Pornography, now easily accessible through the internet but available on top-shelves or on backstreets for several centuries, continues to hold an ambiguous social role in the current world. For some, pornography is for harmless sexual release, to help spice up a flagging sex life or a juvenile curiosity. For others, it holds the dangers of promiscuous sex, representing the moral corruption of society and the breakdown of the family. For yet another group, pornography is problematic not because of the sex, but because of its portrayal of women, who now feature as the centre-piece of most pornography (at least that aimed at heterosexual men). Women in modern pornography are often objectified to the extent that any remnant of their humanity- or even of their sexual desire- is eradicated. Most modern porn is aimed at men, centred on their sexual desire, but pivots on the female body. The male body, while toned and tanned, is not the focus of the camera; it is female porn-stars who make the most money and their bodies that are the stars of the show. More problematically, despite the centrality of women to pornography, they are not there as woman, but as bodies. They are made less than human, which leads to the objectification of women and violence towards women in everyday life- as can be seen in the high levels of violence against women in areas surrounding stip-clubs.
Yet, this has not always been the case. Pornography and erotica in the seventeenth century had a different focus. Unlike modern pornography, where sex is usually detached from procreation and the freedom to have sex without worrying about pregnancy has been seen to be at the heart of sexual freedom, early modern porn focused on generation. The height of sexual climax for both men and women happened at the moment of conception, which was believed to occur when both man and woman orgasmed simultaneously. Sexual satisfaction therefore was predicated on reproducing and pregnancy signified good sex. This meant that female, as well as male, desire was an important part of early modern pornography, ensuring that foreplay in different forms was often featured. Similarly, as generation was a central part of sexual desire, metaphors around nature and fertility were common. Male protagonists in early modern pornography could be found ‘ploughing’ milkmaids, while semen was envisioned as ‘seed’ being implanted in the ‘female furrow’.
The focus on generation also placed a primacy on heterosexual sex. This is not to say that early modern pornography did not encompass a wide variety of non-penetrative, oral, anal, and vaginal sex with same-sex, hetero-sex and multiple partners, but that the ‘best’ sex was a man having vaginal sex with a woman. Same-sex couplings were seen as less satisfactory and, like in modern pornography, lesbian couplings were often envisioned as a prelude, or warm-up, to later heterosexual sex. In this sense, early modern pornography was aimed at men, rather than woman. Yet, despite this, the male body, but particularly the phallus or erect penis, was much more central to early modern porn. Written works focused on the penis’ size, shape and colour, emphasising its beauty, its smooth texture and its desirability. Large, erect penises featured in most erotic images. Some, along with the testicles, were disembodied from the men themselves, appearing as statues or hanging from trees next to copulating couples.
In this sense, it could be argued that early modern pornography objectified the male body, rather than, or as much as, the female body. Yet, at the same time, it is difficult to see such men as powerless. Their bodies are active and beautiful, and, in the context of seventeenth century society, men did not lack social status, regardless of their physical depiction in pornography. The question then arises to why modern pornography has such a tendency to objectify women- even to the extent of removing their humanity, but when men were placed in a similar position in the past, a similar effect was not seen.
Further reading
Sarah Toulalan, Imagining Sex: Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford UP, 2007).
Julie Peakman, Lascivious Bodies: a Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century (Atlantic Books, 2004).
Gille Néret, Erotica Universalis (Taschen, 2005).
Katie Barclay recommends Erotica Universalis if you fancy some fabulous images of historical erotica dating from the Greeks to the present. She appreciates working in a field where pornography is not only ‘safe for work’, but is in fact work!
