Stigma and the Shaping of the Pornography Industry by Georgina Voss

Author:Georgina Voss [Voss, Georgina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781136741760
Google: 25NhCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-05-15T03:19:11+00:00

Performances and sense-making

Conferences are embedded inside ‘field unfolding activities’ (Garud 2008), where the ceremonial and dramaturgical activities of that field can be performed (Lampel and Meyer 2008). In the early days of the online industry, many of these performances were around wealth and hedonism. The first adult internet trade shows held in the late 1990s and early 2000s took place in an atmosphere where a lot of newcomers had joined an industry that was not yet formed, where the rules of the game were yet to be determined, and a lot of money was swilling around. Providing a fun party atmosphere was a key part of the events: trade shows could be the main place where the webmasters and affiliates who worked alone, or the employees of service support companies, encountered the explicit side of the adult sector. As Jonathan Silverstein, president of CyberErotica explained when talking about the 1999 ia2000.com event:

Adult party entertainment is a lure for many of those who work in the industry. A lot of the guys get into the business because of the sexual aspect of it, and while they work around adult entertainment all day on the computer, it’s out of the norm for them to see it in person.20

As on ia2000.com’s Webmaster Cruise, performers – male and female – came to the parties and for newcomers, shows could be the first time that they had met a performer in person before: GM recalled how at his first show he had called his wife every five minutes to say ‘You won’t believe what I’ve just seen!’21 The partying was not all sexualized, but was often also based around mainstream leisure activities. Sports were popular at North American shows, with attendees of the 2005 Phoenix Forum having the choice of participating in the sponsored GigaGolf Networking Tournament or the Lightspeed Dodgeball Tournament; Go-Karting races and Laser Quest also took place at other shows. Gambling too was popular, not only at the events hosted in Las Vegas. These leisure events were important both for building relationships and also for providing a space where attendees could talk openly about their work, unburdened by the need to carefully couch their words or translate industry terminology and slang. The senior vice president of marketing at a large multinational firm described how, when he spoke to people at shows ‘they understand what you’re talking about and they get what you get, whereas when I talk to mainstream businessmen I tone it down and make it professional so I don’t embarrass them’.22

Much of the partying during the earlier years involved showing off money, when high profits were easier to come by and had also frequently been gained by young people with little prior professional experience. A marketing manager described how the earlier events were ‘incredible nouveau riche affairs, you know, a booth would have elephants and ostriches and fireworks and wow, it was all about showing off the money’,23 with free bars for hundreds of delegates as the norm and where,

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