ABSTRACT
The relationship between pornography and alternative (sub)cultures has always been complex and multifaceted, even before the birth of a porn industry proper. However, the acknowledged antagonism between a mainstream and an alternative within pornography dates back to the second half of the 1980s. The process entailed the gradual shift from a mostly public form of porn consumption to the privacy of home video viewing and the subsequent total and irreversible conversion to video on the part of the major porn companies, in the US as well as in other burgeoning Western production contexts. In the context of the general crisis of the pornography industry, then, only a few enterprises have survived, whether thanks to their stronger ties with specific subcultural communities or to their ability in establishing more articulated connections with the industry as a whole. Another much debated characteristic of alternative pornographies is the claims of 'realness' and 'authenticity' in the representation of both sexual pleasure and sexual/gender identities.
