Pornographic film: History and Key Facts

Pornographic films (colloquially porn films, pornos, porn), sex films, erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films are films that represent sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films represent sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity or fetishes (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.

Pornographic films are produced and distributed on a variety of media, depending on the demand and technology available, including traditional film stock footage in various formats, home video, DVDs, mobile devices, Internet pornography, Internet download, or cable TV, in addition to other media. Pornography is often sold or rented on DVD; shown through Internet streaming, specialty channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite; and viewed in rapidly disappearing adult movie theater. Often due to broadcast or print censorship commissions, general public opinion, public decency laws, or religious pressure groups, overly sexualized content is generally not permitted in mainstream media or on free-to-air television.

Films with risqué content have been produced since the invention of motion pictures in the 1880s. Production of such films was profitable, and a number of producers specialized in their production. Various groups within society considered such depictions immoral, labeled them "pornographic", and attempted to have them suppressed under other obscenity laws, with varying degrees of success. Such films continued to be produced, and could initially only be distributed by underground channels. Because the viewing of such films carried a social stigma, they were viewed at brothels, adult movie theaters, bachelor parties, home, private clubs, and night cinemas.

In the 1970s, during the Golden Age of Porn, pornographic films were semi-legitimized, to the point where actors not known for appearances in such productions would be cast members (though rarely participating in the explicit scenes); by the 1980s, pornography on home video achieved wider distribution. The rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s changed the way pornographic films were distributed, complicating censorship regimes around the world and legal prosecutions of "obscenity".

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Pornographic film by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.