The .XXX train is rolling right along.
What’s the .XXX train, you ask? Well, .XXX is a sTLD that was brought into full effect by ICM “Don’t Miss Out, Get Yours Today!” Registry this past March. Here are some .XXX basics and some more recent .XXX happenings.
Honestly? Given the information I currently have at my disposal, I am inclined to regard .XXX as nothing more than extortion – a money-making scam of epic proportions that targets the last group of people the wider world seems to think it’s ok to marginalize. Why else would a private, for-profit company spend millions of dollars chasing it? Because they care about creating an online community wherein adult businesses will flourish? Because they want to protect people/children from “CP”?
.XXX is an attempt to get a fat piece of the (perceived) “multi-billion dollar” porno pie. How many times have we read that grossly inflated and completely unsubstantiated statistic? Trust me – a rigorous assessment of the adult industry’s net worth has never been conducted (much less, conducted in recent years). This figure is based on mainstream perception of the industry in its late 90s/early 00s “heyday” and nothing more.
And combating CP? Aside from the facts that 1) adult content and adult content production – “pornography” – is legal and 2) people who create graphic depictions of child sexual abuse are disgusting, doing something very illegal, and have nothing to do with the professional adult industry, how does ghettoizing adult businesses by sensationalizing the horrific specter of child sexual abuse invigorate the industry?
(that was a very long sentence)
In other words, if OMG Porn, my invented-for-this-example adult content production company, buys OMGPorn.xxx, how does that prevent Overseas Sicko and/or their Creepy US Counterpart from putting up illegal abusive content? And how do parents, countries, and Starbucks block those non-.XXX websites, etc?
It doesn’t, and they don’t (or at least, they don’t do it by doing anything related to .XXX).
PETA has gotten a lot of press lately for being all up on the .XXX bandwagon… because putting awful sad pictures of abused animals alongside “graphic” or “violent” “pornographic” images makes a whole lot of sense. Aside from the whole “‘graphic’ and ‘violent’ and ‘pornographic’ are relative” thing, think context. And think taking things out of context. And think every argument ever made about the harmful effects of slasher movies and violent video games and whatnot… If any of those things are even remotely true, PETA.xxx is gonna be less about combating atrocities and more about the chimp-steak-pornophiles community.
And by the way – how come PETA is allowed to buy a .XXX anyway? I thought you were supposed to be part of the adult business community to get one?
But whatevs. PETA is known the world over for its in-your-face tactics, and that’s a significant part of their shtick.
(and btw… banned PETA Superbowl ad? yes, please!!)
Another thing I wonder about has to do with the for-profit dimension of ICM Registry and .XXX. People of various alignments and orientations get all twisted up over for-profit anything, and one common critique offered in myriad forms centers on the for-profit nature of adult. As in, part of the reason adult is supposedly bad has to do with the fact that money and money making are involved.
Fine. From the performers to the producers to the make-up artists to the lighting peeps to the reception folks, the adult industry is made up of evil capitalists. But then why aren’t those of the same alignments and orientations worried about the money involved with .XXX? I mean, clearly some entities and individuals are calling out issues they perceive to be problematic; but why aren’t the usual anti-capitalist suspects jumping all over ICM Registry?
If .XXX was going to be managed/limited more like a .edu or a .gov, ok. But it’s not, at least not as far as I can tell. Where are all the folks rallying against ICM Registry’s exploitative, money making endeavors?
Someone please explain to me how .XXX is good and/or beneficial to the adult industry!! I currently do not understand that side of the coin.
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