With downloadable fap material, streamable smut, and horny camgirls catering to our every fantasy, rubbing one out is easier than ever. That’s probably why it’s so rare to see someone stop jacking it long enough to wonder, who invented porn?
Well, if you’re one of those curious fappers, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading and we’ll unearth that spunk-encrusted part of history.
The Difference Between Porn and Nudity
The term pornography is Greek in origin and simply means writing about prostitutes.
As we all know, though, the ancient Greeks did much more than write about the naked human body. Given the number of suggestive statues they produced, it must have been a hell of a time to be a nude model — even though today’s models are probably making more money.
Back on topic, what’s the main difference between Venus de Milo and your usual 3D model wank material? Simple, the former was made to look good while the latter is for jacking off.
So, for the purposes of this text, we’ll consider porn to be any creation that contains nudity and sexual activity that was meant to cause arousal.
Yep, the ancient Greeks invented much more than philosophy and democracy. Porn isn’t their invention, though, unless we’re talking about vase porn.
No, this naughty art is much more, ahem, ancient — as we’ll soon get into.
Who Invented Porn in the Old Days?
This is where we’ll have to disappoint you, as porn has no one true inventor. Not unless we can name the brilliant mind behind this 28,000-year-old masterpiece.
And even if we could, who’s to say that he was the first genius to cram a pair of tits into 2D? Older works have almost certainly existed, only for time to snuff them out like yesterday’s paper towels.
Yup, porn has been with us since the first time a caveman had to spend a night alone. And with no internet access or ability to download porn, the poor guy had to make his own.
Who Invented Porn as We Know It?
If you asked us what defines modern pornography, we’d say availability. Cave paintings do have their charms, but they’re a little hard to bring to your toilet break.
The visionaries behind the first mass-distributed smut may have lacked the resources to start their own porn sites, but they made enough of it for history to remember them.
Of course, we’re talking about Italian guys. Where else would they be from?
Namely, all the way back in 1524, Marcantonio Raimondi unleashed 16 sexually explicit engravings upon the still-unprepared world. The works were collectively called I Modi and were more political than erotic, although no one can deny the latter.
Sadly, instead of being celebrated as a genius, he got jailed for about a year. And that unfortunate outcome leads us to our hero — Pietro Aretino — who pulled some strings to have poor Marcantonio released.
Our guy did more than politics, though. In fact, Aretino is considered the actual inventor of modern porn.
Specifically, he wrote and published two explicitly pornographic sonnets: the Sonetti lussuriosi (1527) and the Ragionamenti (1534). These caused a huge stir among the nobles at the time and became the basis for written porn in the centuries to come.
Yep, the dude who invented porn was essentially a sex blogger. If that fact got you inspired to write your own erotica, here are some more modern tips for sailing those waters.
Conclusion — Porn Keeps Evolving
Not unlike Sophie Anderson’s body, pornography is a constantly upgrading medium. Pietro’s work may have caused a ruckus back in the day, but today it’d barely give your grandma a pair of flushed cheeks.
Case in point, without Marquis de Sade’s shenanigans, we wouldn’t have BDSM. Thanks to one mad Frenchman, thousands of models are making bank selling fetish photos and videos, today.
Going forward, who knows what other misunderstood geniuses are going to surface in the future? Entirely new ways of getting off might be mere years away — just look at VR porn!
A thousand years from now, when someone asks Who invented porn, they might get an entirely different answer. It might be a person from our time, just making their living in the adult industry; someone like us, or perhaps even you.
