I’ve been thinking recently about the shifting erotics of the sex show. There was a time when a woman deliberately making a provocative show of skin was a pretty big deal, sexually. There was a lot of power in it. Whether totally in private together, in a secluded public space, in a peep booth, on a stripper pole, or in front of a porn camera, the deliberate exposure of tits or pussy was an attention grabber. The intended audience would watch that, and be aroused by it. This kind of display was a sexual act, in itself; a tease was not necessarily a prelude.

I’m not saying that’s stopped being true. As long as men like to ogle, the power of a deliberately-sexual nudity display won’t ever go completely away. But I do wonder if it hasn’t diminished over the course of my lifetime.

The rise of ubiquitous, easily-accessed porn — which I celebrate as a good thing — may be related to this. When you can summon an endless parade of privates to a small screen near your face, is it likely that a live sex show will demand your attention with the same visceral force as it used to?

What’s more, I feel as if porn itself has changed. There’s no generalization I could make about porn that you couldn’t shoot down with dozens of contrary examples, but indulge me. There was a time when the “reveal” was a major part of a porn shoot. Porn stars were often clothed — if scantily — when a scene would start, and the camera would linger on the process by which the clothes were inevitably shed. Often this was an integral part of the show! It seems to me that in 2020, if we see clothing at all, it vanishes quickly via a fast cut to the sexual action, where the star is no longer just showing, but also doing (and being done).

Strippers — who at first glance seem to make their entire livelihood from the value of an erotic display — may offer us another example. If there ever was a time when a stripper made her primary living from tips for her stage-and-pole work, it’s ancient history now. The erotic display on the stage and pole is nowadays, I hear, mostly a loss-leader, a bit of flash to attract attention. The goal is to sell more hands-on sex work products: lap dances, whatever happens in the Champagne Room, and straight-up escorting.

There’s only one sexual context I can think of where a show of flesh is still a primary part of the sexual program. It’s true that cams performers (like the ones at Sex.cam) entertain in many ways, but it’s the last context I can think of where a woman making a sexual spectacle of herself is the most important component of her erotic power.

I should conclude by saying I don’t think any of this is a problem. I’m not hearkening back to a golden age of porn or sex or stripping or marital-bed lingerie reveals. I’m not saying it was better in ye olden days. I just think it’s worth remarking on. There was a power in sexual display forty (or more) years ago that has diminished today — and that makes the erotic landscape very different.

Image credit: The artwork in this post is by Argentine artist Horacio Altuna.

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