Pornography Networks

Pornography is broadly defined as sexually explicit media designed for sexual arousal. The study of pornography was dominated in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s by empirical research seeking to establish the effects of explicit images and films on viewers' behavior. This research movement was motivated in part by a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings between 1957 and 1973 that gave First Amendment protection to almost all literature and a wide array of, although not all, sexually explicit images and films. Thus, in the 1960s and 1970s, mainstream, audiences (mostly male) were able to legally view magazines such as Playboy and films such as Deep Throat. Presidential commissions published official reports on the social impact of pornography in 1970 and 1986, yet by the mid-1980s, most researchers were willing to concede that it was difficult to demonstrate a causal link between viewing pornography and negative social behaviors. Other areas of inquiry began to emerge, including several approaches informed by feminist social theories, studies of the effects of pornography on people's attitudes about sex and women, clinical research of porn addiction, and finally, historical and cultural studies of the social roles and meanings of pornography in different cultures.

By and large, the social networks and contexts of pornography have not been widely studied. People have only been able to legally produce and consume most forms of sexually explicit materials for what is a relatively short time span, historically speaking; yet in many cultures, owning and enjoying porn is still taboo. Hence, knowledge of the social networks of pornography is rather sporadic and can be difficult to attain. To codify pornography networks, it is helpful to explore producer/distributor networks and consumer/audience networks, both historical and contemporary.