The Internet Was Made for Porn

While the opinion has surfaced any number of times, finally there’s some confirmation.

The internet was made for porn.

Think that’s only a song?

From The Elite Daily

Study: Top Porn Site Gets 4 Billion Hits A Month

‘The internet is for porn,’ is the title of a song on hit musical Avenue Q. And it turns out the lyricists had touched on a home truth, because researchers have discovered that a staggering 30 per cent of all internet traffic is pornography.

The biggest porn site on the web – Xvideos – receives 4.4billion page views and 350million unique visits per month, according to a report on the ExtremeTech website.

The only sites that surpass this in size are the likes of Google and Facebook.

The report uncovered the viewing figures for Xvideos from Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner, which uses cookies to gather information about users.

It then used these figures – and actual data from the third biggest porn site, YouPorn – to extrapolate how much data is being transferred out of the site’s servers.

And it’s a huge amount.

It based the first calculation on the average length of time spent on Xvideos, which is 15minutes, and assumed a low resolution video was being streamed.

From this it estimated that around 29 petabytes of pornography is being transferred a month, or 50 gigabytes per second.

However, it upped this estimate to 35 to 40PB per month after learning that YouPorn hosts over 100TB of porn, gets 100million page views and transfers 950 terabytes per day.

That’s the equivalent of 10 dual-layer DVDs per second.

At peak times, it speculates that Xvideos is streaming 1,000 gigabytes per second (or one terabyte), which, the report points out, is one fifteenth of the total amount of connectivity between London and New York.

So, roughly a third of internet traffic is porn, and that probably doesn’t include the various adult-oriented WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr traffic, nor the handful of specialized web forums, etc.

I mention this because this report comes just after the hint that several of the Republican frontrunner candidates have come out as being against internet pornography. This strikes me as interesting because candidates usually claim to be acting on what their supporters want, but in this case, the statistics would indicate that a pretty significant number of their supporters are consumers. There’s a certain irony, too, in that last year there were news reports about the largest demographic for porn consumption was in the southern and south-western US, the same areas that traditionally seem to be the most conservative.

More interestingly, those kinds of numbers point out just how large the porn business must be; and from there, it’s not a stretch to imagine that such an industry must contribute to some pretty decent tax revenues, and add to the coffers of the local economies.

While I’m not a big porn consumer, myself, I support the right of other people to view what they want. So, yeah. Porn. It’s good for you, and good for the economy.

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And now here’s something to get your mind off of politicians.

The Sun is there

Sorry, but I just have to post this entire article:

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Dominatrix raises cash for sick pal – with bondage sessions

Kinky … January Seraph

Splash

By STAFF REPORTER

Last Updated: 30th March 2012

A DOMINATRIX is raising money for a cancer-stricken pal — by taking donations for bondage sessions.

33 comments

January Seraph is offering to spend an extra half an hour with anyone who gives £30 to a fund set up to help sick Hollie Stevens.

Hollie, an adult movie actress, is fighting an aggressive form of breast cancer.

And loyal January, who works in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, said: “Cancer is something we all know someone fighting. This is important to me, to help someone in need.

“Hollie is a friend who I care deeply about, and I’m trying to show that actions do speak louder than words.”

She added: “Hollie is too proud to ask for help herself, so myself and her other great friends are being pushy and helping her out whether she likes it or not.

“Show Hollie that she’s loved and appreciated in her time of need. Because no one should feel alone when they are ill.”

So far more than £8,800 have been raised towards the total target of £9,500.

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Bonus: The article comments aren’t totally stupid or ignorant, either.

I’m sure that we’re going to find out that this was all a hoax, but it did make me think about how much money could potentially be raised for worthy causes.

Readers are encouraged to submit some program titles. Here’s mine:
“Take a Beating for Cancer.”

Anyone else?

The Paypal Morality

Some of you are already aware that Paypal, the largest online independent financial transaction service, is now strong-arming has asked small, independent online bookstores to drop items that do not conform to Paypal’s list of acceptable content. Specifically, these would be be books that contain descriptions of sexuality having to do with incest (not my thing, but it’s pretty popular), bestiality (a problem for furries, werewolf fans, and shape-shifter sex), non-consensual sex (too bad for people with rape fantasies), and of course, BDSM. Because, you know, that’s just sick.

Some online book bloggers are framing this as a censorship issue, but they are mistaken. Censorship is when your government enforces policies on what can or can’t be published. This, rather, is a private company – a very large private company that controls most of the online transactions – so it’s not actually censorship.

At least, not yet, anyway.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when we, the consumers, go crazy for a free service that makes our lives easier, and then promote it into a very large service. There are alternatives to Paypal, and hopefully, in the wake of this even more will spring up. The problem is that, while large retailers can afford their own transaction processing and the higher fees for major credit cards, Paypal is designed for small resellers – a reason that it became so popular with the early Ebay users. In fact, Paypal became so popular that Ebay, themselves, purchased the company.

What amazes me, though, is that so many people seem to be taken by surprise at Paypal’s action. For years I have read stories on various blogs and web sites, and message boards about Paypal’s poor customer service, their penchant for holding money back in reserves, their tendency to deactivate accounts for little or no reason, and their ability to do all of this with impunity because they are not subject to the regulations of normal banks or other credit card companies.

Anyhow, the damage is done. Small online businesses have been going with Paypal because it’s fast, easy, and cheap (i.e., like most of my readers). But if there is enough backlash from interested consumers, maybe those businesses can set up accounts with other transaction companies. If you’re interested in discovering which other services are worth looking into, here’s a Lifehacker article from last July which highlights a few of them.

There are a lot of kinksters in the geek community… or maybe it’s a lot of geeks in the kinkster community. Either way, I urge all of you to think about the big, free online services that you use, and start thinking about alternatives to those services — either finding existing ones or developing new ones. This week it’s Paypal. Maybe next week, some large internet company might decide to do something crazy, like sell your online search history to marketers.

Naw, that probably wouldn’t happen. But still, let’s start looking now, before the “policy” of a private company actually does become censorship.

ETA: More — much more — outrage reading on this can be found on S.V. Rowle’s blog Erotica Book Banning Roundup.

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And now, something that’s not BDSMy, incesty, or bestial:

Tumblr post (and links to more “Fetish Queen Heike”) is here.

The Herbivore Men

I spotted this article about a sexuality study in Japan last week, but haven’t had a chance to read it until just now.

A startling number of Japanese youths have turned their backs on sex and relationships, a new survey has found.

The survey, conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association, found that 36% of males aged 16 to 19 said that they had “no interest” in or even “despised” sex. That’s almost a 19% increase since the survey was last conducted in 2008.

If that’s not bad enough, The Wall Street Journal reports that a whopping 59% of female respondents aged 16 to 19 said they were uninterested in or averse to sex, a near 12% increase since 2008.

Normally when you see those kinds of numbers of people uninterested in sex, you expect it to be about older, married couples. Oh, snap!

But this is an interesting turn of events, especially coming on the heels of a recent study which suggested that most teenagers no longer care if they get a car or driving license. Apparently the internet has made the previously unobtainable pleasures in life so commonplace that there’s no longer any pleasure in acquiring them.

Oh, wait – I may have made a hasty assumption. In Japan, the problem seems to be that young men are too busy eating salads.

Many commentators in the Japanese and international media have laid the problem squarely at the feet of soshoku danshi — “herbivore men” — a term coined by pop culture columnist Maki Fukasawa in 2006. It refers to Japanese young men who have rejected their culture’s traditional definition of masculinity, and seemingly eschew relationships with the opposite sex as part.

CNN spoke to a Midori Saida, a 24-year-old Japanese woman who described “herbivore men” as “flaky and weak.”

“We like manly men,” she said. “We are not interested in those boys — at all.”

For some reason, every time I hear the term “manly men” I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. For guys of a certain age, being accused of the somewhat vague “unmanly” tag is a sure-fire way to escalate any argument into a brawl. And lately, I’ve been hearing those undertones in the discussions about “sub” inclined men.

But moving on…

BBC News spoke to one such “herbivore” man (see video above). The man, Yusaki Yakahashi said: “Building a relationship seems like too much effort. To get her to like me and for me to like her… I’d have to give up everything I do at the weekend for her. I don’t want to do that.”

Dude, I’m totally hip to that.Like, they want you to, you know, go shopping with them, look at curtains, talk about their friends, and, like, you know, do girly stuff. Don’t they know there’s more, well, manly stuff for us to be doing? Things like, umm, updating the video drivers in our PCs so we can play the latest version of Skyrim, for example.

But yeah, for some reason I’m not surprised at the idea that it would be the Japanese that would make sex somehow too inconvenient for real life:

Another theory that seeks to explain Japan’s shrinking population is that Japanese youth spend too much time engaged with technology, living in virtual worlds or settling for virtual girlfriends rather than real ones.

Now, that’s difficult to believe… isn’t it?

More chastity in the news

Seeing as how many things that first show up in porn make it into the mainstream, I’m wondering when male chastity devices will start showing up on bad sitcoms.

I mention this because at last week’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and Adult Novelty Expo, the Millers (or more correctly, AL Enterprises) was there to show off their now well-known line of chastity devices. I missed it this year, since the budget here at Edge of Vanilla Labs didn’t seem to allow for “travel” in the research category; fortunately, the Las Vegas Review Journal had a few things to say:

In equally positive news, depending on your perspective, Las Vegas-based AL Enterprises is marketing a male chastity device that retails for $150. (Answer to obvious question: plastic tubes in various sizes, locking rings and padlocks.)

“It puts control of the couple’s sexuality into the key-holder’s hands,” said Nikki Yates, co-corporate director.

I really like the matter-of-fact reporting, as opposed to some of  the “WTF is this?” reporting seen last year.

They have a really nice looking booth, by the way.

They touched on something that I’ve wondered about, though: The sales numbers.

About 80 percent of the company’s customers are couples, she said. About 95 percent of the devices are purchased by men, but usually because the man’s partner thinks it’s a good idea.

AL works with five distributors, in addition to direct sales through its website, cb-6000.com.

I’m curious as to how they get those kinds of numbers. If 95% per cent of buyers are male, how do they know that 80% are married or partnered? I don’t remember seeing any survey on their website.

But wait – how many are they selling? The answer is still elusive.

Christi Morrell, co-corporate director, said the 13-year-old company’s sales increase 12 percent to 15 percent each year.

“The economy hasn’t affected us,” Yates said, adding that buyers at AVN seem more receptive to different products than in previous years.

I have noticed, though, that compared to 5 or 6 years ago, it’s fairly easy to find online porn (pictures or videos) with a man in a chastity device. They are still primarily in BDSM situations, but during a  long afternoon   few minutes on Youporn, Redtube, Xhamster, etc., it doesn’t take much effort find male subs wearing chastity devices for their cruel mistresses. When you think of some of the other things that have transitioned into more mainstream media (vibrators, dildos, fetish gear, etc.) then maybe it’s not such a stretch to imagine plastic and steel devices being hinted at by consumers hoping for the cutting edge of fetish fashion.

For those of you who doubt the feasibility, consider the cable-only channel Showtime has been airing a “reality program” called “Gigolos.” I haven’t seen it (I don’t have extended cable), but there is an episode from last year that you can find by doing a Google search on “Cock cage episode.” Seriously.

Here’s an interesting tidbit that you’ll find: Jimmy is asked to wear a cock cage, and the longer he wears it, the more he’s paid by a dominatrix.This episode aired last year.

Hah hah hah hah! Oh gosh, that’s so funny. Because, you know, with so many guys out there who seem to be begging to wear these devices, one of our gigolos manages to find the one domme in Las Fucking Vegas who can’t find a man to wear one for free, let alone who would pay her to hold a key.

There was a video of this part of the episode a few weeks ago, but it was apparently hosted on a Megaupload affiliate. But what I saw was a 20-something guy who was locked into a Curve. Of all the devices to portray, they picked the Curve. That’s right, a cable TV show featured a dominatrix who is paying a guy to wear what is arguably the bulkiest, ugliest,  most obtrusive, and least convenient chastity device on the market.

But that’s okay, because hey, it’s a chastity device on TV. Next year, maybe one will be on a more raunchy network show like Two and a Half Men, and a year later will pop up as a side plot on House. And when, one day your work friends are talking about the “kinky cock cage” that they saw on Big Bang Theory, you can give your hipster smirk and tell them that you  knew about those things before they went mainstream.

Not as transgressive as you think

There’s a fascinating article in today’s Salon Magazine about the new book by anthropologist Margot Weiss: “Techniques of Pleasure.” It’s an insightful look at the BDSM scene in San Francisco, and how in her perception, the scene has lost (or perhaps never had) the aura of being an edgy, taboo-breaking culture.

From the article BDSM: It’s not as transgressive as you think:

“The fantasy of the scene as a safe space of private desire justifies and reinforces certain social inequalities,” she argues. The truth, she says, is that S/M “depends for its erotic power on precisely these real-world relations, within which it is given form and content.”

This is something that I rarely see discussed anymore. Is the BDSM scene simply just one more way that “privileged” people play? Perhaps. Weiss states:

“On the one hand, SM is figured as outlaw: as transgressive of normative sexual values,” Weiss writes. “On the other hand, SM is dependent on social norms: practitioners draw on social hierarchies to produce SM scenes.” The mostly-white, mostly-middle-class community is itself an example of real-world social inequality: ”These [sexual] experiments are more possible and more accessible to those with class, race and gender privilege: heterosexual men playing with sexism, white bodies at a charity slave auction, professional information technology (IT) workers with several rooms filled with custom-made bondage toys.”

And speaking of toys:

Not everyone in the S/M scene can afford to buy all this stuff. In the same way that whiteness is normative, it’s in the center, there is this normative professional-class person who has the money and leisure time to devote to S/M practice, and that is the ideal for consumer capitalism.

S/M is not alone in this. This is just a way that communities based around sexualities work in the U.S. today. But S/M is also a really great example of this, and you can see what that does to the community. People have debates about toys: Are they destroying social connections, did it used to be more authentic? And how now you can just buy your S/M identity, and that creates a lot of anxiety for people.

Much more at the Salon article, and for those interested, here’s a link to the book “Techniques of Pleasure.”

A quick synopsis:

[Weiss] describes a scene devoted to a form of erotic play organized around technique, rules and regulations, consumerism, and self-mastery. Challenging the notion that SM is inherently transgressive, Weiss links the development of commodity-oriented sexual communities and the expanding market for sex toys to the eroticization of gendered, racialized, and national inequalities. She analyzes the politics of BDSM’s spectacular performances, including those that dramatize heterosexual male dominance, slave auctions, and US imperialism, and contends that the SM scene is not a “safe space” separate from real-world inequality. It depends, like all sexual desire, on social hierarchies.

And if you stop by the Salon article, take some time to read the lengthy list of comments.

Because you can’t look under the mattress anymore

… to find your partner’s porn, that is.

Well, not that anybody has kept porn under the mattress in the last decade, anyhow. Computer-savvy partners now keep it in sub-sub-sub folders like “D:\windows\system_64\applications\manager\binaries\antivirus\infected\deleted\asian-t-girl-boobies\” or similarly buried directories.

Which is why snoopy wives and girlfriends now have to resort to spyware to find their partner’s fap stash.According to the marketing information on the “Find His Porn” website:

“Technology has advanced to the point where traditional ways for women to keep track of their guys just don’t work anymore.”

You get an RFID device to “keep track” of your pets. You get a cell phone and a Facebook account to “keep track” of your kids. But if you feel a need to “keep track” of your guy, then you need a good, long discussion about your relationship — and ladies? I’m talking to you here — and you’d better be prepared for hearing some things that you may not like.

“Porn has gone virtual – which means no more adult DVD’s or dirty magazines that you will find lying around. Everything he looks at is right there on your computer, only problem is it’s not easy to find. Aren’t you curious what he’s up to? You are not alone. Most women are curious and until now there was little that could be done. Now all you have to do is try Find His Porn today and see exactly what he’s watching.”

Yeah, aren’t you curious as to what he’s looking at? Well, aren’t you?

Okay, okay, I get it. Yes, some guys actually do have a problem with porn; they are addicted to looking at pictures, and some of them masturbate so much that they barely have enough energy for you later on. That’s why you need to lock them up in a chastity device, so they will only be able to…

Hold on, wait,  sorry — That’s the current motto of the chastity nuts on the internet, and is not in any way reflective of real life. Or, at least, real mature, adult life.

And yes, some women become very insecure about the porn that their partners might be looking at because they are constantly comparing themselves, and I think that there is some merit to discussing this. If you are a size 4 woman with B-cup boobs, and your partner is ogling a copy of Big’Uns in the basement behind the furnace, then it’s natural for you to wonder if your partner is thinking about someone else, someone you can’t possibly emulate. 

But these are issues that mature adults should be able to discuss, and come to some kind of agreement or compromise. I’ve heard from real-life woman friends who have bemoaned their husband’s “porn addiction,” only to discover later that hubby’s “porn” was a Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar, or a Playboy Playmate poster; the latter is especially ironic considering that the tv show “The Girls Next Door”(about “Playmates” living in the various Playboy mansions) is watched mainly by women.

Look, sometimes relationships turn weird simply because people fail to treat each other like adults. I once had a partner that used to think it was her job to “catch” me doing things wrong, whether is was cleaning the bathroom, tracking dirt on the floor, or replacing the toilet paper the wrong way on the roll. Each time she “caught” me doing something that was perfectly normal for me (which wasn’t porn, by the way), but that she didn’t like, we had a huge argument. I spent a couple of miserable years learning to hide things, until one day I suddenly realized what I was doing (i.e., acting like a teenager), and just stopped hiding, and began insisting  that if she had a problem, she was welcome to talk to me like an adult, but until then, I’d continue to do things my way.

The relationship lasted about a month after that, which taught me that some people actually do want to play out their child/parent models, or at least, can’t seem to think in other ways. So, if this is you, then by all means buy the porn sniffers. But don’t be surprised when he starts password protecting his accounts, and finds other ways to hide things from you.

Quick on the trigger

There are a lot of jokes and remarks about men who can’t last long enough to satisfy their women partners, not to mention a slew of snide names. Quick-draw. Two Minute Wonder.  The Minute Man. And most of us have probably deleted thousands of spam emails for various herbs, supplements, and other snake oils that can cure us of “that” problem (Premature ejaculation is rarely mentioned in the ad headlines).

So, it may be a surprise to some (as it was to me) that women also suffer from premature, well, not ejaculation as such, but still…

From the Live Science blog:

Premature Orgasm Affects Women, Too.

Men aren’t the only ones who might find themselves peaking too early in the sack. According to a new study, a small percentage of women also experience premature orgasm.

The research, a survey of Portuguese women, found that 40 percent occasionally came to orgasm faster than they intended during sex. For about 3 percent of women, the problem was chronic.

Right now, I imagine that a lot of men are hoping to find out just which women in this study might be single.

Oh, and the graphic for the article couldn’t possibly be any less sensitive.

But seriously, folks:

“At one extreme are women who have a complete control over their orgasm,” he and his colleagues write in a report to be published in the journal Sexologies. “[At] the other extreme is a group of women who report having a lack of control over the moment of orgasm, which occurs very early during intercourse, leading to personal or couple discomfort.”

And why is this a problem?

“I feel the same way men must feel about premature ejaculation and don’t completely see the difference — I finish very quickly, whereas my boyfriend doesn’t get a chance to, and it’s really starting to bother me,” she said. “Once I orgasm, I find it uncomfortable to continue, the mood changes and he ends up missing out, which I feel bad about.”

Okay, it’s easy to make jokes about this because it’s one of those role-reversal situations that seems unlikely. But I can imagine some women – just like men – who, once having orgasmed, perhaps losing interest or not wanting to continue.  I’ve never run across this situation – that I know of. Anyone else?

Porn leads to unrealistic expectations for men

Oh, wait? Did I say “porn”? I meant “romance novels.” Sorry.

No, hold on. Did I say they cause unrealistic expectations for “men”? Sorry, sorry, I meant for “women.”

From the LiveScience blog:

Romance Novels Bad For Women’s Health and Psyche, Psychologist Says

Romance novels can be a bad influence on women and lead them to make poor health and relationship decisions, says a British psychologist.

The novels give women unrealistic views about what to expect out of a relationship because they, well, romanticize love, said Susan Quilliam, a relationship psychologist based in Cambridge.

“They offer an idealized version of romance, which can make some women feel bad about themselves because their relationships aren’t perfect,” Quilliam said.

Hold on… isn’t this the same thing that women have been saying about men who read Playboy, Penthouse, and who watch porn? That the constant exposure will lead to unrealistic expectations?

However, Quilliam stressed, she is not saying women are gullible and don’t understand the difference between fiction and reality. Nor is she saying there is no place for romance novels in our culture.

So, then it’s possible for rational-minded, thinking adults to make a distinction between fantasy and reality? Amazing.

But the novels add to an underlying view in society that in women, emotions and passions trump reason and solid decision-making, Quilliam said. Women should not try to follow their emotions at all costs, but instead balance them with reason.

“The thing that’s going to make relationships last is a mix of romance and common sense,” Quilliam said.

Right. It’s important to mix things up a bit.

I’m sure that most porn watching men would have said this very thing… if you could drag them away from Redtube.

How is this affecting women? Quilliam told MyHealthNewsDaily she often gets letters from women who are in a stable relationship, but feel emotionally attracted to another man. The women think these emotions mean they should abandon their current relationship, because the passion has faded, and go in search of new love rather than trying to work things out.

I wonder if those letters represent a statistically significant population sample?

In fact, everyone, not just female romance readers, can benefit from this advice, Quilliam said.

“Nobody — man or women, romance reader or non-romance reader — should be making their decisions based on,” an idealized version of romance, Quilliam said.

Heh. Party on, Garth!

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And since this is a short article, let’s add something appropos to make it interesting.

Sirius-ly?

I don’t know why, but whenever I read a weird, odd, or bizarre news headline, it’s almost guaranteed to come fr0m our friends across the pond.

Here’s this week’s item:

Irish woman dies after sex with dog

A man was before Limerick District Court after his Alsatian dog had sex with a 43-year-old woman. The woman later died from an allergic reaction. The incident happened in 2008 and the dog has been held in custody since.

So, apprently it took two or three years to investigate this. Is that because it happens frequently, or because it’s so unusual, even for UK standards?

The reason for the death? I had no idea that this could even happen.

The woman fell ill after the incident and was rushed to Limerick hospital where she died from a severe allergic reaction to the sex.

Ah, now I understand why the investigation took so long. They needed to find an interpreter. How else would they reach this conclusion?

Police are apparently satisfied that the sex was consensual.

 

Consensual? Seriously?

 

Okay, everybody post your puns in the comments. Come on, I know you’re dying to write one.