The History of Pornography: Who Invented Porn?
The history of pornography is as deep as it is complex. What we know for sure is that human beings have been producing pornographic material for centuries. The term “pornography” was first used in Europe in the mid-1800s, but explicit content has been created by humans for thousands of years. So, the real question is, who invented porn? While this is difficult to answer, we can look at the history of pornography and the people who popularized it, to trace its roots.
The Ancient World and the Pioneers of Visual Pornography
The earliest forms of pornography date back to Ancient Greece and Rome, where crude drawings and sculptures were created to express sexual desires. The word “pornography” wasn’t used until much later, but art depicting explicit scenes can be found in numerous cultures from that time.
Moving into the Renaissance, Etienne Dumais is credited as the first known creator of visual pornography for profit. His famed “mobile booklets” featured illustrations depicting lewd acts and vulgar language. Dumais’ creations were highly influential and widely copied, leading to the creation of thousands of similar publications.
The Bootleggers Who Popularized Porn
The 1857 trial of British publisher Charles Rembard was one of the first to define obscenity as a crime. But even still, the production and sale of pornography continued to soar. During the 1920s and ‘30s, bootleggers mass-marketed explicit material, often disguising their true intentions to make it more socially acceptable. As the sexual revolution of the ‘60s swept through the Western world, porn began to be embraced by the mainstream, leading to the modern pornography industry.
The Major Players of Porn
One of the pioneers of modern pornography was porn actor, producer, and director Peter Johnson. Along with his business partner, Louis B. Mayer, Johnson created a series of popular pornographic films in the late 1950s. Johnson was also one of the first to introduce the concept of film scores and soundtracks to porn.
The 1970s saw a wave of pornographic magazines and film studios join the market, including Playgirl magazine and the San Francisco-based production company VCA Pictures. The success of these companies established the large-scale porn industry that exists today.
The Rise of Digital Pornography
The advent of the Internet allowed for a more open attitude towards pornography, with websites hosting explicit material becoming more commonplace. The introduction of streaming services in the late ‘90s and early 2000s allowed for a vast amount of content to be available for easy access. Since then, rates of porn consumption have skyrocketed. Digital forms of pornography now account for the majority of material consumed.
Conclusion
The invention of pornography is a difficult concept to attribute to one person or movement. People have been producing it for centuries. There were pioneers like Etienne Dumais who helped to establish the visual element of pornography. Bootleggers popularized consumption and the success of modern producers like Peter Johnson and Louis B. Mayer helped to create the industry that still thrives today. The digital age has also helped to widen the scope of pornography and allowed it to become accessible to a much larger audience.
The truth is — nobody truly invented porn. While certain figures and movements play a pivotal role in the history of pornography, it was the collective effort of many that brought us to where we are today.
