AnnalsPornographie

/u/fuckswithducks

Can I say I am honored that you of all people have asked me a question? I've actually thought about writing an article about your subreddit as an example of the hyper-specalization and genreification of pornography.

've noticed that probably due to the taboo nature of porn, it isn't considered a very precious form of media. As such, I feel like a lot of it isn't archived and a small fraction of the vast amount of it actually survives through history.

I cant begin to describe how right you are. One of the biggest problems that historians as a whole face is the destruction and loss of sources and material. In history of pornography we face that issue x100 because of the sensational and controversial nature of erotic work. We have lots of references to works that were deliberately destroyed by the state and the church, and some of our best examples of early pornography and obscenity only survived in one copy. An example might be the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. He wrote it while imprisoned in the Bastille, but was transferred after deliberately instating the crowds to attack the Bastille (and thus kicking off the Revolution) and the gigantic scroll of the text was lost to him and to history for over a century until it was rediscovered mostly by accident by a German doctor.

Another example is deliberate destruction. Upon his death, Henry Spencer Ashbee has the world's largest collection of pornography, and he donated it to the British Library along with his Don Quixote collection. Gibson describes what happens next:

The British Museum, informed of the Bequest on 6 August 1900 by Ashbee’s solicitors, Kennedy, Hughes, and Posonby, found itself in something of a quandary. The Trustees pointed out that the will made it clear the Museum must take all or nothing. So rich was the Cervantes collection, which included 384 editions of Don Quixote alone, so unique were some of the other items, that there could be no question of rejecting the bequest out of hand despite the presence of erotica. But what to do about the latter? …

[The Museum stated] ‘With regard to the collection of obscene books [we] have gone through the whole of them and have packed six boxes the duplicate copies. He asked the permission of the Trustees to destroy them.’ … Peter Mendes has come to the conclusion that, along with the ‘duplicates,’ the British Museum authorities destroyed the greater part of Ashbee’s collection of ‘poorly produced, illustrated pornographic fiction (particularly in English) of the nineteenth century,’ perhaps some hundred items… The loss to research is definitive because often no other copies of the works are known to have been preserved.

Undoubtedly we lost a great many examples of early porn, including, no doubt, examples of ducks in porn. :(

I plead the fifth ;)

you have my permission. unless that's your fetish. then you don't have it.

The Catholic Church was actually pretty feminist and liberal for its time.

Let me explain. The Council of Trent was a major church council that formulated a response to the Reformation happening in Europe at the time. They also sought to standardize regulations around marriage and relationships, especially clandestine relationships, where men would promise women marriage and then when they got pregnant, abandon them. The Church very much hated this. To quote from my book:

The result was the Tamesti, which stated that “whereas clandestine marriages had previously declared valid, though blameworthy, all would be deemed invalid unless celebrated before a priest and at least two witnesses.” In O’Malley’s view “No single provision of the entire council affected the Catholic laity more directly than Tamesti… The approval and implementation of Tamesti meant that in the future the church recognized no marriages between Catholics as valid unless it had been witnessed by a priest.” The intention and effects of Tamesti were, in a way, feminist in the sense that they sought to protect and enfranchise women against being abandoned due to clandestine marriages.

I can't say it has at all. I'm very happy and content in my relationships with everyone around me. Actually, my friend David Ley, a medical doctor, has written extensively and critically on the idea that pornography and sex addiction are even legitimate diagnoses. Here's him at his best: http://www.amazon.com/Addiction-forthcoming-Ethical-Responsible-Pleasure/dp/1442213051

The NoFap philosophy that pornography and obscenity is dramatically worse now than it was in prior years I find a little inaccurate. Cock and Hen clubs in the 17th century often features people having what we'd call nonpenatrative sex (blowjobs, fingering, etc) and you could see people having sex with prostitutes in alleyways and people didn't think too much of it--remember, entire families shared beds and you'd be aware of how your parents made your siblings. Granted, if you find it is something taking over your life, then it is a good idea to get clear, but this doesn't mean porn is more addictive or damaging than gambling or shopping.