Hardcore pornography

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"Hardcore porn" redirects here. For the television program, see Hardcore Pawn.
Jupiter and Juno by Agostino Carracci. The engraving shows a detailed depiction of a sexual act, including genitals, as is common in hardcore porn.

Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as vaginal, anal, oral or manual intercourse, ejaculation, and fetish play. The term is in contrast with less-explicit softcore pornography. Hardcore pornography usually takes the form of photographs, films, and cartoons. Since the mid-1990s, hardcore pornography has become widely available on the internet, making it more accessible than ever before.

Etymology

A distinction between "hardcore pornography" and "borderline pornography" (or "borderline obscenity") was made in the 1950s and 1960s by American jurists discussing

nudist publications, etc."; and "hard core pornography, which no one would suggest had literary merit".[2] Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen in 1959 distinguished "erotic realism" from "pornography"; in the latter "the main purpose is to stimulate erotic response in the reader. And that is all."[3] Most famously, in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Potter Stewart
wrote:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case [The Lovers] is not that.[citation needed]

In Jacobellis v. Ohio and other cases, the

United States Supreme Court ruled that only "hardcore" pornography could be prohibited by obscenity laws, with the rest protected by the First Amendment. The category of "borderline obscenity" thus became obsolete. The 1970 report of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography said:[4]

[M]ailers dealing in sexually oriented materials define "hard-core pornography" as "photographic depictions of actual sexual intercourse with camera focus on the genitals and no accompanying text to provide a legal defense". This, of course, is not a legal definition.... Some judges have employed the term "hard-core pornography" as a synonym for "material which can be legally suppressed". In this Report, the term is used as a synonym for "under-the-counter" or covertly sold materials. This is, in effect, the definition of hard-core applied in the marketplace. It can be argued that because of the confusion about the meaning of the term, which stems primarily from an undefined legal concept, it would be well to avoid the use of the term altogether.... There is one genre of sexually oriented material which is almost universally sold under-the-counter in the United States: wholly photographic reproductions of actual sexual intercourse graphically depicting vaginal and/or oral penetration.... A[t] present, distinctions between materials sold openly and those sold covertly have become extremely unclear.

From the 1970s, the salient distinction was between hardcore pornography and softcore pornography, which may use simulated sex and limits the range and intensity of depictions of sexual activities. For example, William Rotsler's 1973 classification subdivided the X rating for erotic films: "The XXX-rating means hard-core, the XX-rating is for simulation, and an X-rating is for comparatively cool films."[5]

History

See also: Stag film

The prehistory of modern

feminist and queer cultural historians, e.g. Linda M. Williams' Hard Core: Power Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" (1989) and Thomas Waugh
's Homosociality in the Classical American Stag Film: Off-Screen, On-screen (2001).

Legality

Further information:
Pornography by region
On the set of a pornographic film

The distribution of hardcore pornography had been widely prohibited in many countries until the second half of the 20th century, when many countries began to allow some dissemination of softcore material. Supply is now usually regulated by a

motion picture rating system as well as by direct regulation of points of sale. Restrictions, as applicable, apply to the screening, or rental, sale, or giving of a movie, in the form of a DVD, video, computer file, etc. Public display and advertising of hardcore pornography is often prohibited, as is its supply to minors
.

Most countries have eased the restrictions on the distribution of

anti-pornography movement often vigorously opposes legalization. In 1969, Denmark became the first country in the world to legalize pornography.[8] In the U.S., legal interpretations of pornography in relation to the constitutional right to free speech differ from state to state and from city to city. Hardcore pornography was legalized in the UK in May 2000.[9]

United Kingdom

The Independent reported in 2006 that Nielsen NetRatings found that more than nine million British male adults used Internet porn services.[10] The study also reported a one-third rise in the number of women visiting X-rated sites, from 1.05 million to 1.38 million. A 2003 study found that one third of all British Internet users accessed hardcore porn.[11]

United States

American Hardcore pornographic actress Anna Bell Peaks at the XBIZ Awards, January 2018

A 2005 study by

cable TV programming generated US$10 billion, roughly equal to U.S. domestic box office receipts.[12]

Impact on society

Berl Kutchinsky's Studies on Pornography and Sex Crimes in Denmark (1970), a scientific report commissioned by the United States' Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, found that the legalizing of pornography in Denmark had not (as had been expected) resulted in an increase of sex crimes.[13]

A study conducted in Denmark in 2003 and later published in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that Danish men and women generally believe that hardcore pornography has a positive influence on their lives.[14]

See also

  • List of pornography laws by country

References

  1. ^ Mulroy, Thomas R. (September 1963). "Obscenity, Pornography and Censorship". ABA Journal. 49 (9): 869–875. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  2. ^ "345 Mass. 11 Attorney General vs. Book Named "Tropic of Cancer.", 345 Mass. 11". Massachusetts SJC Cases. July 17, 1962. pp. 15, fn.5. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  3. ^ Kronhausen, Eberhard; Kronhausen, Phyllis (1959). Pornography and the Law: The Psychology of Erotic Realism and Pornography (1st ed.). New York: Ballantine.; cited in Mulroy p. 874
  4. ^ President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (September 1970). Report. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. pp. 112, 113, fn.10, 114. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  5. ^ Rotslter, William. Contemporary Erotic Cinema. New York: Penthouse/Ballantine Books, 1973. p. 251.
  6. ^ "Film Archive". The Kinsey Institute. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  7. ISBN 978-0-520-21943-4
    . Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  8. ISBN 978-0-8264-1488-5
    .
  9. ^ "Green light for porn films". BBC News. May 22, 2000. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  10. ^ Sophie Good child and Severin Carrell (May 28, 2006). "Sex.com: We are a nation addicted to porn. And nearly 11 million of us got our fix on the net last year". The Independent. Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  11. ^ Marriott, Edward (November 8, 2003). "Men and porn". The Guardian.
  12. ^ Campbell, Duncan (May 2, 2004). "With pot and porn outstripping corn, America's black economy is flying high". The Guardian. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
  13. OCLC 155896
    ..
  14. S2CID 35500446
    .

Further reading
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