Dear Vanessa --

Here's a short video documentary about the history of porn in Denmark. I was fascinated to learn a few things:

• Porn was legalized in two stages. The first, in 1967, lifted restrictions on print porn ("print" as in "text" -- novels, etc). The second stage ended restrictions on virtually all other kinds of porn.

• While the business of erotic novels and such had flourished under censorship in a modest and illicit way, once this work was made legal everyone lost interest in it. The market for it collapsed.

• Legislators took the second step -- making all other kinds of porn legal -- believing that the demise of text-porn was a trustworthy predictor of the move's consequences. Instead, demand for all these other kinds of porn (pictures, movies, etc) exploded.

Unsure what to make of this but ever-curious,

Michael

I know that my own personal experiences with an ex-husband and his addiction to film porn understandably colors my perspective on the issue. However, it is obvious that the "visual" porn affects a different cerebral region than that of "text" porn, perhaps triggering the afore mentioned addiction. Film porn also has the added benefit (if you can call any portion of that industry a benefit) of raking in enormous amounts of profit. I suppose I could add a tangent here and suggest that men view and enjoy porn far more, and for different reasons, than women. From my own perspective, I would never consider watching a porn movie, while I do enjoy the occasional spicy fiction novel or short stories. My own imagination is far superior to any porn producer's idea of erotica. IMHO

Posted by: Cowtown Pattie on July 16, 2004 3:00 PM

Haven't watched the short video yet, but Eric Schlosser claims in his book "Reefer Madness" that most demand for porn in Denmark comes from foreigners. Don't know his source, but his books seem well researched.

Posted by: Damon on July 17, 2004 1:00 AM






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