For more than a decade, both amateurs and professionals shared their sometimes sweet, sometimes weird, and often graphic sexual activity on Pornhub. Launched in 2007 not long after YouTube and with a similar free-for all spirit, the site represented a new wave of “adult entertainment” in which anyone with an internet connection could partake and anyone with a digital camera could become a star.
Dubbed “tube sites,” Pornhub and its various peers began to dominate web traffic generally and porn consumption specifically. These sites trod on porn’s established business model, but for savvy sex workers the tube site network could provide a way to break into the business or reach audiences directly, without the porn industry’s usual middlemen. To monetize one’s presence in the early days took some creativity, but tube sites would eventually offer content partnerships that allowed people to get paid directly for their videos. Their competitors, such as cam sites and clip stores, made the process of charging money and getting paid even smoother.
The result? For the first time, people with a truly diverse array of body types, looks, races, ethnicities, sexualities, gender identities, and kinks had direct access to the tools of porn production and distribution. In the past, porn had catered to a much more narrow range of tastes, with predictable results. Now audiences could access all sorts of content that defied conventional notions of who and what was deserving of lust. On sites like Pornhub and the microblogging platform Tumblr, outside-the-mainstream content thrived.
And then, one day, it was gone.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2022 de Reason magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2022 de Reason magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
50 Years of D&D: You Can't Copyright Fun
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the granddaddy of tabletop role-playing games and one of the urtexts of nerd culture.
The Alzheimer's Test You're Not Allowed To Have
MILLIONS FACE THE shadow of Alzheimer’s, a disease that steals memories and devastates lives.
An Early Test for Alzheimer's
SHOULD YOU BE allowed to take a blood test that could tell you if you’re already at risk of Alzheimer’s disease? Last year, Quest Diagnostics began offering a consumer-initiated blood test for $399 (not covered by insurance) that detects the buildup of proteins associated with the development of Alzheimer’s in customers’ plasma.
Caging Lab-Grown Meat
LAB-GROWN MEAT IS a scientific marvel. We’ve managed, through pure human ingenuity, to create something that looks like meat, cooks like meat, tastes pretty much like meat, and comes from animal cells—yet doesn’t require the slaughter of a single living animal.
The 'Migrant Crime' Wave, Debunked
“THE UNITED STATES is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime,” said former President Donald Trump during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in February. “It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country.”
Don't Co-Parent With Congress
I’M ALWAYS PUZZLED when I hear other parents say they’re worried about the effects social media might be having on their children.
Is Chinese Garlic a Threat to National Security?
IS A STAPLE ingredient in your kitchen secretly undermining American sovereignty? Sen. Rick Scott (R–Fla.) seems to believe so.
Launch Approved? Not So Fast, Says Sluggish FAA
MOST AMERICANS ARE eager to see NASA astronauts return to the moon and push humanity’s boundaries with future exploration of Mars.
SpaceX Edges Closer to the Moon
ARTEMIS II IS a crewed moon flyby mission, the first in a series of missions meant to get American astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Blaming Tech for Teen Troubles
Jonathan Haidt’s clever, insufficient case against smartphones