The Porning of America
Pages 141-153
Reading Review #2

While reading “The Porning of America” article I felt that the authors had done an incredible amount of research to illustrate America’s sexual blooming in only a few brief pages. The article went into great detail about how America and its people have transformed form a society of closed door deviants to a more expressive and accepting culture. Their findings also show how our sexuality started in the home and how the home has taken back the power of its own sexuality. Using transforming forms of media the authors gathered data using historical texts and current media to spin their story and form their thesis. Reading this article was eye opening and gave new light to the struggle that many went through to make this transformation possible. A major strength of the article is the authors use of detail in the examples used in the article. More specifically in the topic discussing porn’s growth in society and its acceptance in modern film. The authors start by diving into the movie Deep Throat and giving an in depth look at the actors and background of the movie. The movie was still pornographic film that somehow found its way out of the snuff film theaters and into many main stream theaters across America. More surprising was the viewers of the movie which included A-list stars, comedians, and politicians. The authors than began to describe how Linda Boreman the starlet of the film was forced into the role and the abusive life she had been stuck in (Sarracino 146). Even with this negativity surrounding the film it was a huge success and seemed to open the door to porn in major motion pictures. We are then taken out of the porn industry and dropped right into mainstream Hollywood where nudity had become intertwined the plots motion pictures. Pretty Baby, and Blame it on Rio are two examples given to express the normalization of nudity in front of the camera (Sarracino 147). These were important films because it took porn completely away from the shadows and set it firmly in our living rooms. Despite the authors detail we are giving very little emotion and the article only seems to be focused on one point of view. This is especially apparent in the finding about child pornography, the authors almost exclusively focus on the Olsen twins. This may have been done to demonstrate America’s obsession with the twins, but by no means does it make the topic exclusive for the entire population. To fully dive into the topic of child pornography you can not solely focus on the icons by which society follows, but rather the ripples that they create. During the time the Olsen twins were at there peak popularity there could have easily had been millions of others examples for the authors to explore, but only focusing on one made their discussion feel less informed. This article can best be described by social control because the porn industry has for the past two hundred years been at the front lines fighting to be a credible business fighting in for it place in society. During the civil war generals would burn pornographic material so it would not corrupt the camp (Sarracino 142), now most people would not think twice of the material that was available back then. Every time the government or our own moral fiber gave into the porn industry was there to quickly fill the gap. America has gradually become more and more accepting of its kinkier side and this relaxing of social construction has made porn an accepted industry. In conclusion whether you accept it or not porn has become part of our everyday lives. By consuming todays media America has confirmed its desire to view pornographic material of all kinds. The only issue is that this behavior may end the industry that fought so hard for the freedom it now has.