Andy Warhol once said "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I can’t help but get the feeling that given this country’s lurch to the right, the ease and lower cost of digital imaging, along with increasing government induced barriers to publishing, wouldn’t it be likely that people would, uh, take matters into their own hands (pun intended)?
In the time that has passed since the unveiling of Janet Jackson’s Nipple, the "radical social conservatives" have been pushing harder and harder to enforce their ideal of American culture. Witness the renewed FCC and raised fines, the hubbub over violent video games (which is why there will never be another President Clinton), and the coming push to regulate content you choose to bring into your home via basic television. Politech links to an article at Law.com stating that the #1 priority of intermim Attorney General Alex Acosta of the Justice Department is the war on porn. Not child porn, bestiality, or snuff films, but plain old porn featuring consenting adults.
There’s plenty of people who’ve achieved some measure of notoriety (Paris Hilton) or fame (Jenni from Jennicam or Libby Hoeler) by showing their naughty bits online. And by this point, the technology is there, with near-professional grade still and video cameras, video editing software, and maturing online publication and distribution systems like Blogger and BitTorrent within reach. So what will be that tipping point?
If you look at sites like Fleshbot (NSFW), you can find plenty of individuals posting there own erotica online (written, audio, video, and images), as well as on other community based sites like Voyeurweb (NSFW), it’s hardcore sibling Redclouds (NSFW), photogallery site MyThumbnails (NSFW), or user contribution site NewbieNudes (NSFW). This Wired Magazine article profiles one of the most successful subscription adult sites, RetroRaunch (NSFW), which is largely composed of vintage amateur erotica. Also, the prevalence of camera phones and sites like WirelessPhonePics (NSFW) make it even easier to put your stuff out there.
"Scandalous" nudity, either video or images, like those of Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, and plenty of others don’t seem to have hurt their images, the public’s opinion of them, or their starpower. If anything, it’s helped them. How long before that filters down to everybody else?
It’s safe to say that for some people, the Victorian prudishness that is ingrained into American culture is starting to subside, at least behind closed doors. Can the march to the right actually end up making us MORE decadent?
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