The rigid sexual inhibition of late nineteenth century European/American society cast long shadows, and black market activities like pornography flowered in the darkness. Social prohibitions infuse the things they strive to crush with the powerful lure of the forbidden and -- by limiting supply and enhancing demand -- greater worth. Victorian morality broadened the scope of the forbidden and draped a shroud of secrecy around even marital sex, creating an ideal greenhouse for pornography, which peddled shamelessness to the shameful.

In its early days, porn was bought and sold by individuals in small, personal transactions: photographers distributed images of girlfriends to their acquaintances, prostitutes offered photographic mementos to their clients, collectors commissioned images from models or photographers. Technology had not yet wedded photography to the printing press, most people spent their entire lives within 100 miles of their birthplaces, and cities were relatively small, so early pornographic photographs possessed an intimacy unlike their modern descendants: the models were almost always local girls. This pornography was far more personal than its modern counterpart: it offered the familiarity of the local scenery and gene pool, and tantalized the viewer with possibilities of real future encounters with the models.

Although advances in printing technology and the widening scope of distribution would progressively revolutionize the merchandising and content of pornography, one aspect of its nascent economics stubbornly lingered well into the twentieth century (and arguably to the present): classism. Traditionally, porn was created by the lower classes -- people in desperate economic circumstances willing to defy social conventions or debase themselves for money -- and consumed by the middle and upper classes, who could afford to pay for enhancements to their bedroom recreation. In addition to providing sheltered, tradition-bound Victorians with glimpses of the way the other half fucked, porn served as a flattering reminder to the wealthy of money's power to bend the wills of those who lack it, and to satisfy those who have it. In that aspect, the economics of porn paralleled the pattern of dominance and submission found in many men's fantasies of aggressive sex: the exertion of power to compel an unwilling woman to gratify a man's desires. For some, even the most innocuous porn thus provided fodder for rape fantasies, undertaken from a comfortable emotional distance, with no risk of the normal consequences of rape.

As time passed and porn entered the age of mass production and distribution, it lost much of its naive, small-town intimacy, which it replaced with an intensified willingness to pander to its wider audience's specific desires. As pornographers realized that even the most outlandish fetishes might attract substantial audiences in the widening scope of distribution, sub-genres once considered too eccentric to be profitable emerged and flourished. Sadism, bondage, bestiality, and homosexuality became increasingly lucrative topics, and pornographers combed the planet for uninhibited practitioners of those arts, and for performers with unusual sexual endowments.

During this growth, money served not only as a diversifying agent, but as a rarefying one. Producers were finally able to choose more attractive and accomplished performers, rather than those who were merely willing. As the market for models and actors became more competitive, would-be performers were increasingly motivated to refine their sexual skills, stagecraft, and attractiveness. With some producers, it was no longer sufficient for a prospective performer to be willing to give blow-jobs in front of a camera; she was also encouraged to have her nose fixed, learn to act, and visit a gym several times a week.

In time, this new selectiveness paved the way for a remarkable collision of obsession and technology, a trend we might call pornographic idealization.