Iā€™m really loving the vibe here on Beehaw. Documents like What is Beehaw? | Beehaw Docs demonstrate a transparent dedication to tolerance and kind community building that IMO sets a gold standard.

While nothing is certain, Beehaw is restoring some of my hope that a ā€œby the community, for the communityā€, healthy, happy, federated space is something that can be built and might even be sustainable.

On the other hand, as I see the wider Lemmy experiment continue, I have almost zero hope that something like Beehaw can exist that embraces the richness of human sexuality, which is my round about way of saying, good old-fashioned pornography.

The value of pornography

This might be a divisive position, but I think porn, on the whole, is a good thing. Healthy, happy, consensual expressions of human sexuality in all its gooey glory are, in my opinion, not only joyous but essential to the wellbeing of those of us who like to get our rocks-off in one way or the other.

This isnā€™t to ignore the problems of pornography as it is on the internet today, or how itā€™s been in the past. As with all aspects of human expression, it can become a medium for hate, or misused, or be created via exploitation and cruelty. I think thereā€™s a lot of interesting discussion to have about the effect of hardcore pornography ā€œnormalisingā€ what charitably should only be considered ā€œstunt sexā€, and thatā€™s a softball compared to the more difficult questions.

But, despite this, I believe that itā€™s possible, if not always easy, to find and enjoy ethical pornography in a way that ultimately healthy and beneficial to all involved.

The growing puritanical anti-porn blob

So as a lover of porn, itā€™s hard not to be a little scared about the way the internet is changing. While in the past, this might have been driven by anti-sex puritans of various ilk, this new threat seems more insidious because itā€™s not so much a movement of dogmatic individuals. Instead, it appears to be an emergent trend that comes from tech addiction to advertising, and well-meaning but oppressive regulation.

The result is ever fewer places for porn. Reddit is one of the few community-driven sites that still allows porn, and itā€™s clear with the recent changes, that the writing is on the wall for porn on reddit in the long term.

As for replacements in this new brave federated universe, well, in the beehaw docs it discusses the reasoning for avoiding NSFW spaces on beehaw and yeah, canā€™t really argue with the logic. It seems like a nightmare. Even if it made sense to integrate that content here, which Iā€™m not certain that it does, it seems an impossible task for the beehaw admins to tackle.

lemmynsfw.com, which is obviously trying to fill the niche, is already struggling with these very problems. Itā€™s clear I think that itā€™ll be impractical for them to keep up with the moderation requirements in a way thatā€™s even ethical, let alone one that embraces the full diversity and creativity of human sexuality. There are real concerns of ending up in prison just for running the thing, and whoā€™d sign up for that.

What about the big boys?

OK, Iā€™ll admit, thereā€™s still plenty of porn on the internet. Itā€™s arguably easier to access than ever, with behemoths like Pornhub almost becoming mainstream.

But even with Pornhub trying to be your friendly local smut merchant, thereā€™s still something hostile and repressive in these offerings. Thereā€™s not the sense of community, with the intentional creation of non-exploitative, diverse and loving spaces, like what Beehaw is attempting with SFW content. Thereā€™s no sense of liberal expression of joyous and shameless sexuality.

Iā€™ll admit I might be overselling the vibe of the smutty communities that have come in the past, but it still feels to me as if these ā€œreplacementsā€ are cold, shameful and harmful compared to the various dead spaces of the past.

Who cares?

You might not care much for porn, or maybe youā€™re happy with your smut. Itā€™s just porn, itā€™s not a big deal.

Iā€™d disagree, though. Tumblr at its height was a haven for LGBTQ+ sexual expression. It gave people a way to express their sexuality in a way that wasnā€™t just safe-for-tv; holding hands and pecks on the cheek. It was a chance at accessing the same joy of sexual expression that was available exclusively (for the most part) to straight, cis men.

(Iā€™m riffing on What Happened to Tumblr: Why Adult Content Mattered | Video Essay - YouTube here, which is a much more eloquent take on the subject)

Even outside sexual orientation, itā€™s hard not to internalise the new attitude to pornography. Shame about oneā€™s sexuality is hard to avoid, compounded by the clear messaging that sexuality isnā€™t healthy or welcome. Even more so if oneā€™s tastes deviate from the ā€œmainstreamā€, which doesnā€™t necessarily mean scat and clown porn. Good luck avoiding incest in your porn, or maybe you want something more gentle than is usually on offer. Not all kinks are scary, or even kinks! Although thatā€™s not to say that one should be shamed for a consensual ethical kink that is not to everyoneā€™s taste either!

Sex is meant to be fun, and creativity is part of that. We humans are ever innovating on exciting new ways to use the old hardware, and that could be a force for good. The death of these more liberated communities also means death for that creativity, and weā€™ll be left with the same tired old fauxcest scenarios where everyone looks and acts the same.

Censorship bad?

Iā€™m no free-speech absolutist. I think Beehawā€™s explicit attitude to moderation and building a kind community is refreshing.

Without getting dark, there are some things that almost everyone would agree require moderation and enforcement. People might have that line in a different place, but the number of people who genuinely believe that anything should be allowed online are in a minority.

But, where we are now, thereā€™s no safe way to find that line. The safe option for providers, community or commercial, is to turn it all off. The result, I believe, is we all lose out.

And for the really bad shit? Thatā€™ll still be there, hidden from view, and if Pornhub isnā€™t pushing your buttons, and you look elsewhere for your diversity, you risk ending up in the same pool as that stuff.

So whatā€™s to be done?

Damned if I know. I mostly wanted to put voice to something thatā€™s been bringing me down for a while. Itā€™s sad. I canā€™t help but feel like Iā€™m being closeted for a fundamental part of who I am, but equally, I donā€™t really feel I have a right to complain either.

Decentralised link aggregation might be a thing someday. Aether is a decentralised thing that, while only holding text, is a peer-to-peer option that might decentralise the risk. On the other hand, thereā€™s the risk you end up in the same pool as some really bad folk, and good luck explaining Aetherā€™s, albeit quite interesting, approach to decentralised moderation to the cops. Or maybe you want to put your trust in a community, as we do with Beehaw, to build a consensus on the kind of space weā€™d like to build together.

So share your thoughts, your pain and your joy! Although keep it safe for beehaw please! I donā€™t want to cause the lovely mods any trouble!

  • greenskye@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    To me, the problem boils down to the lack of regulation on basic internet infrastructure. Websites arenā€™t free. Moderation isnā€™t free. Well run porn sites need a lot of money to keep running. Money, that people are more than willing to spend on something run well, despite the memes about ā€˜paying for pornā€™.

    But weā€™ve seen time and time again that websites who host porn face issues with basic business services like payment processors, sometimes datacenters and ISPs too. Why are we allowing banks to control what is and isnā€™t allowed online? Why is that the ā€˜just go build you ownā€™ sentiment seems to include standing up a worldwide bank, credit card system, ISP, datacenter, etc all just to run a webpage without outside interference.

    We wouldnā€™t stomach power company shutting off power to abortion clinics or stem cell research universities just because they disagreed with it. Why do we allow the basic backbone of modern society to do something similar?

    And yes, this has affected websites for content that I find absolutely abhorrent. Truth Social and itā€™s ilk are truly terrible, but I do think itā€™s worth exploring how comfortable we are with the kind of interference they faced from Amazon AWS and payment processors. What happens if Trump or someone like him wins again and the mood shifts so that companies start cracking down on trans and LGBT resources in the same way?