Exploring the Psychology of Amateur Porn

Some social commentators condemn pornography as an evil of modern society. However, the archeological record suggests that sexual depictions may be one of humans’ earliest art forms.

Erotic statues known as Venus figures have been found across Europe and Asia, and some date back to 35,000 years or more. Many of the early civilizations, from Mesopotamia to Egypt and Ancient Greece, adorned temple walls and even everyday utensils with graphic sexual images. The Romans decorated brothels with erotic paintings, presumably to help get their clients in the mood.

Erotic paintings, sketches, and woodcarvings survive from previous centuries. And no sooner was the camera invented in the mid-nineteenth century than the art of erotic photography appeared. It should then come as no surprise that when motion pictures were invented around the turn of the twentieth century, one of the first films ever made was pornographic.

Of course, porn was generally considered illicit and its production and distribution were frequently prosecuted, at least until the 1960s, when loosened restrictions saw the rise of adult theaters and drive-ins. By the 1980s, video players were widespread, and people could watch porn in the privacy of their own homes. And from the early twenty-first century, the World Wide Web was developed enough that people could watch porn on their own computers, which meant that you could bypass an embarrassing encounter with the video store clerk.

Historically, most porn has been produced by professionals. Cameras were expensive and required expertise. Thus, there were professional porn producers and an audience of passive porn consumers.

The advent of personal cameras, computers, and especially the smartphone, with its high-quality video recording capabilities, has changed all that. Now, anybody that wants to can be a porn star, and there are also plenty of websites where they can post their work. Some can even earn a decent income from it.

Amateur Porn as a Unique Genre

While the production of professional porn, and its consumption, have been studied extensively from multiple psychological and sociological angles, Israeli psychologist Tal Yaakobovitch and his colleagues point out that little is known about the motivations and circumstances surrounding the production of amateur porn. To gain some insight into this new phenomenon, Yaakobovitch conducted extensive interviews with 27 male amateur porn performers, from which five themes emerged.

The first theme is that amateur porn is a unique genre. Professional porn tends to emphasize the "ideal" body forms of the muscular male and slender, shapely female. But amateur porn performers come in all shapes and sizes, and they rarely adhere to ideal forms. In this way, people can watch ordinary people engaging in ordinary sex acts, thus giving the lie to the notion that you have to be “hot” to be sexy.

The interviewees also emphasized their free choice in performing porn. They aren’t working for studios that demand certain acts. And unlike professional porn actors, who are bound by contracts, these amateurs could perform any sex act they wanted, and only those. Mostly, the interviewees saw their performances as acts of personal exploration, and any money they made from it was appreciated but was not the main motivation for posting their videos.

Amateur Porn as an Avenue for Personal Growth

The second theme to emerge was a history of sexual abuse or emotional neglect in childhood. As Yaakobovitch and colleagues point out, childhood abuse and neglect are common experiences among those who enter the sex industry. Many of the interviewees remarked that they enjoy the attention they get from their viewers, who leave positive and encouraging comments. Amateur porn, they said, provides them with outlets for psychologically working through the abuse and neglect of their childhood.

The third theme dealt with the moral reasons for engaging in pornography. Amateur pornographers tend to advocate for sexual positivity in society, and they also challenge the misrepresentations of sexuality that are common in professional pornography. As an alternative, amateur pornographers present ordinary people engaged in ordinary sex acts. And since they recognize that many of today’s youth get their sex education from porn, they hope their videos will provide models for healthy sexuality and gender equality.

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The fourth theme dealt with the recognition that amateur pornography has both positive and negative implications. On the positive side is the increased self-esteem and the gain of admiration and appreciation that comes with posting porn videos online. However, in real society outside the “porn world,” these performers struggle with stigma and harassment. For some, this has also caused problems in their intimate relationships, especially when their partner was unsupportive of their amateur porn.

Amateur Porn as a Means of Empowerment

Interestingly, this last issue was also reflected in the fifth theme, which dealt with ways of coping with the particular difficulties of being an amateur porn performer. That is, when the interviewees’ intimate partner was supportive of their work, they were better able to cope with the social criticism they received. Another strategy was to turn the tables, so to speak, by “condemning the condemners” for their prudishness and sexuality negativity.

Many of the interviewees viewed their amateur porn productions as examples of expressive art, in which they adopt a “persona” that is different from who they are in real life. Thus, to the extent that they are still struggling with internalized notions of sexual shame, they can dissociate themselves from these acts. That is, these acts are performances and don’t represent the real person, just as it would be for any actor. As Yaakobovitch and colleagues point out, the creation of an alternate ego and the lived experience of their work as a performance is commonly reported among sex workers and professional porn actors as well.

In the end, the interviewees generally saw amateur porn as a form of empowerment. They may have been abused or neglected as children, and as adults, they may engage in forms of sexuality that many in society condemn. But rather than taking on a victimhood mentality, they can instead, through amateur porn, garner the attention and approval they so desperately need from their fans while also gaining a better understanding of their own sexuality and the life history that brought them to this point.