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The vulvas of Tito Bustillo By Marianna Beck and Jack Hafferkamp How old is porn? From the record, it would seem to be very old indeed. It goes back about as far as art itself. In prehistoric art, it is not unusual to find images of vulvas either carved or painted on cave walls. These red painted vulvas are found at Tito Bustillo in Spain. They most likely date from the Magdelanian period, 18,000 years ago to the beginning of the ice age 10,000 years ago. Prehistoric art included small pieces... Read Full Story

WELCOME to the Libidofilms blog where the aim is to put sex into historical/socio/political context. This week, with Spring looming, we look back at the anti-woman nature of The Inquisition. As always, comments are invited. Scroll down to find the place. Witchcraft, The Inquisition and The Devil’s Anus By Marianna Beck Conjure up an image of a witch these days and most likely it’s a cartoon-like fairytale representation of an evil old crone with a broom and a black cat. In reality, the... Read Full Story

WELCOME to the LibidoFilms Blog where we put sex into socio/political/historical context. Comments and questions are invited below. For part one of this two-part piece scroll down past the piece on sex workers. By Marianna Beck Part Two: The Birth of Romantic Love A troubadour typically wrote love poetry, set it to music and then chose a married noblewoman to whom he devoted his life’s work. A relationship could last a lifetime and the question still remains whether the connection to his Mi... Read Full Story

WELCOME! The LibdoFilms blog aims to put sex into historical/cultural/social context. This week we are helping to spread the word about the Desiree Alliance's sex worker conference set for Chicago July 16 -- 21, 2008. For more, visit the film/video site (the button in the upper right) to see "Performance Piece," our video featuring sex worker celebrity Veronica Monet. WHO IS A SEX WORKER? by Serpent Libertine www.sexpros.net I f you are... A Prostitute An Escort A Whore A Hooker A... Read Full Story

WELCOME to the LibidoFilms Blog where the idea is to consider sex in socio/political/historical context. Comments and questions are invited. By Marianna Beck Part One: The Birth of Romantic Love R omantic love. Brain scientists blame an overabundance of epinephrine; country western singers look for it in all the wrong places and cynics define it as the simultaneous exchange of fantasies and skin. The question is: how did we ever get into this mess? Do we blame the Greeks for the... Read Full Story

Marianna Beck WELCOME! The LibidoFilms blog space is devoted to exploring the socio/political/historical contexts of sexuality, in other words exploring the field of Erotology. This week we conclude Dr. Marianna Beck's excellent series on the evolution of Western Pornography. As always comments are welcome. Part 7 Victorian Obsessions and Fin-de-Siècle Predilections By Marianna Beck R egardless of the increased availability of works with a sexual theme both from French imports and a... Read Full Story

J.W. Waterhouse Pan and Hamadryan A Distant Heart Murmur By Jack Hafferkamp F unny how our hearts-and-flowers merchandising day -- second only to Christmas -- has evolved. In the beginning it all was so different. According to Charles Panati’s most excellent book, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things , our St. Valentine’s Day stems from the Roman holiday of Lupercalia, which dates to the 4th-century B.C. Roman mythology of the time held that in the city’s earliest, most difficult days the... Read Full Story

Welcome! This week the LIBIDOFILMS blog continues our series on the emergence of pornography as a political and social force in European history -- a chapter all too often overlook when the history of western civilization is told. Comments are welcome. Part 6 How the Victorian Era Spawned Pornography's Golden Age By Marianna Beck New moral standards began to evolve along with new ideals of domesticity. No longer was porn viewed with alarm for its social and political criticism, but for its... Read Full Story

The Marquis de Sade’s novels marked a major transition in the 1790s. Rather than targeting political figures, Sade attacked every aspect of conventional morality. Part 5 The Marquis de Sade’s Twisted Parody of Life By Marianna Beck The Marquis de Sade’s novels marked a major transition in the 1790s. After the French Revolution, pornography lost its political overtones and gradually began to be replaced by material that pushed more generalized social boundaries. Rather than targeting political... Read Full Story

WELCOME! Today's entry is the next installment in Marianna Beck's series on the context and content of porn as it evolved in European History. Part 4 The French Revolution and the Spread of Politically-Motivated Pornography During the French Revolution, pornography acquired a wide, new audience — large numbers of working class people. By undermining the old regime, politically-motivated pornography helped bring about the revolution. By the way, the dildo the woman is holding is inscribed with... Read Full Story