Category Archives: Gonzo

Gonzo, Violence, Vocabulary

What is “gonzo” pornography?

“Gonzo” is a sub-genre of hardcore pornography that features significantly less story, acting, costuming and sets than in “feature” pornography. The term is derived form gonzo journalism, wherein reporters place themselves directly into the event.

In gonzo pornography, females (and occasionally men) are made subject to intentionally degrading and dehumanizing sexual acts, including gagging, choking, slapping, humiliation, double penetration, anal penetration, double anal penetration, and various other forms of physical & verbal violence.

Pornographer John Stagliano, the originator of gonzo with his “Buttman” pornography series, manufactured gonzo to an oversaturated pornography market with the intention of delivering unpredictable material so as to keep customers engaged. It was very successful.

A brief look at select quotes from Stagliano offers insight into his perspective on sexual violence and pornography.

“I was the first to shoot Rocco [pornography performer]. Together we evolved toward rougher stuff. He started to spit on girls. A strong male-dominant thing, with women being pushed to their limit. It looks like violence but it’s not. I mean, pleasure and pain are the same right, right? Rocco is driven by the market. What makes it in today’s market is reality.”

“The psychology is that some people like to abuse other people, in real life, in real situations. And I worry that we’re creating art that feeds on that, that kind of references that and says it’s a good thing, and makes people a little more comfortable with certain psychological things that I think they should be uncomfortable with because they’re bad.”

(as Buttman) “You call yourself one of my biggest fans, and you still think I’d use THAT hole?”

(as Buttman) “Did that hurt? Good.”

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Erectile Dysfunction, Gonzo, Stats

Is pornography consumption linked to erectile dysfunction?

Yes. There is demonstrable evidence that consuming pornography increases the likelihood of erectile dysfunction.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a physical condition in which men have difficulty sustaining an erection. It is usually caused by a number of physical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, tobacco use, or sleep disorders, and / or psychological states, such as depression or stress. In the context of regular pornography use, ED (or PIED – pornography-induced erectile dysfunction) is more than twice as likely to occur than in men who don’t watch pornography.

Many men report that while pornography is useful in stimulating a sexual response (in the brain, thus causing an erection), as exposure to the pornographic stimuli is repeated it becomes less exciting and eventually incapable of provoking the same excitement (in the brain, thus difficulty in maintaining an erection). As men become desensitized to pornography, they require a more shocking stimuli, hence why many men move from softcore to hardcore pornography, hardcore to gonzo pornography, and so on. Pornography, then, paradoxically alters, or damages, healthy sexual functioning and provides, with an overwhelmingly vast resource of shocking stimuli, a temporary solution.

A brief look at the history of ED in young men, alongside the history of pornography accessibility, strongly infers a correlation. Studies from the late 1940s, before pornography was mass produced, reported that less than 1% of men under 30 suffered ED; studies from 1999, pornography available in print, reported that 7% of men under 30 suffered ED; various studies the last several years, pornography having been mainstreamed and easily accessible via mobile devices, report that downwards of 30% of young men suffer ED. ***

While it can be negligent to infer causality when events coincide, the story being shaped – that the proliferation of pornography has directly contributed to the proliferation of erectile dysfunction in men – is compatible with various studies directly linking the two. In fact, studies report that when pornography addicts experience ED with women (which is more than 60% of heterosexual men), they actually have no difficulty with an erection with pornography itself. Once again, pornography is a virtually endless reserve of materials, readily accessible, almost always capable of shocking. Not one human body can compete with this. Not one person can. Not one person should.

*** Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Viagra became available and massively successful in 1998. More to follow on Big Pharma’s financially dependent relationship on the global pornography industry in a latter post.

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Gonzo, Orgasm, Science, Stats, Violence

How does pornography consumption rewire the brain?

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that sends information between neurons, plays a large role in wiring the brain. It is released into the body when a person, or animal, encounters a stimulus that is novel or noteworthy or potentially rewarding. Dopamine performs many functions along many pathways in the brain, but in the context of pornography consumption, after a person is stimulated by pornography, dopamine is released along the mesolimbic pathway into the nucleus accumbens. The more dopamine that’s released here, the higher the likelihood the person will be drawn to the stimulus, or related stimuli, in the future.

A large amount of dopamine is released during natural human sexual activities and interactions; an orgasm releases significantly more. Pornography complicates matters for the human body: it is continuously available and ever-ready to serve as a sexual stimulus, with no bodily restrictions or limitations. As an endless source of sexual stimuli, no one human being can realistically compete against the accessibility of pornography. And so the process of consuming pornography literally conditions the brain to anticipate and desire a degree of stimulation that cannot be duplicated in real life, of specific imagery and behaviors that perhaps shouldn’t be duplicated in real life (reminder that 88.2% of all mainstream pornography regularly depicts physical violence, of which 94% is perpetrated against women).

Once the brain has fully learned to associate the stimulus with a response (such as a video with an orgasm), significantly less dopamine will be released. Consequently, the original stimulus will literally no longer be able to provide the same degree of anticipation or desire. Once a person becomes desensitized to the old stimulus, they need a more shocking stimulus in order to match the dopamine released in the prior stimulus. This need for something shocking or more extreme is called tolerance.

Put another way: A man enjoys the rush of masturbating to softcore pornography. After a while, he no longer gets the same rush he once did. He turns to hardcore pornography, and his rush returns. However, the same thing happens again. Before too long, he is watching gonzo pornography, and then a series of videos sexualizing children. Even as simplistic examples go, this is a fairly typical pattern for male consumers of pornography. This is exactly how the consumption of softcore pornography can lead to hardcore pornography, hardcore pornography to gonzo pornography, and so on. This is exactly how pornography rewires the brain.

(There are countless other factors which play a role in re-wiring the brain [opioids, the limbic system, and so on]. In time, they will be addressed and either added to this page, or I will reframe this question as a matter of dopamine’s role in rewiring the brain.)

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