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Alt pornography (also known asalt porn, or simplyalt in context), a shortening of "alternativepornography," is a subgenre of pornography that is centered around alternativesubcultures, such asgoths,emos,scenes,skaters,hipsters,punks,skinheads, and/orravers, and is often produced by small and independent websites or filmmakers. It often featuresmodels withbody modifications such astattoos,piercings, orscarifications, or temporary modifications such asdyed hair or extreme makeup. The termindie porn is occasionally used, though this term is more generally used as a synonym forindependent pornography, regardless of affinity with any kind of alternative subculture.
The work ofGregory Dark,David Aaron Clark,Michael Ninn, andStephen Sayadian are seen as the early creators of the alt porn genre. TheCinema of Transgression ofRichard Kern andNick Zedd (as well as Kern's later photographic work) can also be viewed as early examples of alt porn.[1][2][3]
The first venue explicitly devoted to "subcultural erotica" was Blue Blood,[4] a glossy magazine that began in 1992 and featured models with agoth orcyberpunk look. The biggest market for alt porn however has been on the Internet. Other than a few ephemeral personal websites, the earliest explicitly alt porn site was Blue Blood's GothicSluts.com, established in early 1999. This was followed shortly after by Raverporn.net, which was later renamed EroticBPM.com, in July of the same year, and later followed by NakkidNerds in December, Supercult had appeared in 2000. By late 2001,SuicideGirls had grown to become the most popular and financially lucrative alt porn site and has been since. With the success of SuicideGirls, the number of alt porn sites has grown in number since 2002.[5][6][7] In addition to the above-mentioned sites, well-known altporn websites in operation as of September 2008 include Lazerbunny,Burning Angel, and GodsGirls.
The terms "alternative porn" or "alt porn" were coined in the early 2000s in reference to SuicideGirls, RaverPorn, and similar sites. Longer-standing projects, such as Blue Blood, generally used terms such as "subculturalerotica".[8]
Alt porn websites are often distinguished by their use ofmessage boards,blogs,social networking, and other features ofonline community, encouraging participation by both models and viewers. While these features are not exclusive to alt porn sites, their inclusion stands in stark contrast to the standard operating procedures adopted by more typicalporn sites which tend to feature more or less anonymous models who are viewed by anonymous visitors.[citation needed]
Alt porn-themed videos are also becoming a growing niche in theadult video market. The work of directorsStephen Sayadian andGregory Dark during the 1980s and early 1990s had many of the features of later alt porn, and are often cited as being key contributing influences on current alt porn video. In 2001, twoamateur videos under the titleTechnosex were produced, featuring women involved in therave scene along with atechno music soundtrack. Since 2004, directorEon McKai has been producing alt porn-themed videos forVCA Pictures (an otherwise mainstream adult video studio)[9] and, in 2006, was signed byVivid Entertainment to produce alt porn-themed videos under the Vivid-ALT imprint. In 2006, McKai remade Gregory Dark's seminal punk porno filmNew Wave Hookers, using some of the original script with a different twist and calling the filmNeu Wave Hookers. Vivid-ALT had also signed noted fetish photographersDave Naz and Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala.[10][11]
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Many members of the alt porn community disagree on the definition of alt porn. Some consider it mostly anaesthetic quality while others see it as having a moreideological definition. This includes controversies over whether alt porn sites and videos should restrict themselves tosoftcorepin-up photography or include more sexually explicithardcore content, whether alt porn need be explicitlyfeminist or not, and whether alt porn venues should present models of allgenders and a range ofbody types rather than justconventionally attractive young women.[5] Since every pornography company conducts its business and treats their models differently, it is hard to define it on an ideological basis, although the models' freedom to speak their mind both about the industry, their employers, andpolitical agendas is considered by some to be a vital part of the alt porn community.SuicideGirls have been criticized for restricting their employees' ability to make public comments of this nature. This led to a public falling out between the owners of SuicideGirls and a number of their former models,[5][12][13] and larger debates as to whether alternative porn was inherently any moreempowering than mainstream porn.
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