The Conversation (0)
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Indy100 Staff
Oct 03, 2015
(Picture: Chris Hondros/Newsmakers
The porn industry has been accused of being shady throughout its history, often the subject of misunderstanding and generalisation.
One of Louis Theroux’s breakout documentaries, during his Wild Weekend series, focussed on the industry and its actors. It received acclaim for humanising the actors and seeking to understand their concerns and welfare anxieties.
Now the people at WatchMojo have researched the industry to try an uncover some lesser-known facts, and have produced a top five:
1. The first ‘pornographic’ film was made in 1896.
The Kiss was produced by Thomas Edison and featured two actors kissing, tight-lipped. Reaction to the film, which was contemporaneously seen as the most shocking thing ever made into moving images, heralded a new era of classification.
Saucy.
2. Porn makes more than the video game industry.
In 2014 it was estimated the porn industry made approximately $97 billion, whereas in 2013 the video games industry was estimated at roughly $93 billion.
3. Los Angeles county was the centre of the porn world, or at least it used to be.
The era is ending for the San Fernando valley, however, as in 2012 a law passed making condom use mandatory for any adult film created in LA county, leading to an exodus.
4. Male actors have it the, ahem, hardest.
Actors' pay is often cut significantly if they don’t orgasm at the end of a shoot and women are often paid twice as much as men, according to some sources.
5. Pornographers can decide how you watch other material – format choices etc.
The choice that pornographers made to go with VHS over Betamax is often credited with securing that particular format war, choosing it as it was cheaper and a single cassette could contain more footage.
Watch the full video, below:
(H/T DesignTaxi)
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