Social Question

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

[NSFW] How do you feel about this trend in adult entertainment media? (See details).

Asked by ANef_is_Enuf (26839points) September 6th, 2011

The barely legal/teen genre in photos and movies has a huge market, and in my personal experience is one of the best selling categories of adult media. I think this is understandable, since young, supple, virginal women are highly desirable on both a biological and social level.

However, I believe it is becoming more difficult to find media in this genre where the women are not portrayed as being much younger than they actually are. Women that are supposed to be “18” in most cases (though, they are often older and just look very youthful), are portrayed in photos and movies wearing lacy bobby socks in a pastel bedroom, usually in a bed covered with stuffed animals. Additionally, they are frequently wearing pigtails and/or colourful barrettes.

These are things that are typically reserved for children or much younger girls. So if the appeal is for a youthful body, why is there so much effort put into making these women look like children? Would it be less appealing if they were put on a set and dressed as if they were typical highschool/college age girls?

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42 Answers

Neizvestnaya's avatar

This kind of look is meant to take the general hetero man back in senses to his teen/pre teen years when he had raging hormones and his sexual response and virility was highest.

Blackberry's avatar

I never thought of @Neizvestnaya‘s reason, and that makes sense. I thought it was some men actually having a thing for younger women, but reducing some of the guilt by knowing she’s over 18.

mazingerz88's avatar

I could be wrong but I think there is much attention being paid to college age young women and portrayed as such if not more so than young women being made up to look like they’re in their pre-teens.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Neizvestnaya so, a young girl is not enough to do that? They should be dressed as children? I understand the appeal of “teen” porn, without a doubt. However, I question the reasoning behind why they are often dressed in attire and scenery more suited for an 8 year old.

TexasDude's avatar

I read a scholarly essay once that expanded on @Neizvestnaya‘s thesis rather convincingly.

I’d say it could go either way: dudes wanting to relive fantasies of being 15 and fumbling around in a teddy bear filled room with Mary Sue’s beaver, or creepy basement dweller pedos who secretly want to fuck little girls.

Your mileage may vary.

Oh, and a lot of otherwise average and unremarkable dudes get off on the idea of obliterating the innocence of inexperienced and sexually naive girls. That’s been true for a long time, too.

zenvelo's avatar

A lot of men have fantasies that date back to when they first noticed that girls were hot, i.e., Jr. High and High School. Despite the rise of the MILF in the last ten years, a lot of men get turned on by girls they fantasize as strictly virginal/sexual, but not yet mothers.

The other big selling prop is the catholic school girl prop.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf: The prepubescent girl was many a boy’s first crush, first tease, first gf.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard ha, I hope that it didn’t read like I think that people who look at this type of media are all closet pedos.

nikipedia's avatar

I think we have a huge double standard in our society. On the one hand, we condemn pedophiles and on the other, fetishize youth. Sometimes I think some men have strong reactions against pedophilia as a reaction to some kind of latent desire that they know is wrong.

Also, power dynamics seem to play an important role in a lot of sexual fantasies (teacher/student, boss/secretary, nurse/patient). Maybe sexually mature women acting as children creates an erotic power dynamic (adult/child) in a way that circumvents an actual pedophilia situation?

TexasDude's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf well you do seem a tad bit disturbed, or perhaps even outraged.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I’m not outraged, I’m curious. It does disturb me a little bit when I see it, but mostly it is curiosity.
I figure on a day to day basis, I’d be willing to bet that 18 year olds get a lot more stares than 10 year olds. So I have a hard time understanding why there seems to be a need to make young women look like children. Wouldn’t it be just as effective to have a girl in a typical teenager’s bedroom, rather than surrounded by a sea of pastels and stuffed bunnies? I just have a hard time understanding the huge leap in age portrayal.

Imadethisupwithnoforethought's avatar

I like all types of women, and honestly, when viewing porn I enjoy almost all of the women portrayed, hardly thinking of the implications.

If the porn actually is marketed as being “barely legal” I am disturbed and won’t watch, thinking it will make me a closet pedo if I do.

TexasDude's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf I think the teddy bears and kiddie socks and shit is meant to have a kind of exaggerated effect on the actresses’ youth. It’s kiddie stuff, but in the viewer’s mind it = “hot young chick just like I used to bang in my prime/younger years.”

I’m not sure how the people who make this kind of porn would more accurately portray “barely legal teens” without using this exaggerated effect… hang Nirvana posters on the wall and scatter homework on the floor?

Mariah's avatar

Maybe it’s supposed to appeal to that creepy part of some dudes’ minds that likes Catholic schoolgirls and such.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I guess I don’t see why it is necessary, at all. If she looks like a teenager, she will look like a teenager in any scenery. But I see what you’re saying.

TexasDude's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf eh, me neither. I’ve always been into older chicks anyway, so I can’t really give you a firsthand account of this sort of thing.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

I think there are some men who like to fantasize about young girls. It borders on pedophilia. You should visit Japan. Over there, this kind of thing is considered quite normal——you see it in all kinds of entertainment, even on t.v. commercials. And over there, “schoolgirls” in ponytails and school uniforms look really innocent, but they are often portrayed in situations where they are “sexualized” for the whims of Japanese businessmen. Even Sailor Moon and other anime female characters, that are normally for children to enjoy, are sexualized in adult media. Personally, I think it’s kind of sick.

Blackberry's avatar

@MRSHINYSHOES And isn’t the age of consent there much lower?

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard well, I mean, I’m sure anyone that has ever looked at porn has come across this stuff. It just seems to me like it takes something that is common and normal… an attraction to younger women… and turns it into something a little bit creepy.

I can’t help but wonder how many people that actually do have a preference for this kind of pornography, would feel if they walked into someone’s bedroom with the intention of having sex… only to find teddy bears all over the place. I just feel like that would instantly creep most people out. I could be wrong, though.

TexasDude's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf oh I’ve definitely seen plenty of this type of porn before, and it can be rather creepy. It doesn’t do much for me anyway, because I tend to prefer “artsier” porn anyway.

I was nearly seduced by a girl once, but I turned around and left when I discovered that her room was literally filled floor to ceiling with horse dolls and statues. *shudders

True story

tedibear's avatar

@MRSHINYSHOES – I’m with you on the subject of Japan. We watch a lot of anime and I find some of the portrayals a bit disturbing. Fan service can get overdone and I find it a bit creepy. The occasional boob bouncing or joke about things like it doesn’t bother me. It’s when the characters are deliberately shown as sexual objects that I find it a little creepy.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard okay, yeah that is a little bit weird.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

@Blackberry Yes, you are right. Much lower. In Japan, the age of consent is 13.

@tedibear There is a Japanese comic book called “Rapeman”, about a “superhero” who bears a resemblance to the Green Lantern, whose mission is to rape women who have broken their boyfriends’ hearts. It’s very violent, but it’s also a very popular comic book in Japan. They call this form of violent, kinky entertainment “Hentai”, a kind of manga.

I visited Japan a number of times to visit my Mom’s relatives there, and I must say the “adult entertainment culture” there is so different from what you find in the West. A lot of it would be considered illegal here in America.

But what disturbs me most is the sexualization of young female characters in adult media. It’s pretty normal there and you see it everywhere, even in food and drink ads. I find it offensive——having two young daughters of my own, I can’t understand how anybody can “view” girls in such a demeaning way.

laureth's avatar

Speaking of disturbing concepts from Japan, I think the near-kiddie porn, like this entertainment genre, might have a lot to do with making the watcher feel dominant and strong. (Link is safe for work, but sad.)

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

@laureth Wow, that’s awful. Makes me really, really mad knowing something like this even exists! Guys who need that have a very weak sense of their own masculinity, I think.

tedibear's avatar

@laureth – Yikes! That really does bother me. I’m trying to remind myself that it’s a different culture, but it still bothers me.

@MRSHINYSHOES – Oh yes, I’m familiar with hentai. “Blech” is the only word I have for it. And yes, the demeaning view of young girls upsets me too. I know that “sex sells,” but that doesn’t mean I need to like it.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

@tedibear

The Japanese are kinda weird. (Oh no, now I’m gonna get an earful from all my fellow Japanese Flutherites! I didn’t mean that. Sorry Mom! Lol….erg!)

TexasDude's avatar

I’m still waiting for someone to provide me with a concise, no bullshit, Reader’s Digest explanation as to what the deal is with Japan’s robot tentacle schoolgirl alien rape shit gore fetish industry.

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Not having followed the porn scene in a while I cannot say if the barely legal, genre is greater than the Asian Slut, Catholic or Asian Schoolgirl, or MILF genre. I know it has been around for decades, so there has to be a draw for it. When I was a kid Gay porn was an anomaly but I am sure that as grown 7 times or more since then.

I think with the little girl genre it can serve more than one master.

Can it serve a closet pedo? Maybe in the same way methadone serves a heroin addict. It takes just enough bite of the cravings because the real deal is unavailable. To some guys who would actually want to get their hands on some tender innocent un-violated flesh, it might serve as a stand-in for that.

Some it might serve as an outlet for being naughty, having a guilty pleasure or imaginary forbidden fruit. As was said, they know the female is not really as young as she claims but looks like it. Like being on a roller coater where it looks to be dangerous and may even feel that way but you know you are safely strapped in.

To some, it might be the appeal of presumed innocence, they can imagine they are the fist to pop that cherry and wreck that pussy. That if she is child-like she has to be dependent on them, they can feel like the provider, protector, the one in charge.

Since most porn was manufactured in the US, and maybe still is, one can say it has to be more of an American appetite.

As an isolated cultural phenomenon, I would say know. Japan has a deep-seated cultural methodology of women being child-like, and cute.

”Japanese ladies often act cute. As a tradition, Japanese culture prefers every little, cute and immature things. A foreigner often has hard time accepting the fact when an adult Japanese woman speak and act like a child. It seems that Japanese men want cute, child-like women rather than women who are more emotionally matured. And, most of the Japanese women put a priority on pleasing men (like in most of the Asian countries) and prefer to live a luxurious life rather than seeking a responsible position. In fact from the early days of school women are taught to act and look cute, not sophisticated.” [Source]

”Amae means basically dependence. In Japan, mavericks and lone-wolf types are very much frowned upon. When Japanese go off alone to a foreign country or somewhere, many rapidly become insecure. It’s no exaggeration to say that Japanese (particularly women) think on a more childlike level. Again, this is a double-edged sword. Japanese women undeniably have a lot of charm that comes from this. But it has its drawbacks as well. Douglas MacArthur made a remark that the Japanese should be treated like they’re all 12 years old. And that was 60 years ago. That sounds condecending of course but these days you don’t exactly see a large number of western women carrying around Mickey Mouse pencil cases and Hello Kitty notebooks well into their 30s. Women are taught to act and look cute, not sophisticated.” [Source]

The end result of Japanese culture viewing women in a more child-like capacity is different than American porn, but the under laying premise to me, is that it is about appearing less threatening.

It is still fantasy, like the MILF. I am sure many guys had a buddy whom mom, aunt, etc, they thought was hot, and would have pulled a Mrs. Robinson with if the opportunity had come. You know you should not do it but that was part of the draw, to be able to do what you were told not to.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

@Hypocrisy_Central gave an excellent explanation.

Also, I think it is all rooted in Japan’s ancient culture and practices. Women are secondary citizens in Japan. The samurai culture, geisha (geisha are not prostitutes, by the way, but are artists, but still exist to entertain men). Japan is very dichotomized, gender-wise. And there have always been elements of violence, not necessarily overt violence, but an undercurrent, in Japanese culture and tradition (e.g., Ninja assasins, karate). All this, plus what @Hypocrisy_Central mentioned, gets melded into one sexually violent sub-culture.

I feel that the Japanese, in general, are quite “repressed” because their outward culture is very conservative and restrained. People are well-behaved, mannerful, and orderly. At work and at school, the Japanese people learn to hold in their emotions. But when it comes to entertainment, it’s like there’s an “explosion” to express themselves and go for what turns them on. It’s a very black and white society.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard while trying to find a study on popularity or porn searches based on genre (which I did not find), I came across this which might sort of answer your question. Sort of.

Blackberry's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf I knew a guy that worked in a porn store, and he said he didn’t expect so many customers to buy she-male porn. Lol!

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Blackberry that is surprising. In my experience it is standard, run of the mill “sex” porn, followed by barely legal, closely followed by foot & leg fetish stuff. After that it’s a crap shoot. But that isn’t like scientific data, or anything, just what I’ve seen.

TexasDude's avatar

@ANef_is_Enuf…which raises the question: which came first, the hentai, or the schediaphilia?

@Blackberry it’s super common, apparently. I was rather surprised to hear a bunch of people I know talking about how they liked it. Definitely not my cup of tea, but whatever. Takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round.

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard the schediaphilia, I think. I had a reason for it, but I can’t think straight anymore after my search for statistics keeps bringing me to hilarious articles like this one.

wundayatta's avatar

I think this appeals to desires that are built into us genetically. In general, men take the most active role in getting sex. There’s the old chestnut of the cave man cocking the girl on the head and dragging her home to have his way with her. There are so many impulses that seem to be shared to one degree or another by men. I think that left unsocialized, far more men than currently would try to have harems. Men would be competing to stockpile women, so to speak.

I think that the fantasy of subverting or stealing the prepubescent girl, when she is all innocent and you can get what you want without her knowing it is being taken from her is something a lot of guys have thought of, and more would think of it if it were not for society trying to put the kibosh on that fantasy. It’s forbidden fruit. It’s easy pickings. It looks beautiful there on the branch of the tree and you can’t believe someone hasn’t picked it yet.

Of course this porn fantasy plays into all those themes. As fantasy, I don’t have a problem with it. We can fantasize about a whole lot of anti-social things, including murder, and the vast majority of us never do those things. I do not believe that depicting fantasies makes people believe they are ok. It might give people ideas they would not otherwise have had, but I don’t think it gives people permission to act on those ideas. The people who actually do antisocial things, would do them anyway, in some other form, if not the one they learned about through porn.

What I think a lot of people fail to appreciate is that so much of sex play is just that: play. We create these games in order to enhance our arousal and have more fun. It works for some people and leaves others cold. The ones who don’t like it or don’t understand it are probably fearful that it does lead to actual antisocial behavior.

I think that most people know the difference between fantasy and reality and those who don’t do not get up to any more mischief than they might otherwise, had they not learned these new ideas. I grant that people have a hard time separating fantasy from reality. If your bf or gf tells you he or she is thinking what it would be like to have a threesome with your best friend, that can be threatening. It sounds like it is a real desire. It may even be a real desire. But that does not mean the bf or gf actually wants to act it out in reality.

When we understand this, then I don’t think any kind of porn or fantasy or other kinds of weird behavior is a problem. As long as it remains in your head, it’s not a big deal. When it gets acted out, it becomes a problem. I think the vast majority of us won’t act those things out, even if we do think of them. I think the vast majority of us don’t actually want to hurt anyone else.

The few who do act it out and don’t care who they hurt—well, they’ll be that way whether or not they see this kind of porn. It would not make any difference if we did censor this, even if we could. I am pretty open to different kinds of fantasies. I’ve learned about some pretty weird ones these last few years I’ve been on places like fluther. In my opinion, this stuff is fine, so long as people realize that it is just fantasy and that it will always stay that way.

mrrich724's avatar

After watching porn for a long time, people are desensitized to “normal,” and I’d attribute it to that. You need to show more extreme imagery to convey the same message…

ANef_is_Enuf's avatar

@mrrich724 that’s interesting, actually. I bet you’re onto something.

mrrich724's avatar

I enjoy porn, so I’ve spent alot of free time contemplating stuff like this. Heh.

ucme's avatar

It’s like the swimming relay medley at the olympics, it takes different strokes…..I guess.

TexasDude's avatar

Strokes…

Snicker.

ucme's avatar

Here’s the surprise coming…..i’m quite fond of the breast stroke myself…..bada-boom!!

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