This article has a cool behind-the-scenes look at the Australian porn industry, which evidently has been struggling up until now. A woman named Maxine Fensom thinks she can spark world-wide interest and has been flying in US filmmakers to help with her films.
A little while ago, I wrote about the history of amateur porn. In its early days, it was a vibrant business for early online sex enthusiasts who managed to make a load of money shooting in their bedrooms, doing things they’d normally be doing for free anyway.
Now that this trend has caught on, it has become a competitive business. Porn webmasters who have come late to the game doing generic mainstream porn are dying out quickly. Only the strongest survive — recruiting help from ivy league graduates and people who were laid off in the dot-com boom. Because credit card companies are wary of porn sites and will drop them at the first sign of trouble, the sites have to become extremely disciplined and make sure they have few customer complaints.
What’s more, the online industry is trying to change the face of porn and how it’s viewed in the public. More specifically, they’re trying to make people realize that BDSM is not a completely horrible thing, that it’s consensual, that it shouldn’t be outlawed for being obscene.
Read this long detailed article in the New York Times Magazine about the trials and tribulations of one such niche website: Kink.com
My favorite paragraph from the article:
Soon, with Wild Bill tied to his column again, Adams coiled leather twine around his testicles and cinched it tautly to the back of a wooden chair, some feet away. She crouched and flicked him with her finger, hard. I saw Cohen turn away, wrenching his face in what looked like the empathetic cringe men make. But it wasn’t. He was yawning.
***
Related posts: Porn really does bring in more search engine traffic, College kids posing nude for campus magazines, Interview with Saskboy from Abandoned Stuff
For years, I’ve read articles that say that having porn-related search items in your posts will increase your traffic dramatically.
The thing is, it’s true. It’s kind of depressing really, that a large chunk of my search engine traffic comes from horny males. Not because I think sex is bad, but because I’d like to think that my writing has more than jack-off appeal. Anyway, here’s some recent google searches that have come my way. I’m sure this post itself will soon become wildly popular:
1. “college nude”
2. “NUDE KIDS” — I’ve been getting lots of these lately, which is scary.
3. “nytimes college porn”
4. “How to get a straight married guy to have sex, with a Bisexual Guy ??”
5. “getting laid”
6. “good sex for christians”
7. “nude magazines”
8. “feminism porn”
9. “local girl looking to get laid”
10. “how to get laid”
11. “free feminist porn”
12. “getting laid chicago”
13. “nsa sex”
14. “sex hook up, houston”
15. “making money making amateur porn”
16. “nude college students”
17. “bi curious first time nervous”
18. “does Heather Shaw do porn”
19. “laid back sex”
20. “nude posing”
I’ll do another update if this post becomes one of my most-searched items.
***
Related posts: College kids posing nude for campus magazines, Interview with Tony Pierce from LAist
The New York Times Magazine published an article in January about a new phenomena called “naked parties” at Ivy League schools.
Following in that tradition, they published an article this Sunday about another new trend: campus porn magazines
Aaron Foster, a junior majoring in history at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, was browsing Craigslist one day in 2005 when he saw an ad for nude models. It had been posted by Boink, a glossy new sex magazine by and about college students founded by Alecia Oleyourryk, then a senior at nearby Boston University, and Christopher Anderson, a software consultant in his 30s moonlighting as a photographer. “You’re going to pay me $200, and all I have to do is pretend to be with a chick — you’re going to pay me to do that?” was how Foster, now 24, a slim, dark-haired former marine with pierced nipples and tattoos of raking animal claws on his back, described his reaction.
As a recent college graduate, I don’t know how it would be possible to pose nude for a magazine and then walk into a classroom knowing several people in it have seen you nude. However, I can see how this kind of porn (if that’s what you want to call it, some magazines take a more artsy approach) would be very popular on college campuses. As the article indicates, seeing a porn star you’ll never meet is much less exciting than seeing porn with a person you might pass on the way to class.
Tony Pierce is a California-based blogger who first became an internet celebrity when he’d post about his wild LA escapades on his personal blog. He’s been featured in the New York Times, the LA Times, and other mainstream news outlets, and has been highlighted on major blogs like BoingBoing. His personal blogging has slowed down somewhat as he’s taken up a gig at LAist, a blog about LA life and culture.
Simon Owens: You received a lot of press in the past over your criticisms of Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds. Do you ever grow frustrated by the right-wing blogger’s ability to gain in popularity even though his (and other bloggers like Malkin and Powerline) lazy reporting gets proven wrong on almost a daily basis? Does it give you the sense that there’s no sense of justice whenever it comes to the media?
Tony Pierce: I’m actually pretty old, almost as old as Glenn, so I’ve seen a few things. I’ve seen Milli Vanilli win a Grammy, I’ve seen Fox News get super high ratings, and I’ve seen George W. Bush somehow become a two-term president. Therefore it no longer surprises me when people make lame things gain a certain amount of popularity.
And personally I might be part of the problem. I don’t read Kos, I don’t read Atrios, and I only skim Huff Post. To me reading the righty blogger over the last few years as they somehow try to explain their allegiance to that train wreck is far more entertaining than watching the lefty bloggers point and laugh.
Anyone who reads the news regularly knows what’s up. So reading the spin mongrels do their thing is purely an opportunity for free entertainment. And to be fair, Glenn’s checks from Rove have either begun to bounce, or he has had a hard time sleeping at night lately because his production of blatant bs has mellowed. Malkin, however, is a lost cause which is why you can’t even get upset with her because there wasn’t anything there to begin with.
Simon Owens: Do you feel that a lot of your readers envy you over the easy-going lifestyle that you portray on your blog? Do you feel that you’re living some kind of western-coast version of the American dream?
Tony Pierce: Perhaps, but they shouldn’t. My blog is full of lies. My fingers haven’t smelled of teens in months. My hits have gone down steadily since I started working at LAist. I’m not the undercover superhero I used to be.
When I think of the west-coast version of the American Dream, I think of a pimped out car, a sweet pad in Malibu with a pool and hot tub, and a crawl space filled with unmarked bills. I don’t have any of those, but I do get paid to blog, so I guess I’m doing some thing ok.
Simon Owens: How hard is it for you to balance between blogging for LAist and your personal blog? I noticed a recent post in which you’ve expressed guilt for not blogging enough on your personal blog, why do you think this is?
Tony Pierce: It’s not hard to balance, because there is no balance. I spend every waking moment thinking about LAist. I do feel guilty that the busblog has become second in my heart. But what can you do? Very few people get the opportunity to be a professional blogger. And there’s no way that I want to ruin things for others who might get this chance. So I want to do everything I can to make LAist more successful so that other publishers will see that if you pay dedicated bloggers a full-time wage that they will give 100% and give you a return on your investment.
There will be a time where I will figure out how to balance both blogs better, but right now pretty much anything that I think is bloggable ends up on LAist.
Simon Owens: How did you find the other bloggers who write for LAist?
Tony Pierce: Every once in a while I will post on LAist that we’re looking for writers for LAist. Recently I wrote that we were looking for a Clippers blogger and a Laker blogger. We got enough responses that I could be picky and we ended up with two really great guys.
Simon Owens: Do you read blogs that center around other cities? Like New York or Chicago (the blog Gothamist comes to mind)? How do these blogs compare to LA blogs?
Tony Pierce: I read way more blogs than I feel comfortable admitting. Yes I read all the Ist blogs as well as many of the Metroblogging blogs. I don’t think anyone can argue the greatness that is Gothamist. They do more on a Sunday than most city-based blogs do on their best weekdays.
Of the LA blogs I like LA Observed the best. I realize he has sort of an unfair advantage with his relationships with the LA Times, but he uses that advantage beautifully and he’s seriously dedicated. At first I tried to compete with what he does, but after a while I just gave up and instead focused on what we could do that he couldn’t, which was music. One day we might get a contributer who’s as obsessed with the local rag as Kevin is, but until then we’ll just have to let him do his thing in awe.
Still, Gothamist kicks ass and they’re my idol, and target.
Simon Owens: What are the ten blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?
Tony Pierce: Raymi
***
(Related posts: Are race jokes every ok, Interview with Mistress Matisse)
Mistress Matisse has been active in the BDSM community for over fifteen years. When she’s not whipping naughty (and nice) boys into shape, she writes a weekly column, Control Tower, that appears in the Seattle paper The Stranger and addresses a variety of alternative sexual topics such as BDSM and kink, polyamory, and sex work. She also has a blog at http://mistressmatisse.blogspot.com/.
Simon Owens: In order to enter the BDSM culture, does one have to basically live in or around the city, where people who practice it live in concentrated numbers?
Mistress Matisse: I suppose it depends on what you mean by “enter the culture.” If you want to go to large fetish events with lots of people, well then yes, being in a metro area (or being willing to travel) does help. If you simply wish to make a few like-minded friends and do BDSM with your partner, then living in a smaller town is not a problem. Even in a rural area, if you Google the name of your town and “BDSM resources” you’re likely to find something interesting. If not, try again with the name of the county, general area, or nearest larger town, until you hit pay dirt. What you’ll usually find is some kinky e-mail lists and possibly a website for a local BDSM organization. That’s your first stepping stone to meeting people and making friends.
Simon Owens: How does one go about finding other people into BDSM? Is it done solely through the internet?
Mistress Matisse: I myself came out into BDSM before the internet existed, so my answer is definitely not! The internet does make it easier to find events and organizations, but I really don’t think it should be anyone’s only source for BDSM information or kinky social interaction. BDSM is like anything else: there is a lot of misinformation being posted about it online, and there are a lot of people hanging around online venues who aren’t telling the truth about themselves. Doing cyber-BDSM with people you’ve never met in person is, at best, just an erotica writing exercise. More often than not, I think it’s just a huge waste of time. Turn off the computer, leave the house, go talk to real live people.
Simon Owens: With the recent Jason Fortuny scam, where he made a fake ad and then posted all the replies on the internet, do you think this presents a danger for those who are interested in non-traditional sex? How does one go about finding like-minded people but also protect one’s privacy at the same time?
Mistress Matisse: It’s a relatively small danger. If you exercise a reasonable amount of caution about people you meet through personal ads, then you should be fine. Such as: Do not give any identifying information in the first few e-mails. Spend some time chatting with the person and ask yourself: Does this feel right? Not “Is this making me hot?” because that answer is probably yes. But is everything this person is telling me about themselves really adding up? People get so hungry for a partner that they ignore red flags, but you’ve got to think critically if you want to preserve your safety and privacy.
Simon Owens: How did you get your column at the alt-weekly paper? Does your blog help promote your column writing, since you can link to it online?
Mistress Matisse: The official answer is that I got it because I’m a great writer and The Stranger recognized that. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Dan Savage and I used to be night-clubbing buddies way back in the day. Sure, I think the blog helps promote my column, but The Stranger circulates 100,000 paper issues a week and Dan’s column is nationally syndicated, so The Stranger’s website gets huge traffic, way more than my blog.
Simon Owens: In my Diversity of the Blogosphere survey, I found that there were more women sex bloggers than men. Why do you think this is?
Mistress Matisse: I don’t know, unless it’s about perceived readership interest? The idea – which I have heard, but don’t necessarily subscribe to – that both women and men want to read about sex from a woman’s point of view, but that (straight) male readers don’t want to read about another man’s sexual thoughts? An interesting question, though.
Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?
Mistress Matisse: There are so many bigger, well-known sex bloggers, but I’m going to give some love to some of the smaller ones….
My secondary partner – meaning, we’re lovers but we don’t live together – Monk of Twisted Monk.
Richard Evans Lee is great.
Renegade Evolution is never dull.
John Scalzi’s not a sex blogger but I like him anyway.
This lady is as blistering about her trade – book publishing - as I often wish I could be about mine. Unfortunately, I don’t have the advantage of anonymity: Miss Snark.
Can I add this gal to my blogger list? She’s great: Tasty Trixie.
Related posts: Lawmakers want to take porn away from sex offenders, Does the New York Times publish too much fluff?
Remember the often-repeated phrase by social conservatives that porn ruins lives? You know the one, where a husband and father becomes so obsessed with porn that he completely neglects his family in his addiction, an addiction that sends him spiralling into his own demise? Well, now they’re making the next (il)logical step: They want to ban sex offenders from having porn:
A pro-family organization in Cincinnati wants to stop sexual predators by making it illegal for convicted sex offenders to possess hardcore pornography.
Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values (CCV), said his group has proposed legislation that would make it against the law for a sex offender to possess obscene materials.
“They cannot possess it (or) buy it in any way, shape or form,” Burress told Family News in Focus. “If they’re caught with it and if they’re on probation, then they will go back to jail.”
When sex offenders get hold of pornography, he said, it inevitably leads to trouble.
Next we have the CCV listing something as “obvious” when it’s anything but:
“The connection between the use of pornography and sex crimes, especially where it involves children, is obvious,” he said, “though the other side always wants us to prove the correlation.”
Oh, yes. Correlation. Why would they want that? It’s only, you know, the way of proving something “obvious.” If we were to go by logical common-sense, then banning porn will only increase the sexual frustration of sexual offenders, the exact opposite of their intended effect.
Related posts: A History of Amateur Porn, Can’t get Paris Hilton to pose nude for you? Get the next best thing: A porn look-alike
Bloggasm is a blog run by Simon Owens that focuses on the media, with an emphasis on online media and journalism. It often features interviews with prominent bloggers, authors and journalists. If you want to request an interview, just drop us a line.
simon.bloggasm@gmail.com
