Here’s a link to an interesting (if a bit over-academic) interview with standup-anthropologist Sergio Messina, who documents and expounds upon the participatory amateur voyeuristic/exhibitionist modern internet porn genres he terms “realcore”. A sample:
Realcore seems to be more satisfactory than porno because it isn’t passive, it’s interactive.
In my lecture (which isn’t exactly a lecture;it’s more of an edutainment show, a cross between stand-up anthropology and an X-rated Discovery Channel feature), I talk about “tributes.” A woman posts her picture, some guy downloads it, prints it, cums on it, takes a photo of the results—the tribute—and posts it back into the newsgroups. She gets comments, requests to wear specific items—her home suddenly becomes public.
It’s a whole game, involving mostly two or more people, where the first post is only the opening move. Once the tributes are made, the person portrayed in them collects all these images and makes Photoshop collages that also end up online, on the person’s website or in the newsgroups. The more tributes he/she gets, the greater the glory.
You don’t do this with just any image: tributes tend to involve portraits of faces. And there are often specific requests for “tributes.”
What a digital, complex, multi-stage way to please each other! Real, then virtual, then real again (and sticky), then virtual again, then sticky again…
Although I’m in full agreement that porn is created, used, and shared in new and different ways in this internet era, I’m not convinced that a new term like “realcore” is all that useful, because I’m not sure it’s the porn that’s different so much as the nature and scope of its creation, distribution, and feedback mechanisms. All quibbling over names aside, the interview offers an interesting window into twisty porn subgenres you may find interesting.
