Have you heard of the new .XXX domains? ICM Registry, the Internet company behind these new domains, has generated a lot of controversy with their creation. Designed to be an ideal location for porn based websites, not everyone in the industry, and a whole lot of people outside of it, are thrilled about .XXX. Many existing adult websites are bulking at now having to purchase one of these domains just to protect their existing ones (in theory, someone could register something like DigitalPlayground.XXX and cause all sorts of issues for DigitalPlaygound.com) and, outside of the industry, all sorts of groups are in an uproar over the “smutification” of the Internet. And ICM’s latest round of .XXX ads aren’t going to help simmer down the controversy.
To say the least, the ads are very, very suggestive. As you can imagine, there’s all sorts of people not at all happy about these ads, for all of the reasons that you can imagine. However, the ads are also drawing fire from “porn-positive” people. On her blog, Tiny Nibbles, Violet Blue, who is widely considered to be one of the most respected voices on porn and sexual awareness, has come out with some harsh criticism for these ads. To quote from her posting…
“Hmmm… What’s insulting, reductive and straight-up shitty about the new ads for .XXX?
Maybe that porn is not, in fact, moving its prime .com real estate to .XXX?
Maybe that women are not pieces of sexualized furniture?
Maybe that the women in porn are people – not objects 24-7?
Maybe that a representation of a permanently sexually receptive woman is rapey?
Maybe that some porn webmasters are also women?
Maybe that all of these things are an inaccurate representation of porn?”
I have long respected Violet Blue and I will say that all of the above points she makes are very valid and raise excellent points. That being said, my take on these ads is a bit different. While I completely agree that the ads advance all sorts of negative stereotypes and messages, I don’t find them as offensive as I think Ms. Blue does. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen one too many GoDaddy or Axe Body Spray ads, but in my mind, these .XXX ads aren’t as far out of the mainstream as many would like to believe. And, again, that absolutely doe nothing to invalidate any of what Violet Blue said over on Tiny Nibbles. It does, I think, put them in perspective with many of the other classless ads and marketing campaigns that are out there.
What are your thoughts on these new XXX ads? Do they give porn a bad name? Or is this just another example of a bigger marketing trend that we’re seeing across multiple industries? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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