Amateur pornography is a category of
pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, that features models, actors or non-professionals performing without pay, or actors for whom this material is not their only paid modeling work.
Reality pornography
Reality pornography is a genre of pornography where staged scenes, usually shot in cinéma vérité fashion, set up and precede sexual encounters. These scenes may either have the camera operator directly engaging in sex (as in gonzo pornograp ...
is made porn that seeks to emulate the style of amateur pornography. Amateur porn has been called one of the most profitable and long-lasting genres of pornography.
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]
History
Photographs
The introduction of Polaroid cameras in 1948 allowed amateurs to self-produce pornographic photographs immediately and without the need for sending them to a film processor, who might have reported them as violations of obscenity laws.[ One of the more significant increases in amateur pornographic photography came with the advent of the ]internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
, image scanner
An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' ...
s, digital cameras
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile device ...
, and more recently camera phone
A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...
s. These have enabled people to take private photos and then share the images almost instantly, without the need for expensive distribution, and this has resulted in an ever-growing variety and quantity of material.[ It has also been argued that in the Internet age it has become more socially acceptable to make and view amateur porn.][ Starting in the 1990s, pornographic images were shared and exchanged via online services such as ]America Online
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...
(AOL). Photo sharing sites such as Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professiona ...
and social networking sites such as MySpace have also been used to share amateur pornographic photographs usually nudes but also hardcore photos. A more private and easy to control method of sharing photos is through Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
or Google Groups
Google Groups is a service from Google that provides discussion groups for people sharing common interests. The Groups service also provides a gateway to Usenet newsgroups via a shared user interface.
Google Groups became operational in February ...
which have access restricted to group members.
The general public has become more aware in recent years of the potential dangers to teenagers or children, who may be unaware of the consequences, using their camera phone
A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...
s to make videos and images which are then shared amongst their friends, as in sexting
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...
.[ Images initially meant to be shared between couples can now be spread around the world.][ The result is now a small but growing amount of online amateur porn depicting underage models, created by the young people themselves.][
]
Home movies and videos
Before the advent of camcorder
A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video camera, video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right s ...
s and VHS tapes couples had to film themselves using Super 8 film which then had to be sent for film processing
Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image i ...
. This was both expensive and risky as the processing laboratory might report the film to the police depending on their local laws.
Amateur pornography began to rapidly increase in the 1980s, with the camcorder revolution, when people began recording their sex lives and watching the results on VCR
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording ...
s. These home movies
A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on ...
were initially shared for free, often under the counter at the local video store. Homegrown Video was the first company to release and distribute these types of amateur adult videos commercially. They were established in 1982, and AVN
AVN may refer to:
Medicine
* Atrioventricular node, special region of conducting tissue in the heart
* Avascular necrosis, medical condition
Transport
* Air Vanuatu, by ICAO airline code
* Avonmouth railway station, UK, by National Rail code
...
magazine ranked Homegrown Video #1 among the 50 most influential adult titles ever made because it resulted in the creation of the amateur pornography genre in adult video. Several people who sent their tapes to Homegrown Video became professional porn stars
A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of di ...
, including Stephanie Swift, Melissa Hill
Melissa Hill (born January 8, 1970) is a former pornographic actress and director. She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2014 and XRCO Hall of Fame in 2015.
Career
Hill began her career in the adult entertainment industry in 1992 by fir ...
, Rayveness
Gina-Raye Carter (born 1972), known professionally as Rayveness, is an American pornographic and mainstream film actress. She is an inductee of both the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame.
Career
Rayveness's first appearance in a porno ...
, and Meggan Mallone. In 1991, in response to a ''Boston Glob''e investigation, video store proprietors reported that between 20 and 60% of video rentals and sales were of adult amateur home video
Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming m ...
films.
One highly publicized case was that of Kathy Willets and her husband Jeffrey in 1991. Jeffrey was a deputy sheriff in Broward County, Florida
Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 ...
who had recorded his "nymphomaniac" wife's sexual exploits with up to eight men a day. He was charging up to $150 an hour and had also taped some significant local figures, so the two were arrested and charged with prostitution. Ellis Rubin
Ellis S. Rubin (June 20, 1925 – December 12, 2006) was an American attorney who gained national fame for handling a variety of highly publicized cases in a legal career that spanned 53 years. He was famous for his innovative defenses and hi ...
acted as defense counsel and contended that Willets' nymphomania was caused by the use of Prozac. In the end, they pleaded guilty and both were convicted, although Kathy has gone on to a career in the adult film industry.
The term 'realcore' has been used to describe digital amateur porn, which arose due to the combination of cheap digital cameras and the World Wide Web in the late 90s. The term refers both to how porn is made, with simple cameras and a documentary style, and how it is distributed, mostly for free, in web communities or Usenet newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distin ...
s. The term was invented by Sergio Messina
Sergio Messina (born September 18, 1959) is an Italian musician, radio maker, writer, teacher and artist.
In 1989 his no copyright, self distributed song Radiogladio got him international attention. Subsequently he produced ''Curre curre guagli ...
, who first used it at the Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...
Symposium in 2000, and was subsequently adopted by a number of authors and experts. Messina has written a book on the subject, entitled ''Realcore, the digital porno revolution''.
Amateur porn has also influenced the rise of the celebrity sex tape
A celebrity sex tape is typically an amateur pornographic video recording involving one or more famous people which has, intentionally or unintentionally, been made available publicly. Such videos have often been released without the consent of t ...
, featuring stars like Scott Stapp
Scott Stapp (born Anthony Scott Flippen, August 8, 1973) is an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Creed. He has also fronted the band Art of Anarchy and has released three solo albums: '' The Great ...
, Kid Rock
Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician ...
, Pamela Anderson
Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress and model. She is best known for her glamour modeling work in ''Playboy'' magazine and for her appearances on the television series '' Baywatch'' (1992–1997).
Ande ...
, Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, socialite, model, and entertainer. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California, she is a great-granddaughter of Conr ...
, and Kim Kardashian
Kimberly Noel Kardashian (formerly West; born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the s ...
.[ The increase of free amateur porn " tube sites" has allowed homemade films to be uploaded across multiple tube sites on the internet, like ]Pornhub
Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography website. It is one of several pornographic video-streaming websites owned by MindGeek. , Pornhub is the 10th-most-trafficked website in the world and the second-most-trafficked adult website afte ...
or XVideos
XVideos, stylized as XVIDEOS, is a pornographic video sharing and viewing website. Founded in Paris in 2007, the website is now registered to the Czech company WGCZ Holding. , it is the most visited pornographic website and the tenth most visited ...
.[ Due to the popularity of social networks, people can also connect with other amateur porn enthusiasts to discuss and share their sex life on platforms solely for this purpose. There are sites with an open or "closed until verification" community where people can freely share your own pictures or watch amateurs' videos directly from those who record them.
]
Literature: sex stories
The internet has also affected amateur authors sharing their pornographic stories. Text is much easier to disseminate than images and so from the early 1990s amateurs were contributing stories to usenet groups such as alt.sex.stories and also to online repositories. While most commercial sites charge for image content, story content is usually free to view and is funded by pop-up or banner advertising. Story submission and rating depends on registration as a user, but this is also usually free. Example sites include Literotica
Literotica (a portmanteau of literature and erotica) is a free erotic fiction website. It allows any user to register as an author and submit stories and has over a million registered users . Amateur authors contribute stories, poems, essays, illu ...
, True Dirty Stories and Lust Library.
Revenge porn
The advent of amateur and self-produced pornography has given rise to civil suits and newly identified and defined criminal activity. So called " revenge porn" gained awareness in the late 2000s in the press through initial lawsuits by victims who had images and video of them either nude or in intimate acts posted on the internet.[Eric Larson]
It's Still Easy to Get Away With Revenge POrn
Mashable (Oct. 21, 2013).
Minors
If the video or images in question are of individuals who are minors, including material created by the subject (ex. selfies
A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Fac ...
, etc.), investigation by law enforcement can lead to charges for child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...
as has happened in cases involving sexting
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...
.
User-generated online content
Like traditional magazine and VHS/DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
-based pornography, Internet pornography
Internet pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the internet, primarily via websites, FTP servers peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The availability of widespread public access to the World Wide Web in late 19 ...
has long been a profitable venture. However, with the rise of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
ventures and amateur pornography, websites based upon the YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
platform of user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion ...
and video sharing
An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally u ...
have become highly popular. By January 2008 a search for "porn" and "tube" returned 8.3 million results on Yahoo and 8.5 million on MSN. (By October 2017 searches for "porn" and "tube" returned 23 million results on Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. By March 2017 searches for "porn" and "tube" returned 1420 million results on Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
.). Video hosting service
An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally u ...
"tube" websites feature free user-uploaded amateur pornography,[ and have become the most visited pornography websites on the internet.
Since the content of these websites is entirely free and of reasonably high quality, and because most of the videos are full-length instead of short clips, these websites have sharply cut in to the profits of pornographic ]paysite
A paysite or pay site, in the adult entertainment industry, is a website that charges money to become a member and view its content, and often produces original adult content. They can be contrasted with "free-sites", which do not charge a member ...
s and traditional magazine and DVD-based pornography. The profits of tube-site owners are also squeezed in an increasingly crowded market, with the number of sites constantly growing.[
]
See also
*Alt porn
Alternative porn (also known as alt porn, alternaporn, or simply alt in context), a shortening of "alternative pornography", is a subgenre of pornography that is centered around alternative subcultures, such as goths, punks, emos, scenes, skater ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amateur Pornography
Pornography by genre
Video hosting
DIY culture
pt:Pornô real