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In 2002, it was estimated that the pornography business, so vital to California economics and turgid male fantasy around the world, generated more than $57 billion dollars in revenue, $12 billion in the United States alone.1 North American statistics indicate that porn makes more money than Hollywood at the box office, more than the sum of NBC’s, CBS’s and ABC’s revenues, more than the music industry generates from record sales, and more than all major professional sports in the United States combined.2 In other words, porn is no longer flirting with the mainstream; it is the mainstream.3 Companies like VCA and Vivid have erected promotional billboards in Los Angeles and New York, sitting cheek to jowl with advertisements for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Vivid plugs their releases in airport lounges, while Metro is now a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.4 The 2005 re-release of Deep Throat and a related documentary, as well as invigorated interest in pole-dancing workout routines and racy primetime soap operas such as Desperate Housewives (which airs on Disney-owned ABC) have all conspired to make porn seem almost, well, banal.5 Gone are the days of underground productions in seedy warehouses, the “raincoat brigade” lurking in Times Square theatres, and sleazy producers
File Details: August 5, 2005 106kb (30 pages)
Source: criticalsense.berkeley.edu
