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Hicklin Test: Le Coucher de La Mariée

Historians have explored the role of pornography throughout history and the development of morality. Pornographic film production began shortly after the invention of motion pictures in 1895. While sexually explicit films were produced illegally in the early 20th century, Denmark became the first country to legalize pornography in 1969, leading to a commercial market, though bans remained elsewhere. The growth of internet pornography since the late 1990s has been attributed to increased viewing and production, with major websites now consolidated under one company.

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178 views2 pages

Hicklin Test: Le Coucher de La Mariée

Historians have explored the role of pornography throughout history and the development of morality. Pornographic film production began shortly after the invention of motion pictures in 1895. While sexually explicit films were produced illegally in the early 20th century, Denmark became the first country to legalize pornography in 1969, leading to a commercial market, though bans remained elsewhere. The growth of internet pornography since the late 1990s has been attributed to increased viewing and production, with major websites now consolidated under one company.

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abdul qayyum
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istorians have explored the role of pornography in social history and the history of morality.

[37] The
Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the Hicklin
test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "whether the tendency of the matter charged
as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences."
Although they were suppressed, depictions of erotic imagery were common throughout history. [38]
Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion
picture in 1895. Two of the earliest pioneers were Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner
directed the earliest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name "Léar". The 1896
film Le Coucher de la Mariée showed Louise Willy performing a striptease. Pirou's film inspired a
genre of risqué French films showing women disrobing and other filmmakers realised profits could
be made from such films.[39][40]

Marquee at Pilgrim Theatre on Washington Street showing Dr. Sex (1964)

Sexually explicit films opened producers and distributors to prosecution. Such films were produced
illicitly by amateurs, starting in the 1920s, primarily in France and the United States. Processing the
film was risky as was their distribution. Distribution was strictly private. [41][42] In 1969, Denmark became
the first country to abolish censorship, thereby decriminalizing pornography, which led to an
explosion in investment and of commercially produced pornography. However, it continued to be
banned in other countries, and had to be smuggled in, where it was sold "under the counter" or
(sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs.[41] Nonetheless, and also in 1969, Blue
Movie by Andy Warhol, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sexual intercourse to receive
wide theatrical release in the United States.[3][4][5] The film was a seminal film in the Golden Age of
Porn and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an
internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years
after Blue Movie was made.[4]

A selection of pornographic magazines confiscated by customs authorities in 1969.


Two porn actors preparing to shoot a scene for an adult film.

Data from 2015 suggests an increase in pornography viewing over the past few decades, and this
has been attributed to the growth of Internet pornography since widespread public access to
the World Wide Web in the late 1990s.[43] Through the 2010s, many pornographic production
companies and top pornographic websites [44] – such as PornHub, RedTube and YouPorn – were
acquired by MindGeek, which has been described as "a monopoly".[45]
The scholarly study of pornography, notably in cultural studies, is limited, perhaps due to the
controversy about the topic in feminism. The first peer-reviewed academic journal about the study of
pornography, Porn Studies, was published in 2014.[46]

Classification
Pornography is often distinguished from erotica, which consists of the portrayal of sexuality with
high-art aspirations, focusing also on feelings and emotions, while pornography involves the
depiction of acts in a sensational manner, with the entire focus on the physical act, so as to arouse
quick intense reactions.[1][47][48] Pornography is generally classified as either softcore or hardcore. A
pornographic work is characterized as hardcore if it has any hardcore content, no matter how small.
Both forms of pornography gene

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