Porn Capitalism

Sigmund Freud defines the id in his structural model of the psyche as the uncoordinated, instinctual trends of human beings; it is the most primitive part of our being. Our society has been fighting against its own “id”, imposing a super ego model full of taboos. Sexual and sensual expressions have been hidden from the public eye during the last centuries. Lust, sensuality, transgression have always been present in the different artistic trends. Dadaists and Surrealists started introducing sex and eroticism to burgueois circles, however sex was still something oppressed and forbidden. During the 50s, the 60s and the 70s the Beat Generation first, and the Hippie movement later, transgressed the public sphere with the sexual revolution. However, what started as the most subversive social movement has ended up as another part of the capitalist system.

One of Dick Hebidges methods to restore “subcultures” into the dominant culture consists of taking the subcultural signs and converting them into the dominant culture. The capitalist system knew how to take that subversive cultural expression and convert it into their own system. Sex is now a product, another consumer good held to the demand and offert laws.

We can consider Britney Spears as a great example of this phenomenon. Why the girl who started at the Mickey Mouse Club is now singing out loud about threesomes and stating that living in sin is the new thing? Britney Spears' transition to a sexualized image has been on of the most rentable marketing plans of the last decades. Everything was planned from the start. While she was swearing about her virginity, her lyrics and movements started to be more provocative little by little. Even her non sexualized image was part of this whole plan. Why was she talking about her “virginity”? Did she really have to? While her sexual life became part of the market, her products, her music and her performances started to include more implicit sexual content. But Britney is no the only artist who has suffered this transition. As Adorno claims, the “standarization”is proper of the capitalist system. Once one pattern has been proved successful, it is exploited to commercial exhaustion, culminating in the “crystallization of standards.” Britney is just the first one in a long list like Christina Agulera (remember her “dirty” époque), Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and why not? Miley Cyrus, (her skirts get shorter every day).



The consequence of this process can be considered as a “standarization of sexuality”. Sex has been separated from every religious, moral or spiritual meaning. The capitalist system has converted it into part of the market. It is true that sex sells. It appeals to consumers’ id, to their most primitive parts of their beings. In the public sphere the id has defeat the ego. I do not want to make a moral critique about this issue; however, I would like our society to think about this process. What is the next step? What used to be transgressor twenty years ago is now normal for 8 year old kids. How are media conglomerates going to sell their products when sex becomes not enough?