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The Internet Is for Porn

themargins.substack.com

61–70 of 460 posts

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#61
post #55
post #20

I'm glad that monetized platforms like Twitch and OnlyFans exist. It's an accessible way for the younger generations to make ludicrous amounts of money for not too much up-front investment. There's definitely work and downsides involved, just not like some lesser paid, more credentialed professions. Hopefully this puts pressure on the essential jobs in society to actually raise compensation in comparison. The rest of…

> The rest of us boring, unattractive folks The battle cry of the can't be arsed. The difference between them and you is you applied for the desk job.

>The battle cry of the can't be arsed.

Can't be arsed to do what?

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only investment being that they're selling their body for money, and generating a negative presence online that doesn't help their future career aspirations. I don't think this is a good thing to encourage young people to do.

They are selling pictures of their body. The body gets nearly no wear and tear for the work. There's only negative presence in the sense of haters. Would you also encourage young people to avoid being Black, or Muslim, because that's a "negative presence"?

I would discourage young people from getting face tattoos. I think that's a better analogy.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#63
post #29

Porn always reminds me of other classical debates that have no end like guns and abortion. The camps of folks in the middle who are cognitively capable of making a difference can't because the outsized voices on either side of them are screaming for either total freedom or total shutdown. They actively fear monger people out of action so no real progress is made. It prevents the best coders and business people from w…

SV is not going to disrupt the sex industry because the part that needs disrupting is the unethical nature of it. Profit is not optimised to do that.

Who said disrupt? I certainly didn't. That said, tech (not Silicon Valley) could develop open methods for verification or DRM that could be useful in solving the problems people are talking about.

Tech isn't all about making money. Silicon Valley probably is.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#64
post #9

I joke with friends that the internet was invented by porn coders - back in the 90s, porn companies would pay college kids to deliver more porn faster, cheaper (with perl). Before that it was porn BBSes doing the same thing, people would pay for dialup access to download. Porn delivery has been on the forefront of pushing certain areas of tech for a long time, it's just not openly acceptable.

You go back a ways and that was certainly a trope and there was some truth to it. Pre-ISPs for the general public, even commercial private BBSs that were discussion boards and file distribution points for lots of non-porn purposes, definitely had a big porn part and it wouldn't surprise me if that's what drove most of their subscriptions.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#65
NB: Writing from a perspective of someone who grew up in a conservative society (Tier 2-3 city in India), and may have a different take.

Porn has become one of those buzzwords which triggers an emotional response and is used as a political tool by everyone. ("Taking away our culture and morally corrupting the young generation" is a common refrain heard around me by prominent people even today). I feel that anything which enters this realm where your first response is a strong emotional one (nationalism, criminal etc.) its very hard to get to a solution or even a way forward. Best is to maybe just change the word you use.

This article touches upon that, inviting readers to drop off if they are triggered by usage. I would say they need to read it more than those who are happy to read further and are not triggered. This is where the outrage about the NYT article had the unintended effect. The points were correct, but were not presented factually, and instead to trigger a moral outrage causing the payment processors to stop usage. To think of it, Pornhub was one of the few sites with financial power, resources, and motivation to put the stop to revenge porn and non consensual uploads. Asking to do that would not have scored any points for anyone. Maybe the solution I propose isnt right, but it is impossible to have that conversation given the vitriol internet generates for anything like a half cooked thought not agreeing to the mainstream idea.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is not about sex workers but about virtual pimps and it is not advocating for sex workers but for the pimp's business. Big difference.

The article is not exactly sympathetic to the "virtual pimps": > Like many industries that rely on talent that is often young and naive, greedy middlemen (almost always men) who control production and channels of distribution take all the upside for themselves. A perfect example is porn mega-name Mia Khalifa, who was paid a grand total of $12,000 for only a handful of shoots - a tiny, tiny fraction of the value her c…

New artists and performers get paid less until they have a marketable reputation. That's how the art/entertainment IP industry works, from porn to music to movies to books. Khalifa is rich now.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only investment being that they're selling their body for money, and generating a negative presence online that doesn't help their future career aspirations. I don't think this is a good thing to encourage young people to do.

They are selling pictures of their body. The body gets nearly no wear and tear for the work. There's only negative presence in the sense of haters. Would you also encourage young people to avoid being Black, or Muslim, because that's a "negative presence"?

I'm confused as to why being black or muslim would be a "negative presence"...

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#68
post #29

Porn always reminds me of other classical debates that have no end like guns and abortion. The camps of folks in the middle who are cognitively capable of making a difference can't because the outsized voices on either side of them are screaming for either total freedom or total shutdown. They actively fear monger people out of action so no real progress is made. It prevents the best coders and business people from w…

> My basis for that is that virtually anything sex related, apart from toys, cannot be purchased with credit or debit cards. Most porn can be bought with credit cards, at least in the USA. Mainstream payment processing companies like stripe may not be willing to do it but if you go try to buy (legal) porn right now with a credit card you will be able to do it.

[deleted]

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#69

> [About SV] An observer might note that all of these companies are dominated by men, in an industry dominated by men, tightly interwoven with a venture capital industry that is super-dominated by men. So it’s curious why none of these men have shown any interest in addressing the massive and lucrative sex work industry that overwhelmingly serves, well, men; until you consider who pays the real costs of that industry…

Men are expected to sell their bodies in manual labor. Women are not. Seems a double standard.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#70
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there is even a viable market for OnlyFans type content was such a disheartening thing to learn.

> viable market for OnlyFans type content was such a disheartening thing to learn. why is that? Somebody else enjoying content they paid for has nothing to do with you - it's easy to avoid and easy to not be involved.

Because it demonstrated just how out of reach an actual relationship with someone is for me.

>Somebody else enjoying content they paid for has nothing to do with you - it's easy to avoid and easy to not be involved.

I'd argue that platforms such as these have an effect on gender dynamics in society as a whole.

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