MONTREAL — QWEBEC Expo organizers have announced that Dr. Edward Shorter, President of Edward Shorter Associates, will present a seminar entitled “Holding Off the ‘Death of Porn:’ Some New Ideas.”
According to Dr. Shorter, there’s been a lot of talk about the “death of porn,” but, to paraphrase American author Mark Twain, “reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.”
“There is still a lot of runway space left in adult entertainment,” Shorter explains. “But it’s a matter of recognizing where the growth markets lie.”
Shorter cites as background how from around 1900 to 1970, there were enormous changes in sexuality.
“Out of the classical focus on the face and genitals emerged what might be called ‘Total Body Sex,’ valorizing oral and anal sex, bold new positions, and seeing the entire body as a kind of sexual turn-on. Yet by around 1970, this development was complete,” Shorter explains. “According to recent statistics, 90 percent of all men and women practice oral sex, almost half anal.”
Noting that adult entertainment is mainly about innovation in taste, Shorter explores these most recent “new tastes,” which beyond the upsurge in lesbian, gay and transsexual content, includes three less obvious examples — beginning with the rapidly growing interest in the fetish/BDSM arena.
“Historically, this was virtually invisible, not because it was tabooed, but because it simply wasn’t practiced. Today, dressing up in leather or latex and mild bondage are widespread,” Shorter states. “There is plenty more runway for growth here as the imaginative possibilities are still very great.”
Secondly, Shorter cites the crumbling of “John Wayne” sexuality, typified by the manly male, which has been overtaken by the image of the heterosexual “sissy,” surpassing its former role as a gay-only image.
“Today, the idea is that a strong woman forces an otherwise heterosexual partner to feminize as her servant. He tells her, “I know you’re stronger than me but don’t force me to wear this awful gag,” Shorter notes. “In reality, of course, the male very much wants to be dominated and feminized, but the fun is in the pretense of being forced.”
A similar scenario is enacted as the dominant female enforces “chastity” on her partner, locking him into one of the new male chastity devices entering the market (and now reportedly being included in swag bags at the Emmy Awards).
“John Wayne also crumbles in the face of ‘forced bi,’ where otherwise heterosexual males are ‘dommed’ into giving oral sex to another man, or the domme ‘forces’ the male to submit anally to another man,” Shorter says. “All of these practices, so fatal to the John Wayne image, are quite new.”
The third new market is what one might call the “Fifty Shades” market, consisting of women who are energized by the famous novel, which is reportedly the biggest selling work of fiction in modern times.
“The ‘Fifty Shades’ enthusiasts are keen to seek out new sensations. It is not sadomasochism as such that so many women readers are keen on, but the emotional intensity of the relationship between Christian and Ana,” Shorter explains. “The exchange of power, or sadomasochistic element, creates additional psychological space for an incandescent emotional bond to occupy — and the popularity of the novel lies in the intensity of the emotions it generates, rather than in the technical details of BDSM.”
These factors combine to redefine a new market of women hungry for erotic emotions that are not satisfied by the old Gothic novels that are so sexually non-explicit.
“We’re talking here about female-centered adult entertainment [that is different] from the old, male-oriented ‘stroke videos,’” Shorter says. “Women want plots, not just masturbatory loops — they want female characters they can identify with who project feelings.”
“The potential size of this market is huge,” Shorter adds. “There’s lots of runway space here.”
Dr. Shorter’s session is slated for Saturday, August 16, from 1:45-2:45 p.m. in the QWEBEC Expo's Mini Seminars room.
For more information, visit www.qwebec.com.