Homemade Porn Killing Adult Film Industry

ABC’s Marcus Baram reports,

After two decades of phenomenal growth in profits, the porn industry is facing some major challenges as its X-rated DVDs and Internet content lose out to free videos and photos distributed by amateurs on the Web. Sales and rentals of adult DVDs fell 30 percent in the last two years and sales of Internet-based porn, while still growing, have started to plateau, according to industry estimates.

I’m not sure whether to applaud the collapse of a parasite industry or bemoan the fact that so many “normal” young woman are becoming amateur porn stars. Either way, it’s a revolution in American culture. We’ve certainly come a long way from the days when Lucy and Desi had to be shown sleeping in separate beds, despite being married on both the fictional show and in real life.

Ed Morrissey thinks this just goes to prove the old adage, “no one buys a cow while they get the milk for free.” He also notes that “this mirrors the problems of the traditional media. When everyone can become their own publisher, then content explodes — and potential customers suddenly have a lot of choices, much of it free.”

True that. Still, I’d like to think that there’s some difference between what I’m doing here and things like “Girls Gone Wild,” other than the fact that there’s a much larger market for the latter.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, Science & Technology, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    Inevitable, perhaps, given the low barriers to entry into the market, but rest assured there will be a backlash in a few years as more of the young folks making amatuer porn now try to get ‘legit’ jobs later in life, and find their old acting credit in How the West was Hung, or whatever, doesn’t really help them land that job in the accounting firm.

    Still, I’d like to think that there’s some difference between what I’m doing here and things like “Girls Gone Wild,” other than the fact that there’s a much larger market for the latter.

    Well, James, I certainly hope you’re fully-clothed as you write this…

  2. Tlaloc says:

    I’m not sure whether to applaud the collapse of a parasite industry

    What makes porn a “parasite industry” and not, say, McDonalds?

    Does not any industry “feed” off of workers in order to make money? Is there something fundamentally cleaner about selling your muscles or your mind as opposed to your genitals?

  3. Anderson says:

    What makes porn a “parasite industry” and not, say, McDonalds?

    Is there something fundamentally cleaner about selling your muscles or your mind as opposed to your genitals?

    Well, I hope my french fries are cleaner, at least.

  4. Michael says:

    Well, I hope my french fries are cleaner, at least.

    Have you ever looked behind the counter of a McDonalds?

  5. I think part of it that professional porn stars tend to look incredibly bored, which is a real turn off. Amateurs often seem to be having a lot more fun.

  6. Alan Kellogg says:

    A big part in the ongoing fall of the porn industry lies in the fact it’s about as honest as a push poll. Link sites leading to link sites, misrepresentation, come-ons, that sort of thing. And as Stormy Dragon pointed out, for the pros it’s just a job. By treating its customers as mindless, hormone intoxicated fools the industry has killed itself.

    Now Legion is being a bit short-sighted. Yes, some of those kids will get burned when they enter the job market. But, as more and more of these exhibitionists enter the job market moral outrage is going to get saturated. There will come a time when a prospective employee’s filmography will be a footnote in her resume. If even there. I see a day when a person’s sex videos will be used as a way to assess how well the subject interacts with people, and sex will be used as a way of team bonding.

    The world is changing. Nowadays children as young as ten are finding porn on the web. And the most important lesson they’re getting from this exposure is that porn is boring for the most part. By pushing it so hard on kids the porn industry is destroying any interest the youngsters may have in it later in life. In a generation or two porn for children will be nothing big. A mere fact of life. This to followed by birthcontrol measures for children and pregnancy tests for young girls.

    As I said, the world’s going to change. And if you think the above is frightful, consider this. That children imitate what they’ve seen. How will we handle that?