The Empire Of Senses: The Visual Pleasure Of Porn Films VHS And DVD Covers

The Empire of Pornography

One of the clearest memories I have from the 1980s and 1990s is how eroticism surrounded us without us worrying about whether it was right or wrong. There was censorship, almost always circumvented, but there wasn't a ready behavior to attack and cancel what could be labeled as politically incorrect. At least here in Brazil, it was common to see magazines with naked women, such as Playboy, and pornographic magazines for sale at all newsstands. Open TV aired movies like "Last Tango in Paris" and uncensored hentais during the night and the dawn. Even commercials used eroticism to sell their products. There were also many cinemas that screened pornographic films with posters displayed outside to attract viewers. Although children and teenagers couldn't enter the cinemas, their attention was also diverted to these posters when they accidentally looked at them. However, perhaps nothing caught more attention and brought joy to teenagers at the height of their testosterone and adults seeking novelties related to the world of sex than VHS tapes of pornographic films. 

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Fig.3. DVD Cover The Adventures of Buttman (1989)

Fig.4. Super Tramp (1989)

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Pornography Within Everyone's Reach

With the victory of the VHS format over Betamax, rental stores provided a variety of films ranging from classics, comedy, science fiction, horror to pornographic ones. On Fridays and Saturdays, people of different profiles and social classes crowded the rental stores looking for something to watch over the weekend. The most sought-after were the new releases and pornographic films, no longer restricted to cinemas. Finally, cinematic pornography had achieved the same privacy status as magazines. Each person could choose the film they wanted to enjoy in the privacy of their home.

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Strategies To Rent A Porn Film

Usually, pornographic films had a separate VHS section from the others, but this didn't prevent a teenager from entering it and choosing a film, mixing it with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and about nine other films with the intention of not drawing attention at the moment he was attended by the clerk, who, in turn, had no interest in what the customer was taking home. This situation did not change when VHS (which remained in the market for more than 10 years) gave way to DVD, as both were physical media, and covers and posters were still a form of promotion and advertising for the films.

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In the extended Premium edition of this article, more on the expectations created by a VHS cover, the ass in all its forms, the nostalgia of explicit materiality, the pornocracy we're living in now and 37 additional amusing images of DVD and VHS covers.

Click HERE for  for the pornographic movie parodies from the early and late 20th century