MONTREAL – There’s been a lot of talk about the “death of porn,” but to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. A lot of money and outlets remain for adult entertainment. The trick is to recognize where growth markets lie.

Edward Shorter, PhD, will share insight and observations about those markets with Qwebec Expo attendees during a seminar entitled “Holding Off the ‘Death of Porn’: Some New Ideas.” Shorter’s lecture will take place from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.
Aug. 16.

Shorter, president of Edward Shorter Associates in Toronto, provided the following synopsis:

From around 1900 to 1970 there were enormous changes in sexuality. Out of the classical focus on the face and genitals emerged what might be called “Total Body Sex,” valorizing oral and anal sex and bold new positions, and seeing the entire body as a kind of sexual turn-on.

Yet, by around 1970 this development was complete. According to recent statistics, 90 percent of all men and women practice oral sex; almost half anal. These tastes have been largely slaked.

Given that adult entertainment is mainly about innovation in taste, what are the most recent new tastes? Some, such as lesbian, gay and transsexual are so obvious as scarcely to require elucidation. Three are less obvious.

First, there has been rapidly growing interest in the fetish and BDSM areas. Historically this was virtually invisible, not because it was taboo, but because it simply wasn’t practiced. Today, dressing up in leather or latex and mild bondage are widespread. There is plenty more runway for growth here as the imaginative possibilities are still very great.

Second, there has been a crumbling of “John Wayne” sexuality, the manly male. This happens in the form of the heterosexual “sissy.” Sissies used to be a gay image. Today, the idea is that a strong woman forces an otherwise heterosexual partner to feminize as her servant. He tells her, “I know you’re stronger than me, but don’t force me to wear this awful gag.” In reality, of course, the male very much wants to be dominated and feminized, but the fun is in the pretense of being forced.

A similar scenario is enacted as she enforces “chastity” on him, locking him into one of the new male chastity devices that have just come on the market — and are now being included in loot bags at the Emmy Awards.

John Wayne also crumbles in the face of “forced bi”: otherwise heterosexual males being “dommed” into giving oral sex to another man, or the domme “forces” the male to submit anally to another man. All of these practices, so fatal to the John Wayne image, are quite new.

Third, there has emerged what one might call the Fifty Shades market: women energized by the famous novel, which has been the biggest selling work of fiction in modern times. The Fifty Shades enthusiasts are keen to seek out new sensations. It is not sadomasochism as such that so many women readers are keen on, but the emotional intensity of the relationship between Christian and Ana. The exchange of power, or sadomasochistic element, creates additional psychological space for an incandescent emotional bond to occupy. The popularity of the novel lies in the intensity of the emotions it generates rather than in the technical details of BDSM.

So, we are dealing here with a new market of women hungry for erotic emotions, and the old Gothic novels won’t fill it because they are sexually so inexplicit. We’re talking here about female-centered adult entertainment; yet, it must differ from the old, male-oriented “stroke videos.” Women want plots, not just masturbatory loops; they want female characters they can identify with who project feelings. The potential size of this market is huge. There’s lots of runway space here.

Shorter is the author of two books about sexuality: Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire (University of Toronto Press, 2005) and Sadomasochism and Ardent Love: A Reader’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey. (Bev Editions, March 2012).