Porn gets a bad rap, yet it’s responsible for more progress than Congress, the Church, and Silicon Valley ever dared to touch. Forget what your parents, preacher, principal, or politician told you. If it weren’t for porn, you wouldn’t have Netflix. You wouldn’t have Hulu. You wouldn’t even have the internet as you know it.

Let’s break it down. Here are the dirty, undeniable facts:

PORN INVENTED MODERN MEDIA (YES, REALLY)

• Super 8 Film? Porn made it a thing. What started as cheap, grainy loop reels became the gold standard for indie filmmakers.
• VHS vs. Betamax? Porn picked the winner. VHS tapes were cheaper to copy, so porn flooded the market. Betamax didn’t stand a chance.
• DVDs? Same deal. Porn adopted and pushed the format first. Then killed it when streaming proved faster, filthier, and more efficient.
• Streaming Video? Porn was doing it when the rest of the internet was still trying to load AOL. Now churches, Congress, and the NFL stream. You’re welcome.
• HD Compression & Delivery? Born out of porn’s desire to make every zit and gaping hole crystal clear.
• 4K and 60fps? Not for sports. For squirts.

PORN BUILT THE INTERNET

• Online Payments? Porn pioneered secure credit card billing when the rest of the web was afraid to ask for a dime.
• Paywalls? Invented by porn. Everyone from the New York Times to your meditation app ripped off the model.
• Tube Sites? Porn built YouTube before YouTube. Think YouPorn, PornTube, RedTube. They went viral before “viral” was a thing.
• SEO & Clickbait? Porn figured out how to get clicks before BuzzFeed learned what a headline was.
• Captcha Defense? Porn sites innovated ways to stop bots because they had MILLIONS of them. Your grandma can thank porn every time she has to click a stop sign to log in.
• VR Technology? Porn is still leading here. Meta may be dead, but Pornhub wants to put you inside the scene.
• Interactive Tech? Porn bridged the gap between online and offline sex with teledildonics and cam control. The future came, and it vibrated.

PORN SHAPED MODERN BUSINESS

• Affiliate Marketing? Invented by porn hustlers in the 90s. Now used by every “influencer” trying to sell you protein powder.
• Piracy Battles? Porn fought the war on piracy before Hollywood knew it was getting robbed. Legal precedent: set.
• OnlyFans? Porn went direct-to-consumer before Beyoncé did. Performers became their own brands. Middlemen cried.

PORN SHAPED AMERICAN CULTURE

• The MILF? Didn’t exist until porn gave your mom a genre. Now it’s a household term. And she’s a star.
• Kinks & Taboo? From BDSM to balloons, porn normalized the weird. Now your HR director has a latex drawer.
• Famous Before Famous Was Easy: Jenna. Ron. Traci. They were reality stars before reality TV.
• Porn Stars as Public Figures? From book deals to college lectures to Senate campaigns (yes, really) — they were doing it before TikTokers got blue checks.

PORN IN THE STREETS: OFFLINE IMPACT

• Home Video Boom: Porn is why people bought VCRs and DVD players. Blockbuster owed its business model to boners.
• The Video Store Curtain: Entire stores survived on the back room. “Video Visions” wasn’t renting Beethoven’s 2nd.
• Mail-Order Hustles: Discreet packaging, direct mail, repeat customers? Porn did Amazon before Bezos had hair.
• Theatrical Porn: Deep Throat played in actual theaters. Theaters you could sit down in. With your pants on or off.
• Lighting & Camera Tech: Porno sets invented fast lighting setups and tight-space camera work. Indie films and TikToks thank you.
• Sex Toys in Walgreens: Dildos went mainstream thanks to porn. Now you can get lube at CVS while picking up your antidepressants.

PORN CHANGED THE LAW

• Obscenity Trials: Pornographers went to court so your favorite rapper could drop an F-bomb.
• Free Speech Warriors: Porn fought for the First Amendment harder than any newsroom. Al Goldstein and SCREW faced 60 years for it and then Larry Flynt bled for it. Literally.
• Zoning Wars: Cities cleaned up red light districts under the guise of morality. Real estate boomed. Gentrification got its start. Times Square became a Disney prison.

PORN SET THE STYLE

• Fashion & Porn Chic: American Apparel, Terry Richardson, Miley Cyrus in 2013 — all ripped off the low-budget smut aesthetic.
• Cultural Permission: Porn gave society permission to talk about sex. Out loud. In public. With lube.

IN CONCLUSION

Next time you hear some blowhard blaming porn for the fall of civilization, remind them it made this entire digital moment in history possible; that without porn:

• Your iPhone would load like a potato.
• Your credit card wouldn’t work online.
• Your girlfriend wouldn’t have a vibrator in every color.
• And you wouldn’t know what a MILF was.

Porn made America. It ignited the greatest technological revolution in the history of the world, it made the web, and it made us the tech titan that we are. So maybe it’s time we built a monument. Or perhaps gave a few porn stars their own postage stamps. Or at least gave it the credit and respect it deserves as an American institution.

Say it loud. Say it proud.

Thank you for your service, Porn.
You dirty little slut, you.

—P.

Phil Italiano

Publisher, Visionary, Provocateur

See author's posts