Sexting: the Latest Innovation in Porn

[gonzo]

Sexting is the first innovative form of pornography to organically emerge in the 21st century. Those who first plugged a camera into a cellphone or PDA probably never imaged they would create a new form of pornography. Sexting not only subverts corporate technology, but democratizes it. 21st century media technology makes everyone a moviemaker, distributor and presenter. Sexting makes everyone, including teenagers, pornographers.

Modern pornography begins with the photography. Paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures and books long offered erotic and pornographic representations. Photography, however, is the first mechanical means of image capture and display applied to the erotic.

The first pornographic photos were displayed in the 1830s and engendered the aesthetic sensibility of the modern age. Photography fashioned a new way of seeing and a new form of erotic expression. By the late-19th century, the relatively inexpensive Kodak camera created a new class of art (and artist), user generated content (UGC).

Early photographers borrowed from still earlier painterly and lithographic visual styles when they approached the portraiture of the nude, particularly the female nude. However, as the art historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau observes, the creative breakthrough that distinguishes the photography from earlier art forms of erotic depiction is the invention of the "beaver shot," the complete exposure of the female genitalia. (The “creative breakthrough” of moving image technology is the cum or money shot, male ejaculation onto a woman or into her mouth.)

The beaver shot, a captivating, if humiliating, form of representation, initially acknowledged the shame experienced by both the subject and the viewer; this shame is the bad taste that underlies what is “pornographic.” Many of the surviving early beaver shots show the female subject with her face covered, be it by a petticoat or a veil. There was no eye contact, no recognition, between the subject and her anonymous audience. Unfortunately, modesty is one of the casualties of technological development.

Nevertheless, unless one was technically competent, the photograph, like the later 8mm film, suffered from one fundamental drawback. While it freed the user to create an original (and perhaps pornographic) work, it did not empower him/her to freely reproduce and distribute the work. Duplication required a commercial service provider who, if disturbed by what was processed, could inform the police.

The next phase in the development of UGC came with the introduction of instant photography in the late-1940. Homevido and the prerecorded cassette followed in the late-70s, extending UGC into full-motion imaging. The 21st century is further extending UGC with digital video production, streaming and downloads.

Web 2.0 creates Internet-based social networking combined with wireless mobile communications. Web 2.0 media culture merges the personal, intimate experience of “friendship” with the social, anonymous experience of instantaneous global connectivity. The old Web 1.0 world was based on one-to-one connectivity; the new Web 2.0 world is one-to-many mashup networking.

This change is reflected in the mass adoption of Facebook and MySpace; with, respectively, 136 million and 116 million active users. It is expressed in the phenomenal appeal of YouTube videos, especially its UGC; at yearend ’07, YouTube had 9.5 billion online videos viewed by 138 million people. It is also expressed in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; the appeal of virtual worlds like Second Life; and the playing of “pornographic” videogames like Red Light Center, Virtual Hottie and Cherry Doll. This is a powerful technological and social development as well as a further transformation of erotic culture.

User generated content is the art form of the 21st century. YouTube fulfills the original promise of photography: Everyone can be a producer as well as a distributor and, hopefully, a celebrity with their own audience. Everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. With sexting, however, the 15 minutes of fame shrinks to 15 seconds of exposure.