There's no business like porn business

GRAPHIC BY KOI ANUNTA

Where do they get off?

For some, the Internet is an extensive research tool, covering academic subjects, the ins and outs of the job world, and local and global news. For others, it is a virtual marketplace that offers books, music, and airplane tickets. And for a vast group, the Internet is a tool for a special interest--pornography.

After conducting my own Internet research project, I came to the following conclusion: finding porn on the Internet is actually easier than finding something useful. Undoubtedly, for some people Internet porn is "useful," but I'm talking about, say, useful for researching a history paper.

I began my sex surf using the Yahoo! (indeed) search engine. When I searched for websites containing the word "sex," a sizable 2,571 hits came up. This massive number, however, merely reflects the number of homepages containing sex. For the actual
number of webpages, I searched for "sex" on another search engine, the aptly named excite.com. There, "sex" yielded a whopping 548,942 webpages. Returning to Yahoo!, I refined my search a bit. For "pussy," there were 192 homepages, including the urgent www.911for-pussy.com. For "fuck," there were 93 homepages; for "cum," 130, including "The Cum Dumpster" and "Cum and Get It," as well as the homepage for the magna cum laude society. Finally, there were 665 homepages for "fetish," including "Leg and Foot Fetish World."

In short, there's something for everybody. The words orgy, anal, oral, lesbian, gay, amateur, teen, cock, and cum fill the Net, often in shocking and humorous ways: a certain www.perfectpose.com promises that "you will blow the end off your weenie." Most sites are "hardcore," offering images of various sexual acts, from the traditional to the traumatic. There are also some "softcore" sites and commercial sites like www.playboy.com.

But what's on all these porn pages? The standard format is a well-designed homepage which has "free samples" for non-members, and a members-only porn resource center, which gives new meaning to the phrase "hands-on research." Members have the privilege of chat rooms, video clips, picture archives often containing more than 50,000 pictures, and the knowledge that they have no life.

At every site the virtual voyeur is bombarded with advertisements for other porn sites, so that you really can't miss a beat. The most recent trend seems to be toward amateur porn (America's Funniest Home Videos, eat your heart out) and images of "barely legal" teenagers, to accommodate both the dirty old men and the investigative adolescents. Something for everyone!

The number of truly upsetting pictures on some of these webpages is astounding. The obsession with the "cumshot" (a photo showing a man ejaculating onto a woman) is certainly gross, but add to that incest photos and bestiality, and you may find yourself force-quitting Netscape. To give you an idea, one video clip shows a woman performing fellatio on a horse--to completion.

The ethical issues are numerous. Although the sites warn that "you must be 18 to enter," there is no way to prevent someone who is not even old enough to be "barely legal" from finding porn, even by accident. What if some kid doing a research project on horses came across that video clip and presented it to the class? Who wants to explain that to a 10-year-old?

--Mike Gitter

For the price of a compact disc...

Whoever said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," clearly never surfed the Internet for pornography. It just depends on your definition of the word. In fact, lots of things are "free," even when they're not. Example: www.freesex.com isn't free. The site titled www.freeporn.com isn't free either. Of course, www.freepress.com is free, but unless you're trying to find naked pictures of Detroit Red Wings head coach Scotty Bowman, this probably isn't the place for you.

In general, "free" porn sites are created using minimum hard disk space and existing materials, which usually cost absolutely nothing to locate. After the creation of a site, programmers then can charge outrageous prices for rehashed smut, and in the process, make a handsome profit. The purpose of these sites is to make money, and consequently, they aren't free.

As a matter of fact, finding Internet porn that is truly free requires patience. Go ahead, type in any combination of sexual terms on the Internet and for $14.99 you're bound to find yourself face to face with something that's definitely not a face. (Although it might be, if you tilt your head to the right.) For example, at www.clubbeaver.com a woman in black boots proclaims the site "100 percent free." However, according to Club Beaver's definition, 100 percent free means $19.95 per free trial for three days, and unless that fee is bursar billable, most Yale students would probably avoid the "bargain." And if you plan on establishing a "free account" at www.twogirlsex.com, bring your Visa card, because these ladies don't accept American Express.

Simply put, surfing most flashy websites results in nothing more than a few poor quality samples and one million annoying new browsers opening on your desktop. Locating truly costless websites requires penetrating exploration, as most free porn sites aren't entirely dedicated to pornography. There are a few sites like www.bomis.com and www.scour.net, information databases centered on entertainment. On www.bomis.com, one can find music files, classifieds, and of course, nude photos of Janine Lindemulder.

The fact that these other sites have inserted themselves into the sphere of Internet pornography shows that, if anything, the price of porn is usually reason enough to deter the average person from probing the Internet for pictures of Victoria Silvstedt. Besides, for the cost of one week's admission to www.cyberpimps.com, you could subscribe to Playboy for six months, buy 12 burgers at the Yankee Doodle, or even drop a class at Yale. But those probably all go together anyway.

--Aaron Zamost

Changing attitudes?

Ever wonder how your roommate is able to sit cooped up at his desk for hours on end "studying," without ever taking a break? Maybe he or she is--gasp!--smut surfing. One Internet porn aficionado at Yale, who preferred to be called "The Horseman," touted the hobby as the perfect study break. "You're writing a paper, it's not going so well, you stop, you turn on the Internet, and bam," he said. What's so appealing about Internet porn, opposed to other forms, he claims, is its instant accessibility.

"Plus," he said, " sometimes you just need to get your rocks off--you know, release those demons!" But what about those who oppose porn, arguing that it objectifies people?

"Ah, they're just prudes," The Horseman responded. "Pornography doesn't do anyone any real harm." What about child pornography? "Well, that's illegal," he said.

"The Horseman," however, may not represent the entire Yale population in his, er, enthusiasm for pornography. One student, though firmly anti-censorship, cautioned that, "It's dangerous to say that it's `just an impulse'" to want to look at pornographic images. Porn, she said, reveals some scary human tendencies that porn lovers often don't recognize; it isn't just about "releasing your demons."

Some porn enthusiasts also like to believe that they have a progressive, liberal attitude toward sex, when in fact, they might be the most ambivalent about it. Sociology Professor Joshua Gamson, who teaches a class on sexual diversity and social change, said,"The United States is a country that is pretty puritanical, or at least very ambivalent about sex."

He pointed out that America sells sex ads on TV but at the same time condemns the president for his sexual escapades. Internet pornography, then, provides the perfect solution to this ambivalence. "[It] presents a new, safe way for people to express sexual attitudes which might be seen as `dirty,'" Gamson said.

Even if the taboo nature of pornography is leading more and more people to enjoy its forbidden pleasures at the privacy of their own desks, other forms of pornography are still alive and well. An employee at the eight-year-old Nu Haven Book & Video, a Chapel Street porn shop, refused to answer any intimate questions, but provided this useful analogy to assess the state of the porn business: "If you started a lemonade stand and it was still around after eight years, don't you think it's doing good?" Who can resist such charming analogies?

--Jennifer Richler

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