the same blog) using various
uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician
found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the
ISP and successfully sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs.
In the United States blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation
and publication of trade secrets in 2005.According to Wired Magazine, Traffic
Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results."
Wall and other "white hat" search engine optimization consultants had exposed
Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case
was watched by many bloggers because it addressed the murky legal question of
who's liable for comments posted on blogs.
Employment
In general, attempts at hiding the blogger's name and/or the place of employment
in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blogger. Employees who
blog about elements of their place of employment raise the issue of employee
branding, since their activities can begin to affect the brand recognition of
their employer.
Ellen Simonetti, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, was fired by the airline
for photos of herself in uniform on an airplane and comments posted on her blog
"Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which her employer deemed
inappropriate.This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom
of expression vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide
media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful
termination, defamation of character and lost future wages". The suit is
postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London
School of Economics was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down
and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the
school.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined during the 2006
NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after a mere 10 days of employment at Google for
discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog.
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the
false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening
to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.
Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while
employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was
fired, she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne:
A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case
that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the
privacy of their real life associates.
Catherine Sanderson, aka Petite Anglaise, lost her job in Paris at a British
accountancy firm as a consequence of blogging. Although given in the blog in a
fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its
people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case
against the British firm, however.
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globe in 2006, was one of the
first to point out that a large portion of bloggers are professionals, and a
well written blog can actually help attract employers.
Political dangers
Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive
areas. Blogs are much harder to control than broadcast or even print media. As a
result totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to suppress down blogs,
or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s
anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their weblogs.
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged with insulting the Egyptian president
Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his online blog. It is the
first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief
trial session that took place in Alexandria, the blogger was found guilty and
sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting
sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for things
written in his blog. Monem, for whom a campaign has been taken up at is a member
of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After expressing opinions in his personal weblog about the state of the Sudanese
armed forces, Jan Pronk, United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan,
was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his
deportation.
Personal blogs
Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream. That does not mean that
authors of personal blogs do not take their blogging seriously. Personal
bloggers take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by
anyone but them. It is here that blogging becomes more than a way to communicate
and becomes a way to reflect on life. Blogging can have a sentimental quality.
Bloggers post about their day or their opinions on different matters. Personal
blogs may not be important to readers, but for the people who write them, they
are works of art.
Personal safety
One unfortunate consequence of blogging is the possibility of attacks or threats
against the blogger, sometimes without apparent reason. Kathy Sierra, author of
the innocuous blog Creating Passionate Users, was the target of such vicious
threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a
technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blogger's
anonymity is often tenuous, internet trolls who would attack a blogger with
threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters
initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior,and
developed a blogger's code of conduct.
Cybersex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WebcamCybersex, computer sex, internet sex or net sex is a virtual sex encounter
in which two or more persons connected remotely via a computer network send one
another sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience. It is a form
of role-playing in which the participants pretend they are having actual sexual
relations. In one iteration, this fantasy sex is accomplished by the
participants describing their actions and responding to their chat partners in a
mostly written form designed to stimulate their own sexual feelings and
fantasies. Cybersex may also be accomplished through the use of avatars in a
multiuser software environment.Cybersex sometimes includes real life
masturbation. The quality of a cybersex encounter typically depends upon the
participants' abilities to evoke a vivid, visceral mental picture in the minds
of their partners. Imagination and suspension of disbelief are also critically
important. Cybersex can occur either within the context of existing or intimate
relationships, e.g. among lovers who are geographically separated, or among
individuals who have no prior knowledge of one another and meet in virtual
spaces or cyberspaces and may even remain anonymous to one another. In some
contexts cybersex is enhanced by the use of webcams to transmit real-time video
of the partners.Cybersex is sometimes colloquially called "cybering". Channels
used to initiate cybersex are not necessarily exclusively devoted to that
subject, and participants in any Internet chat may suddenly receive a message
with any possible variation of the text "Wanna cybersex"
Characteristics
Cybersex illustrated by artist Peter KlashorstCybersex is commonly performed in
Internet chat rooms (such as IRC, talkers or web chats) and on instant messaging
systems. It can also be performed using webcams, voice chat systems like Skype,
or online games and/or virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life.
The exact definition of cybersex--specifically, whether real-life masturbation
must be taking place for the online sex act to count as cybersex--is up for
debate.Though text-based cybersex has been in practice for decades, the
increased popularity of webcams has raised the number of online partners using
two-way video connections to "expose" themselves to each other online--giving
the act of cybersex a more visual aspect. There are a number of popular,
commercial webcam websites that allow people to openly masturbate on camera
while others watch them.[3] Using similar sites, couples can also perform on
camera for the enjoyment of others.Cybersex differs from phone sex in that it
offers a greater degree of anonymity and allows participants to meet partners
more easily. A good deal of cybersex takes place between partners who have just
met online. Unlike phone sex, cybersex in chat rooms is rarely commercial. In
online worlds like Second Life however, internet sex workers engage in cybersex
in exchange for both virtual and real-life currency.One approach to cybering is
a simulation of "real" sex, when participants try to make the experience as
close to real life as possible, with participants taking turns writing
descriptive, sexually explicit passages. Alternatively, it can be considered a
form of role playing that allows a couple to experience unusual sexual
sensations and carry out sexual experiments they cannot try in reality. Amongst
"serious" roleplayers, cybering may occur as part of a larger plot - the
characters involved may be lovers or spouses, or a character could be raped to
initiate a plotline. In situations like this, the people typing often consider
themselves separate entities from the "people" engaging in the sexual acts, much
as the author of a novel often does not completely identify with his or her
characters.
Cybersex is often ridiculed because the partners frequently have little
verifiable knowledge whatsoever about each other, not even their partner's or
partners' gender. However, since for many, the primary point of cybersex is the
realistic simulation of sexual activity, this knowledge is not always desired or
necessary.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
Since cybersex can satisfy some sexual desires without the risk of sexually
transmitted disease or pregnancy, it is a physically safe way for young people
to experiment with sexual thoughts and emotions. Additionally, people with
long-term ailments (including HIV) can engage in cybersex as a way to safely
achieve sexual gratification without putting their partners at risk.Cybersex
allows "real-life" partners who are physically separated to continue to be
sexually intimate. In geographically separated relationships, it can have an
important function in sustaining the sexual dimension of a relationship in which
the partners see each other only infrequently face to face.Cybersex can also
enhance the role playing aspect of MUDs or MMORPGs, as it can give the
characters that people are playing a more lifelike quality. It's very hard to
portray a realistic relationship within a game without addressing the sexual
aspects of the relationship.
It is also fairly frequent in on-line role-playing games, such as rpol, MUDs and
MMORPGs, though approval of this activity varies greatly from game to game. Some
online social games like Red Light Center are dedicated to cybersex and other
adult behaviors. These online games are often called AMMORPGs. Cybersex is
sometimes called "mudsex" in MUDs. In TinyMUD variants, particularly MUCKs, the
term "TinySex", abbreviated "TS", is very common. See also yiff.Cybersex can be
utilised to write co-written original fiction and fanfiction by role-playing in
third person. As a direct result the fanfiction is almost always more realistic
and sexually arousing, thanks to two people being involved in the
process.{[citation needed] It can also be used to gain experience for solo
writers who want to write more realistic sex scenes, by exchanging ideas.It can
enable participants to act out fantasies which they would not act out (or
perhaps would not even be realistically possible) in real life through
roleplaying due to physical or social limitations and potential for
misunderstanding, such as extreme BDSM, homosexuality, incest, zoophilia or
rape.Cybersex has also been used in therapy to help those who are too shy or are
unsure of how to (re)enter the dating and sexual scene. For example, some
therapists have clients practice flirting skills and rehearse how to ask for
what they want sexually in chat rooms.
Disadvantages and associated problems
Debate continues among moralists on whether cybersex is a form of infidelity.
While it does not involve physical contact, critics claim that the powerful
emotions involved can cause marital stress, especially when cybersex culminates
in an Internet romance. In several known cases Internet adultery became the
grounds for which a couple divorced.[citation needed]Additionally, the anonymous
nature of online chat permits rather cruel pranks. The intimate nature of
cybersex may in some cases be rudely shattered by pranksters who solicit
cybersex, but with the actual intention to post the logs in public. Many guides
for netiquette warn against this.Therapists report a growing number of patients
addicted to this activity, a form of both Internet addiction and sexual
addiction, with the standard problems associated with addictive
behaviour.Deviations of social norms
While the ongoing arguments between the advantages and disadvantages of cyber
sex are apparent, there have been attempts to destigmatize the area of, and
people who involve themselves in, acts of cyber sex. One of the first such acts
to attempt this was the Cyber Sex Championship of 2004 (CSC 2004). While
primarily considered a protest against the stigma associated with cyber sex, it
has often been ridiculed due to the participation of "geeks", this argument was
further enforced due to CSC 2004 being held on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
protocol, on th EFnet network. Users were encouraged to break down the social
norms and participate in cyber sex, not only with members of the opposing sex,
but any users who felt it was appropriate to join the conversation. The cyber
sex was judged by a group of independent users, and the announced winner and
runner up were GUiLe` and SPiDeY^ respectively. The nicks, or handles, were
permitted to be used instead of the users real names, which has further inflamed
the debate of whether or not had positive influence on destigmatizing the act of
cyber sex.
Sexual predators and law enforcement
The relative anonymity of Internet communication may provide encouragement to
seek out underage cybersex partners. In the course of such conversations, such
individuals sometimes try to send child pornography to others or arrange
real-life meetings (see child grooming).In the United States, police officers
sometimes pose as minors in chat rooms in order to bait underage-sexual
predators.[6] On one occasion, an elderly man from Georgia flew into
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta to meet what he
thought was an underage girl he had met online with whom to have sex, only to
meet sheriff's deputies instead. Another time, a teacher from Minnesota was
arrested by FBI agents in Yuma, Arizona's airport, after he had arranged online
to meet and have sex with what he thought were two eight-year-old girls.This
practice is sometimes somewhat controversial, and in some cases may be
considered a form of entrapment, especially if the accused can prove that they
were not intentionally 'grooming' their target, that the enforcer was
encouraging them to meet, or that the meeting's intention was non-sexual.The
prevalence of predatory pedophiles in some forms of online communication has
attracted many civilians to mislead or troll those trying to groom underaged
children. One example is the vigilante group Perverted-Justice.com.
Free
content
Free content, or free information, is any kind of functional work, artwork, or
other creative content having no significant legal restriction relative to
people's freedom to use, redistribute, and produce modified versions of and
works derived from the content.Free content encompasses all works in the public
domain and also those copyrighted works whose licenses honor and uphold the
freedoms mentioned above. Because the law by default grants copyright holders
monopolistic control over their creations, copyrighted content must be
explicitly declared free, usually by the referencing or inclusion of licensing
statements from within the work.(A work in the public domain cannot be licensed
under copyright because, by definition, its copyright has expired or has been
relinquished. However, such a work is still considered free content, because it
may be used for any purpose whatsoever — except, naturally, being
re-copyrighted.)
Free content licenses
Free content licensesmay be copyleft - in which case modifications of the work
must themselves be distributed only under the terms of the original free license
- or else they are non-copyleft, which means that the licensed work may be
modified and then distributed under a different license, even one that is less
free.
Most free content licenses contain provisions specifying that derivative works
must attribute or give credit to the authors of the original, a requirement
which promotes intellectual honesty and discourages plagiarism without imposing
so great a burden as to weaken the claim of such licenses to being truly free.
The Design Science License (DSL), and GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) are
copyleft licenses for free content. The FreeBSD Documentation License is an
example of a non-copyleft license. The GNU General Public License (GPL) can also
be used as a free content license. Against DRM license is a free copyleft
license for artworks published by Free Creations.
Other examples of free content licenses are some of those published by Creative
Commons when commercial use and derivative works are not restricted, although
they do not require a source copy of the license be provided. Note that not all
Creative Commons licenses are free content as defined here. The Libre Society
project also has some free content licenses and a critique of the Creative
Commons philosophy.
It is questioned whether the IANG license complies with the definition of free
content given here, since it puts responsibilities on redistribution the
product, notably by requiring access to financial accounting.
Gratis versus Libre
"Free as in freedom" redirects here. For the book, see Free as in Freedom:
Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software.
Gratis versus Libre is the distinction between 'zero price' (gratis) and
'freedom' (libre). Gratis appears in many English dictionaries, including the
Oxford English Dictionary. However, libre usually does not at present, and no
English adjective signifies freedom only. This distinction is often important in
dealing with laws concerning the use of information, such as copyright and
patents. The terms are often used in the free software and open source
communities, as well as the broader free culture movement, to categorize
computer programs according to the licenses and legal restrictions that cover
them. Both this expression and the term gratis are used to distinguish freeware
(gratis software) from free software.
Gratis Look up gratis, free of charge in Wiktionary, the free dictionary."Gratis"
redirects here. For the referral marketing company, see Gratis Internet.Gratis
is the plural ablative form of the first declension noun "gratia" in Latin and
used as an adjective in various Romance and Germanic languages (like Spanish,
Portuguese and Dutch) meaning "for nothing," in the sense that one does not have
to pay for some good or service (free of charge), even though the good or
service has value.
Libre "Libre" redirects here. For the French pop album, see Libre (Sébastien
Izambard). For Marc Anthony album, see Libre (album).Look up libre in Wiktionary,
the free dictionary.Libre is a word in various Romance languages, such as
Spanish and French (descended from the Latin word liber), that denotes the state
of being free, as in "having freedom". Members of the free software community
often talk about free as in free speech (libre) and free as in free beer
(gratis, gratuit), as the word free in English does not distinguish between
these meanings. "Free software" usually means the former.
Pornographic film
Pornographic films are motion pictures that explicitly depict sexual intercourse
and other sexual acts, typically for the purpose of sexual arousal in the
viewer. They appeared shortly after the creation of the motion picture in the
early 1900s. Pornographic films have much in common with other forms of
pornography. Pornography is often referred to as "porn" and a pornographic work
as a "porno." Older names for a pornographic movie include "adult film," "stag
film," and "blue movie." In general, "softcore" refers to pornography that does
not depict penetration or "extreme fetish" acts, while "hardcore" refers to
pornography that depicts penetration and/or extreme fetish acts.Throughout its
history, the movie camera has been used for pornography, but for most of that
time pornographic movies were typically available only by underground
distribution, for projection at home or in private clubs and also night cinemas.
Only in the 1970s were pornographic films semi-legitimized; by the 1980s,
pornography on home video achieved distribution unimagined only decades earlier.
The rise of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s similarly changed
distribution of pornography, and furthermore complicated legal prosecution of
obscenity.Pornography is a thriving, financially profitable business: according
to a 2004 Reuters article, "The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about
11,000 titles on DVD each year, giving it tremendous power to sway the battle
between two groups of studios and technology companies competing to set
standards for the next generation".
History Early examples Images from early Austrian erotic movies (about 1906,
first image showing Am Sklavenmarkt) by photographer Johann Schwarzer and his
Saturn Film company.See also: History of erotic depictions Pornographic motion
pictures are nearly as old as the medium itself. According to Patrick
Robertson's Film Facts, "the earliest pornographic motion picture which can
definitely be dated is A L'Ecu d'Or ou la bonne auberge", made in France in
1908; the plot depicts a weary soldier who has a tryst with an inn's servant
girl. Robertson notes that the Argentine pornographic film El Satario might be
even older; it has been dated to somewhere between 1907 and 1912. Robertson
notes that "the oldest surviving pornographic films are contained in America's
Kinsey Collection." One film demonstrates how early pornographic conventions
were established. The German film Am Abend (c. 1910) is, as Robertson writes, "a
ten-minute film which begins with a woman masturbating alone in her bedroom, and
progresses to scenes of her with a man performing sex, fellatio and anal
penetration." (Robertson, p. 66)
Pornographic movies were widespread in the silent movie era of the 1920s, and
were often shown in brothels. Many pornographic films were made in subsequent
decades, but given the usually clandestine nature of the filming and
distribution, details of such "stag films" are often difficult to obtain. It is
probably reasonable to assume that many sexually explicit films made before
about 1950 are lost forever.
1960s and 1970s: Changing laws, changing attitudes In the 1960s, some attitudes
towards the depiction of sexuality began to change. European movies like
Kärlekens Språk (1969) were sexually explicit, but were framed as a
quasi-documentaries, which made their legal status uncertain.In 1969, Denmark
became the first country to legalize hardcore pornography, and soon started
producing theatrical feature film sex comedies such as Bordellet (1972) and I
Jomfruens tegn (1973), starring mainstream actors and usually not thought of as
"porno films" though including hardcore pornographic scenes.
One important court case in the U.S. was Miller v. California. The case
established that obscenity was not legally protected, but the case also
established the Miller test, a three-pronged test to determine obscenity (which
is not legal) as opposed to indecency (which may or may not be legal).
Porno chic More permissive legislation permitted the rise of "XXX-rated" movie
theaters in the United States in the 1970s. There was also a proliferation of
coin-operated "movie booths" in sex shops that displayed pornographic "loops"
(so-called because they projected a movie from film arranged in a continuous
loop).
At that time, pornographic movies even approached acceptance into the mainstream
movie industry, with films such as Johnny Wadd, Debbie Does Dallas, Juan Does
Debbie, Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, Boys in the Sand and Gerard
Damiano's 1972 film The Devil in Miss Jones being shot on film with high
production values, and grossing substantial amounts in movie theaters. These
helped establish "porno chic" as a cultural trend.
1970s and 1980s: New technology, new legal cases With the arrival of the home
video cassette recorder in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the pornographic
movie industry experienced massive growth and spawned adult stars like Ginger
Lynn, Christy Canyon, and Traci Lords. One could now not only watch pornography
in the comfort and privacy of one's own home, but also find more choices
available to satisfy specific fantasies and fetishes. Similarly, the camcorder
spurred changes in pornography in the 1980s, when people could make their own
amateur sex movies, whether for private use, or for wider distribution.
It has been suggested that, among other things, Sony Betamax lost the format war
to VHS (in becoming the general home video recording/viewing system) because the
adult video industry chose VHS instead of the technically superior Sony system.
1987 saw an important legal case in the U.S. when the de facto result of
California v. Freeman was the legalization of hardcore pornography. Ironically,
the prosecution of Harold Freeman was initially planned as the first in a series
of legal cases that would have effectively outlawed the production of such
movies.
1990s Two technologies became prominent in the 1990s that changed pornographic
movies: the DVD offered better quality picture and sound, and was embraced by
pornographers just as enthusiastically as it was embraced by major Hollywood
studios and by private consumers. DVD allowed innovations such as "interactive"
videos that let the user choose such variables as multiple camera angles,
multiple endings (e.g., "Devil in the Flesh", 1999, Private Films), and
computer-only DVD content. Erotic film producers are expected to play a major
role in deciding the next DVD standard: large outfits tend to support the
high-capacity Blu-ray Disc, while small outfits generally favor the
less-expensive HD-DVD.[citation needed]
However, the internet arguably changed the distribution of pornography more than
any earlier technology: rather than ordering movies from an adult bookstore, or
through mail-order, people could watch pornographic movies on their computers.
Rather than waiting weeks for an order to arrive from another U.S. state, one
could download a pornographic movie within minutes (or, later, within a few
seconds).
The internet also complicated legal prosecution of obscentity cases: if someone
downloads a video clip that no one else in their town sees, are community
standards violated? If a pornographic movie is produced in one U.S. state and
downloaded in another state (after having been routed through half-a-dozen
states via an internet service provider), in which jurisdiction should the legal
case be introduced? These and related questions are still being sorted out in
U.S. courts.
In 1998, the Danish, Oscar-nominated film production company Zentropa became the
world's first mainstream film company to openly produce hardcore pornographic
films, starting with Constance (1998). That same year, Zentropa also produced
Idioterne (1998), directed by Lars von Trier, which started a wave of
international mainstream arthouse films featuring explicit sexual images. Around
the same time, the Danish TV-channel Kanal København started broadcasting
hardcore films uncoded and for free (as of 2008, it still does, courtesy of
Innocent Pictures, a company started by Zentropa).
In the UK, attitudes to censorship became more relaxed. It is not illegal to
make or to perform in pornographic films in the UK. Films with sexually explicit
content have been shown on national TV.
2000s Attitudes to the portrayal of sexual activities on film and on television
have become more open in this decade.[citation needed] For example, the film The
Idiots, a Danish film made in 1998, was shown on UK TV in 2005. It includes
nudity, an orgy scene, and a full sexual intercourse scene complete with
close-up footage of the act. The camera viewpoint was from the ankles of the
participants, and the close ups left no-doubt as to what was taking place. These
scenes were included when the film was shown on the national TV channel Channel
4. The film has won many international awards for best film and various other
film industry awards. Pornographic movies are also known in eastern Asia as "Panu."
Legal status Main article: List of pornography laws by region Sub-genres Current
pornographic movies can be divided into a number of sub-genres by the sex of the
performers, the types of sex act portrayed, and the intended audience AIDS and
the porn industry With the outbreak of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the
pornography industry instituted a system of testing for HIV, the virus
responsible for AIDS. The industry's voluntary system involves testing actors
once a month for HIV. If the actor does not pass the test, he or she is barred
from performing in any more pornographic scenes.
The system seemed to be effective, with very few AIDS cases among porn actors.
Marc Wallice, a known IV drug user, tested HIV positive in 1998, sending
shockwaves throughout the industry.
In April 2004, an AIDS scare rocked the heterosexual US porn industry when two
pornographic actors tested HIV positive in California, the hotbed of U.S. porn
production. The straight segment of the porn industry voluntarily shut down for
30 days (a 60 day moratorium was originally announced but it was lifted early)
while it tried to deal with the situation.
As of August 2004, estimates put condom use in the straight porn industry at
around seventeen percent of adult performers, virtually the same usage rate as
before the industry scare. The gay porn industry is more adamant about condom
usage in their productions.
Two actors, Darren James and Lara Roxx, initially tested positive, and were
barred from further sexually explicit content production. About sixty actors who
had contact with James or Roxx were barred from working until their next round
of HIV testing was completed and they were declared HIV negative. A total of
five actors were diagnosed with the virus by the end of the moratorium: one male
and four females, including one transsexual.
James most likely contracted HIV while filming a pornographic movie in Brazil
and then passed it to the other women, excluding the transsexual, who was
considered an unrelated case. Roxx was shocked by the news of her HIV status,
believing porn actors to be cleaner than the general public. This belief is now
in doubt.
Due to this limited outbreak, the California State government is considering
regulating the industry. Some propose to mandate the wearing of condoms during
sexually explicit scenes. Industry insiders say this would ruin sales of their
wares since the unprotected content is one of the selling points of some of
their films. They say the wearing of condoms ruins the sexual fantasy of many
viewers. Insiders say that such regulation would force the industry underground,
where it would be more prone to health risks for performers. The non-profit
Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation is working with the government,
trying to develop policies that both the industry and the government would find
acceptable.
Pornography
Pornographic entertainment advertised in a sex shop windowFor other uses, see
Pornography (disambiguation).
Pornography or porn is, in its broadest state, the explicit representation of
the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal and/or sexual
relief. It is to a certain extent similar to erotica, which is the use of
sexually-arousing imagery for mainly artistic purposes. Over the past few
decades, an immense industry for the production and consumption of pornography
has grown, due to emergence of the VCR, the DVD, and the Internet, as well as
the emergence of social attitudes more tolerant of sexual portrayals. Performers
in pornography are referred to as pornographic actors (or actresses), or the
more commonly known title, "Porn Star", and are generally seen as qualitatively
different from their non-pornographic counterparts.
In general, "erotica" refers to portrayals of sexually arousing material that
hold or aspire to artistic or historical merit, whereas "pornography" (which is
frequently considered a pejorative term) connotes the more direct, blunt or
excessive depiction of sexual acts, with little or no artistic value, intended
for mere entertainment. The line between the two is often highly subjective. In
practice, pornography can be defined merely as erotica that certain people
perceive as "obscene." The definition of what one considers obscene can differ
between persons, cultures and eras. This leaves legal actions by those who
oppose pornography open to wide interpretation.
Pornography may use any of a variety of media—printed literature, photos,
sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, or video
game. However, when sexual acts are performed for a live audience, by definition
it is not pornography, as the term applies to the depiction of the act, rather
than the act itself. Thus, portrayals such as sex shows and striptease may be
considered similar, but not identical, to pornography.
In most countries pornography is treated as a separate entity, both culturally
and legally, from depictions of naked persons in art or photography. See
"nudity" for more information.
Etymology
The word derives from the Greek pornographia, which derives from the Greek words
porne ("prostitute"), grapho ("to write or record"), and the suffix ia (meaning
"state of", "property of", or "place of"), thus meaning "a place to record
prostitutes".
History
This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual
inaccuracies. (November 2007)
Oil lamp artifact depicting coitus more ferarumFor more details on this topic,
see History of erotic depictions.
Pornography is as old as civilization (and can be found painted on various
ancient buildings), but the concept of pornography as understood today did not
exist until the Victorian era. Previous to that time, though some sex acts were
regulated or stipulated in laws, looking at objects or images depicting them was
not. In some cases, specific books, engravings or image collections were
censored or outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that restricted viewing of
sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct. When large scale
excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of
the Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the
intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the
frank depictions of sexuality, and endeavored to hide them away from everyone
but upper class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the Secret
Museum in Naples, Italy and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned
off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working
class. Soon after, the world's first law criminalizing pornography was enacted
by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1857 in the Obscene Publications Act.
The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the
wording of the Hicklin test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks,
"whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and
corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Despite their
suppression, depictions of erotic imagery are common throughout history, and
remain so.
Sub-genres
Main article: List of pornographic sub-genres
In general, softcore refers to pornography that does not depict penetration
(usually genitals are not shown), and hardcore refers to pornography that
depicts penetration explicitly.
Pornography is of different forms depending on physical characteristics of the
participants, fetish, sexual orientation etc. Reality and voyeur pornography,
animated videos, legally prohibited acts also depicted. Some popular genres of
pornography:
Amateur pornography Fetish pornography Homosexual pornography (gay pornography;
lesbian pornography) Orgy pornography
Race-oriented pornography (e.g. Asian, black, Latino, interracial) Voyeur
pornography (e.g. hidden camera pornography, "upskirt" pornography)
Economics
Main article: Porn industry
Revenues of the adult industry in the United States have been difficult to
determine. In 1970, a Federal study estimated that the total retail value of all
the hard-core porn in the United States was no more than $10 million
In 1998, Forrester Research published a report on the online "adult content"
industry estimating $750 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. As an
unsourced aside, the Forrester study speculated on an industry-wide aggregate
figure of $8-10 billion, which was repeated out of context in many news stories,
after being published in Eric Schlosser's book on the American underground
economy. Studies in 2001 put the total (including video, pay-per-view, Internet
and magazines) between $2.6 billion and $3.9 billion.
A significant amount of pornographic video is shot in the San Fernando Valley,
which has been a pioneering region for producing adult films since the 1970s,
and has since become home for various models, actors/actresses, production
companies, and other assorted businesses involved in the production and
distribution of porn.
The porn industry has been considered influential in deciding format wars in
media; including being a factor in VHS v. Betamax (the videotape format war) and
a factor in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war.
Non-Commercial Pornography
As well as the porn industry, there is a large amount of non-commercial
pornography. This should be distinguished from commercial pornography falsely
marketed as featuring "amateurs". The Alt Sex Stories Text Repository focuses on
prose stories collected from Usenet. Various Usenet groups are focussed on
non-commercial pornographic photographs.
Technology
Mass-distributed pornography is as old as the printing press. Almost as soon as
photography was invented, it was being used to produce pornographic images. Some
claim[attribution needed] that pornography has been a driving force in the
development of technologies from the printing press, through photography (still
and motion), to video, satellite TV, DVD, and the Internet. With the invent of
tiny cameras and wireless equipments voyeur pornography is gaining ground.
Mobile cameras are used to capture pornographic photos or videos, and forwarded
as MMS.
Computer-generated images and manipulations
Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some
pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely
computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most
obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering.
Until the late 1990s, digitally manipulated pornography could not be produced
cost-effectively. In the early 2000s, it became a growing segment, as the
modelling and animation software matured and the rendering capabilities of
computers improved. As of 2004, computer-generated pornography depicting
situations involving children and sex with fictional characters, such as Lara
Croft, is already produced on a limited scale. The October 2004 issue of Playboy
featured topless pictures of the title character from the BloodRayne video game.
Production and distribution by region
Main article: Pornography by region
The production and distribution of pornography are economic activities of some
importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that
it has in political circles are matters of controversy.
Pornography in Japan: Rates of pornography use in Japan have climbed in the 20th
century. Despite this, no correlation has been found between pornography use and
rape or other sex crimes. Indeed, during this period, rates of sexual assault
have dropped. Japan has the lowest levels of reported rape and the highest
levels of arrests and convictions in any developed nation in the world.
Legal status
See List of pornography laws by region for detailed list
The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Most
countries allow at least some form of pornography. In some countries, softcore
pornography is considered tame enough to be sold in general stores or to be
shown on TV. Hardcore pornography, on the other hand, is usually regulated. The
production and sale, and to a slightly lesser degree the possession, of child
pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and most countries have
restrictions on pornography involving violence or animals.
Most countries attempt to restrict minors' access to hardcore materials,
limiting availability to adult bookstores, mail-order, via television channels
that parents can restrict, among other means. There is usually an age minimum
for entrance to pornographic stores, or the materials are displayed partly
covered or not displayed at all. More generally, disseminating pornography to a
minor is often illegal. Many of these efforts have been rendered practically
irrelevant by widely available Internet pornography.
In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail he or she
deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order,
either against all mail from a particular sender, or against all sexually
explicit mail, by applying to the United States Postal Service.
There are recurring urban legends of snuff movies, in which murders are filmed
for pornographic purposes. Despite extensive work to ascertain the truth of
these rumors, law enforcement officials have been unable to find any such works.
The Internet has also caused problems with the enforcement of age limits
regarding performers and subjects. In most countries, males and females under
the age of 18 are not allowed to appear in porn films, but in several European
countries the age limit is 16, and in Denmark it is legal for women as young as
16 to appear topless in mainstream newspapers and magazines. This material often
ends up on the Internet and can be viewed by people in countries where it
constitutes child pornography, creating challenges for lawmakers wishing to
restrict access to such material.
Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the writer Salman
Rushdie, have argued that pornography is vital to freedom and that a free and
civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography.
The UK Government is planning to outlaw possession of what it terms "extreme
pornography" after a campaign following the highly publicised murder of Jane
Longhurst.
Anti-pornography movement
A French caricature on "the great epidemic of pornography".Main article:
Anti-pornography movement
Opposition to pornography comes generally, though not exclusively, from several
sources: law, religion and feminism. Some critics from the latter two camps have
expressed belief in the existence of "pornography addiction."
Effect on sex crimes
A lower per capita crime rate and historically high availability of pornography
in many developed European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Sweden) has led a
growing majority to conclude that there is an inverse relationship between the
two, such that an increased availability of pornography in a society equates to
a decrease in sexual crime.Some researchers speculate that wide availability of
pornography may reduce crimes by giving potential offenders a socially accepted
way of regulating their own sexuality. Moreover, there is some evidence that
states within the U.S. that have lower rates of internet access have a greater
incidence of rape.
Japan, which is noted for its large output of rape fantasy pornography, has the
lowest reported sex crime rate in the industrialized world. However, some argue
that reported sex crime rates are low in Japan because the culture (a culture
that greatly emphasizes a woman's "honor") is such that victims of sex crime are
less likely to report it (e.g. chikan). However, a 1995 study comparing crime
statistics since 1972 when pornography changed from totally prohibited to freely
available with no age restrictions found that:
"sex crimes in every category, from rape to public indecency, sexual offenses
from both ends of the criminal spectrum, significantly decreased in incidence.
Most significantly, despite the wide increase in availability of pornography to
children, not only was there a decrease in sex crimes with juveniles as victims
but the number of juvenile offenders also decreased significantly. We
hypothesized that the increase in pornography, without age restriction and in
comics, if it had any detrimental effect, would most negatively influence
younger individuals. Just the opposite occurred. The number of victims decreased
particularly among the females younger than 13. In 1972, 8.3% of the victims
were younger than 13. In 1995 the percentage of victims younger than 13 years of
age dropped to 4.0%; a reduction of greater than 50%. In 1972, 33.3 % of the
offenders were between 14-19 years of age; by 1995 that percentage had decreased
to 9.6%.."
Effect on sexual aggression
In the 70's and 80's, feminists such as Dr. Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea
Dworkin criticized pornography as essentially dehumanizing women and as likely
to encourage violence against them. It has been suggested that there was an
alliance, tacit or explicit, between anti-porn feminists and fundamentalist
Christians to help censor the use of or production of pornography.
Some researchers[attribution needed] have found that "high pornography use is
not necessarily indicative of high risk for sexual aggression," but go on to
say, "if a person has relatively aggressive sexual inclinations resulting from
various personal and/or cultural factors, some pornography exposure may activate
and reinforce associated coercive tendencies and behaviors".
Feminist objections
Feminist critics of pornography, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon,
generally consider it demeaning to women. They believe that most pornography
eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, reinforces sexual
and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment, and
contributes to the male-centered objectification of women. Some feminists
distinguish between pornography and erotica, which they say does not have the
same negative effects of pornography. However, many Third-wave feminists and
postmodern feminists disagree with this critique of porn, claiming that
appearing in or using pornography can be explained as each individual woman's
choice, and is not guided by socialization in a capitalist patriarchy.
Pornography by and for women
"We came up with the idea for the Feminist Porn Awards because people don't know
they have a choice when it comes to porn," said Chanelle Gallant, manager of
Good for Her and the event's organizer. "Yes, there's a lot of bad porn out
there. But there is also some great porn being made by and for women. We wanted
to recognize and celebrate the good porn makers as well as direct people to
their work."
Some recent pornography has been produced under the rubric of "by and for
women". According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant
images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography."
Legal objections
This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not
represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
In the United States, distribution of "obscene" materials is a Federal crime,
and also under most laws of the 50 states.[citation needed] The determination of
what is obscene is up to a jury in a trial, which must apply the Miller test;
however, due to the prominence of pornography in most communities most
pornographic materials are not considered obscene by the Miller Test. In
explaining its decision to reject claims that obscenity should be treated as
speech protected by the First Amendment, in Miller v. California, the US Supreme
Court found that
The dissenting Justices sound the alarm of repression. But, in our view, to
equate the free and robust exchange of ideas and political debate with
commercial exploitation of obscene material demeans the grand conception of the
First Amendment and its high purposes in the historic struggle for freedom. It
is a "misuse of the great guarantees of free speech and free press . . . ."
Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S., at 645.
and in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton that
In particular, we hold that there are legitimate state interests at stake in
stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to
enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and to passersby. 7
[413 U.S. 49, 58] Rights and interests "other than those of the advocates are
involved." Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622, 642 (1951). These include the
interest of the public in the quality of life and the total community
environment, the tone of commerce in the great city centers, and, possibly, the
public safety itself... As Mr. Chief Justice Warren stated, there is a "right of
the Nation and of the States to maintain a decent society . . .," [413 U.S. 49,
60] Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 199 (1964) (dissenting opinion)... The sum
of experience, including that of the past two decades, affords an ample basis
for legislatures to conclude that a sensitive, key relationship of human
existence, central to family life, community welfare, and the development of
human personality, can be debased and distorted by crass commercial exploitation
of sex.
Partly because Denmark decriminalized pornography in 1967 with few adverse
effects and partly because of the 1968 United States Supreme Court decision
which held that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their
own homes, in 1968 Congress created the President's Commission on Obscenity and
Pornography to investigate the effects of obscenity and pornography on the
people of the United States with each member personally appointed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson. In what became the most detailed and comprehensive
investigation into pornography to date, the commission in it's final report
found that pornography could not be shown to do harm to individuals or to
society and recommended the repeal of obscenity and pornography legislation as
it related to adults. Released during the presidency of Richard Nixon the report
generated a brief bout of controversy but was ultimately ignored by the
administration.
Attorney General for Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese, also courted controversy when
he appointed the "Meese Commission" to investigate pornography in the United
States; their report, released in July 1986, was highly critical of pornography
and itself became a target of widespread criticism. That year, Meese Commission
officials contacted convenience store chains and succeeded in demanding that
widespread men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse be removed from
shelves,a ban which spread nationally until being quashed with a First Amendment
admonishment against prior restraint by the D.C. Federal Court in Meese v.
Playboy (639 F.Supp. 581). In the United States in 2005, Attorney General
Gonzales made obscenity and pornography a top prosecutorial priority of the
Department of Justice.
Religious objections
Some religious groups often discourage their members from viewing or reading
pornography, and support legislation restricting its publication. These
positions derive from broader religious views about sexuality. In some religious
traditions, for example, sexual intercourse is limited to the express function
of procreation. Thus, sexual pleasure or sex-oriented entertainment, as well as
lack of modesty, are considered immoral. Other religions do not find sexual
pleasure immoral, but see sex as a sacred, godly, highly-pleasurable activity
that is only to be enjoyed with one's spouse. These traditions do not condemn
sexual pleasure in and of itself, but they impose limitations on the
circumstances under which sexual pleasure may be properly experienced.
Pornography in this view is seen as the secularization of something sacred, and
a violation of spouses' intimate relationship.Though the Torah (Jewish written
law) has a great many prohibitions of about sexual behaviors, pornography is not
specifically mentioned. However, the Tzniut requires Jewesses to be covered from
ankle to wrist (thereby forbidding pornographic modeling or acting for women).
The halakhah states that sexually arousing images are to be avoided. The Qur'an
24:31 states "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and keep covered
their private parts, and that they should not show-off their beauty except what
is apparent, and let them cast their shawls over their cleavage. And let them
not show-off their beauty except to their husbands... "The New Testament does
not forbid the production of pornography, but rather its use. Jesus states, "Ye
have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you,
that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart." (Mathew 5:27-28). In the first verse Jesus is
quoting the Torah (Exodus 20:14). The seriousness of this offense is seen in
Leviticus 20:10 "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife,
even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the
adulteress shall surely be put to death."Paragraph 2354 of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church states:Pornography... offends against chastity because it
perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each another. It
does grave injury to the dignity of its participants... since each one becomes
an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who
are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offence.In
addition to expressing concerns about violating sexual morality, some religions
take an anti-pornography stance claiming that viewing pornography is addictive,
leading to self-destructive behavior. Proponents of this view compare
pornography addiction to alcoholism, both in asserting the seriousness of the
problem and in developing treatment methods.
Pornographic
actor
Jenna Jameson, a porn starA pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is
somebody who appears in pornographic films or photographs, live sex shows or
peep shows. Many actors and actresses may appear nude in films (usually filmed
in explicit sexual genres). Most genres have specialists who achieve most of
their recognition in a specific niche market such as bondage or strap-on sex.
Other better examples are gaping, general anal sex, double penetration, or
teenage girls.
Some legal jurisdictions consider commercial pornography as a form of
prostitution, though most commercial sex film performers do not regard
themselves as prostitutes for various reasons. Most notably these performers are
usually not paid directly by their sexual partners for the sex, but through a
studio. Some sex film performers do not receive money at all for their inclusion
in such films. In this instance, they do so for promotion of their other works
such as artistry paintings and sculptures, or have no sex in the films such as
repeat performers in the famous Girls Gone Wild film series.
History
Many different performers had performed in various sex films since the beginning
of photography. Many so called "penny arcades" of the early 1900s had early
frame flicker hand cranked films and "rotoscope" (Holmes-style Stereoscope)
glasses that featured "racy" pictures of women, mostly in bare breasted
pictures, though a few actually showed women in full frontal nudity with fewer
still showing them in actual sexual couplings. There have been many films and
photographs that showed sexual acts including the World War II series of erotic
German home movies known as the "Sachsenwald films", recorded secretly in Nazi
Germany 1941. But most performers of these early photograph and film recordings
usually chose to remain anonymous due to extreme social pressure and legal
banning against open sexual actions. The generally acknowledged first porn star
with specific (stage) name recognition was Linda Lovelace from the United
States, who starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. The success of this movie,
which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, spawned a slew of other
films and pornographic film stars such as Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green
Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The
Devil in Miss Jones), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas).
This era has been termed by some to be The Golden Age of Porn when porn films
were being shown in public theaters and thus accepted for public consumption or
at least tolerated for such. This time frame lasted until the late 1970s, with
some saying the early 1980s, whereby these sex films had specific story-plots
and promotional budgets and the performers became notable. Such legendary
performers of this era include John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Veronica Hart,
Nina Hartley, Seka, and Amber Lynn became well known in this era.
Attempts were made in the 1970s to outlaw pornography in the United States by
prosecuting porn stars for prostitution. The courts in California were where the
case was initially made, and stopped short of advancing the case to the United
States Supreme Court for a final decision. It was this decision and acceptance
to let stand whereby the California Court made a legal distinction in the case
of People v. Freeman between someone who took part in a sexual relationship for
money (prostitution) versus someone who takes on the act of merely portraying
role where a sexual relationship was engaged in on-screen act as part of their
acting performance. It is this specific legal distinction between pornography
and prostitution in California law that has allowed California to become the
porn center of the United States.At present, no other state in the United States
has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial
pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex
film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of
"soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films
which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and
women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says." The distinction
that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is
usually denied in most state's locale prostitution laws, which do NOT
specifically exclude performers from such inclusion.
In some cases, some states have ratified their local state laws for inclusion to
prevent California's Freeman decision to be applied to actors who are paid a fee
for sexual actions within their state borders. One example is the state of Texas
whose prostitution law specifically states:
An offense is established under Subsection (a)(1) whether the actor is to
receive or pay a fee. An offense is established under Subsection (a)(2) whether
the actor solicits a person to hire him or offers to hire the person
solicited.The ability for people to view adult movies in the privacy of their
own homes, owing to the popularity of the VCR (and now DVD) created a new adult
market that has exceeded the scope of the previous theatre centric era.
Additionally, the prevalence of the Internet has served as a catalyst for the
increased sale of pornography. In the late 1990s, Jenna Jameson, Juli Ashton,
Ashlyn Gere, Asia Carrera, Racquel Darrian, Tera Patrick, Briana Banks, Stacy
Valentine, Jill Kelly, and Silvia Saint emerged as new wave of porn stars.
Some state that the production values of adult films have decidedly declined in
the attempt to create a constant amount of new films to fulfill the ever
increasing demand. Other argue that sex films are merely being more true to
their source as some have stated that people only watch these films in order to
see these performer have sex - paraphrased from (To which the only answer is
"No, they watch her movies to see her fuck.") As a result of this, there are
hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of directly
recorded-on-video with minimal set including so called web cam recordings
annually, with thousands of people working on both sides of the camera to meet
the demand for these films.
Male performers
While the primary focus of heterosexual sex films are the women in them, who are
mostly selected for their on-screen appearance, there is a definite focus on the
male performers who are able to fulfill the desires of the male watching
audience as their on-screen proxies. Most male performers in heterosexual
pornography are generally selected less for their looks than for their sexual
prowess, namely their ability to do three things: achieve an erection while on a
busy film set, maintain that erection while performing on camera, and then to be
able to achieve ejaculation on cue.
Rocco Siffredi, Ron Jeremy and Peter North are probably the most famous male
performers in heterosexual films. North is known for his ability to launch
above-average amounts of semen at notable velocity from his penis on-screen
which most other male performers can not do. Jeremy is known for his 9.75 inch
(25cm) penis and an appearance very unusual for a porn star (he is overweight
with large amounts of body hair). Adding to his fame, Ron Jeremy has been a
staple in the industry since the 70's and has become something of a cultural
icon.
Pay rates
According to some sources, most male performers in straight porn are paid less
than their female counterparts. Ron Jeremy has commented on several times
regarding the pay scale against the women and the men of the sex film industry:
"The average guy gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he's new. A woman
makes $100,000 to $250,000 at the end of the year." and "Girls can easily make
100K-250K per year, plus stuff on the side like strip shows and appearances. The
average guy makes $40,000 a year."
Some state that gay male porn generally pays men much more than heterosexual
porn, a number of male performers, including North, who has appeared in both
heterosexual and gay pornography. However North strenuously denies that he has
ever actively performed in homosexual acts other than his earliest times.
Ostensibly, men who perform in gay pornography but identify themselves as
heterosexual are said to do gay-for-pay; that is, perform in gay movies only for
the paycheck, not because of any personal attraction they have to other men.
According to notable producer Seymour Butts who runs his own sex film
recruitment agency as well as produces sex film "depending on draw, female
performers who perform in both straight and lesbian porn earn more than those
who do normal sex (Boy/Girl) usually make about US$200-800 while those who only
do oral sex (blow job) usually only make about US$100-300 for the scene
While some pornographic actors perform in a wide range of genres, most genres
have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche
market such as bondage or strap-on sex. With over several thousand usually one
hour long sex films produced each year from several countries, the most
accessible usually made and released from within the United States, many
performers will complete a film every one or two weeks. However, many of the
highly regarded and thus highly paid performers, such as Jenna Jameson, only
star in actual sex films a few times a year, due to the substantial pay rate
they charge for their inclusion in film releases.
Pornographic actors and STDs
Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms,
pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases.
In the 1980s, an outbreak of AIDS led to a number of deaths of erotic actors and
actresses, including John Holmes. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry
Medical Health Care Foundation, which helped set up a system in the U.S. adult
film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV every 30 days. All sexual
contact is logged, and positive test results lead to all sexual contacts for the
last three to six months being contacted and re-tested. The use of condoms
became standard in films featuring homosexual anal sex.
In 2004, a male performer, Darren James, tested positive for HIV; it is believed
that he contracted it during a film he made in Brazil. One fellow porn star,
Lara Roxx, was identified and tested positive for HIV. While it was announced
that the viral load tests showed that James was "Patient Zero", others in the
industry have stated they feel that Lara Roxx is truly the source of the
outbreak as she was previously working as a street prostitute in her native
Montreal before coming to LA. Following the release of this information the
heterosexual porn industry voluntarily reduced their workload for the next 30
days, as various contacts with both individuals, as well as others within the
industry, re-evaluated and expanded upon their original programs dealing with
this possibility.
However, accurate information about the extent of infection among those in the
adult industry is unknown because no organization has ever done rigorous
studies. The existing data suggest that pornographic actors have a much higher
rate of STD's than the general American population.
Sex
This article is about biological sexes: male, female, etc.. For alternate uses,
such as sexual intercourse, see Sex (disambiguation).
Sexuality Portal
Sex refers to the male and female duality of biology and reproduction. Unlike
organisms that only have the ability to reproduce asexually, many species have
the ability to produce offspring through meiosis and fertilization. Often,
individuals of the two sexes attract one another and communicate their readiness
to procreate through biological changes, or, in social species, through
courtship behaviours.
An organism's sex is defined by its biological role in reproduction, not
according to its sexual or other behavior. The female sex is defined as the one
which produces the larger gamete and which typically bears the offspring. In
contrast, the male sex has a smaller gamete and rarely bears offspring. In some
animals and many plants sex may be assigned to specific structures rather than
the entire organism. Earthworms, for example, are normally hermaphrodites.
Sexual reproduction
Hoverflies matingSexual reproduction is a prevalent system for producing new
individuals within various species. Individuals of sexually reproducing species
produce special kinds of cells called gametes, whose function is specifically to
fuse with one unlike gamete and hence form a new individual. This fusion of two
gametes is called fertilization. The condition of having types of gametes that
are externally similar—particularly in size—is isogamy; having gametes that are
somewhat dissimilar is anisogamy. The condition of having greatly dissimilar
gametes—particularly a large, immotile cell and a much smaller, motile one—is
oogamy. By convention, the larger gamete cell is associated with female sex.
Thus an individual that produces exclusively large gametes (ova in humans) is
said to be female, and one that produces exclusively small gametes (spermatozoa
in humans) is said to be male. An individual that produces both types of gametes
is called hermaphrodite (a name applicable also to people with one testis and
one ovary). In some species hermaphrodites can self-fertilize, in others they
can achieve fertilization with females, males or both. Some species, like the
Japanese Ash, Fraxinus lanuginosa, only have males and hermaphrodites, a rare
reproductive system called androdioecy?.
What is considered defining of sexual reproduction is the difference between the
gametes and the binary nature of fertilization. Multiplicity of gamete types
within a species would still be considered a form of sexual reproduction.
However, of more than 1.5 million living species, recorded up to about the year
2000, "no third sex cell — and so no third sex — has appeared in multicellular
animals." Why sexual reproduction has an exclusively binary gamete system is not
yet known. A few rare species that push the boundaries of the definitions are
the subject of active research for light they may shed on the mechanisms of the
evolution of sex. For example, the most toxic insect, the harvester ant
Pogonomyrmex, has two kinds of female and two kinds of male. One hypothesis is
that the species is a hybrid, evolved from two closely related preceding
species.
Fossil records indicate that sexual reproduction has been occurring for at least
one billion years. However, the reason for the initial evolution of sex, and the
reason it has survived to the present are still matters of debate, there are
many plausible theories. It appears that the ability to reproduce sexually has
evolved independently in various species on many occasions. There are cases
where it has also been lost. The flatworm, Dugesia tigrina, and a few other
species can reproduce either sexually or asexually depending on various
conditions.
Animal species
Main articles: Animal sexuality and Mating system
Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species.
Researchers have observed monogamy, promiscuity, sex between species, sexual
arousal from objects or places, rape, necrophilia, sexual orientation
(heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and situational sexual behaviour)
and a range of other practices among animals other than humans. Related studies
have noted diversity in sexed bodies and gendered behaviour, such as intersex
and transgender animals.
The study of animal sexuality (and primate sexuality especially) is a rapidly
developing field. It used to be believed that only humans and a handful of
species performed sexual acts other than for procreation, and that animals'
sexuality was instinctive and a simple response to the "right" stimulation
(sight, scent). Current understanding is that many species believed monogamous
have now been proven to be promiscuous or opportunistic in nature, a wide range
of species appear to both masturbate and to use objects as tools to help them do
so, in many species animals try to give and get sexual stimulation with others
where procreation is not the aim, and homosexual behavior has now been observed
among 1,500 species, and in 500 of those it is well documented.[citation needed]
A few species have particularly complex sex determination systems. Although two
sexes is the official maximum, these complex species could reasonably be said to
have 3, 4 or 5 sexually distinct phenotypes. For example:
the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana has no females, but two types of hermaphrodite
and one male phenotype, a system call androdioecy.
harvester ant genus Pogonomyrmex has two types of female and two types of male,
with an acknowledged claim to these being considered as constituting at least
three distinct sexes, or possibly four.
the reptile tuatara might have four sexes
Coprinus macrorhizus (Pers.) Rea might have three or four sexes
Coprinus lagopus has four sexes
A notable minority view regarding humans has been put forward by Anne Fausto-Sterling,
who suggested various disorders of sexual development could be classified into
an additional three human sexes. Despite mainstream opposition, including the
Intersex Society of North America, Fausto-Sterling and others still maintain
this view in current publications.
Other species have exhibited evidence of 5 sexes
Humans
Human Male and Female external anatomical featuresSee Human sexuality for
information about sexual activities, sexual sensation, sexual gratification, and
sexual intimacy between human beings
In humans, "sex" is often perceived as a dichotomous state or identity for most
biological and social purposes - such that a person can only be female or male.
But many factors, including one's biology, environment, psychology and social
context, have a role in determining how a particular person, and those around
them, view their sex. Although the table below shows common differences between
males and females, many people do not correspond to "male" or "female" with
regard to every criterion. Additionally, about 1 to 1.7 percent of human beings
exhibit biological sexual ambiguity to the degree that they cannot be physically
classified as exclusively male or female. This is known as intersex. A person
with intersex may have biological characteristics of both the male and female
sexes.
"Primary" sexual characteristics are typically present at birth and directly
involved in reproduction. "Secondary" sexual characteristics typically develop
later in life (usually during puberty) and are not directly involved in
reproduction. Differences between the sexes are known as sexual dimorphism. At
the biological level these differences are usually:
Level Characteristics Female Male
Primary
Sex chromosomes XX XY
Gametes Ova Spermatozoa
Sex organs Ovaries Testes
Predominant Sex hormones Estrogen and Progesterone Testosterone
Hormonal Regime Cyclic during fertility Tonic (largely unchanging)
Anatomy of internal genitalia clitoral crura, vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes
corpora cavernosa, urethra, prostate, seminal vesicles
Anatomy of external genitalia glans clitoris, labia, vulva, clitoral hood,
perineal urethra penis, scrotum, foreskin, fused perineum
Secondary
Skeletal Structure Relatively shorter,
wider in hips Relatively taller,
wider in shoulders,
bigger chest
Face Rounded jaw Bigger nose bone, brow bone, squarer jaw,
facial hair
Body fat and muscle Relatively more fat Relatively more muscle
Fat Distribution More in buttocks, hips and thighs More in abdomen
Body form development "Hourglass" shape: 8 "Triangular" shape: ?
Other Breasts Adam's apple and body hair
The relationship between the various levels of biological sexual differentiation
is fairly well understood. Many of the biological levels are said to cause, or
at least shape, the next level. For example, in most people, the presence of a Y
chromosome causes the gonads to become testes, which produce hormones that cause
the internal and external genitalia to become male, which in turn lead parents
to assign 'male' as the sex of their child (assigned sex), and raise the child
as a boy (gender of rearing). However, the degree to which biological and
environmental factors contribute to the psychosocial aspects of sexual
differentiation, and even the interrelationships between the various
psychosocial aspects of differentiation, is less well understood as illustrated
by the ongoing nature versus nurture debate. Unfortunately, because of a lack of
focus on this area, studies may use data from research not designed to discern
the role of sex. One sample of 432 papers publishing the results of
gender-related genetics found that only 66.6% of them had set out to deal with
the subject before conducting any research and 87.3% used unsound statistics.
Social and psychological issues
Main article: Gender
Gender, in common usage, refers to the differentiation between men and women. It
is individual's self-conception or social conception as being male or female,
though gender is commonly used interchangeably with sex. Within the social
sciences it often refers to specifically social differences, known as gender
roles.
Gender discordance
See also: transgender and third gender
Discordance is the term used to describe the extent to which people differ from
the usual biological and psychosocial types described above. Some discordances
are biological, such as when the sex of the chromosomes (genetic sex) does not
match the sex of the external genitalia (anatomic sex), such as in Swyer
syndrome, a type of intersex condition. Discordances between the biological and
psychosocial levels (such as when the gender identity does not match the
anatomic sex) or between the various psychosocial levels (such as when the
gender role does not match the gender identity) are even more common, but less
well understood.
In gender theory, the term "heteronormativity" refers to the idea that human
beings fall into two distinct and complementary categories, male and female;
that sexual and marital relations are normal only when between two people of
different genders; and that people should follow roles determined by their
gender. Instead, some people have sought to define their sexuality and sexual
identity in non-polar terms, in the belief that the simple division of all
humans into "males" and "females" does not fit their individual conditions. A
proponent of this movement away from polar oppositions, Anne Fausto-Sterling,
recognized five sexes: male, female, merm (male pseudohermaphrodite), ferm
(female pseudohermaphrodite) and herm (true hermaphrodite). Although she was
heavily criticized, her idea demonstrates the difficulty and imperfection of the
current social responses to these variations.
Social and legal considerations
Main article: Sociology of gender
Forms of legal or social distinction or discrimination based on sex include sex
segregation and sexism. Notably, some businesses, public institutions, and laws
may provide privileges and services for one sex and not another, or they may
require different sexes to be physically separated. Recently, western societies
have moved towards greater sexual equality.
See also
Look up Sex in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Age of consent
Evolution of sex
Human sexuality
List of gender names
Mammalian gestation
Sex ratio
Sexual conflict
Sexual differentiation
Sexual dysfunction
Sexual intercourse
Sex as exercise
X-rated
"Rated X" redirects here. For the film, see Rated X (film). For the Channel 4 UK
documentary series, see Channel 4 Banned season.
X-rated (also known as X certificate or X classification) is a film rating
indicating strong adult content, typically sexual content and nudity, or
violence and profanity.
Australia
The current rating symbol for the X classificationIn Australia, X-rated is a
legal term. The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), a
government institution, issues ratings for all movies and television shows sold
or aired. Movies showing explicit, non-simulated sex are rated "X". "X" rated
movies are not permitted to be sold in most States, but possession of such
movies is legal in the Australian Capital Territory; the constitution forbids
restraint in goods and trade between the States, so they are available in all
States by mail-order. An attempt to change the classification ratings such that
some of the material in the "X" category would be banned and the remainder would
be available under the new category "NVE" (an abbreviation for Non-Violent
Erotica), failed in the Senate partly due to the belief of some Senators that
the new categories were less restrictive than the old.
The proposed category of NVE held tighter restrictions of content in sexually
explicit films. Although the new rating was rejected, all States and Territories
agreed in a review of the OFLC's guidelines to introduce the new, tighter
content restrictions in the "X" category. The new guidelines make unambiguous
statements relating to fetish and violence in this category. "Fetishes such as
body piercing, application of substances such as candle wax, 'golden showers',
bondage, spanking and fisting are not permitted" and "No depiction of
violence...is allowed in the category"[1]. If such content is in a film,
particularly violence in a plot development context (i.e. separate from sexually
explicit scenes), it is often edited out prior to submission to the OFLC to
avoid being "Refused Classification" (effectively banning the film).
France
Films may be shown in theaters in France only after classification by an
administrative commission of the ministry of NASA. In 1975, the X classification
(officially: "pornographic or violence-inciting movies") was created for
pornographic movies, or movies with successions of scenes of graphic violence.
The commission has some leeway in classification, it may for instance take into
account the artistic qualities of a movie not to count it pornographic.
Movies with a X rating may only be shown in specific theaters (which hardly
exist nowadays in France); they bear special taxes and tax rates, including a
33% tax on revenue.
In 1998, some conservative associations sued the government for granting the
movie Baise-moi, which contained graphic, realistic scenes of sex and violence,
a non-X classification. The Conseil d'État at litigation ruled that the movie
should have been rated X. The decision was highly controversial and some
suggested changing the law.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the X certificate was issued between 1951 - replacing the
H certificate, which stood for horrific - and 1982 by the British Board of Film
Censors. It was introduced as a result of the Wheare Report on film censorship.
From 1951 to 1970, it meant "Suitable for those aged 16 and over", and from 1970
to 1982 it was redefined as meaning "Suitable for those aged 18 and over." The X
certificate was replaced in 1982 by the 18 certificate. See History of British
film certificates.
United States
In the United States, the X-rating originally referred to a non-trademarked
rating that indicated a film contained content unsuitable for minors such as
extreme violence or explicit sex and thus was for adults only.
When the MPAA film rating system was instituted in 1968 in the U.S., the
X-rating was given to a film by the MPAA if submitted to them or, due to its
non-trademarked status, it could be self-applied to a film by a distributor who
knew beforehand that their film contained content unsuitable for minors. In the
late 1960s to mid 1980s, several mainstream films were released with an X-rating
such as Midnight Cowboy, A Clockwork Orange, and Last Tango in Paris.
Because the X-rating was not trademarked, anybody could apply it to their films,
including pornographers, which many began to do in the 1970s. As pornography
began to become chic and more legally tolerated, pornographers placed an
X-rating on their films to emphasize the adult nature of them. Some even started
using multiple X's (i.e. XX, XXX, etc.) to give the impression that their film
contained more graphic sexual content than the simple X-rating. In some cases,
the X ratings were applied by reviewers or film scholars, e.g. William Rotsler,
who wrote "The XXX-rating means hard-core, the XX-rating is for simulation, and
an X-rating is for comparatively cool films." [2]Nothing beyond the simple
X-rating has ever been officially recognized by the MPAA.
Because of the heavy use of the X-rating by pornographers, it became associated
largely with pornographic films and thus non-pornographic films given a X-rating
would have fewer theaters willing to book them and fewer avenues for
advertising. This led to a number of films being released unrated sometimes with
a warning that the film contained content for adults only. In response, the MPAA
eventually agreed in 1990 to a new NC-17 rating that would be trademarked and
thus could only be applied by the MPAA itself.
Notable X-rated films in the US
Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)
The 1968 film Greetings, directed by Brian De Palma, and starring Robert De Niro
in his first film role, was the first film to receive an "X" rating in the
United States. It has since been re-rated "R".
Midnight Cowboy (1969) is the only X-rated film ever to win the Academy Award
for Best Picture. At the time the X-rating did not have the stigma it later took
on. Midnight Cowboy has also been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library
of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film
Registry. Due to a degree of relaxation in attitudes regarding sex in film, the
(unchanged) film has since been re-rated "R" in the 1970s.
I Drink Your Blood (1970) was the first film to receive an X-rating based on
violence alone as well as for some nudity. It took a lot of editing to get it
back down to an "R." At the invitation of the film's producer Jerry Gross, this
work was done by projectionists across the United States.
Clockwork Orange (1971) originally received an "X" rating from the MPAA for its
sexual content. Today, many critics recognize it as one of Stanley Kubrick's
most important films. The uncut version of the film has been released on DVD
with an "R" rating.
Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat, released in 1972, was the first animated film to
receive an "X" rating in the US, promoted with the tagline "He's X Rated and
Animated!" The material in the film itself wasn't pornographic, and the film was
later released unrated on VHS and DVD.
In 1973, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein became the first 3-D movie to be officially
rated "X" for its extreme violence and sexuality.
1974's The Street Fighter, starring Sonny Chiba, was the first film to receive
an "X" rating for violence in the US.
1900 (1976) was originally rated "X" and had over an hour of footage cut for an
R-rating before its US release in 1977. The uncut version was released on VHS in
1993 with an "NC-17" rating. In 2006, Paramount Pictures surrendered the NC-17
rating for the uncut version and released it on DVD.
Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977) was given an X-rating. Several of the
most violent/graphic moments were edited out to get an "R" rating. Uncut version
is now available on all US DVD releases.
1980's "Friday the 13th" and its sequels (except the 4th installment) were all
cut for violence to get an "R" rating. Uncut editions can be found only in
certain countries, while all known US releases currently contain the theatrical
cuts.
My Bloody Valentine (1981) infamously had 9 minutes cut for an "R" because of
the gore.
Scarface (1983) was given an "X" rating 3 times (original, 2nd, and 3rd cuts)
for extreme violence and graphic language. Director Brian De Palma pulled in a
panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, stating that the film was
an accurate portrayal of the real-life drugworld and should be widely seen. This
convinced the 20 members of the ratings board to give the 3rd cut an "R" rating
by a vote of 18 to 2. However, De Palma surmised that if the 3rd cut was judged
an "R" then the original cut should have been rated "R" as well. He asked the
studio if he could release the original cut, but was told that he couldn't.
However, since the studio executives really didn't know the differences between
the three submitted cuts, DePalma released the unedited and intended version of
the film to theaters anyway.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), was intended for an "R", but given an "X"
for graphic violence, prompting the filmmakers to release it as "Unrated."
RoboCop (1987) was originally given an "X" rating by the MPAA for scenes of
"excessive violence." To satisfy the requirements of the ratings board, director
Paul Verhoeven trimmed blood and gore from the most violent scenes for an "R"
rating. The unrated version is available on the Criterion laserdisc and DVD
releases (both now out of print) and the RoboCop Trilogy boxset.
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) was originally rated "X" for its
brutal, gory violence. 5 minutes of the film was cut for an "R" rating. The
unrated version is now available alongside the R-rated version on DVD.
In 1990, the ultraviolent cult thriller King of New York received an "X" rating
for graphic violence and crude language. It was edited and appealed to "R".
Shortly after it was released, the "NC-17" rating was introduced.
Total Recall (1990) was given an "X" rating for excessive violence. Some
violence was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more
over-the-top scenes for an "R" rating.
XXX
Look up XXX in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.XXX may refer to:
XXX, an identifier for pornography, especially X-rated movies
30 (number), XXX in Roman numerals
Comment (computer programming), an "XXX" in source code often denotes
unimplemented features or known problems.
Super Bowl XXX, held in January 1996
xXx, a 2002 action film starring Vin Diesel
xXx: State of the Union, the 2005 sequel starring Ice Cube
XXX (album), a 1999 album by the rock band ZZ Top
.xxx, a proposed top-level domain intended as a voluntary option for sexually
explicit sites on the Internet
XXX, a generic depiction of Moonshine or other alcoholic beverage
XXX, the ISO 4217 currency code for "no currency"
ArXiv.org e-print archive, formerly known as xxx.lanl.gov
XXX, an abbreviation for "kiss kiss kiss", commonly used in SMS, chat or text
messaging
XXX, symbol of the straight edge lifestyle
XXX, a shortened version of "XXXL", a plus size clothing size
XXX, a reference to Amsterdam, after the three crosses on the Flag of Amsterdam
XXX, a flavor of Vitamin Water
Triple X may refer to:
Triple X syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality
Triple X (professional wrestling), a wrestling stable in Total Nonstop Action
Wrestling
Triple X Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion, based in Coventry, U.K.
Triple X ESPN Radio, a trio of sports radio stations in the Washington, D.C.
area
Triple X Records of Los Angeles
WXXX, a radio station in Vermont known as "95 Triple X&q