Pornography Unplugged
Pluto's long transit through Aquarius will reintroduce us to the erotics of knowing.
You’re reading WOODRUFF. I cover the convergence of pop culture, psychology, and astrology. Join my entourage of subscribers—you’ve been missed.
A LOT OF YOUNG FOLKS are showing little interest in having sex. In Japan, the libidinal drought is becoming a national calamity—the same thing in Europe (with the Pope begging couples to start rutting more regularly). Zoomers no longer visit nightclubs and bars as they did in years past to meet up with friends or to find a possible love interest. Two key trends for sex phobia are at play. But both are internet-related.
Charles Hugh Smith highlights a facet of the economic landscape that is rarely discussed—how society has lost respect for essential work in favor of digital visibility. As he notes:
Validation, respect and being recognized for one’s work are no longer available for those doing the work that keeps civilization functioning; recognition and admiration—and envy—are reserved for those with high visibility on social media or mass media.
As he explains, more people are withdrawing from competition en masse. You could almost replace “keeps civilization functioning” with “keeps civilization fucking.” The ability to compete requires channeling the libido out and about in the world. This relates not just to pursuing a vocational calling but also how someone pursues romantic and sexual opportunities. Libido is simply another word for life force.
The other matter is both implicit and obvious. And that’s the three-decade-long proliferation of netporn into everyday life. Exposure to online porn begins, for many, as early as pre-adolescence. If you’ve ever spent time on hetero-oriented porn sites, you’d understand why sex seems a puzzle for young people.1
A majority of het porn is often violent and centered around the degradation of women. What young girl—assuming this is what awaits her in the dating domain—would want to enter that arena? And what young guy would want to emulate the abusive behavior to prove his machismo or whatever? The thinking seems to be: Best not to venture into the wild rapids of sex (and when you are just blooming into puberty, sex can have an ambivalent—but tsunami-like aura about it, no matter how intrusive the pulse of one’s hormones). Little wonder there’s an increase in kids wanting to nullify this transitional process by going on puberty blockers.
As soon as Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998, the worship-making mechanism of the collective clicked into all things technological. This, of course, is when the internet gained traction in our lives. And porn merchants became the first innovators to remake the transitional infrastructure of the internet. They pushed forward the technology to stream videos. They also revolutionized the money-slurping capacities of credit card processing services. Gone were the days of ‘brown paper wrapper’ porn. You were at home. You were bored or horny. You’d log onto your laptop and get off. That’s the whole thing. Well, sort of.
Each fixed sign in the Zodiac is associated with some facet of nature’s procreative drive. Taurus channels the libidinal energy that propels the species’ survival instinct. Leo reinvests the libido into defining one’s identity against the familial structure that once contained it. The sign also enacts progeny production as an extension of the self, as in “Me—my child.” Opposing but complementing Taurus, Scorpio is the emotional expression of the sexual drive that merges individuals together.
And Aquarius relates to the collective’s influence on the individual’s libido. Some examples: techno/science developments like artificial insemination, cloning, CRISPR sequencing, and robot fucking. As a fixed air sign, Aquarius fixates on images as an entryway into the abstract realm that the sign favors. Naturally, internet porn would fall under the sign’s rubric. Desires that throb beyond the consensus notion of procreative sex are also fitting. Aquarius pulls the intellect into the realm of various fetishes and kinks—more abstractions—including the power plays of BDSM.
Netporn is different from garden variety porn, the sort you’d experience in print or VCR/DVD distribution. There is an implicit relationship at play between the porn provider, the screen, and the user’s eyeballs. This is an unconscious pact. But the Aquarian relational implication is there nonetheless (even if it’s simply a bot or algorithm in lieu of a ‘cam girl.’) The first thing I did once webcams were built into desk and laptop computers was cover the camera’s lens with tape.
Lately, I’ve been contemplating how Pluto’s 25-year transit through Aquarius (that will commence on November 19th of this year) will transform not only pornography but humanity’s relationship to solitude and socialization. Here are some of my takeaways: