ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades the status of sexually explicit mass media (i.e., erotica and pornography) in the entertainment marketplace has been radically transformed and expanded (cf. Weaver, 1991, 1992). According to Hebditch and Anning (1988), production and distribution of such materials have rapidly evolved from “a seedy and illicit cottage industry to a stable and well-refined, mass-production business employing the latest know-how” and yielding annual worldwide revenues in excess of $5 billion (p. 3). Spurred by new communication technologies — especially the domestication of videotape recorders — the marketplace for pornography has metamorphosed from one tailored to a few elite connoisseurs into a mass market providing an affordable form of entertainment to all consumers (cf. Zillmann & Bryant, 1989).
