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The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the New England area. It was founded in 1967, "by fans who wanted to do things in addition to socializing"[1]. NESFA is currently registered as a non-profit literary organization under IRS section 501(c)(3). The organization holds regular meetings (at their dedicated site, the NESFA Clubhouse) of and for members and other interested parties. A weekly meeting is held most Wednesday evenings, for socializing, projects, and miscellaneous business. Two weekend meetings are held every month: a Business Meeting (for administration), and the Other Meeting. The club also publishes a regular newsletter, Instant Message. There are two book groups that meet on a monthly basis, as well as a monthly Game Day, and a monthly Game Night. In addition, there is a monthly Media day. This involves showings of two episodes of an anime series, two TV series episodes and a movie choice. All are science fiction/fantasy related. There is currently a NESFA Short Story Contest, accepting submissions from amateur writers seeking to improve their science fiction/fantasy writing through constructive critical analysis from expert readers, editors, and professional writers. == Boskone == The club runs an annual science fiction convention, Boskone. In the words of the convention organizers, "Boskone is a regional Science Fiction convention focusing on literature, art, music, and gaming (with just a dash of whimsy)"[2]. It is held over a weekend every February, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The name is a reference to the classic Lensman series by E. E. Smith, in which "Boskone" is a council of villains, and also a name for their civilization. The obvious name for a con in Boston would, of course, be "Boscon"; the similarity was noticed and embraced. Continuing the trend, when a new Boston-area convention was formed, the organizers of that event named it "Arisia", the name of the civilization for which the protagonists work in the Lensman series. Boskone I[3] was held in 1941 under the auspices of The Stranger Club, an earlier Boston-based SF club. Four more were held annually, ending with Boskone V in 1945. The current series of Boskones started in 1965 with Boskone 1[4] and continued without interruption to the present. Boskone 1, 2, and 4 were run by BosSFS, the now-defunct Boston Science Fiction Society. The then-newly formed NESFA took over with Boskone 5. The tradition of holding Boskone in February started in 1976.[5] == NESFA Press == NESFA has a small publishing arm, NESFA Press, which specializes in classic and neglected works of science fiction, as well as SF/fandom reference and historical material. Works published by NESFA press include: Once More* with Footnotes, by Terry Pratchett (2004) Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (1995) The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith (1993) == Awards == === Skylark Award === The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) is presented annually by NESFA to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late "Doc" Smith well loved by those who knew him. === Jack Gaughan Award === The Jack Gaughan Award is presented annually to an emerging artist chosen by a panel of judges (which have included Vincent Di Fate, Kelly Freas, Michael Whelan, David Cherry, Bob Eggleton, Tyler Jacobson, and Ron Walotsky). == MCFI == NESFA also hosts meetings of Massachusetts Convention Fandom, Inc. MCFI, a non-profit like NESFA, is responsible for various "special" conventions in the New England area. Most notable of these is Noreascon, MCFI's occasional Worldcon bid. The most recent of these was Noreascon Four, the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention, in September 2004. MCFI has also hosted SMOFcon, Ditto, and the World Fantasy Convention. MCFI is a separate legal entity from NESFA, though there is a large overlap in membership. == See also == Science fiction fandom Science fiction convention World Science Fiction Society == Notes == ^ What is NESFA? ^ Boskone Home Page ^ Roman numeral I for one ^ Numbering for the new Boskone series was restarted at one, with some Roman numerals, some Arabic numerals, and some numbers spelled out. Beginning with Boskone 29, the numbering has been exclusively with Arabic numerals. ^ Boskone History == References == == External links == NESFA NESFA Press Boskone Noreascon MCFI Boskone Program Book Covers	Wikipedia/New_England_Science_Fiction_Association
Mind control, or brainwashing, has proven a popular subject in fiction, featuring in books and films such as The Manchurian Candidate (1959; film adaptations 1962 and 2004) and The IPCRESS File (1962; film 1965), both stories advancing the premise that controllers could hypnotize a person into murdering on command while retaining no memory of the killing. As a narrative device, mind control serves as a convenient means of introducing changes in the behavior of characters, and is used as a device for raising tension and audience uncertainty in the contexts of the Cold War and terrorism. Mind control has often been an important theme in science fiction and fantasy stories. Terry O'Brien comments: "Mind control is such a powerful image that if hypnotism did not exist, then something similar would have to have been invented: the plot device is too useful for any writer to ignore. The fear of mind control is equally as powerful an image." == Fictional means of mind control == In many fantasy genres, mind control is often achieved through magical means. For example, in Harry Potter media, the Imperius Curse allows one wizard to control the actions of another. Similarly, in The Lord of the Rings universe, the One Ring has the power to dominate the will of its bearer and those around it. Another popular trope in science fiction and fantasy is mind control exercised by telepathy. In the Marvel Comics universe, for example, Professor X and Purple Man are among the many characters able to control minds. The Dune series also explores telepathic mind control by those in the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. == Genres == === Speculative fiction === In Dragon Ball, Broly is mind-controlled by his father Paragus. In Warhammer 40,000, the T'au Empire is mind-controlling its population. Imperio, one of the three Unforgivable Curses in Harry Potter, is a spell used for mind control. In RoboCop, the titular character is mind-controlled by Raymond Sellars. In Gamer, death-row prisoners are mind-controlled by gamers in Slayers, a first-person shooter. In DC Comics, Brainiac and Poison Ivy are frequently using mind control, an ability that Darkseid also plans to obtain by seeking the Anti-Life Equation. In Danny Phantom, Vlad Plasmius used mind control to become a billionaire. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marik has the Millenium Rod, one of the seven Millenium Items, which provides its owner with the mind control ability. Additionally The Millenium Key owned by Shadi can change a person's personality. In the movie series Men in Black, a device used for memory erasing (known as the Neuralyzer) is used frequently by Agents Kay and Jay. In the television series Doctor Who, there are multiple stories involving mind control. The Master is able to control the minds of individuals with a weak will by looking into their eyes, a form of hypnosis. In "The Sound of Drums", he is able to do this on a massive scale through the Archangel satellite network, but this backfires when the Doctor manages to use the network to defeat him. In "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel", EarPods are devices that can place the user into a trance-state and download information directly into their brain, as well as other features, such as communication. EarPods are widely used in a parallel universe, worn in both ears. Unbeknownst to the users, the EarPods could also mind control as the population's EarPods were activated and controlled them to walk to a conversion factory and be converted into Cybermen. A similar method of control by the Cybermen reappears in "Army of Ghosts". Workers at the Torchwood Institute wore a communication earpiece. As some workers were captured by the Cybermen, their earpieces were manipulated to control them with the worker reemerging with an earpiece in each ear. It was later found that the earpieces were connected to the brain through artificial tissue. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Dead Things", a trio of misogynistic young men create a "cerebral dampener" which will force any woman to become their "sex slave." In the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange, later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick, the "Ludovico Technique" is a form of mind control that causes the subject, in this case the thug anti-hero Alex, to feel sickness and pain whenever he has a violent or anti-social impulse. This backfires because of Alex's association with the music of Ludwig van Beethoven to ultraviolence, an unintended side effect means that he has the same physical reaction to the music alone, which is exploited later by a man whose wife Alex had raped. In Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a device called a Penfield Mood Organ is used to control mood. Mind control (telepathic hypnosis) is a prominent psionic gift in the Scanners series of films. It is used by the Scanners to escape imprisonment in the first film, and to sometimes control others in the subsequent films. George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four features a description of mind control, both directly by torture, and indirectly, in the form of pervasive mind control by the use of Newspeak, a constructed language designed to remove the possibility, Sapir-Whorf-wise of articulating or of even thinking subversive thoughts. The Jedi mind trick is a prominent plot device in the Star Wars saga. In The Matrix, a chemical was injected into Morpheus to make him reveal access codes. In Michael Crichton's novel The Terminal Man, the Terminal Man has doctors implant a simple computer into the brainstem of a man who suffers from impulsive violence. The plan is to stimulate certain nerves to ease the violent impulses. Instead, the violence becomes even more irresistible. In the anime, movie and video game series Street Fighter 2, the main villain, known as M. Bison uses his "Psycho Power" to brainwash and corrupt street fighters across the world into joining his criminal organization known as Shadowloo, turning them into remorseless killing machines fully under his control. In the X-Men comic book series, Professor Xavier, can read and control people's minds. Mind control and other psychic abilities are relatively common mutations in the X-Men universe; other people with this ability include Emma Frost and, to a lesser degree, Jean Grey. The House of the Scorpion is a science fiction book in which people have computer chips implanted in their brain, allowing them to only do what they are programmed to do. These people are referred to as "Eejits". In the anime series, Code Geass, the protagonist, Lelouch Lamperouge, gets the ability, Geass, which gives him a form of mind control by allowing him to give someone an absolute order, by looking them in the eye. In the film Control Factor, an unsuspecting "everyman" slowly realizes he is an unwitting guinea pig being used in a mind control test. If successful, the test will then expand to behavioral control of an entire population. In the Resident Evil films, based on the video game series of the same name, the fictional Umbrella Corporation captures and brainwashes the protagonist, Alice (portrayed by Milla Jovovich), as part of their "Program: Alice" experiment. In the Bionicle storyline, a Kanohi mask called Komau allows the user the power to control minds of beings. In John Christopher's Tripods trilogy, the alien Masters control all of humanity via devices called Caps which are permanently affixed to the skull. The Caps received signals broadcast by equipment in the Masters' cities. In Empire of the Ants, giant ants used a white gas to control the minds of humans. In Stargate SG-1, the Goa'uld had brainwashing technology that is used several times over the show and proves both easy and difficult to defeat depending on what technique is used. In Stargate Universe, using presumably left-over Goa'uld technology, the Lucian Alliance are able to brainwash their enemies into becoming spies for them as they do with Colonel David Telford. This brainwashing is difficult to break as shown with Telford: the characters were forced to evacuate the air in the room he was in, let him die for a short period of time then revive him. Those brainwashed are shown to remember their actions as Telford remembers everything he did. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, there are at least four episodes featuring Mind Control: In "The Mind's Eye", Geordi La Forge is brainwashed into becoming an assassin by the Romulans to reignite hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. The depiction of brainwashing in the episode relies upon feeding images and impulses directly into La Forge's cortex via his VISOR interface. In "The Game", the crew of the Enterprise is controlled using a device that has the user playing a simple 3D game and provides direct stimulation to the pleasure centers of the brain while affecting their higher reasoning functions. The Ktarians use this to attempt to get the crew to entice other members of Starfleet to play the game, eventually controlling the entire United Federation of Planets. In the two-part "Chain of Command" episode Captain Picard is captured and a Cardassian agent uses traditional methods of brain-washing (sensory deprivation, sensory bombardment, forced nakedness, stress positions, dehydration, starvation, physical pain, and cultural humiliation). In the episode "Conspiracy" alien brain parasites have taken control of key Starfleet officers in an attempt to take over the entire United Federation of Planets. In the Monster Rancher anime, the character Metalner has the ability to brainwash his victims by attracting himself to them. In Blade of the Phantom Master – a South Korean-Japanese manhwa – and the film based on it, the character Chun Hyang (later called Sando) is brainwashed into becoming the bodyguard of a corrupt lord, but she is later freed by the main character Munsu. In the Japanese fantasy light novel series Redo of Healer and the anime based on it, the anti-hero Keyarga uses his powers to brainwash Flare, the corrupt princess of Jioral, into becoming his companion, and later does the same to her younger sister Norn. In the film MirrorMask, the main character Helena is brainwashed by the Queen of Shadows into becoming her daughter. In the TV show Codename: Kids Next Door, a group of villainous kids called the Delightful Children from Down the Lane are revealed to be brainwashed Kids Next Door members of Sector Z, having been delightfulized by the villain Father. The effects of their brainwashing is permanent, but can be temporarily undone. In the anime series HappinessCharge PreCure!, the antagonist Queen Mirage is a Cure who was brainwashed by the series' true main antagonist: Red. Mirage also brainwashes Cure Tender into becoming her servant: Dark Tender. Other characters brainwashed by Red are PhanPhan and Seiji. All four are eventually freed by the main characters. Red later tries to brainwash Cure Lovely, but was foiled at the last second. Some examples from the Despicable Me franchise. In Minions, Stuart gets a Hypno-Hat from Herb Overkill, which allows him to control the mind of his enemies. In Despicable Me 2, a supervillain called El Macho stole the PX-41 from the scientists at the Arctic Circle and kidnapped most of Gru's minions to dose them with it and turn them into vicious Purple Minions. Despicable Me 4, Maxime Le Mal kidnapped Gru's son Gru Jr. to turn him into his cockroach mutant minion. In Winx Club, an antagonist called the Shadow Phoenix brainwashes the main character Bloom into her dark alter-ego: Dark Bloom. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the evil high priest of the Thuggee Mola Ram brainwashes the eponymous archaeologist Indiana Jones into Dark Indy by dosing him with the Evil Potion. In the Marvel franchise, the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, has the ability to brainwash people. In Toy Story 3, Buzz Lightyear is brainwashed into becoming Lotso's henchmen after being switched to demo mode. In the anime Absolute Duo the character Miyabi Hotaka is brainwashed by the antagonist K. In the anime Mysterious Joker, the character Rose is brainwashed by the antagonist Professor Clover using a club-shaped headband. In the anime Cross Ange, the antagonist Embryo has the ability to brainwash those who wield the Light of Mana. He once used this ability on the main character Ange. In Star Trek: Voyager the episode "Equinox", Seven's brain is operated on by the unethical doctor to reveal codes she refuses to give. In the 1987 animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series season 3 episode "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X", the antagonist Shredder kidnaps businessmen all across New York City and takes them to the Octopus Inc. headquarters, where he brainwashes them by indoctrination to carry out crimes, and kidnap more businessmen. In the 2012 version, Shredder has created worms that can mind control people by placing them inside victims. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the antagonist Lorelei has the ability to control men using her voice. In the first season of the Netflix original series Jessica Jones, main antagonist Kilgrave—known in comics as Purple Man—has the ability to compel people to obey his orders. He uses this power to force protagonist Jessica Jones into an abusive relationship. Kilgrave's mind control is an allegory for manipulative and abusive behavior. Jessica's enhanced strength and her resistance to Kilgrave's abilities, on the other hand, embody free will and women's empowerment. In the anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, a fox spirit called Kumara and the character Milim are brainwashed by the antagonist Clayman. The fox spirit was later freed by the protagonist Rimuru while Milim reveals that she was faking her brainwashing. In the anime Love After World Domination, the antagonist Blood Princess has the ability to brainwash her patients to behave like babies. In the anime Delicious Party Pretty Cure, the character Amane Kasai is brainwashed into becoming a member of the evil Bundoru Gang named Gentlu. Several Batman villains have the power of hypnosis; examples include the Mad Hatter, who relies on various technological devices to brainwash individuals, and Poison Ivy, who uses pheromones, plant-based creations, and occasionally supernatural means to take control of others, especially men. In The Unlisted, the "Global Child Initiative Programme", led by the Infinity Group with government support, secretly implants schoolchildren with mind control devices through a mandatory dental plan. As a result of the implant, the children develop enhanced physical and cognitive abilities, with the implant "updating" their brains with new knowledge and fluency in foreign languages such as Mandarin and Hindi. The end goal of Infinity Group is to expand the GCIP worldwide and make the mind control complete and permanent, to create and entire generation of obedient and compliant workers. Children who managed to avoid the implantation form a resistance group called the Unlisted, but are actively hunted by Infinity Group. In the 2021 film Girl Next, a woman is abducted, drugged, and taken to a secluded Texas ranch, where young women are tortured and brainwashed into becoming obedient, living sex dolls, that are then sold into the sex trade. In the 2022 TV series Severance, a medical procedure is applied to employees to separate non-work memories from work memories. === Video games === In the critically acclaimed DC Comics video game Batman: Arkham City, highly trained mercenaries loyal to a rogue private military firm, Tyger Security, have been systematically programmed (through a combination of psychoactive drugs and posthypnotic manipulation) to blindly hate the protagonist and answer only to their employer, the ruthless Hugo Strange. Following Strange's death late in the game's storyline these effects seem to have been broken, as Tyger units promptly cease following current orders and withdraw quietly from the scene. In BioShock, the player's character, Jack, is revealed to have been subconsciously mind-controlled and must obey any action stated after the command phrase, "Would you kindly?". The young girls called Little Sisters are also revealed to be brainwashed with sea slugs that are designed for mind control. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the protagonist, Alex Mason, is being interrogated by his own CIA colleagues following his brainwashing into a sleeper agent while imprisoned in the Vorkuta Gulag. The plot revolves around retracing events prior to the interrogation in an attempt to discover the purpose of the psychological manipulation Mason was subjected to. At the end of the game, it is strongly implied that Mason was responsible for John F. Kennedy's assassination. In the game's sequel, Mason is shown to struggle with the lasting effects of his brainwashing. In the MMORPG City of Heroes, players of the Controller class can opt for the primary list of powers dubbed Mind Control, which includes the ability to affect emotions remotely, confuse, inhibit or affect physical actions, and cause psionic damage to opponents. The character Yuri in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is an extremely advanced telepath with the capability of completely controlling the actions of others. There is one flaw, however: a mind-controlled person can be seen to be showing strain against Yuri's power, culminating in sweating, stammering and memory loss. Later, in the game expansion Yuri's Revenge, he leads an entire faction with several mind controlling units included. His "psychic dominators" also possess the ability to permanently mind control units. In Crash Bandicoot series, Doctor Neo Cortex, Crash's nemesis, wants to control the mutant minds with the Cortex Vortex to conquer the world. In the Danganronpa series, the main antagonist, Junko Enoshima, brainwashes multiple people into committing acts of despair, for example brainwashing the 77th Class of Hope's Peak Academy and converting them into Ultimate Despair. In the series Destroy All Humans!, the main character, Cryptosporidium, can use mind control to force humans to do his bidding. In Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the mysterious Project Alchera is revealed to be a form of mind-control, marketed to the masses as a form of entertainment. In Final Fantasy IV, the playable character Kain is mind controlled by Golbez to act as his lieutenant to seize crystals around the earth. Later, it is revealed that Golbez himself was controlled by Zemus. In Final Fantasy VI, the game begins with the half-human, half-esper Terra controlled by the imperial general Kefka using a slave crown. The control is broken once the slave crown is removed. In Heroes of the Storm, the playable hero Sylvanas has access to Mind Control, as one of her two heroic abilities. In Lego Batman, some of the playable villain characters can use a power called mind control, which allows them to take control of an enemy to open doors or reach inaccessible areas. In the Mass Effect series the primary antagonists, the Reapers, use a form of mind control called "indoctrination" to manipulate people into becoming willing servants and thralls. In the first installment of the series, a corporate-funded colony called Zhu's Hope on the planet Feros is unwittingly built above an ancient sapient plant called the Thorian, the spores of which trigger excruciating pain if the thrall does not follow the plant's will. In Metal Gear Solid, Psycho Mantis, a rogue special forces member with powerful telepathic abilities, subtly controls a small army, and on several occasions completely dominates a single person's movements and speech. In Persona 4, during the fight against Kunino-Sagiri, he performs a move called "Control" which takes control of Yu's teammates and turn them against him for 2 turns. In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the player's character, Nick Scryer can perform mind control. In Resident Evil 4, the enemies are civilians mind-controlled through the use of parasites known as "Las Plagas"; in Resident Evil 5, the main antagonist, Albert Wesker, uses a special drug to brainwash a recurring protagonist, Jill Valentine. In Sonic Pinball Party, Doctor Eggman, Sonic's nemesis, turns all the people into robots, kidnaps Sonic's assistant Miles "Tails" Prower and Sonic's love interest Amy Rose, ties them up to a chair, puts them on a device and brainwashes them. In the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, players that choose a force user class can occasionally force persuade a NPC during conversations, which sometimes allow the player to manipulate the actions and decisions of NPCs. This ability may change the outcome and situation of the dialogue. The Dark Archon, a unit in the computer game StarCraft, has the ability to psionically mind control other units, indefinitely taking complete control of them. In Super Mario Odyssey, Mario can throw Cappy on enemies or other objects to temporally control them. In Super Paper Mario, the character Nastasia has the ability to brainwash people by looking them in the eyes, this is the way she brainwashes Luigi as well as Bowser's Goomba and Koopa army, although Luigi is later freed from her brainwashing by the character Dimentio, who can also brainwash people by making sprouts appear on their heads. A mentioned character called the Pixl Queen has the ability to brainwash other Pixls. In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, players of the priest class gain the ability to mind-control other humanoid characters, gaining full control over their actions for a short period. (Due to interface limitations, priests cannot do anything else while controlling a target.) In the X-COM series, mind control is a possible ability certain aliens or soldiers are able to employ against each other in the game. In Far Cry 5, two of the game's antagonists use mind control. Jacob Seed uses the song "Only You" by The Platters to brainwash the player, while Faith Seed uses a hallucogenic drug called Bliss. In The Stanley Parable if the player follows the Narrators instructions exactly, Stanley will stumble upon the Mind Control Device, the device used to control Stanley and his coworkers until the events of the main game. In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem, the characters Fred, Daphne, and Velma are brainwashed by the antagonist Selena Drake using a mind control device, but Shaggy and Scooby later free them by destroying the machine. The giant antennas found throughout the game are also used for mind control. In Splatoon 2, the character Callie is brainwashed by the main villain DJ Octavio using hypno-glasses. === Other fiction === The TV series The Prisoner featured mind control as a recurring plot element. In the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir show, the main villain Hawkmoth can "akumatize" people with negative emotions using a "akuma" (a butterfly that has the power to control the supervillains). In the Korean mini-series Winter Sonata, the protagonist has his memory altered by a clinical psychiatrist at his mother's request which forms the crux of the plot as he struggles to overcome it. In the movie Conspiracy Theory, Mel Gibson plays Jerry Fletcher, a cab driver and a conspiracy theorist who accidentally hits a truth involving a secret government-funded mind control program, as it turns out Jerry himself is one of the subjects of the program. In Judy Malloy's Revelations of Secret Surveillance, a group of artists and writers struggle to understand and expose a covert system that utilizes psychodrama and brain scanning surveillance to interfere with the lives of artists, activists, and many other people. The novel Trilby (1894) features the character Svengali, who hypnotizes the novel's heroine to enhance her singing performance. The character gained popularity as the stereotype of an evil hypnotist, and became the basis for feature films throughout the 20th century. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a technique called hypnopaedia is used to condition children to be obedient citizens. An adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron", was made into a film Harrison Bergeron, a 1995 production. Everyone but the elite had "handicapping" devices attached to their brains. Mr. Big, one of the antagonists in the PBS Kids GO! series WordGirl, frequently uses mind control to entice people to buy his products. In "The Phoney Booths" episode of the 1960s TV series Underdog, Simon Bar Sinister uses telephone booths named "Phoney Booths" to brainwash people and put them into his power. Queen Chrysalis, a powerful antagonist of the Hub series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, has the gift of mind control via emotional manipulation and metamorphic abilities. In "A Canterlot Wedding", she uses this ability to disguise herself as Princess Cadence and bring the princess's fiancée Shining Armor under her spell, as well as manipulating Cadence's bridesmaids to become her servants. Starlight Glimmer, another antagonist, used a combination of a magic staff and more traditional forms of mind control (including solitary confinement, denial of care, and constantly broadcasting messages via loudspeaker) to create a cult of ponies obsessed with the idea of conformity. In The Monkees episode "The Frodis Caper", an insane wizard captures a sentient potted plant from outer space and attempts world domination by broadcasting the plant's mind-control eye over television. In the American soap opera Days of Our Lives, several characters including John Black, Hope Brady, and Steve Johnson, were subjected to brainwashing and mind control by Stefano DiMera and other villains, in order to turn them into assassins and mob "soldiers". In the 2007 Korean supernatural horror film based on a 2005 graphic novel, Someone Behind You, a homicidal family curse causes family members and friends to attack and slay one another for no apparent reason. To survive the ongoing epidemic of homicidal attacks, a young woman is warned by a sinister student who reminds her never to trust family, friends, nor even herself. In 2009 it was released in the US under the new title Voices. In the horror/thriller film series Candyman, Daniel Robitaille/Candyman uses mind control on a few of his main victims who denies his existence to carry out his murders supernaturally. In the 1992 film, he uses his ability to hypnotize Helen Lyle and leads her into psychosis by framing her for the gruesome murders he carried out. As with the 1999 film, he also puts his granddaughter Caroline McKeever under a trance and is framed for the crimes. In the 2021 film, he possesses Anthony McCoy as a vessel in his hallucinations to actually commit his murders through mind control. == Entertainment == Hypnotism has often been used by stage performers to induce volunteers do strange things, such as clucking like a chicken, for the entertainment of audiences. The British psychological illusionist Derren Brown performs more sophisticated mental tricks in his television programmes, Derren Brown: Mind Control. The late Russian psychic, Wolf Messing, was said to be able to hand somebody a blank piece of paper and make them see money or whatever he wanted them to see. == See also == Brainwashing Cult Hypnosis in popular culture Mindwipe Orwellian == References == == Further reading == Seed, David (2004). Brainwashing: The Fictions of Mind Control : A Study of Novels and Films Since World War II. Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873388139.	Wikipedia/Mind_control_in_popular_culture
Canadian science fiction television was produced by the CBC as early as the 1950s. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost. In the 1980s, Canadian animation studios including Nelvana, began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation. In the 1990s, Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with dozens of series like Forever Knight, Robocop, and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1. Many series have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black and MythQuest. In the first decade of the 21st century, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver. Recent series produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone, Smallville, Andromeda, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, The 4400, Sanctuary and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Because of the small size of the domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. However, in recent years, new partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada and elsewhere. == History of science fiction television in Canada == Science fiction in Canada was produced by the CBC in its early years, notably the series Space Command (1953–1954). Actors such as James Doohan and William Shatner first appeared on Canadian television, before finding success in the United States. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost in its Scarborough studios. In the 1980s, many animation houses, most notably Nelvana, began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation; Canada has become the world leader in 3D animation with shows like ReBoot and Tripping the Rift. Only in the 1990s, with changes in exchange rates and tax legislation, plus a growing skills set among local production companies which had had success in local production and in producing films for American and international markets, that Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with shows like Forever Knight, RoboCop, and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1. The merger that produced Alliance Atlantis found itself with a large stable of science fiction shows, while Lions Gate Television, Fireworks Entertainment, CanWest Global, and CHUM Television produced shows of their own. American-based companies like Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal also built substantial operations in Canada for their productions. During the 1990s and early 2000s, dozens of science fiction shows were produced in Canada, taking large market shares in American and international markets. A large body of shows have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black, 2030 CE, and MythQuest; many of these are mainly distributed outside North America. == Actors and creative staff == Famous Canadian actors who played popular science fiction roles include Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Jim Carrey, James Doohan, Nathan Fillion, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Greene, Michael Ironside, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shanks, William Shatner, Martin Short, Marc Singer, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Amanda Tapping, Lexa Doig, Laura Bertram, Keanu Reeves, Kristin Kreuk and Carrie-Anne Moss. Well-known Canadian filmmakers who have produced science fiction include James Cameron, David Cronenberg, Lex Gigeroff and Norman Jewison. Canada's science fiction television industry is closely related to the United States. Many Canadian-born actors like Nicole de Boer, Amanda Tapping, Tricia Helfer, and Anthony Michael Hall are immediately recognizable to American SF fans, while some American-born actors and producers like Christopher Judge and Peter DeLuise have spent most of their working lives in Canada. The Constellation Awards are awarded annually in Canada to honour the best science fiction or fantasy television or film works of the previous year. After coming to Canada as a guest at Toronto Trek in 1994 and 1995, Majel Barrett Roddenberry chose Toronto as a base for producing Earth: Final Conflict, based on a concept created by her late husband, Gene Roddenberry; her son Rod became a Canadian resident for three years to work with the production team. == Toronto to Vancouver == In the early 2000s, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver, which already had a strong television production industry. Recent popular shows produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone, The 4400, Andromeda, Stargate Atlantis, and the remake of Battlestar Galactica. Since 1995, more than half a billion dollars a year is spent on media production in Vancouver, with $1.4 billion in 2003 alone. Production also began growing in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and elsewhere, such as the production of Lexx in Halifax. However, Toronto continued to be a base for shows like Odyssey 5, Jake 2.0, and Mutant X. == Foreign control and co-production == Because of the small size of the domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. This sometimes create long preparation cycles for many shows, with years of delay between initial creative development and actual production. Although American management was a common model for Canadian production in the 1990s, more complex partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada. This trend has also resulted in outflowing investment to projects produced in other countries, including Doctor Who, a co-production between the CBC and BBC, and Charlie Jade, developed in Canada but produced in South Africa. == References ==	Wikipedia/Canadian_science_fiction_television
Libertarian science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by right-libertarian (especially American libertarian) philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and private ownership of the means of production—and in some cases anti-statism and anarcho-capitalism. == Overview == As a category, libertarian fiction is unusual because the vast majority of its authors are self-identified as science fiction authors. This contrasts with the authors of much other social criticism who are largely academic or mainstream novelists who tend to dismiss any genre classification. The identification between libertarianism and science fiction is so strong that the Libertarian Party in the United States often has representatives at science fiction conventions and one of the highest profile authors currently in the subgenre of libertarian science fiction, L. Neil Smith, was the Arizona Libertarian Party's 2000 candidate for the President of the United States. As a genre, it can be seen as growing out of the 1930s and 1940s when the science-fiction pulp magazines were reaching their peak at the same time as fascism and communism. While this environment gave rise to dystopian novels, in the pulps, this influence more often give rise to speculations about societies (or sub-groups) arising in direct opposition to "totalitarianism". Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is a strong (perhaps the strongest) influence with an anti-socialist attitude and an individualist ethic that echoes throughout the genre. Of more direct relevance to the science fiction end of this genre is the work of Robert A. Heinlein, particularly his novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which is highly regarded even by non-libertarian science fiction readers. Some other prominent libertarian science fiction authors include S. Andrew Swann and Michael Z. Williamson. In 1979, L. Neil Smith founded an award for libertarian science fiction, the Prometheus Award. Since 1982, the award has been given out by the Libertarian Futurist Society "to provide encouragement to science fiction writers whose books examine the meaning of freedom". Some winners of the award identify as libertarians (L. Neil Smith, Victor Koman, and Brad Linaweaver), while others do not (Terry Pratchett and Charles Stross). == Notable examples == Poul Anderson, No Truce with Kings (1963) Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) Dani & Eitan Kollin, The Unincorporated Man (2009). Victor Koman, Kings of the High Frontier (1996) Ira Levin, This Perfect Day (1970) Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer (1977) Peterson, Roy C., Nationalist Revolution Series (2012-2023) Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957) Kenneth W. Royce, Molon Labe! (2004) Eric Frank Russell, ... And Then There Were None, The Great Explosion (1962) J. Neil Schulman, Alongside Night (1979) L. Neil Smith, The Probability Broach (1979) Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon (1999) Jack Vance, Emphyrio (1969) F. Paul Wilson, Wheels Within Wheels (1978) == See also == Anarcho-capitalist literature == Notes == == References == == External links == "Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy for Libertarians" by Dan Clore Speech by author David Brin to 2002 Libertarian Party National Convention (U.S.) Speech by author L. Neil Smith at the Colorado Libertarian Party Annual Convention The Libertarian Futurist Society Website 10 Greatest Libertarian Science Fiction Stories, by Alasdair Wilkins for io9 Riggenbach, Jeff (February 11, 2011). "Libertarianism and Science Fiction: What's the Connection?". Mises Daily. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Riggenbach, Jeff (March 11, 2011). "Some Further Notes on Libertarian Science Fiction". Mises Daily. Ludwig von Mises Institute.	Wikipedia/Libertarian_science_fiction
Space pirates are a type of stock character from science fiction. A take on the traditional seafaring pirates of history or the fictional air pirates of the 19th century, space pirates travel through outer space. Where traditional pirates target sailing ships, space pirates serve a similar role in sci-fi media: they capture and plunder spacecraft for cargo, loot and occasionally steal spacecraft, and kill or enslave the crewmembers and passengers. == In science fiction == The archetype evolved from the air pirate trope popular from the turn of the century until the 1920s. By the 1930s, space pirates were recurring villains in the Buck Rogers comic strip. However, their dress and speech may vary; it may correspond to the particular author's vision of the future, rather than their seafaring precursors. On the other hand, space pirates may be modeled after stereotypical sea pirates. They may be humans who originate from Earth or a specific race of aliens. Space pirates are common in space opera and soft science fiction, including within Japanese anime narratives and erotica. === 1920s to the 1960s === In 1925, Hugo Gernsback's science fiction novel, Ralph 124C 41+ featured a space pirate as a character. The book centers around a love story between the protagonist, Ralph and a civil scientist, with a space pirate from Mars also "vying for her affections," part of the scientific speculation of the novel itself. Around the same time, author Henry Edward Warner, who composed his poems which were assembled in a 1929 book, Songs of the Craft, began writing various poems, including some about the "so-called space pirate." Six years later, in November 1935, Stanley G. Weinbaum's novella, The Red Peri appeared in the science fiction magazine Astounding Stories. In the novel, the primary character, Peri, is a space pirate who has a base on Pluto. The novel was praised for imaginative backgrounds, although its romance was considered to be at the level of "shopgirl pulps," and writing which leaves "much to be desired," David Bowman's helmetless spacewalk in 2001: A Space Odyssey was inspired by Frank Keene's escape from the pirate base in the novel. Following this, in 1940, Jack Williamson's story Hindsight, a space opera, included a character named Astrarch. He was a space pirate and dictator of the Solar System, with the story focusing on an attempt by those on Earth to break free of his shackles. The 1950s brought with it a blossoming of science fiction, including a focus on computers, space travel, and outer space in general. This included Murray Leinster's novel, The Pirates of Zan, which included a "space pirate much like his typical maritime counterpart in appearance." Alfred Bester said that it wasn't until Astounding Stories was rescued from an "abyss of space pirates, mad scientists" that he was able to go back to the publication. By 1969 there was a turn to outer space on television, with heroes changing from cowboys to "Space-Pirate-Cowboys." One year after Turner patented his game, Stanislaw Lem published The Cyberiad, a book in which two constructors named Trurl and Klapaucius are "captured by a space pirate who pillages and hoards information." In order to be freed from him, they build something which interprets "the movement of air molecules as information" and the pirate underestimates how much information is within the movement, and he is buried in a "mountain of paper filled with useless information." Later in the 1960s, six episodes of the sixth season of the live-action television show Doctor Who featured a gang of space pirates, with the galaxy being described as spanned by a game between those who enforce the law and pirates like Dervish and Caven who will "apparently stop at nothing to continue their lucrative racket." === 1970s to the 1990s === In the 1977 film Star Wars, the character Han Solo, who helps Luke Skywalker on his journey, is often described as a space pirate, being a smuggler and a rogue who will flee conflict despite his bravado. The same year, Leiji Matsumoto created the iconic manga series Space Pirate Captain Harlock. The character of Captain Harlock is a "mysterious space pirate captain" fighting to protect the world, which some saw as an homage to samurais, and the stories would inspire many other characters in the years to come. Some said that Captain Harlock "set the template for anime’s "space pirate" archetype." In 1978, Daniel C. Dennett proposed a philosophical question where a viewer would have to answer three questions correctly in order to "save the world from a space pirate." The following year, the first book in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series featured space pirates. In the story, Ford Prefect, a main character, explains that the trade routes between the center of the galaxy and outer areas were disrupted in the past by space pirates, but that they were "wiped out in the Dordellis wars," with freighter ships equipped with huge space ships thereafter. Adams also wrote a tale of space piracy in his 1978 Doctor Who serial The Pirate Planet, where pirates move a hollow planet through space. The 1980s also brought Captain Zargon, a space pirate, and a representation of "space-age warfare," part of the Action Man toy series released by Hasbro. 1984 brought various stories including space pirates. John Steakley's novel Armor, an homage to Starship Troopers, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1959, introduces a protagonist named Felix. In the 1990 sequel, Vampires$, Jack Crow, an antihero is introduced, who is a " legendary space pirate" which may have been the "source for Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow." The same year that Armor was published, the film, The Ice Pirates was first shown in U.S. theaters. Apart from the film being noteworthy for its cheeky, obviously cut-rate production values, mid-eighties "color-blind casting", sexual frankness, and near-deliberately slack "sitcom" direction, the film included space pirates. TCM described the film as about two space pirates being dragooned "into helping a princess find her father." The first video game in the long-running Metroid series was released in 1986. Its alien space pirate antagonists, the lizard-like Kraid and the draconic Ridley, as well as their leader, the biocomputer Mother Brain, would go on to feature in numerous future games as the nemeses of protagonist Samus Aran. The same year, Lois McMaster Bujold's novel The Warrior's Apprentice was published. The book's main character, Miles Vorkosigan, is an antihero, aristocrat, soldier, and space pirate, beginning in this novel and continuing in the Vorkosigan Saga series. The 1990s brought various space pirates. The 1994 game Super Metroid continued the space pirate theme, having Samus chase after Ridley and his pirates. In addition, the Stephen R. Donaldson novels, This Day All Gods Die (1997) and Forbidden Knowledge (1992) include a space pirate by the name of Nick Succorso. This portrayal was criticized by the fact that Succorso may have raped the protagonist, Morn, in the latter novel, depending on how one defines the term, rape. === 2000s to the 2010s === The early 2000s had many space pirates as well. The anime series, FLCL, the first series which aired between 2000 and 2001, focused on the story of a carefree female rockstar who wants to "save a space pirate" from an industrial corporation with the help of main character, Nandaba Naoto. In 2002, the video game Zathura would feature space pirates as some challenges that the protagonists need to overcome. It would later be made into a film titled Zathura: A Space Adventure. More directly, in the game Metroid Prime, which came out the same year, there is a space pirate research facility, space pirates doing "biological experiments" on creatures, natural resources, and themselves, and the pirates having an interest in mystical liquid energy. The game also includes a research area led by space pirates, monsters bred by the same pirates that try to attack the player, and the pirates threatening to destroy precious artifacts. In 2005, the film, Serenity featured a space pirate named Captain Malcolm Reynolds, who said that he "aim[s] to misbehave." He would be described by some as "good at heart" and a romantic figure. Following this, in 2009, Chris Wooding would publish a novel, Retribution Falls which some described as a "space/pirate fantasy" and a space racing game named Hooping which features pirate ships which can fire on the player with lasers, cannons, fireballs, or other projectiles. In the 2011 novel, The Martian, adapted as a 2015 motion picture, botanist Mark Watney declares he is the first "space pirate." This garnered some discussion, with various scholars debating whether he is a space pirate, asking if his actions constitute piracy. One scholar, Christian J. Robson, stated that like in Andy Weir's Artemis, maritime law applies in space, allowing for Watney to make this claim, and argued that space law would also apply in this novel. The line about space piracy was retained in the 2015 film. The Martian was not alone in this. In 2014, a game named Quing's Quest VII premiered. The game itself pitted the player and their lover/advisor, a genderfluid "Social Justice Pirate" named Nero against forces named Misogynerds that destroyed their planet. In The Expanse novel and TV series, space piracy is seen as a big issue with multiple organizations forming to fight off the pirates. The later 2010s had their share of space pirates. In 2016, a reviewer in The Catholic Library World reviewed Leslie Staub's children's novel, Time for Earth School, Dewey Dew, which included a space pirate. The story's main character, Niko, asked his cousin to come for a ride in his spaceship, but before this can happen, a female space pirate whisks her away, as he tries to get find her, complete with various illustrations to "capture the mood of the story." Also that year, Michael J. Martinez, who authored the Daedalus series, which involves pirates in space and Mars, was interviewed. He said he was excited by the "notion of putting a sailing ship in space" after seeing the 2002 animated film, Treasure Planet, which features space pirates, but was disappointed. The idea was invigorated when he saw the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, wondering what the notion of sailing ships in space, with a Napoleonic era setting in the Solar System, would be like. Also that year, two other stories featuring space pirates premiered. Specifically, Nicolette Barischoff's story, "Pirate Songs" included a disabled space pirate with a glass eye named Margo who uses a high-tech chair for mobility, and The Waves Project, a webcomic, features a space pirate named Beck, who finds himself in the seedy underground of Aezerea, an "Earth-like moon." The following year, the 2017 film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, featured Han Solo, who is described as a "grizzled" and "underdog" space pirate with his fellow pirate, Chewbacca, and the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 film featured scenes with a blue-skinned space pirate named Yondu. A science fiction novel titled Barbary Station came out the same year, focusing on space pirates. The next year brought the film, Solo: A Star Wars Story to theaters. One of the film's characters, Val, was compared to a space pirate as she engages in heists and criminal activity. In March of the following year, a comic series titled Astro Hustle, described as a "sexy space pirate romp," began its four-issue mini-series. Accompanying this was the publication of Alastair Reynolds's novel Shadow Captain with the main character, Fura, taking in some of the personality of a ruthless space pirate, Bosa Sennen, from the previous novel, returning from his ship. This was the sequel to his 2016 novel, Revenger, the latter which features an "attack by horrifyingly sadistic pirate": Sennen. It was also described as a "swashbuckling thriller" and an "emotionally raw trilogy about a space pirate crew looking for collapsed planets." Roy McBride, main character of the film Ad Astra, fights with space pirates on the Moon before traveling to Mars. The film's screenplay mentions "mining pirates" and "pirate activity." === 2020 to present === In 2020, various stories and narratives featured space pirates. In the young adult novel, Aphotic by D. R. Mattox, a main character, Ko, is shipped off onto a "self-driving, unmanned pirate ship" en route to a training camp. The Korean science fiction film Space Sweepers has a main cast of space pirates who discover a humanoid robot created as a weapon of mass destruction. This includes Captain Jang, a "mysterious ex-space pirate." L. Neil Smith's 2020 novel Henry Martyn focuses on pirates in space, specifically protagonist Henry Martyn, who tutors another to become a pirate and take up his name. In February 2021, CBR called Hondo Ohnaka, who had appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars leading a group of pirates, a "lovable space pirate and smuggler," who mentors one of the protagonists of Star Wars Rebels, Ezra, with the crew of his ship reluctantly accepting him as an ally. While Hyenas, a first-person shooter revolving around space pirates who steal pop-culture relics from wealthy Martian colonists, was planned for release in 2023, it was cancelled by Sega due to a lack of confidence in its profitability. == In the real world == Some have considered the idea of space pirates operating in the Solar System, with the possibility of a space-based economy, asteroid mining, debates over Extraterrestrial real estate and other space law questions. In 2018, Michael Viets proposed adding "space piracy" into the lexicon of international law and in 2019, legal scholars Alex Ramsey and Jessica Ramsey asked what would be "responsible actors" in space, saying they would not include those who are "some form of a space pirate," adding that the United States would determine the "responsible" parties in space. In May 2019, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz spoke in a congressional hearing, stating that "pirates threaten the open seas, and the same is possible in space", and defending the creation of the Space Force. In 2019, American entrepreneur Nova Spivack declared he was the "first space pirate" for smuggling tardigrades to the Moon on board an Arch Mission Foundation lander without informing the Israeli launch company SpaceIL. Items have been taken into space without permission since the mid 1960s. == List of space pirate media == == See also == Outlaw (stock character) Space Cowboy (disambiguation) Space marine Space Western List of fictional pirates The Five Gold Bands Pirates in popular culture List of pirate films == Notes == == References == == External links == How to become a space pirate in Business Insider Christian Powell, "Cancer Spaceship," 2013	Wikipedia/Space_pirate
This is a list of lists of fictional extraterrestrial species. == Alphabetical == A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z == By medium & franchise == === Literature === List of Noon Universe alien races === Comics === List of alien races in DC Comics List of alien races in Marvel Comics === Film and television === List of Doctor Who universe creatures and aliens List of Star Trek aliens List of Star Wars creatures Lists of Star Wars species: A–E, F–J, K–O, P–T, U–Z Species of the Marvel Cinematic Universe === Games === Battlelords of the 23rd Century#Races Races of Mass Effect Races of StarCraft == By appearance == List of humanoid aliens List of reptilian humanoids == See also ==	Wikipedia/Lists_of_fictional_extraterrestrials
Science Fiction World (Sci-Fi World; SFW) (Chinese: 科幻世界, Kehuan Shijie), begun in 1979, is a monthly science fiction magazine published in the People's Republic of China, headquartered in Chengdu, Sichuan. It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market, reaching a peak circulation of 300,000–400,000 copies per issue for a time after 1999, as a result of coincidentally publishing an issue matching the essay topic of the gaokao for that year, memory transplantation, which earned recognition from Xinhua. == History and profile == The magazine was established in 1979 with the name Science Literature. In August 2007, the editor of Science Fiction World, Yang Xiao, organized the Chengdu International Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, the largest such event ever held in China. An estimated 4,000 Chinese fans attended the four-day festival. == New editor and staff rebellion == In March 2010, the staff of the magazine issued an open letter attacking new editor Li Chang for actions including: cancelling contracts with Chinese science fiction readers and authors; refusing to buy stories from authors, forcing the editors to write the stories themselves; ordering that foreign language editors do all translations into Chinese themselves instead of buying translations, and art editors create the illustrations themselves instead of hiring artists. He also interfered with advertising, replacing the magazine's front cover with an advertisement for a school. All of these malfeasances were claimed as causes for the recent severe drop in SFW circulation, to a low of approximately 130,000. Investigations by China Youth Daily and others verified the accusations, and by 4 April Xinhua reported Li Chang's ouster. Later, Yao Haijun became the deputy director of Science Fiction World. == References == == External links == The Official Website of Science Fiction World New SF Mags Launched	Wikipedia/Science_Fiction_World
An extraterrestrial or alien is a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. (The word extraterrestrial means 'outside Earth'.) Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern science-fiction, and also appeared in much earlier works such as the second-century parody True History by Lucian of Samosata. == History == === Antiquity === The 2nd century writer of satires, Lucian, in his True History claims to have visited the Moon when his ship was sent up by a fountain, which was peopled and at war with the people of the Sun over colonisation of the Morning Star.: 30–31 The way people have thought about extraterrestrials is tied to the development of actual sciences. One of the first steps in the history of astronomy was to realize that the objects seen in the night sky were not gods or lights, but physical objects like Earth. This notion was followed by the one that celestial objects should be inhabited as well. However, when people thought about such extraterrestrials, they thought of them simply as people, indistinguishable from humans. As people had never considered a scientific explanation for the origin of mankind or its relation with other lifeforms, any hypothetical rational lifeforms had by necessity to be humans. Even in mythology, all deities are mostly humanlike. For example, Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) features people from Saturn, who are simply of higher proportions. Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634), Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone (1638), Cyrano de Bergerac's Les estats et empires de le lune (1657) and others all thought of selenites that differ from humanity only in culture or habits. Few writers ventured beyond anthropomorphic designs, some exceptions were Bergerac's Les estats et empires du soleil and Miles Wilson's The History of Israel Jobson, the Wandering Jew (1757). This was changed by the 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which proposed the theory of evolution. This book caused a revolution in fiction as much as it did in science, as authors began to imagine extraterrestrial races completely different from human beings. With the rationale that evolution in other worlds may take completely different directions than on Earth, aliens began to be described as a-human creatures. Usually, authors used features from other animals, such as insects, crabs, and octopuses. One of the first works featuring genuinely alien lifeforms was Camille Flammarion's non-fiction book Les mondes imaginaires et les mondes reels (1864) and his novel Lumen (1887). He described sentient trees, tentacled seal-like creatures pushing against a harsh atmosphere, and life made of silicon and magnesium. Some other aliens are the octopean Martians from H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898), the Selenites from Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901), the birdlike Tweel from Stanley G. Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey (1934) and even a sentient star in Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker (1937). However, most aliens in works of the era were still basically humans, as the Martians from Hugh MacColl's Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet (1889), Robert Cromie's A Plunge into Space (1890), and the Venusians from Milton Worth Ramsey's Six Thousand Years Hence (1891). The War of the Worlds not only used Darwinian evolution to explain its non-humanoid aliens, but also explored the implications of the theory of evolution towards alien lifeforms. Martians appear as an apex predator above even humans, a threat to the survival of the species. However, they struggle against Earth's higher gravity and thicker atmosphere, for which they were not adapted to, and eventually succumb to simple bacteria, as they lack immunity to them. The story also worked as a critique of British imperialism, by inverting it, and introduced the tropes of the alien invasion and the depiction of extraterrestrials as monsters. Wells also wrote The First Men in the Moon, the first attempt to describe in detail the workings of an alien civilization. He based the roles of the Selenites in those of an ant colony, although those roles are more the result of social structures rather than genetic design. However, his work still relied in satire and had more in common with Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) than with the alien civilizations seen in later science fiction works. The new literary genre of science fiction explored both extraterrestrials and space exploration, as in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870) by Jules Verne. === Early 20th century === Pulp magazines emerged as a new venue for science fiction. Many stories were set in worlds with quasi-human aliens, menaced by dangerous monsters and beautiful women serving as a love interest for the hero. This is the pattern of Ralph Milne Farley's The Radio Man (1924) and others. Pulps also featured monstrous alien invaders, in the style of The War of the Worlds. In the first space operas, such as those from Amazing Stories, good and evil aliens were clearly distinct: spider-like, octopoid and most reptilian aliens were villains, and humanoid, mammalian and birdlike aliens were the good ones. It was also frequent for the classic trope of the alien invasion to be inverted, with humans conquering alien worlds instead; such stories were usually unapologetically genocidal. Most aliens in pulp magazines originated from planets or moons of the Solar System, mainly Martians, Venusians, Jovians, and Mercurians. Aliens from Neptune and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn also appeared but were rare. The humanoid type was still the most frequent type of alien, despite evolution being fully accepted in the scientific community by this point. Stanley G. Weinbaum made a significant change in A Martian Odyssey (Wonder Stories), by designing a Martian ecosystem with native creatures, unlike the plants or animals from Earth. Such creation was largely free of satire, melodrama and other frequent tropes of the genre. === Modern times === A work that pioneered alien invasion in modern times was The Eternaut, by Argentine writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld. Influenced by the nuclear developments at that time, his work centers around an alien invasion in Buenos Aires, in a time when most science fiction works were set in the Global North, especially in the United States, The Eternaut served as a critique of imperialism, colonialism and the military dictatorship in which Argentina was under at that moment. It depicts four kinds of aliens: the Cascarudos, similar to large insects, the Hand, human-like, the Gurbos, a kind of beast, and Them, who act in the shadows, representing the powers that be. The Barney and Betty Hill incident took place in 1961 when the couple claimed that they were abducted by aliens and subjected to invasive experiments. It was the first recorded claim of an alien abduction, soon followed by others. The description of the aliens made by the Hills, with oversized heads, big eyes, pale grey skin, and small noses captivated the public imagination and was later used by TV shows and films. This started the grey alien archetype. According to Wade Roush, a science and technology writer, "The standard depiction of aliens at that point became the little grey man. So, when Steven Spielberg came along and made probably what are the two most influential movies about aliens – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – the aliens and those movies were both basically variations on the 1950s and 1960s little green or little grey man image". The advent of TV and films, with extraterrestrials played by actors, toned down the fantasy. For budget reasons, humanlike aliens with just some specific non-human body features became the new standard. This is especially noticeable in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek started a golden age of science fiction in the second half of the 20th Century, alongside Star Wars, which mixed science fiction with tropes from mythological stories, such as the journey of the hero, the dichotomy of good and evil, and redemption. Alien, a film about an alien that attacks a group of astronauts, was released in 1979. The three works became franchises with several sequels and related media, as a result of the public's continuing interest in outer space. The way to depict aliens changed again since the 1990s with the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI), and later on as CGI became more effective and less expensive, as it allows to generate bizarre lifeforms without being constrained to actors with costumes or mechanical effects. == Types == Extraterrestrials in fiction are portrayed in several different ways. Extraterrestrial intelligence may be lower, similar, higher or exponentially higher than that of humans, or completely alien and impossible to be compared. Their biological aspect may be humanoid, may be similar or include features of other Earth species, or have weird forms. In some cases, such weirdness may lead to the human characters to initially fail to recognize the aliens as such. Their attitude towards humanity may be hostile, they can be invaders in an alien invasion, enemies in a piece fully set in space, or judges of humanity. They may also be friendly, and show up as teachers, allies, victims of exploitation by humans, or by secret overseers watching and shepherding humanity in secrecy since antiquity. Or they may be completely uninterested in interacting with humanity in any significant capacity. Although most extraterrestrials come from other planets, others may also be from Earth, coming from areas that have not been explored. Such aliens may come from under the sea, from the sky, from underground (in some cases from a hollow Earth), or from more exotic locations such as other dimensions, parallel worlds, or alternate history scenarios. However, most of those extraterrestrials work just as the ones from outer space. == See also == Parasites in fiction List of fictional extraterrestrials List of films featuring extraterrestrials List of humanoid aliens Mars in fiction First contact (science fiction) == References == == Bibliography == Leyva, Manuel Lozano (2017). La exploración del espacio [Space exploration] (in Spanish). Spain: RBA Coleccionables. ISBN 978-84-473-8788-5. == Further reading == Baxter, Stephen (2011). "SETI in Science Fiction". In Shuch, H. Paul (ed.). Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: SETI Past, Present, and Future. The Frontiers Collection. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 351–372. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13196-7_19. ISBN 978-3-642-13196-7. Fraknoi, Andrew (January 2024). "Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index" (PDF). Astronomical Society of the Pacific (7.3 ed.). pp. 9–11, 17–18. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-02-10. Retrieved 2025-05-25. Levy, Michael M.; Mendlesohn, Farah, eds. (2019). Aliens in Popular Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-4408-3833-0. Roth, Christopher F., "Ufology as Anthropology: Race, Extraterrestrials, and the Occult." In E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by Debbora Battaglia. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005. Sagan, Carl. 1996. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark: chapter 4: "Aliens". Stableford, Brian (2006). "Alien". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 13–16. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8. Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Aliens in Space". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 14–16. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7. Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Aliens on Earth". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 16–18. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7. Westfahl, Gary (2021). "Aliens". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3. Westfahl, Gary (2022). "Aliens—The Company We Seek: Aliens in Fact and Fiction". The Stuff of Science Fiction: Hardware, Settings, Characters. McFarland. pp. 227–234. ISBN 978-1-4766-8659-2. == External links == Best Use of Aliens As Metaphor	Wikipedia/Extraterrestrials_in_fiction
Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as grounded by the laws of nature and comprehensible by science, while a conventional fantasy story contains mostly supernatural elements that do not obey the scientific laws of the real world. The world of science fantasy, however, is laid out to be scientifically logical and often supplied with hard science-like explanations of any supernatural elements. During the Golden Age of Science Fiction, science fantasy stories were seen in sharp contrast to the terse, scientifically plausible material that came to dominate mainstream science fiction, typified by the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Although science fantasy stories at that time were often relegated to the status of children's entertainment, their freedom of imagination and romance proved to be an early major influence on the "New Wave" writers of the 1960s, who became exasperated by the limitations of hard science fiction. == Historical view == The term "science fantasy" was coined in 1935 by critic Forrest J. Ackerman as a synonym for science fiction. In the 1950s, the British journalist Walter Gillings considered science fantasy as a part of science fiction that was not plausible from the point of view of the science of the time (for example, the use of nuclear weapons in H.G. Wells' novel The World Set Free was a science fantasy from the point of view of Newtonian physics and a work of science fiction from the point of view of Einstein's theory). In 1948, writer Marion Zimmer (later known as Marion Zimmer Bradley) called "science fantasy" a mixture of science fiction and fantasy in Startling Stories magazine. Critic Judith Murry considered science fantasy as works of fantasy in which magic has a natural scientific basis. Science fiction critic John Clute chose the narrower term "technological fantasy" from the broader concept of "science fiction". The label first came into wide use after many science fantasy stories were published in the American pulp magazines, such as Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc., L. Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep, and Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Harold Shea series. All were relatively rationalistic stories published in John W. Campbell Jr.'s Unknown magazine. These were a deliberate attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of science fiction to traditional fantasy subjects. Distinguishing between pure science fiction and pure fantasy, Rod Serling argued that the former was "the improbable made possible" while the latter was "the impossible made probable". As a combination of the two, science fantasy gives a scientific veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Where science fiction does not permit the existence of fantastical or supernatural elements, science fantasy explicitly relies upon them to complement the scientific elements. In explaining the intrigue of science fantasy, Carl D. Malmgren provides an intro regarding C. S. Lewis's speculation on the emotional needs at work in the subgenre: "In the counternatural worlds of science fantasy, the imaginary and the actual, the magical and the prosaic, the mythical and the scientific, meet and interanimate. In so doing, these worlds inspire us with new sensations and experiences, with [quoting C. S. Lewis] 'such beauty, awe, or terror as the actual world does not supply', with the stuff of desires, dreams, and dread." Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore published novels in Startling Stories, alone and together, which were far more romantic. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales, such as Moore's Northwest Smith stories. Ace Books published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and 1960s. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction points out that as a genre, science fantasy "has never been clearly defined", and was most commonly used in the period between 1950 and 1966. The Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry is sometimes cited as an example of science fantasy. Writer James F. Broderick describes Star Trek as science fantasy because it includes semi-futuristic as well as supernatural/fantasy elements such as The Q. According to the late science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, many purists argue that Star Trek is science fantasy rather than science fiction because of its scientifically improbable elements, which he partially agreed with. The status of Star Wars as a science fantasy franchise has been debated. In 2015, George Lucas stated that "Star Wars isn't a science-fiction film, it's a fantasy film and a space opera". == Characteristics and subjects == Science fantasy blends elements and characteristics of science fiction and fantasy. This usually takes the form of incorporating fantasy elements in a science fiction context. It tends to describe worlds that appear much like fantasy worlds but are made believable through science fiction naturalist explanations. For example, creatures from folklore and mythology typical for fantasy fiction become seemingly possible in reinvented forms through for example the element of extra-terrestrial beings. Such works have also been described as 'mythopoeic science fantasy'. In the genre, subjects are often conceptualized on a planetary scale. == See also == Dieselpunk Dying Earth (genre) Lovecraftian horror New weird Planetary romance (also known as Sword and Planet) Raygun Gothic Steampunk Technofantasy == References == == Further reading == Attebery, Brian (2014). "The Fantastic". In Latham, Rob (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199838844.013.0011. ISBN 978-0-19-983884-4. Scholes, R. (1987). Boiling Roses: Thoughts on Science Fantasy. Intersections: Science Fiction and Fantasy. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-1374-7 == External links == "Science Fantasy" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction	Wikipedia/Science-fantasy
A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "fanzine" was coined, and at one time constituted the primary type of science-fictional fannish activity ("fanac"). == Origins and history == The first science-fiction fanzine, The Comet, was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. The term "fanzine" was coined by Russ Chauvenet in the October 1940 issue of his fanzine Detours. "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines", that is, all professional magazines. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags" or "letterzines". Traditionally, science-fiction fanzines were (and many still are) available for "the usual", meaning that a sample issue will be mailed on request; to receive further issues, a reader sends a "letter of comment" (LoC) about the fanzine to the editor. The LoC might be published in the next issue: some fanzines consisted almost exclusively of letter columns, where discussions were conducted in much the same way as they are in internet newsgroups and mailing lists, though at a relatively slow pace. Since 1955, the annual Worldcon has awarded Hugo Awards for Best Fanzine; awards for Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist were added in 1967 and have continued since then. == Semiprozines == During the 1970s and 1980s, some fanzines—especially sercon (serious and constructive) zines devoted to science fiction and fantasy criticism, and newszines such as Locus—became more professional journals, produced by desktop publishing programs and offset printing. These new magazines were labeled "semiprozines", and were eventually sold rather than traded, and paid their contributors. Some semiprozines publish original fiction. The Hugo Awards recognized semiprozines as a separate category from fanzines in 1984 after Locus won the award for best fanzine several years running (See Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine). Well-known semiprozines include Locus, Ansible, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Interzone. == APAs == Amateur press associations (APAs) publish fanzines made up of the contributions of the individual members collected into an assemblage or bundle called an apazine. The first science-fiction APA was the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) formed by a group of science-fiction fans in 1937. Some APAs are still active as hardcopy publications, and some are published as virtual "e-zines", distributed on the internet. == Other types of fanzines == The term "fanzine" is also used to refer to fan-created magazines concerning other topics: the earliest rock-and-roll fanzines were edited by science-fiction fans. A significant part of modern computer/Web/Internet slang, abbreviations, etc. is derived from the jargon of the fanzine fans. See fanzine, fanspeak. The fanzine movement is now well represented on the Web; see webzine. == Conventions == Fanzine readers and producers naturally gather at science fiction conventions, but there are also small conventions dedicated to fanzines. The first fanzine-only annual convention was Autoclave, held by a Detroit-based fan group for several years in the 1970s. In 1984, the first Corflu was held in Berkeley, California. A second convention, Ditto, started in Toronto in 1988. Both of these conventions continue to take place each year. == See also == Fanspeak == References == == External links == eFanzines.com: science fiction fanzines on-line Fandom-related Collections at the University of Iowa Library "Collection: Science Fiction Fanzines Collection \| Georgia Tech Archives Finding Aids". finding-aids.library.gatech.edu.	Wikipedia/Science-fiction_fanzine
In the history of science fiction, the pulp era (occasionally pulp age: 91 ) is a period subject to various definitions. It is commonly held to have begun in 1926, the year the first science fiction magazine—Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories—was launched. The end point is usually placed in the 1950s, when the pulp magazines ceased publication. Various largely similar definitions exist that differ by a few years in either direction at the beginning or end of the period, though there are some outliers—by the broadest definition the era began in 1896 with the first (albeit genre-nonspecific) pulp magazine Argosy, and by the narrowest it ended in 1937 with the onset of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. == Background == The first pulp magazine appeared in 1896 when Frank Munsey changed the format of Argosy and started printing it on pulp paper. Argosy and the magazines that followed in its wake carried general fiction, including science fiction;: 15 the first science fiction story published in a pulp magazine was Charles H. Palmer's "Citizen 504", which appeared in the very first pulp issue of Argosy (December 1896).: 22 Pulp magazines specializing in specific genres, such as Westerns or crime fiction, started appearing in the 1910s with titles like Detective Story Magazine (launched 1915) and Western Story Magazine (launched 1919).: 16 The first pulp magazine devoted to speculative fiction—including but not limited to science fiction—was Weird Tales, launched in 1923. The first dedicated science fiction magazine was Amazing Stories, launched by Hugo Gernsback in 1926,: 23 though it was not originally a pulp magazine and would not be until 1933; the first science fiction magazine that was also a pulp magazine was Astounding Stories of Super-Science when it launched in 1930. With the science fiction magazines came the notion of science fiction as a defined genre. This was also the origin of the term "science fiction" to refer to that genre; Gernsback adopted the term in 1929, having called the genre "scientifiction" at the 1926 launch of Amazing.: 23 : 32–33 Earlier works in the genre had received other labels; for instance, Jules Verne's had been referred to as voyages extraordinaires and H. G. Wells's as scientific romances.: xvi Several additional magazines by Gernsback and others appeared, and in some cases disappeared again, in the years that followed;: xiii in 1937, there were seven science fiction pulp magazines in publication.: 98 The majority of science fiction that was published in pulp magazines nevertheless continued to appear in general pulps rather than science fiction ones until 1943.: 93–94, 98 Magazines remained the primary outlet for science fiction until the end of World War II, after which anthologies and novels became increasingly common alongside other forms of media such as film, television, and comics.: 25–26 After 1950, the pulps gradually disappeared, largely to be replaced by paperbacks and digest magazines, though new ones continued to appear as late as 1953.: 99 The last remaining science fiction pulp magazine that had not changed format, Science Fiction Quarterly, ceased publication in 1958; the last pulp magazine overall was Ranch Romances, the final issue of which was published in 1971.: 93 == Definition == Multiple different start and end points may be used.: 109 === Start === The launch of Amazing in 1926 is commonly regarded as the start of the pulp era of science fiction, for instance by Gary Westfahl and Marshall Tymn.: 109 : 45 Others who use 1926 as the starting point include Mike Ashley and Lisa Yaszek.: vii : xii Westfahl notes 1923 as another possible start point, with the launch of Weird Tales and the "Scientific Fiction" issue of Gernsback's Science and Invention.: 109 Amelia Beamer writes that in the context of science fiction, the pulp era is usually held to have begun with the specialized magazines of the 1920s, rather than with the earlier general pulps.: 249 Nevertheless, the period when science fiction appeared in the general pulps is occasionally considered part of the pulp era;: 15 for instance, Michael R. Page counts the pulp era as beginning with Argosy in 1896.: x Eric Leif Davin, who favours using the term as shorthand for the period 1926–1960, comments that technically speaking the pulp era of science fiction lasted a few years shorter than that—from the first issue of Astounding (January 1930) to the last issue of Science Fiction Quarterly (February 1958);: 21 similarly, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction writes that "The era of the specialist sf pulp magazine [...] ran from 1930 to the mid-fifties". === End === Beamer comments that the pulp era of science fiction is usually regarded to have ended with the demise of the pulps in the mid-1950s.: 249 Jess Nevins likewise locates the end of the pulp era to the mid-1950s in general.: 94 Westfahl regards the specific year 1955 as the end of the era, pointing to the demise of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Planet Stories. He also notes that E. Hoffmann Price considered 1952 the year the pulps died, and that this might also be taken as the endpoint.: 109 Nathan Vernon Madison counts the final issue of Science Fiction Quarterly in 1958 as the end of the era.: 241 The pulp era is sometimes considered to have ended at the onset of the Golden Age of Science Fiction,: 128 and other times to overlap with or encompass it.: 249 The Golden Age is in turn generally held to have begun at or shortly after John W. Campbell's assumption of the editorship of Astounding in 1937.: 249 : 128 : 5 : 288 David M. Higgins and Roby Duncan, in The Science Fiction Handbook, count the Golden Age as succeeding the pulp era from 1937.: 128 Jeremy Withers takes the pulp era as ending, and the Golden Age as beginning, around 1940.: 22 : 28, 64 == Related terms == According to Adam Roberts, the pulp era is also sometimes known as the "Gernsback era" after Hugo Gernsback.: 256 Others consider the Gernsback era to be part of the broader pulp era.: 28 E. F. Bleiler and Richard Bleiler's 1998 reference work Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years defines the period as starting in 1926 (when Gernsback founded Amazing) and ending in 1936 (the year Gernsback sold Wonder Stories).: 157 Brian Attebery, in The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, labels the period from 1926 to 1960 the "magazine era" based on the dominance of this mode in shaping the direction and identity of the genre.: 260 : 32 == See also == Timeline of science fiction == Notes == == References ==	Wikipedia/Pulp_era_of_science_fiction
This is a timeline of science fiction. While the date of the start of science fiction is debated, this list includes events included in timelines published by expert sources. == 16th century == == 17th century == == 18th century == == 19th century == == 1900s == == 1910s == == 1920s == == 1930s == == 1940s == == 1950s == == 1960s == == 1970s == == 1980s == == 1990s == == 2000s == == 2010s == == 2020s == == See also == History of science fiction List of films set in the future List of science fiction authors Lists of science fiction films List of science fiction television programs List of science fiction television films List of science fiction novels List of years in literature == Notes == == References == === Timelines === === Additional sources ===	Wikipedia/Timeline_of_science_fiction
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue. Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions (to science) are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender. == Definition == Feminist science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction (SF for short) that focuses on theories that include feminist themes, for example gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics and reproduction. Feminist science fiction spans a wider range than science fiction itself, covering fantasy, utopia and dystopia, horror (such as Anne Rice's vampire stories). Marleen S. Barr says that what is described as feminist ‘SF’ is not really ‘SF’ at all, because it is not concerned with ‘hard science’ but with women's drive for power. Hard science fiction is of course a subset of science fiction. She thought we needed to use a term like feminist fabulation. Fantasy literature is de facto a privileged genre for tackling feminist themes. Because it allows to reflect on the future, on the possibilities of humanity and science, this literature allows all progressive and innovative ideas to coexist. So, to qualify as feminist science fiction, the stories must carry a political message, that of challenging the male/female paradigm in society. With this in mind, in the early 1990s the American feminist fanzine Aurora SF published a list of ten levels of feminism to measure the political content of a text. This graduation of the political message ranges from simple questioning of patriarchal society, to egalitarian discourse between the sexes, to systematic criticism of men, to the establishment of feminist and lesbian utopia. In her book In the chinks of the world machine: feminism and science fiction, Scottish author Sarah LeFanu distinguishes between feminist SF and women's SF insofar as the latter, while having a certain influence on the development of science fiction in general by rejecting sexism and featuring female heroes, does not make feminist demands. Feminist science fiction (SF) distinguishes between female SF authors and feminist SF authors. Both female and feminist SF authors are historically significant to the feminist SF subgenre, as female writers have increased women's visibility and perspectives in SF literary traditions, while the feminist writers have foregrounded political themes and tropes in their works. Because distinctions between female and feminist can be blurry, whether a work is considered feminist can be debatable, but there are generally agreed-upon canonical texts, which help define the subgenre. == History == === Early modern times === As early as the English Restoration, female authors were using themes of SF and imagined futures to explore women's issues, roles, and place in society. This can be seen as early as 1666 in Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World, in which she describes a utopian kingdom ruled by an empress. This foundational work has garnered attention from some feminist critics, such as Dale Spender, who considered this a forerunner of the science fiction genre, more generally. Another early female writer of science fiction was Mary Shelley. Her novel Frankenstein (1818) dealt with the asexual creation of new life, and has been considered by some a reimagining of the Adam and Eve story. Her book is a critique of Darwinist ideas and also of the use of science without ethical reflection, as well as of the seventeenth-century view that science was endowed with a certain virility aimed at penetrating the secrets of nature, presented as other, feminine and objectified. The book paved the way for future explorations of the cyborg theme by feminist science fiction and had a lasting influence. In France, feminist writer Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert's Voyage de Milord Céton dans les sept planètes, published in 1758, is considered one of the first science fiction novels. Refusing to overlook the contribution made by women to science and culture for the sole benefit of men, Marie-Anne Robert wrote an initiatory tale designed to develop women's critical faculties, and ultimately work towards their emancipation. === First-wave feminism (suffrage) === Women writers involved in the utopian literature movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could be considered the first feminist SF authors. Their texts, emerging during the first-wave feminist movement, often addressed issues of sexism through imagining different worlds that challenged gender expectations. In 1881, Mizora: A Prophecy described a women-only world with technological innovations such as parthenogenesis, videophones, and artificial meat. It was closely followed by other feminist utopian works, such as Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett's New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future (1889). In 1892, poet and abolitionist Frances Harper published Iola Leroy, one of the first novels by an African American woman. Set during the antebellum South, it follows the life of a mixed race woman with mostly white ancestry and records the hopes of many African Americans for social equality—of race and gender—during Reconstruction. Unveiling a Parallel (1893) features a male protagonist who takes an "aeroplane" to Mars, visiting two different "Marsian" societies; in both, there is equality between men and women. In one, Paleveria, women have adopted the negative characteristics of men; in Caskia, the other, gender equality "has made both sexes kind, loving, and generous." Two American Populists, A.O. Grigsby and Mary P. Lowe, published NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages (1900), which explores issues of gender norms and posited structural inequality. This recently rediscovered novel displays familiar feminist SF conventions: a heroine narrator who masquerades as a man, the exploration of sexist mores, and the description of a future hollow earth society (like Mizora) where women are equal. The Sultana's Dream (1905), by Bengali Muslim feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, engages with the limited role of women in colonial India. Through depicting a gender-reversed purdah in an alternate technologically futuristic world, Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain,'s book has been described as illustrating the potential for cultural insights through role reversals early on in the subgenre's formation. In the utopian novel Beatrice the Sixteenth (1909), transgender writer Irene Clyde creates a world where gender is no longer recognized and the story itself is told without the use of gendered nouns. Along these same lines, Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores and critiques the expectations of women and men by creating a single-sex world in Herland (1915), possibly the most well-known of the early feminist SF and utopian novels. Among the francophones, Renée Marie Gouraud dʻAblancourt published in 1909 Vega la magicienne, depicting L'Oiselle, a winged superheroine and the first of the francophone superhero series. Rhoda Broughton is also one of a number of 19th-century women writing in the successful science fiction genre. Rosa Rosà (Edith von Haynau) wrote the first Italian feminist science fiction with Una donna con tre anime in 1918. === Between the wars === During the 1920s and 1930s, many popular pulp science fiction magazines exaggerated views of masculinity and featured portrayals of women that were perceived as sexist. These views would be subtly satirized by Stella Gibbons in Cold Comfort Farm (1932) and much later by Margaret Atwood in The Blind Assassin (2000). As early as 1920, however, women writers of this time, such as Clare Winger Harris ("The Runaway World," 1926) and Gertrude Barrows Bennett (Claimed, 1920), published science fiction stories written from female perspectives and occasionally dealt with gender and sexuality-based topics. John Wyndham, writing under his early pen-name of John Beynon Harris, was a rare pulp writer to include female leads in stories such as "The Venus Adventure" (Wonder Stories, 1932), in which a mixed crew travel to Venus. The story opens in a future in which women are no longer enslaved by pregnancy and childbirth thanks to artificial incubators, which are opposed by a religious minority. Women have used this freedom to enter professions including chemistry. Wyndham's outlook was so rare that in a serialisation of his novel Stowaway to Mars, one magazine editor "corrected" the name of the central character Joan to John. Wyndham then had to write them a new final instalment to replace the conclusion in which Joan fell in love and became pregnant. ==== The Fate of the Poseidonia, 1927 ==== The first science fiction story published in a magazine by a woman in America was The Fate of the Poseidonia, written by Claire Winger Harris in 1927. The story was published by Hugo Gernsback in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. The story was published as part of a science fiction competition, in which 300 short stories were proposed. Hugo Gernsback put out a call to his magazine's readership for this competition, inviting them to send in texts describing the cover of Amazing Stories in December 1926. The cover featured an ocean liner floating in space. Using the term 'fans' to describe his male and female readers, blurring the boundary between readership and writing, he allowed women to take part for the first time. The 1920s saw the establishment of what was later to become 'fandom'. === Post World War II === The Post-WWII and Cold War eras were a pivotal and often overlooked period in feminist SF history. During this time, female authors utilized the SF genre to assess critically the rapidly changing social, cultural, and technological landscape. Women SF authors during the post-WWII and Cold War time periods directly engage in the exploration of the impacts of science and technology on women and their families, which was a focal point in the public consciousness during the 1950s and 1960s. These female SF authors, often published in SF magazines such as The Avalonian, Astounding, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Galaxy, which were open to new stories and authors that pushed the boundaries of form and content. At the beginning of the Cold War, economic restructuring, technological advancements, new domestic technologies (washing machines, electric appliances), increased economic mobility of an emerging middle class, and an emphasis on consumptive practices, carved out a new technological domestic sphere where women were circumscribed to a new job description – the professional housewife. Published feminist SF stories were told from the perspectives of women (characters and authors) who often identified within traditional roles of housewives or homemakers, a subversive act in many ways given the traditionally male-centered nature of the SF genre and society during that time. In Galactic Suburbia, author Lisa Yaszek recovers many women SF authors of the post-WWII era such as Judith Merril, author of "That Only a Mother" (1948), "Daughters of Earth" (1952), "Project Nursemaid" (1955), "The Lady Was a Tramp" (1957); Alice Eleanor Jones "Life, Incorporated" (1955), "The Happy Clown" (1955), "Recruiting Officer" (1955); and Shirley Jackson "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" (1955) and "The Omen" (1958). These authors often blurred the boundaries of feminist SF fiction and feminist speculative fiction, but their work laid substantive foundations for second-wave feminist SF authors to directly engage with the feminist project. "Simply put, women turned to SF in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s because it provided them with growing audiences for fiction that was both socially engaged and aesthetically innovative.": 22 === Second-wave feminism === By the 1960s, science fiction was combining sensationalism with political and technological critiques of society. With the advent of second-wave feminism, women's roles were questioned in this "subversive, mind expanding genre". Three notable texts of this period are Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) and Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1970). Each highlights what the authors believe to be the socially constructed aspects of gender roles by creating worlds with genderless societies. Two of these authors were pioneers in feminist criticism of science fiction during the 1960s and 1970s through essays collected in The Language of the Night (Le Guin, 1979) and How To Suppress Women's Writing (Russ, 1983). Also of note, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962), written for children and teens, features a 13-year-old girl protagonist, Meg Murry, whose mother, Mrs. Murry, is a scientist with degrees in biology and bacteriology. L'Engle's novel is decidedly science fiction, feminist, and deeply Christian, and the first of her series, The Time Quintet. Meg's adventures to other planets, galaxies, and dimensions are aided in Wrinkle by three ancient beings, Mrs What, Mrs Which, and Mrs Who who "tesser" to travel vast distances. A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1963 and has never been out of print. Men also contributed literature to feminist science fiction. Prominently, Samuel R. Delany's short story, "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (1968), which won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1970, follows the life of a gay man that includes themes involving sadomasochism, gender, significance of language, and when high and low society encounter one another, while his novel Babel-17 has a Chinese woman as its primary hero and protagonist. Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979) tells the story of an African American woman living in the United States in 1979 who uncontrollably time travels to the antebellum South. The novel poses complicated questions about the nature of sexuality, gender, and race when the present faces the past. The Demon Breed is a 1968 science fiction novel by James H. Schmitz in which the female main character, Nyles Etland, armed only with intelligence and intimate knowledge of her home environment, allies and science, intimidated an alien species who had intended to invade. Schmitz, who still commands a cult audience half a century after his death, dealt almost exclusively in competent and intelligent female main characters in dozens of novels and short stories. === 1980s onwards === Feminist science fiction continues on into the 1980s with Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), a dystopic tale of a theocratic society in which women have been systematically stripped of all liberty. The book was motivated by fear of potential retrogressive effects on women's rights. Sheri S. Tepper is perhaps best known for her series The True Game, which explore the Lands of the True Game, a portion of a planet explored by humanity somewhere in the future. In November 2015, she received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement for this series. Tepper has written under several pseudonyms, including A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant. Carol Emshwiller is another feminist SF author whose best known works are Carmen Dog (1988), The Mount (2002), and Mister Boots (2005). Emshwiller had also been writing SF for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction since 1974. She won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2005 for her novel The Mount (2002). This novel explores the prey/predator mentality through an alien race. Another author of the 1980s, Pamela Sargent has written the "Seed Series", which included Earthseed, Farseed, and Seed Seeker (1983–2010), the "Venus Series" about the terraforming of Venus, which includes Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows, and Child of Venus (1986–2001), and The Shore of Women (1986). Sargent is also the 2012 winner of the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions to SF/F studies. Lois McMaster Bujold has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for her novella The Mountains of Mourning, which is part of her series the "Vorkosigan Saga" (1986–2012). This saga includes points of view from a number of minority characters, and is also highly concerned with medical ethics, identity, and sexual reproduction. More recent science fiction authors illuminate what they contend are injustices that are still prevalent. At the time of the LA Riots, Japanese-American writer Cynthia Kadohata's work In the Heart of the Valley of Love (1992) was published. Her story, set in the year 2052, examines tensions between two groups as defined as the "haves" and the "have-nots" and is written as seen through the eyes of a nineteen-year-old girl who is of Asian and African descent. Nalo Hopkinson's Falling in Love With Hominids (2015) is a collection of her short stories whose subjects range from an historical fantasy involving colonialism in the Caribbean, to age manipulation, to ethnic diversity in the land of Faerie, among others. In the early 1990s, a new award opportunity for feminist SF authors was created. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender (Alice Sheldon was a female writer who published science fiction under the Tiptree pen name). Science fiction authors Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler initiated this subsequent discussion at WisCon in February 1991. The authors' publishing in feminist SF after 1991 were now eligible for an award named after one of the genre's beloved authors. Karen Joy Fowler herself is considered a feminist SF writer for her short stories, such as "What I Didn't See", for which she received the Nebula Award in 2004. This story is an homage to Sheldon, and describes a gorilla hunting expedition in Africa. Pat Murphy won a number of awards for her feminist SF novels as well, including her second novel The Falling Woman (1986), a tale of personal conflict and visionary experiences set during an archaeological field study for which she won the Nebula Award in 1988. She won another Nebula Award in the same year for her story "Rachel in Love". Her short story collection, Points of Departure (1990) won the Philip K. Dick Award, and her 1990 novella "Bones" won the 1991 World Fantasy Award. Other winners of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award include "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell (1996), "Black Wine" by Candas Jane Dorsey (1997), Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston (2011), "The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall (2007), Ammonite by Nicola Griffith (1993), and "The Conqueror's Child" by Suzy McKee Charnas (1999). All of these authors have had an important impact on the SF world by adding a feminist perspective to the traditionally male genre. Eileen Gunn's science fiction short story "Coming to Terms" received the Nebula Award (2004) in the United States and the Sense of Gender Award (2007) in Japan, and has been nominated twice each for the Hugo Award, Philip K. Dick Award and World Fantasy Award, and short-listed for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Her most popular anthology of short stories is Questionable Practices, which includes stories "Up the Fire Road" and "Chop Wood, Carry Water". She also edited "The WisCon Chronicles 2: Provocative Essays on Feminism, Race, Revolution, and the Future" with L. Timmel Duchamp. Duchamp has been known in the feminist SF community for her first novel Alanya to Alanya (2005), the first of a series of five titled "The Marq'ssan Cycle". Alanya to Alanya is set on a near-future earth controlled by a male-dominated ruling class patterned loosely after the corporate world of today. Duchamp has also published a number of short stories, and is an editor for Aqueduct Press. Lisa Goldstein is another well respected feminist sf author. The novelette Dark Rooms (2007) is one of her better known works, and another one of her novels, The Uncertain Places, won the Mythopoeic Award for Best Adult Novel in 2012. == Recurrent themes == Works of feminist science fiction are often similar in the goals they work towards as well as the subjects and plotlines they focus on in order to achieve those goals. Feminist science fiction is science fiction that carries across feminist ideals and the promotion of societal values such as gender equality, and the elimination of patriarchal oppression. Feminist science fiction works often present tropes that are recurrent across science fiction with an emphasis on gender relations and gender roles. Many elements of science fiction, such as cyborgs and implants, as well as utopias and dystopias, are given context in a gendered environment, providing a real contrast with present-day gender relations while remaining a work of science fiction. === Utopian and dystopian societies === Representations of utopian and dystopian societies in feminist science fiction place an increased emphasis on gender roles while countering the anti-utopian philosophies of the 20th century. Male philosophers such as John Rawls, Isaiah Berlin, and Michael Oakeshott often criticize the idea of utopia, theorizing that it would be impossible to establish a utopia without violence and hegemony. Many male authored works of science fiction as well as threads of philosophical utopian thought dismiss utopias as something unattainable, whereas in feminist science fiction, utopian society is often presented as something both achievable and desirable. Anti-utopian philosophies and feminist science fiction come to odds in the possibility of achieving utopia. In "Rehabilitating Utopia: Feminist Science Fiction and Finding the Ideal", an article published in Contemporary Justice Review, philosophers against the dream of utopia argue that "First is the expectation that utopia justifies violence, second is the expectation that utopia collapses individual desires into one communal norm, and third is the expectation that utopia mandates a robotic focus on problem-solving." In feminist science fiction, utopias are often realized through a communal want for an ideal society. One such novel is summarized in the aforementioned article, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel Herland, in which "Gilman perfectly captures the utopian impulse that all problems are solvable. She establishes a society where every consideration about a question aims for the rational answer." Gilman's utopia is presented as something attainable and achievable without conflict, neither enabling violence nor extinguishing individualism. In the Parable series by feminist science fiction novelist Octavia Butler, anti-utopian philosophies are criticized via a dystopian setting. In the first novel, Parable of the Sower, following the destruction of her home and family, Lauren Olamina, one of many who live in a dystopian, ungoverned society, seeks to form her own utopian religion entitled 'Earthseed'. Olamina's utopian creation does not justify the use of violence as a means, no matter how expedient, to justify the end, achieving utopia, no matter how desirable. Yet we witness that she cannot avoid violence, as it results from little more than promulgating ideas different from those held by the majority of those living within the current social structure, however disorganized and ungoverned that social structure may be. Butler posits that utopian society can never be achieved as an entity entirely separate from the outside world, one of the more commonly held beliefs about conditions necessary to achieve utopia. Olamina's, and Butler's, utopia is envisioned as a community with a shared vision that is not forced on all within it. One common trend in feminist science fiction utopias is the existence of utopian worlds as single-gendered – most commonly female, an early example being Emília Freitas’s 1899 novel A Rainha do Ignoto. In literary works female utopias are portrayed as free of conflict, and intentionally free of men. The single gendered utopias of female science fiction are free of the conflicts that feminism aims to eliminate, such as oppression and gender inequality inherent in patriarchal society. In a statement about these single gendered utopias, Joanna Russ, author of The Female Man , theorized that male-only societies were not written because in patriarchal society, male oppression is not as pressing an issue as is female oppression. Utopia as an ideal to strive for is not a concept wholly limited to feminist science fiction, however many non-feminist science fiction works often dismiss utopia as an unachievable goal, and as such, believe that pursuits for utopia should be considered dangerous and barren. Anti-utopian theory focuses on the 'how' in the transition from present society to a utopian future. In feminist science fiction, the achievement of a utopian future depends on the ability to recognize the need for improvement and the perseverance to overcome the obstacles present in creating a utopian society. === Representation of women === Perhaps the most obvious attraction of science fiction to women writers – feminist or not – is the possibilities it offers for the creation of a female hero. The demands of realism in the contemporary or historical novel set limits which do not bind the universes available to science fiction. Although the history of science fiction reveals few heroic, realistic, or even original images of women, the genre had a potential recognized by the women writers drawn to it in the 1960s and 1970s. Before this time, the appeal for women writers was not that great. The impact of feminism on the science fiction field can be observed not only in science fiction texts themselves, but also on the development of feminist approaches to science fiction criticism and history, as well as conversations and debates in the science fiction community. One of the main debates is about the representation of women in science fiction. As Joanna Russ put it, "There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There are hardly any women." In her article "Redefining Women's Power through Feminist Science Fiction", Maria DeRose suggests that, "One of the great early socialists said that the status of women in a society is a pretty reliable index of the degree of civilization of that society. If this is true, then the very low status of women in science fiction should make us ponder about whether science fiction is civilized at all". The women's movement has made most of us conscious of the fact that Science Fiction has totally ignored women. This "lack of appreciation" is the main reason that women are rebelling and actively fighting to be noticed in the field anyway. Virginia Wolf relates to this aspect of feminist science fiction in the article "Feminist Criticism and Science Fiction for Children". As she discusses the scarcity of women in the field, she states, "During the first period, that of the nineteenth century, apparently only two women wrote Science Fiction, Mary Shelley and Rhoda Broughton," and continues, "In the early twentieth century, a few women were successful Science Fiction writers". But, "The times changed. Repression gave way to questioning and outright rebellion, and in the Science Fiction of the 1960s stylistic innovations and new concerns emerged 'Many of their stories, instead of dealing with the traditional hardware of science fiction, concentrated on the effects that different societies or perceptions would have on individual characters'". Andre Norton, a semi-well known analyst of Science fiction argues along these lines as well. As Norton explored one or more novels she came across, she realized that the creation of characters and how they are shown is a clear connection to the real world situation. From here, she goes in depth of characters in these feminist novels and relates them to the real world. She concludes here article along these lines. She wanted to get the idea out that feminists have a way to get their voice out there. Now, all their works are famous/ popular enough for their ideas to be let out. Virginia Wolf can attest to this fact. She introduced the idea that women were not represented well in the field till the early 1900s and added to the fact by stating, "Women are not represented well in Science Fiction".: 16 Individual characters, as we come to know, have their own perception and observation of their surroundings. Characters in novels such as The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are fully aware of the situation at hand and their role in society. This idea is a continuation of the argument presented by Andre Norton. Wolf argues the same point in her analysis of Le Guin's writing, who has many contributions to the works of feminist Science Fiction. Wolf argues, "What matters to Le Guin is not what people look like or how they behave but whether or not they have choice and whether or not they receive respect for who they are and what they do rather than on the basis of sex. Feminism is for her not a matter of how many women (or characters in Science Fiction) are housewives but a part of our hope for survival, which she believes lies in the search for balance and integration".: 15 This stirs up many questions about equality (a debate which has been going on for many years) but nobody seems to have an answer. In this continual search for equality, many characters find themselves asking the same question: "Is Gender Necessary" (which is, coincidentally, one of Le Guin's novels and also another problem arising from gender biases). Robin Roberts, an American literary historian, addresses the link of these characters and what that means for our society today. Roberts believes that men and women would like to be equal, but are not equal. They should be fighting the same battle when in fact they are fighting each other. She also debates that gender equality has been a problem in every reach of feminism, not just in feminist science fiction. Wolf also tackles this problem, "As she explains in "Is Gender Necessary?", The Left Hand of Darkness convinced her that if men and women were completely and genuinely equal in their social roles, equal legally and economically, equal in freedom, in responsibility, and in self-esteem, ... our central problem would not be the one it is now: the problem of exploitation—exploitation of the woman, of the weak, of the earth' (p. 159)".: 13 Science fiction criticism has come a long way from its defensive desire to create a canon. All of these authors demonstrate that science fiction criticism tackles the same questions as other literary criticism: race, gender, and the politics of Feminism itself. Wolf believes that evaluating primarily American texts, written over the past one hundred and twenty years, these critics locate science fiction's merits in its speculative possibilities. At the same time, however, all note that the texts they analyze reflect the issues and concerns of the historical period in which the literature was written. DeRose introduces her article with, in effect, the same argument. She says, "the power of women in Science Fiction has greatly depreciated in the past few years".: 70 === Gender identity === Feminist science fiction offers authors the opportunity to imagine worlds and futures in which women are not bound by the standards, rules, and roles that exist in reality. Rather, the genre creates a space in which the gender binary might be troubled and different sexualities may be explored. As Anna Gilarek explains, issues of gender have been a part of feminist discourse throughout the feminist movement, and the work of authors such as Joanna Russ and Marge Piercy explore and expose gender based oppression. Gilarek outlines two approaches to social critique via Feminist SF: the use of fantastical elements such as "invented worlds, planets, moons, and lands", used to call attention to the ills of society by exaggerating them, or a more straightforward approach, "relying on realist techniques to convey the message about the deficiencies of our world and its social organization, in particular the continued inequality of women". There are many examples of redefined gender roles and gender identity found in Feminist SF, ranging from the inversion of gendered oppression to the amplification of gender stereotypes and tropes. In the short story "The Matter of Seggri", by Ursula Le Guin, traditional gender roles are completely swapped. Men are relegated to roles of athletes and prostitutes while women control the means of production and have exclusive access to education. In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, gendered oppression is exaggerated in a dystopian society in which women's rights are stripped away and fertile women are relegated to the roles of handmaids who will bear children to further the human race. New books continue the dystopian theme of women living in a society which conforms to the wishes of men, at the expense of women's rights and well-being, such as in Louise O'Neill's young adult novel Only Ever Yours. In this work, females are no longer born naturally but are genetically designed before birth to conform to the physical desires of men, then placed in a school in which they are taught not to think (they are never taught to read), and to focus on appearance until they are rated by beauty on a scale at age sixteen, with the top ten becoming the brides of elite men, the middle ten forced into concubinage, and the bottom ten forced to continue their lives as instructors at the school in very humiliating circumstances. At age forty, the women are euthanized. In the post-apocalyptic novel, Gather the Daughters, by Jennie Melamed, females living in an island society are sexually exploited from the time they are girls, are forced to marry at adolescence, and after they become grandmothers must commit suicide. Over the decades, SF and feminist SF authors have taken different approaches to criticizing gender and gendered society. Helen Merrick outlines the transition from what Joanna Russ describes as the "Battle of the Sexes" tradition to a more egalitarian or androgynous approach. Also known as the "Dominant Woman" stories, the "Battle of the Sexes" stories often present matriarchal societies in which women have overcome their patriarchal oppressors and have achieved dominance. These stories are representative of an anxiety that perceives women's power as a threat to masculinity and the heterosexual norm. As Merrick explains, "And whilst they may at least hint at the vision of a more equal gendered social order, this possibility is undermined by figuring female desire for greater equality in terms of a (stereotypical) masculine drive for power and domination." Examples of these types of stories, written in the 1920s and 30s through the 50s, include Francis Steven's "Friend Island" and Margaret Rupert's "Via the Hewitt Ray"; in 1978, Marion Zimmer Bradley released The Ruins of Isis, a novel about a futuristic matriarchy on a human colony planet where the men are extremely oppressed. In the 1960s and 1970s, feminist SF authors shifted from the "Battle of the Sexes" writing more egalitarian stories and stories that sought to make the feminine more visible. Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness portrayed an androgynous society in which a world without gender could be imagined. In James Tiptree Jr.'s short story "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?", women are able to be seen in their full humanity due to the absence of men in a post-apocalyptic society. Joanna Russ's works, including "When it Changed" and The Female Man are other examples of exploring femininity and a "deconstruction of the acceptable, liberal 'whole' woman towards a multiple, shifting postmodernist sense of female 'selfhood'". == Comic books and graphic novels == Feminist science fiction is evidenced in the globally popular mediums of comic books, manga, and graphic novels. One of the first appearances of a strong female character was that of the superhero Wonder Woman, co-created by husband and wife team William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston. In December 1941, Wonder Woman came to life on the pages of All Star Comics, and in the intervening years has been reincarnated in from animated TV series to live-action films, with significant cultural impact. By the early 1960s, Marvel Comics already contained some strong female characters, although they often suffered from stereotypical female weakness such as fainting after intense exertion. By the 1970s and 1980s, true female heroes started to emerge on the pages of comics. This was helped by the emergence of self-identified feminist writers including Ann Nocenti, Linda Fite, and Barbara Kesel. As female visibility in comics increased, the "fainting heroine" type began to fade into the past. However, some female comic book writers, such as Gail Simone, believe that female characters are still relegated to plot devices (see Women in Refrigerators). Feminism in science fiction shōjo manga has been a theme in the works of Moto Hagio among others, for whom the writings of Ursula K. Le Guin have been a major influence. == Film and television == Feminism has driven the creation of a considerable body of action-oriented science fiction with female protagonists: Wonder Woman (originally created in 1941) and The Bionic Woman during the time of the organized women's movement in the 1970s; Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the Alien tetralogy in the 1980s; and Xena, Warrior Princess, comic book character Red Sonja, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2001 science fiction TV series Dark Angel featured a powerful female protagonist, with gender roles between her and the main male character generally reversed. However, feminists have also created science fiction that directly engages with feminism beyond the creation of female action heroes. Television and film have offered opportunities for expressing new ideas about social structures and the ways feminists influence science. Feminist science fiction provides a means to challenge the norms of society and suggest new standards for how societies view gender. The genre also deals with male/female categories, showing how female roles can differ from feminine roles. Hence feminism influences the film industry by creating new ways of exploring and looking at masculinity/femininity and male/female roles. A contemporary example of feminist science fiction television can be found in Orphan Black, which deals with issues of reproductive justice, science, gender, and sexuality. == Fandom == By the 1970s, the science fiction community was confronting questions of feminism and sexism within science fiction culture itself. Multiple Hugo-winning fan writer and professor of literature Susan Wood and others organized the "feminist panel" at the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention against considerable resistance.: 291 Reactions to the appearance of feminists among fannish ranks led indirectly to the creation of A Women's APA and WisCon. Feminist science fiction is sometimes taught at the university level to explore the role of social constructs in understanding gender. == Publications == In the 1970s, the first feminist science fiction publications were created. The most well-known are fanzines The Witch and the Chameleon (1974–1976) and Janus (1975–1980), which later became Aurora SF (Aurora Speculative Feminism) (1981–1987). Windhaven, A Journal of Feminist Science Fiction was published from 1977 to 1979 by Jessica Amanda Salmonson in Seattle. Special issues of magazines linked to science fiction meetings were also published at that moment, like the Khatru symposium's fanzine Women in Science Fiction in 1975. == Critical works == === Femspec === Femspec is a feminist academic journal specializing in works that challenge gender through speculative genres, including science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, mythic explorations in poetry and post-modern fiction, and horror. There is a conscious multicultural focus of the journal, both in content and in the diverse makeup of its editorial group. The first issue came out in 1999 under the editorial direction of founder Batya Weinbaum, who is still the Editor-in-Chief. Femspec is still publishing as of 2021 and has brought over 1000 authors, critics and artists into print. Having lost their academic home in May 2003, they increasingly cross genres and print write-ups of all books and media received, as well as of events that feature creative works that imaginatively challenge gender such as intentional communities, performance events, and film festivals. == See also == Feminist literature List of feminist comic books Single-gender worlds Women in speculative fiction == Notes == == Bibliography == Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 9780312134860. Helford, Elyce Rae (2005), "Feminism", in Westfahl, Gary (ed.), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: themes, works and wonders, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, pp. 289–291, ISBN 9780313329531. Preview. Wright, Bradford W. (2003). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801865145. Preview. == External links == Feminist Science Fiction Feminist science fiction themed issue of the speculative magazine The Future Fire Pre-1950 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women, An Annotated Reading List of Online Editions	Wikipedia/Feminist_science_fiction
Chinese science fiction (traditional Chinese: 科學幻想, simplified Chinese: 科学幻想, pinyin: kēxué huànxiǎng, commonly abbreviated to 科幻 kēhuàn, literally scientific fantasy) is genre of literature that concerns itself with hypothetical future social and technological developments in the Sinosphere. == History by country or region == === Mainland China === ==== Late-Qing Dynasty ==== Science fiction in China was initially popularized through translations of Western authors during the late-Qing dynasty by proponents of Western-style modernization such as Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei as a tool to spur technological innovation and scientific progress. With his translation of Jules Verne's 1888 novel Two Years' Vacation into Classical Chinese (as Fifteen Little Heroes), Liang Qichao became one of the first and most influential advocates of science fiction in Chinese. In 1903, Lu Xun, who later became famous for his darkly satirical essays and short stories, translated Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Journey to the Centre of the Earth from Japanese into Classical Chinese (rendering it in the traditional zhang wei ban style and adding expository notes) while studying medicine at the Kobun Institute (弘文學院 Kobun Gakuin) in Japan. He would continue to translate many of Verne's and H. G. Wells' classic stories, nationally popularizing these through periodical publication. Late Qing-era reformist intellectuals used the foreign genre of science fiction to project their teleological view of national rejuvenation and technological development.: 514 The earliest work of original science fiction in Chinese is believed to be the unfinished novel Lunar Colony (月球殖民地小說), published in 1904 by an unknown author under the pen name Old Fisherman of the Secluded River (荒江釣叟). The story concerns Long Menghua, who flees China with his wife after killing a government official who was harassing his wife's family. The ship they escape on is accidentally sunk and Long's wife disappears. However, Long is rescued by Otoro Tama, the Japanese inventor of a dirigible who helps him travel to Southeast Asia searching for his wife. They join with a group of anti-Qing martial artists to rescue her from bandits. Deciding that the nations of the world are too corrupt, they all travel to the Moon and establish a new colony. 1902 Xin Zhongguo weilai ji 1908 New Era (novel) 1910 Xin Zhongguo ==== Republican Era ==== Following the collapse of the Qing-dynasty in 1911, China went through a series of dramatic social and political changes which affected the genre of science fiction tremendously. Following the May Fourth Movement in 1919 written vernacular Chinese began to replace Classical Chinese as the written language of the Chinese mainland in addition to Chinese-speaking communities around the world. China's earliest purely literary periodical, Forest of Fiction (小說林), founded by Xu Nianci, not only published translated science fiction, but also original science fiction such as A Tale of New Mr. Braggadocio (新法螺先生譚). Meanwhile, Lao She employed science fiction for the purpose of social criticism in his science fiction novel Cat Country which was also published during this time period. === People's Republic of China === ==== 1949–1966 ==== Following the Chinese civil war (1945–1949) and the establishment of the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland, works with an ethos of socialist realism inspired by Soviet science fiction became more common while others works were suppressed. Still, many original works were created during this time, particularly ones with "popular science" approach aim to popularize science among younger readers and promote the country's "wonderful socialist future." A surge of science fantasy writing, which emphasized technological marvels and novelties, occurred from the mid-1950s to the 1960s.: 201 Academic Rudolf Wagner writes that this trend was influenced by the Marching Toward Science campaign.: 201 Zheng Wenguang in particular is known as the 'father of Chinese science fiction' for his writings during this period up until the beginning of Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) when the printing of non-revolutionary literature was suspended. ==== 1978–1983 ==== During the Cultural Revolution, very little literature was printed and science fiction essentially disappeared in mainland China. However, following the March 1978 National Science Congress convened by the Central Committee and the State Council and its proclamation that "science's spring has come," a greater enthusiasm for popular science (and thus science fiction) followed, with the publication of the children's novel Ye Yonglie's Xiao Lingtong's Travels in the Future (小灵通漫游未来) in the same year as the 1978 National Science Congress marked a revival of science fiction literature in China. In 1979, the newly founded magazine Scientific Literature (科学文艺) began publishing translations and original science fiction and Zheng Wenguang again devoted himself to writing science fiction during this period. Tong Enzheng wrote Death Ray on a Coral Island, which was later adapted into China's first science fiction movie. Other important writers from this time period include Liu Xingshi, Wang Xiaoda, and Hong Kong author Ni Kuang. In his monograph, Rudolf G. Wagner argues during this brief rebirth of science fiction in China scientists used the genre to symbolically describe the political and social standing to which the scientific community desired following its own rehabilitation. This rehabilitation suffered a setback during the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign (1983–1984), when Biao Qian labelled science fiction as "spiritual pollution." This led to authors such as Ye Yonglie, Tong Enzheng, Liu Xingshi, and Xiao Jianheng being condemned for slander and the publication of science-fiction in mainland China once again being prohibited indefinitely. ==== 1989–present ==== Liu Cixin's 1989 novel China 2185 formed an important part of the "new wave" in Chinese science fiction.: 514 It portrays how the digital reanimation of Mao Zedong triggers a cybernetic uprising in a future China.: 507 Mao digital establish a cyber government named The Republic of Huaxia.: 507 The novel critiques both liberal democracy and the cultural conservatism shown by the Republic of Huaxia.: 515 In 1991, Yang Xiao, then the director of the magazine Scientific Art and Literature which had survived the ban on science fiction during the 1980s by changing their name to Strange Tales and publishing non-fiction works, decided to run a science fiction convention in Chengdu, Sichuan. Not only was this the first-ever international science fiction convention to be held in mainland China, it was also the first international event to be hosted in China since the student protests of 1989. Scientific Literature changed its name to Science Fiction World (科幻世界), and by the mid-1990s, had reached a peak circulation of about 400,000. Authors who came to prominence during the 1990s include Liu Cixin, Han Song, Wang Jinkang, Xing He, Qian Lifang, and He Xi. In particular, Liu, Han and Wang became popularly known as the 'Three Generals of Chinese Sci-fi'. As a genre, science fiction came to the fore when the 1999 national college entrance exam included the science fiction question, "What if memories could be transplanted?” Wang Jinkang is the most prolific of the three, having published over 50 short stories and 10 novels. While working as a chassis engineer for oil rigs, he began writing short stories as a way to entertain his son and teach him scientific concepts, a focus he has maintained throughout his writing career. In an article published in the Commercial Press's bi-monthly magazine on Chinese culture, The World of Chinese, Echo Zhao (赵蕾) describes his writing as being pervaded with "a sense of heroic morality" that avoids the "grim finality" of an apocalyptic future, citing examples of clones with bumps on their fingers to distinguish them from non-clones and robots whose hearts explode when they desire life. Liu Cixin's work has been especially well-received, with his Three Bodies (三体) trilogy selling over 500,000 copies in China (as of the end of 2012). The books, which describe an alien civilization that invades earth over a vast span of time, have drawn comparisons to the works of Arthur C. Clarke by fellow science fiction author Fei Dao, while Echo Zhao describes Liu Cixin's writing as "lush and imaginative" with a particular interest in military technology. Han Song, a journalist, writes darkly satirical novels and short stories which lampoon modern social problems. His novel 2066: Red Star Over America deals with a United States declined into civil war and a China which has obtained superpower status through reliance on an intelligence called "Amando"; among its themes are nationalism and globalism.: 202 His short story collection Subway which features alien abductions and cannibalism on a never-ending train ride, have been lauded for their sense of social justice. He has been quoted as saying, ""It’s not easy for foreigners to understand China and the Chinese. They need to develop a dialectical understanding, see all sides, just as we appreciate the 'yin' and the 'yang.' I hope to prevent tragedy in China, and in the world, with my writing. I don't think humans have rid themselves of their innate evil. It's just suppressed by technology. If there is a spark of chaos, the worst will happen. That goes for all people, whether Chinese or Western. We should keep thinking back to why terrible things have happened in history and not allow those things to happen again". Hao Jingfang won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for Folding Beijing in 2016. Meanwhile, in the area of film and television, works such as the science fiction comedy Magic Cellphone (魔幻手机) explored themes of time travel and advanced technology. On March 31, 2011, however the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) issued guidelines that supposedly strongly discouraged television storylines including "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking". However, even with that numerous science fiction literature with those themes and elements have been published since, some of which have been compiled into an English-language anthology by Ken Liu called Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation. Liu's translations have been credited with significantly improving the English-language readers familiarity with Chinese sf. === Taiwan === Following the defeat of the Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), the island of Taiwan came under the sovereign rule to the Empire of Japan who eventually instituted a policy of 'Japanization' that discouraged the use of Chinese language and scripts in Taiwan. When the island was ceded to the Republic of China after the end of World War II in 1945, the majority of Japanese colonialists were repatriated to Japan and the Chinese Nationalist Party, the ruling party of the RoC, quickly established control of the island. This was to prove key to the survival of the RoC government, who were forced to move their capital to the island after their defeat by the communists in the Chinese Civil War. The CNP pursued a policy of rapid sinification which, in combination with an influx of mainland intellectuals, spurred the development of Chinese-language literature in Taiwan and along with it, science fiction. Taiwanese science fiction authors include Wu Mingyi (吳明益), Zhang Xiaofeng (張曉風), Zhang Xiguo (张系国), Huang Hai (黃海), Huang Fan (黃凡), Ye Yandou (葉言都), Lin Yaode (林燿德), Zhang Dachun (張大春), Su Yiping (蘇逸平), Chi Ta-wei (紀大偉), Hong Ling (洪凌), Ye Xuan (葉軒), Mo Handu (漠寒渡), Yu Wo (御我), and Mo Ren (莫仁). === Hong Kong === In Chinese, Hong Kong's best known science fiction author is the prolific Ni Kuang, creator of the Wisely Series (衛斯理). More recently, Chan Koonchung's dystopian novel The Fat Years about a near future mainland China has been compared to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Huang Yi is another well known Wuxia and science fiction author whose time travel novel Xun Qin Ji (Chinese: 尋秦記) was adapted into a popular TV drama called A Step into the Past by TVB. === Malaysia === Zhang Cao (張草) is a Malaysian-Chinese science fiction author who has published several novels in Chinese. == Chinese language and culture in science fiction works from other countries == Cordwainer Smith's short stories and novel, Norstrilia, which is said to be based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West, feature a race of 'underpeople' bred out of animals to serve mankind whose struggle for independence has been argued to be an allegory of the civil rights movement. Alan C. Elms, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of California, Davis, however argues that underpeople are meant to represent the Han Chinese who had been oppressed by the conquering Manchus during the Qing dynasty, citing the author's experiences working with Sun Yat Sen as a young man. An English translation of the Tao Te Ching plays an important role in Ursula K. Le Guin's 1967 post-apocalyptic novel City of Illusions. The novel also features a supposedly alien race called the Shing who suppress technological and social development on Earth, similar to the suppression of Western technology and ideas during the Qing dynasty following a period of relative openness during the Ming when Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci were allowed to live and teach in China. Although not strictly science fiction in that it lacks significant aberrations from the historical record, James Clavell's historical fiction series The Asian Saga is intimately concerned with the role which modern technology played in the collision between the East and West in the 19th and 20th centuries. David Wingrove's multivolume Chung Kuo series takes place in an alternate timeline where Imperial China has survived into modern era and eventually takes over the entire world, establishing a future society with a strict racial hierarchy. Maureen F. McHugh's 1997 novel, China Mountain Zhang, takes place in an alternate future where America has gone through a socialist revolution while China has become the dominant world power. The 2002 American television show Firefly features a future space-based society in the year 2517 where Mandarin Chinese has become a common language. Cory Doctorow's 2010 young adult science fiction novel For the Win features a gold farmer from Shenzhen, China who joins forces with Leonard Goldberg, a sinophile gamer who speaks Mandarin Chinese and uses the Chinese name 'Wei-Dong', to take on the mainland authorities and gold farming bosses. The 2012 American film Red Dawn, a re-imagining of the 1984 film by the same name, as originally filmed portrayed the invasion of the United States by the People's Liberation Army of the PRC due to a US default on Chinese-owned debt. In hopes of being able to market the film in mainland China, the country of origin for the invading army was later changed to North Korea using digital technology, and references to the storyline about debt were edited out of the final cut of the film. The titular computer virus in American author Neal Stephenson's 2011 technothriller Reamde was developed by a crew of mainland Chinese based gold farmers and a significant portion of the book takes place in Xiamen, Fujian. The prolific short story writer Chinese-American Ken Liu has published numerous original English-language science fiction stories featuring Chinese characters and settings, exploring issues of tradition, modernity, development, and cultural differences between the East and West. Two of his stories have also been published in Chinese, and he has translated short stories by Liu Cixin, Chen Qiufan, Xia Jia and Ma Boyong. == Genres and themes == Mainland Chinese science fiction is restricted from covering certain themes due to restrictive government law and censorship, which results in self-censorship. Some of the affected genres and themes include alternate history and time travel, which can ran afoul of the laws related to perceived lack of respect towards Chinese history. Concerns over censorship also resulted in the 81st World Science Fiction Convention#Ballot controversy. == English translations and academic studies == Joel Martinsen, a translator who works for the website Danwei.org, has promoted Chinese science fiction in English for a number of years, both on his blog Twelve Hours Later: Literature from the other side of the globe – Chinese SF, fantasy, and mainstream fiction and also on various websites around the Internet, often posting under the username 'zhwj'. Along with Ken Liu and Eric Abrahamsen, Martinesen translated Liu Cixin's "Three Body" trilogy for China Educational Publications Import & Export Corporation (CEPIT), with print and digital editions of the first two novels released in the first half of 2013 and the third in 2014. The second issue of the literary monthly Chutzpah! edited by Ou Ning contains a in-depth history of Chinese fiction compiled by Kun Kun entitled Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars, and translations of Chinese science fiction authors Han Song, Fei Dao, Chen Qiufan, Yang Ping into English, in addition to translations of English-language science fiction authors such as William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Paolo Bagicalupi, and Jeff Noon into Chinese. In 2012, the Hong Kong journal Renditions: A Chinese-English Translation Magazine issued a special double issue (Renditions No. 77 & 78) with a focus on science fiction, including works from both the early 20th century and the early 21st century. In March 2013, the peer-reviewed journal Science Fiction Studies released a special issue on Chinese Science Fiction, edited by Yan Wu and Veronica Hollinger. Through the Tor Books division, Macmillan Publishers publishes most of the English translated novels in the United States, including the entire Three Body series. Worthy of note are also the entries on Chinese science fiction mainly written by Jonathan Clements for The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. In recent years, several anthologies of Chinese science fiction short stories have been published in English. These include Invisible Planets (2016), Broken Stars (2020) and Sinopticon (2021). Also published are three collections of Liu Cixin's work: The Wandering Earth (2016), To Hold Up the Sky (2020), and A View from the Stars (2024). Additional translated Chinese SF short stories can be found in World SF story collections, such as those edited by Lavie Tidhar. In other European publishing markets, such as Italy, many translations are based on the English versions. While in the 2010s a few anthologies were translated from Chinese into Italian, in 2017 the Italian translation of Liu Cixin's 三体 was translated from Ken Liu's English version. == Awards == === Chinese Nebula Awards === The World Chinese Science Fiction Association, based in Chengdu, established the Nebula Awards (Chinese: 星云奖; pinyin: xingyun jiang) – not to be confused with the U.S. Nebula Awards – in 2010. They are awarded yearly for Chinese-language works of science fiction published in any country. The winners are selected by a jury from a list nominees determined by public voting; in 2013, more than 30,000 votes were cast for 40 nominees. Past winners include: Best novel 2024: The City in the Well (井中之城) by Liu Yang 2023: Once Upon a Time in Nanjing by Tianrui Shuofu 2022: The New New Newspaper Press: Shadow of the Enchanted Metropolis by Liang Qingsan 2021: Across the Rings of Saturn by Xie Yunning 2020: The Stars (群星) by Qi Yue Conferral of the 11th round of Chinese Nebula awards was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019: The Azure Tragedy by Hui Hu 2018: Gate of Memories by Jiang Bo 2017: Exorcism (驱魔) by Han Song Exorcism is a sequel to Han's 2016 novel Hospital 2014: Ruins of Time by Baoshu 2013: The Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan 2012: Be with Me by Wang Jinkang 2011: Death's End (死神永生) by Liu Cixin 2010: Cross by Wang Jinkang, and Humanoid Software by Albert Tan Best novella 2024: The Fleeting Gravity of Words (失重的语言) by Zhou Wen 2023: The Girl with a Restrained and Released Life by Zhou Wen 2022: The Eye of Saishiteng by Wanxiang Fengnian 2021: The Persons who are Trapped in Time by Cheng Jingbo 2020: Celestial Priest (天象祭司) by Baoshu Conferral of the 11th round of Chinese Nebula awards was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019: Flowers on the Other Side by A Que 2018: The Monster Reunion by Chen Qiufan 2017: Farewell, Doraemon by A Que 2012: Excess of the World by Zhang Xiguo 2010: not awarded Best short story 2024: “Let the White Deer Roam” (且放白鹿) by Cheng Jingbo 2023: “The Stars without Dream” by Chi Hui 2022: “Lunar Bank” by Liang Ling 2021: “Preface to the Reprint Edition of ‘Overture 2181’” by Gu Shi 2020: “In This Moment, We Are Happy” (这一刻我们是快乐的) by Chen Qiufan Conferral of the 11th round of Chinese Nebula awards was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019: “The Kites of Jinan” by Liang Qingsan 2018: “Memories of Chengdu” by Baoshu 2017: “Floating Life" (浮生) by He Xi 2014: "Smart Life" by Ping Zongqi 2012: G stands for Goddess by Chen Qiufan 2011: Rebirth Brick by Han Song 2010: Before the Fall by Cheng Jingbo === Galaxy Awards === Another award for Chinese-language works of science fiction and science fantasy. The award was first set up in 1985, and was exclusively organized by the Science Fiction World Magazine after its first session. Before 1991 the award was awarded intermittently, and it became an annual event since 1991. The 27th Galaxy Award was given out and the winner list was published in public. Past winners include: Best novel 2015: "Tian Nian" (天年) by He Xi Best novella 2015:"The Way of Machines" (機器之道) by Jiang Bo 2015: "When The Sun Falls" (太陽墜落之時) by Zhangran Best Short Story 2015:"Good Night Melancholy" (晚安憂鬱) by Xia Jia 2015:"Balin" (巴鱗) by Chen Qiufan 2015: "Yingxu Zhizi" (應許之子) by Ms Quanru == References == == Further reading == SF Aus China (SF from China) by YE Yonglie and Charlotte Dunsing (Ed.), 1984, Goldmann Verlag, Munich Science Fiction from China. by Wu Dingbo and Patrick D. Murphy (Ed.), 1989, Praeger Press, NY. Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction by Nathaniel Isaacson, 2017, Wesleyan University Press, distributed by University Press of New England Space to create in Chinese Science Fiction by Robert G. Price, 2017, Ffoniwch y Meddyg, Kaarst, Germany. == External links == China entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction "Science Fiction, Globalization, and China" Science Fiction Network (in Chinese) "Science Fiction World" magazine official website (in Chinese) China’s first sci-fi movie: Death Ray on Coral Island – Stills and stories from China's first sci-fi movie Yueqiu Zhimindi Xiaoshuo (月球殖民地小說 "Lunar Colony") (in Chinese)	Wikipedia/Chinese_science_fiction
Science fiction comedy (sci-fi comedy) or comic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedic effect. The genre often mocks or satirizes standard science fiction conventions, concepts and tropes – such as alien invasion of Earth, interstellar travel, or futuristic technology. It can also satirize and criticize present-day society. An early example was the Pete Manx series by Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes (sometimes writing together and sometimes separately, under the house pen-name of Kelvin Kent). Published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the series featured a time-traveling carnival barker who uses his con-man abilities to get out of trouble. Two later series cemented Kuttner's reputation as one of the most popular early writers of comic science fiction: the Gallegher series (about a drunken inventor and his narcissistic robot) and the Hogben series (about a family of mutant hillbillies). The former appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1943 and 1948 and was collected in hardcover as Robots Have No Tails (Gnome, 1952), and the latter appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the late 1940s. In the 1950s of the authors contributing to the sub-genre included: Alfred Bester, Harry Harrison, C. M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl, and Robert Sheckley. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series written by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it later morphed into other formats, including stage shows, novels, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 computer game, and 2005 feature film. A prominent series in British popular culture, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has become an international multi-media phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. Terry Pratchett's 1981 novel Strata also exemplifies the science fiction comedy genre. == See also == List of science fiction comedy works List of science fiction comedy films Fantasy comedy == References ==	Wikipedia/Comic_science_fiction
Holography is often used as a plot device in science fiction, appearing in a wide range of books, films, television series, animation and video games. Probably the first reference is by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series starting in 1951. Holography has been widely referred to in movies, novels, and TV, usually in science fiction, starting in the late 1970s. Science fiction writers absorbed the urban legends surrounding holography that had been spread by overly-enthusiastic scientists and entrepreneurs trying to market the idea. This had the effect of giving the public overly high expectations of the capability of holography, due to the unrealistic depictions of it in most fiction, where they are fully three-dimensional computer projections (more like real-life volumetric displays) that are sometimes tactile through the use of force fields. Examples of this type of depiction include the hologram of Princess Leia in Star Wars, Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf, who was later converted to "hard light" to make him solid, and the Holodeck and Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek. Holography served as an inspiration for many video games with the science fiction elements. In many titles, fictional holographic technology has been used to reflect real life misrepresentations of potential military use of holograms, such as the "mirage tanks" in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 that can disguise themselves as trees. Player characters are able to use holographic decoys in games such as Halo: Reach and Crysis 2 to confuse and distract the enemy. Starcraft ghost agent Nova has access to "holo decoy" as one of her three primary abilities in Heroes of the Storm. Fictional depictions of holograms have, however, inspired technological advances in other fields, such as augmented reality, that promise to fulfill the fictional depictions of holograms by other means. == References == == Further reading == Pizzanelli, David. "The Evolution of the Mythical Hologram". Proceedings of the SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, 1732 (1992). Pages 430 to 437.	Wikipedia/Holography_in_fiction
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although formal clubs such as the Futurians (1937–1945) and the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (1934–present) are recognized examples of organized fandom). Most often called simply "fandom" within the community, it can be viewed as a distinct subculture, with its own literature and jargon; marriages and other relationships among fans are common, as are multi-generational fan families. == Origins and history == Science fiction fandom started through the letter column of Hugo Gernsback's fiction magazines. Not only did fans write comments about the stories—they sent their addresses, and Gernsback published them. Soon, fans were writing letters directly to each other, and meeting in person when they lived close together, or when one of them could manage a trip. In New York City, David Lasser, Gernsback's managing editor, nurtured the birth of a small local club called the Scienceers, which held its first meeting in a Harlem apartment on 11 December 1929. Almost all the members were adolescent boys. Around this time, a few other small local groups began to spring up in metropolitan areas around the United States, many of them connecting with fellow enthusiasts via the Science Correspondence Club. In May 1930 the first science-fiction fan magazine, The Comet, was produced by the Chicago branch of the Science Correspondence Club under the editorship of Raymond A. Palmer (later a noted, and notorious, sf magazine editor) and Walter Dennis. In January 1932, the New York City circle, which by then included future comic-book editors Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger, brought out the first issue of their own publication, The Time Traveller, with Forrest J Ackerman of the embryonic Los Angeles group as a contributing editor. In 1934, Gernsback established a correspondence club for fans called the Science Fiction League, the first fannish organization. Local groups across the nation could join by filling out an application. A number of clubs came into being around this time. LASFS (the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) was founded at this time as a local branch of the SFL, while several competing local branches sprang up in New York City and immediately began feuding among themselves. In 1935, PSFS (the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, 1935–present) was formed. The next year, half a dozen fans from NYC came to Philadelphia to meet with the PSFS members, as the first Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference, which some claim as the world's first science fiction convention. Soon after the fans started to communicate directly with each other came the creation of science fiction fanzines. These amateur publications might or might not discuss science fiction and were generally traded rather than sold. They ranged from the utilitarian or inept to professional-quality printing and editing. In recent years, Usenet newsgroups such as rec.arts.sf.fandom, websites and blogs have somewhat supplanted printed fanzines as an outlet for expression in fandom, though many popular fanzines continue to be published. Science-fiction fans have been among the first users of computers, email, personal computers and the Internet. Many professional science fiction authors started their interest in science fiction as fans, and some still publish their own fanzines or contribute to those published by others. A widely regarded (though by no means error-free) history of fandom in the 1930s can be found in Sam Moskowitz's The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom (Hyperion Press, 1988, ISBN 0-88355-131-4; original edition The Atlanta Science Fiction Organization Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1954). Moskowitz was himself involved in some of the incidents chronicled and has his own point of view, which has often been criticized. == By country == === Sweden === Organized fandom in Sweden ("Sverifandom") emerged during the early 1950s. The first Swedish science fiction fanzine was started in the early 1950s. The oldest still existing club, Club Cosmos in Gothenburg, was formed in 1954, and the first Swedish science-fiction convention, LunCon, was held in Lund in 1956. Today, there are a number of science fiction clubs in the country, including Scandinavian Society for Science Fiction (whose club fanzine, Science Fiction Forum, was once edited by Stieg Larsson, a board member and one-time chairman thereof), Linköpings Science Fiction-Förening and Sigma Terra Corps. Between one and four science-fiction conventions are held each year in Sweden, among them Swecon, the annual national Swedish con. An annual prize is awarded to someone that has contributed to the national fandom by the Alvar Appeltoffts Memorial Prize Fund. === UK === SF fandom in the UK has close ties with that in the US. In the UK there are multiple conventions. The largest regular convention for literary SF (book-focused) fandom is the British National convention or Eastercon. Strangely enough this is held over the Easter weekend. Committee membership and location changes year-to-year. The license to use the Eastercon name for a year is awarded by votes of the business meeting of the Eastercon two years previously. There are a variety of other local or intermittent conventions run by fandom, such as the series of Mexicons that ran from 1984 to 1994. There are substantially larger events run by UK media fandom and commercial organisations also run "gate shows" (for-profit operations with paid staff.) The UK has also hosted the Worldcon several times, most recently in 2014. News of UK events appears in the fanzine Ansible produced by David Langford each month. === Italy === The beginning of an Italian science fiction fandom can be located between the late 1950s and early 1960s, when magazines such as Oltre il Cielo and Futuro started to publish readers’ letters and promote correspondences and the setting-up of clubs in various cities. Among the first fanzines, Futuria Fantasia was cyclostyled in Milan in 1963 by Luigi Cozzi (later to become a filmmaker), its title paid homage to Ray Bradbury's fanzine by the same name; L’Aspidistra, edited by Riccardo Leveghi in Trento starting in 1965 featured contributions by Gianfranco de Turris, Gian Luigi Staffilano, and Sebastiano Fusco, future editors of professional magazines and book series; also Luigi Naviglio, editor in 1965 of the fanzine Nuovi Orizzonti, was soon to become a writer for I Romanzi del Cosmo. During subsequent years fanzines continued to function as training grounds for future editors and writers, and the general trend was towards improved quality and life expectancy (e.g. The Time Machine run for 50 issues starting in 1975, Intercom for 149 issues between 1979 and 1999, before its migration to the web as an e-zine until 2003, then as a website). In 1963, the first Trieste Festival of Science Fiction Cinema took place, anticipating the first conventions as an opportunity for a nationwide social gathering. Informal meetings were organized in Milan, Turin and Carrara between 1965 and 1967. In 1972, the first European convention, Eurocon, was organized in Trieste, during which an Italia Award was also created. Eurocon was back in Italy in 1980 and 2009 (in 1989 a Eurocon was held in San Marino). Since its foundation in 2013, the association World SF Italia coordinates the organization the annual national convention (Italcon) and awards (Premio Italia – with thirty- two categories across media – and Premio Vegetti – best Italian novel and essay). == Conventions == Since the late 1930s, SF fans have organized conventions, non-profit gatherings where the fans (some of whom are also professionals in the field) meet to discuss SF and generally enjoy themselves. (A few fannish couples have held their weddings at conventions.) The 1st World Science Fiction Convention or Worldcon was held in conjunction with the 1939 New York World's Fair, and has been held annually since the end of World War II. Worldcon has been the premier convention in fandom for over half a century; it is at this convention that the Hugo Awards are bestowed, and attendance can approach 8,000 or more. SF writer Cory Doctorow calls science fiction "perhaps the most social of all literary genres", and states, "Science fiction is driven by organized fandom, volunteers who put on hundreds of literary conventions in every corner of the globe, every weekend of the year." SF conventions can vary from minimalist "relaxacons" with a hundred or so attendees to heavily programmed events with four to six or more simultaneous tracks of programming, such as WisCon and Worldcons. Commercial shows dealing with SF-related fields are sometimes billed as 'science fiction conventions', but are operated as for-profit ventures, with an orientation towards passive spectators, rather than involved fans, and a tendency to neglect or ignore written SF in favor of television, film, comics, video games, etc. One of the largest of these is the annual Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia, with an attendance of more than 20,000 since 2000. == Science-fiction societies == In the United States, many science-fiction societies were launched as chapters of the Science Fiction League and, when it faded into history, several of the original League chapters remained viable and were subsequently incorporated as independent organizations. Most notable among the former League chapters which were spun off was the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, which served as a model for subsequent SF societies formed independent of the League history. Science-fiction societies, more commonly referred to as "clubs" except on the most formal of occasions, form a year-round base of activities for science-fiction fans. They are often associated with an SF convention or group of conventions, but maintain a separate existence as cultural institutions within specific geographic regions. Several have purchased property and maintain ongoing collections of SF literature available for research, as in the case of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the New England Science Fiction Association, and the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Other SF Societies maintain a more informal existence, meeting at general public facilities or the homes of individual members, such as the Bay Area Science Fiction Association. == Offshoots and subcommunities == As a community devoted to discussion and exploration of new ideas, fandom has become an incubator for many groups that started out as special interests within fandom, some of which have partially separated into independent intentional communities not directly associated with science fiction. Among these groups are comic book fandom, media fandom, the Society for Creative Anachronism, gaming, and furry fandom, sometimes referred to collectively as "fringe fandoms" with the implication that the original fandom centered on science-fiction texts (magazines and later books and fanzines) is the "true" or "core" fandom. Fandom also welcomes and shares interest with other groups including LGBT communities, libertarians, neo-pagans, and space activist groups like the L5 Society, among many others. Some groups exist almost entirely within fandom but are distinct and cohesive subcultures in their own rights, such as filkers, costumers, and convention runners (sometimes called "SMOFs"). Fandom encompasses subsets of fans that are principally interested in a single writer or subgenre, such as Tolkien fandom, and Star Trek fandom ("Trekkies"). Even short-lived television series may have dedicated followings, such as the fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and movie Serenity, known as Browncoats. Participation in science fiction fandom often overlaps with other similar interests, such as fantasy role-playing games, comic books and anime, and in the broadest sense fans of these activities are felt to be part of the greater community of SF fandom. There are active SF fandoms around the world. Fandom in non-Anglophone countries is based partially on local literature and media, with cons and other elements resembling those of English-speaking fandom, but with distinguishing local features. For example, Finland's national gathering Finncon is funded by the government, while all conventions and fan activities in Japan are heavily influenced by anime and manga. == Fanspeak == Science fiction and fantasy fandom has its own slang or jargon, sometimes called "fanspeak" (the term has been in use since at least 1962). Fanspeak is made up of acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, and standard terms used in specific ways. Some terms used in fanspeak have spread to members of the Society for Creative Anachronism ("Scadians"), Renaissance Fair participants ("Rennies"), hacktivists, and internet gaming and chat fans, due to the social and contextual intersection between the communities. Examples of fanspeak used in these broader fannish communities include gafiate, a term meaning to drop out of SF related community activities, with the implication to Get A Life. The word is derived via the acronym for "get away from it all". A related term is fafiate, for "forced away from it all". The implication is that one would really rather still be involved in fandom, but circumstances make it impossible. Two other acronyms commonly used in the community are FIAWOL (Fandom Is A Way Of Life) and its opposite FIJAGH (Fandom Is Just A Goddamned Hobby) to describe two ways of looking at the place of fandom in one's life. Science-fiction fans often refer to themselves using the irregular plural "fen": man/men, fan/fen. == In fiction == As science fiction fans became professional writers, they started slipping the names of their friends into stories. Wilson "Bob" Tucker slipped so many of his fellow fans and authors into his works that doing so is called tuckerization. The subgenre of "recursive science fiction" has a fan-maintained bibliography at the New England Science Fiction Association's website; some of it is about science fiction fandom, some not. In Robert Bloch's 1956 short story, "A Way Of Life", science-fiction fandom is the only institution to survive a nuclear holocaust and eventually becomes the basis for the reconstitution of civilization. The science-fiction novel Gather in the Hall of the Planets, by K.M. O'Donnell (aka Barry N. Malzberg), 1971, takes place at a New York City science-fiction convention and features broad parodies of many SF fans and authors. A pair of SF novels by Gene DeWeese and Robert "Buck" Coulson, Now You See It/Him/Them and Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats are set at Worldcons; the latter includes an in-character "introduction" by Wilson Tucker (himself a character in the novel) which is a sly self-parody verging on a self-tuckerization. The 1991 SF novel Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn constitutes a tribute to SF fandom. The story includes a semi-illegal fictional Minneapolis Worldcon in a post-disaster world where science, and thus fandom, is disparaged. Many of the characters are barely tuckerized fans, mostly from the Greater Los Angeles area. Mystery writer Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun and Zombies of the Gene Pool are murder mysteries set at a science-fiction convention and within the broader culture of fandom respectively. While containing mostly nasty caricatures of fans and fandom, some fans take them with good humor; others consider them vicious and cruel. In 1994 and 1996, two anthologies of alternate history science fiction involving World Science Fiction Conventions, titled Alternate Worldcons and Again, Alternate Worldcons, edited by Mike Resnick were published. === Fans are slans === A.E. van Vogt's 1940 novel Slan was about a mutant variety of humans who are superior to regular humanity and are therefore hunted down and killed by the normal human population. While the story has nothing to do with fandom, many science-fiction fans felt very close to the protagonists, feeling their experience as bright people in a mundane world mirrored that of the mutants; hence, the rallying cry, "Fans Are Slans!"; and the tradition that a building inhabited primarily by fans can be called a slan shack. === Figures in the history of fandom === == See also == == References == == Further reading == Jenkins, Henry (1992). Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. Studies in culture and communication. New York: Routledge. pp. 343. ISBN 0-415-90571-0. Kozinets, Robert V. (2007), "Inno-tribes: Star Trek as Wikimedia" in Cova, Bernard, Robert V. Kozinets, and Avi Shankar Consumer Tribes, Oxford and Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 194–211. Kozinets, Robert V. (2001), "Utopian Enterprise: Articulating the Meanings of Star Trek's Culture of Consumption", Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (June), 67–88. In Memory Yet Green by Isaac Asimov (1979) The Futurians by Damon Knight (1977) The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl (1978) All Our Yesterdays by Harry Warner Jr. (1969) The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom by Sam Moskowitz. Hyperion Press 1988 ISBN 0-88355-131-4 (original edition The Atlanta Science Fiction Organization Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1954) Hansen, Rob THEN Science Fiction Fandom in the U (Ansible Editions, 2016)K: 1930–1980 == External links == eFanzines – SF fanzines and other fannish projects Trufen.net, dedicated to "conversations between science fiction fans on all subjects" The Fanac fan history project The Fancyclopedia 3 project Fanzine Bibliography "The Women Were Always There: The Obligatory History Lesson" THEN: A History of UK Fandom 1930–80 by Rob Hansen The Neo-Fan's Guide (1955) edited by Bob Tucker Who's Who in SF Fandom The Voices Of Fandom – Rare Historic & New Recordings from the World of SF Fandom Articles from Mimosa by David Kyle about old Fandom David Langford Home Page Fandom-related Special Collections at the University of Iowa Library	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_fandom
A hive mind, group mind, group ego, mind coalescence, or gestalt intelligence in science fiction is a plot device in which multiple minds, or consciousnesses, are linked into a single collective consciousness or intelligence. == Overview == This term may be used interchangeably with hive mind. "Hive mind" tends to describe a group mind in which the linked individuals have no identity or free will and are possessed or mind-controlled as extensions of the hive mind. It is frequently associated with the concept of an entity that spreads among individuals and suppresses or subsumes their consciousness in the process of integrating them into its own collective consciousness. The concept of the group or hive mind is an intelligent version of real-life superorganisms such as a beehive or an ant colony. The first alien hive society was depicted in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901) while the use of human hive minds in literature goes back at least as far as David H. Keller's The Human Termites (published in Wonder Stories in 1929) and Olaf Stapledon's science-fiction novel Last and First Men (1930), which is the first known use of the term "group mind" in science fiction. The phrase "hive mind" in science fiction has been traced to Edmond Hamilton's novel The Face of the Deep (published in Captain Future in 1942) referring to the hive mind of bees as a simile, then James H. Schmitz's Second Night of Summer (1950). A group mind might be formed by any fictional plot device that facilitates brain to brain communication, such as telepathy. Some hive minds feature members that are controlled by a centralised "hive brain" or "hive queen," but others feature a decentralised approach in which members interact equally or roughly equally to come to decisions. The packs of Tines in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and The Children of the Sky are an example of such decentralized group minds. Hive minds are typically viewed in a negative light, especially in earlier works, but some newer works portray them as neutral or positive. As conceived in speculative fiction, hive minds often imply (almost) complete loss (or lack) of individuality, identity, and personhood. However, while the individual members of a group mind may not have such things, the group mind as whole will have them, possibly even to greater degree than individual people (just like a human has more personhood than a single neuron cell). The individuals forming the hive may specialize in different functions, similarly to social insects. == See also == Borg Brain–brain communication Brain–computer interface Deindividuation Global brain Insectoids in science fiction and fantasy Legion (demons) Swarm intelligence Telepathy == References == == Further reading == Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future: Essays on Foresight and Fallacy by Wong King Yuen, McFarland (2011) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders · Volume 3 by Gary Westfahl, Greenwood Press (2005) Philosophers Look at Science Fiction by Nicholas D. Smith, Nelson-Hall (1982) Science Fiction in Classic Rock: Musical Explorations of Space, Technology and the Imagination, 1967-1982 by Robert McParland, McFarland (2017) Brave New Words : The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Brucher, Oxford University Press (2007) == External links == Entries on group mind and hive mind at Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Miguel Nicolelis' Brain-net	Wikipedia/Group_mind_(science_fiction)
Science fiction literature was established in Norway in the mid-1960s, mainly by Jon Bing and Tor Åge Bringsværd. They dominated the genre, started a society for science fiction fans, and reached relatively high public interest until the late 1970s. Johannes H. Berg Jr. is a noteworthy contributor to Norwegian science fiction literature from the 1970s until his death in 2004. Among contemporary authors is Margret Helgadottir, who writes science fiction in English. Proto-science fiction can be found as far back as the 18th century in Norway. Best known is the novel Niels Klim's Underground Travels by the playwright Ludvig Holberg. Also, Henrik Wergeland wrote at least one play that can be considered science-fiction-esque: De sidste kloge ("The Last of the Wise"), set on the planet Terra Nova. The 21st century has seen a new wave of science fiction in Norway, ranging from Øyvind Rimbereid's epic poem Solaris korrigert to Sigbjørn Skåden's Sámi science fiction story Fugl, about humans who colonise a distant planet, but in doing so, lose their language. == Scholarship == Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research == References ==	Wikipedia/Norwegian_science_fiction
The Golden Age of Science Fiction, often identified in the United States as the years 1938–1946, was a period in which a number of foundational works of science fiction appeared in American genre magazines. Exemplars include the Foundation series of Isaac Asimov and the Future History series of Robert Heinlein, but the form included dozens of other authors. In the history of science fiction, the Golden Age follows the "pulp era" of the 1920s and '30s, and precedes New Wave science fiction of the '60s and '70s. The 1950s are, in this scheme, a transitional period. Robert Silverberg, who came of age then, saw the '50s as the true Golden Age. The age is often associated with the influence of editor John W. Campbell. According to Lester del Rey, "the result [of Campbell's editorship] was the so-called Golden Age of science fiction — the beginning of modern science fiction, which was capable of reaching beyond a small readership of gadget-loving hobbyists and science buffs". The new approach was more sophisticated, but technology and optimism, which had always been stressed, continued to be foremost: In historian Adam Roberts's words, "the phrase valorises a particular sort of writing: hard SF, linear narratives, heroes solving problems or countering threats in a space-operatic or technological-adventure idiom.": 287 == History == === From Gernsback to Campbell === Science fiction magazines first appeared in 1926 with the launch of Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories.: 23 This is usually considered to be the beginning of the pulp era of science fiction, though definitions vary.: 109 : 45 Several additional magazines by Gernsback and others appeared, and in some cases disappeared again, in the years that followed;: xiii in 1937, there were seven science fiction pulp magazines in publication.: 98 An influence on the creation of the Golden Age was John W. Campbell, who achieved status as the most prominent editor of the time. Isaac Asimov stated that "...in the 1940s, [Campbell] dominated the field to the point where to many he seemed all of science fiction.": 1 By consensus, the Golden Age began c. 1938–1939,: 288 slightly later than the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, another pulp-based genre. The July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction is sometimes cited as the start of the Golden Age.: 5 It included "Black Destroyer", the first published story by A. E. van Vogt, as well as the first appearance by Isaac Asimov in the magazine with the story "Trends". The August issue contained the first published story by Robert A. Heinlein, "Life-Line". === Characteristic tropes === Many of the most enduring science fiction tropes were established in Golden Age literature. Space opera came to prominence with the works of E. E. "Doc" Smith; Isaac Asimov established the canonical Three Laws of Robotics beginning with the 1941 short story "Runaround"; the same period saw the writing of genre classics such as the Asimov's Foundation and Smith's Lensman series. Another frequent characteristic of Golden Age science fiction is the celebration of scientific achievement and the sense of wonder; Asimov's short story "Nightfall" (1941) exemplifies this, as in a single night a planet's civilization is overwhelmed by the revelation of the vastness of the universe. Robert A. Heinlein's novels, such as The Puppet Masters (1951), Double Star (1956), and Starship Troopers (1959), express the libertarian ideology that runs through much of Golden Age science fiction. Algis Budrys in 1965 wrote of the "recurrent strain in 'Golden Age' science fiction of the 1940s—the implication that sheer technological accomplishment would solve all the problems, hooray, and that all the problems were what they seemed to be on the surface". The Golden Age also saw the reemergence of the religious or spiritual themes—central to so much proto-science fiction prior to the pulp era—that Hugo Gernsback had tried to eliminate in his vision of "scientifiction". Among the most significant such Golden Age narratives are Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950), Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), Blish's A Case of Conscience (1958), and Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). === End of the Golden Age === Asimov said that "[t]he dropping of the atom bomb in 1945 made science fiction respectable" to the general public. He recalled in 1969 "I'll never forget the shock that rumbled through the entire world of science fiction fandom when ... Heinlein broke the 'slicks' barrier by having an undiluted science fiction story of his published in The Saturday Evening Post". The large, mainstream companies' entry into the science fiction book market around 1950 was similar to how they published crime fiction during World War II; authors no longer had to publish only through magazines. Asimov said, however, that I myself was ambivalent ... There was a tendency for the new reality to nail the science fiction writer to the ground. Prior to 1945, science fiction had been wild and free. All its motifs and plot varieties remained in the realm of fantasy and we could do as we pleased. After 1945, there came the increasing need to talk about the AEC and to mold all the infinite scope of our thoughts to the small bit of them that had become real. He continued, "In fact, there was the birth of something I called 'tomorrow fiction'; the science fiction story that was no more new than tomorrow's headlines. Believe me, there can be nothing duller than tomorrow's headlines in science fiction", citing Nevil Shute's On the Beach as example. Several factors changed the market for magazine science fiction in the mid- and late 1950s. Most important was the rapid contraction of the pulp market: Fantastic Adventures and Famous Fantastic Mysteries folded in 1953, Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Beyond in 1955, Other Worlds and Science Fiction Quarterly in 1957, Imagination, Imaginative Tales, and Infinity in 1958. In October 1957, the successful launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 narrowed the gap between the real world and the world of science fiction, as the space race began. Asimov shifted to writing nonfiction he hoped would attract young minds to science, while Heinlein became more dogmatic in expressing libertarian political and social views in his fiction. In the early 1960s, emerging British writers, such as Brian W. Aldiss and J. G. Ballard, cultivated New Wave science fiction, indicating the direction other writers would soon pursue. Women writers, such as Judith Merril, Joanna Russ and Ursula K. LeGuin emerged. The leading Golden Age magazine, Astounding Stories, changed its title to Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1960. John Clute, writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, asserts that it was Frank Herbert's novel Dune (1965) that "arguably capped and put paid to the Golden Age of SF. No sf novel since published, it may be, has seemed so sure of the world it describes." == Prominent authors == === Early (1938–1946) === === Later (1947–1959) === == Alternate date range == Robert Silverberg, in a 2010 essay, argued that the true Golden Age was the 1950s, and that the "Golden Age" of the 1940s was a kind of "false dawn". "Until the decade of the fifties", Silverberg wrote, "there was essentially no market for science fiction books at all"; the audience supported only a few special interest small presses. The 1950s saw "a spectacular outpouring of stories and novels that quickly surpassed both in quantity and quality the considerable achievement of the Campbellian golden age", as mainstream companies like Simon & Schuster and Doubleday displaced specialty publishers like Arkham House and Gnome Press. The English novelist and critic Kingsley Amis endorsed that view when he compiled and titled The Golden Age of Science Fiction: An Anthology (1981), with two thirds of the stories from the 1950s and the remainder from the early 1960s. A long-running joke held that the "Golden Age" of science fiction was not a period in the history of the genre, but rather a nostalgic period in a young boy's life, often age 12 or 13 years. (Thus, Q: "When was the Golden Age of Science Fiction?", A: "About 12..."): 45–46 == See also == Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction (1965) by Sam Moskowitz; comprises 22 chapter-length biographies of "Golden Age" SF authors. Adventures in Time and Space (1946), the "definitive" anthology of Golden Age Science Fiction edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas The Golden Age of Science Fiction: An Anthology (1981), compiled by Kingsley Amis; works originally published between 1949 and 1962 The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction (1989), anthology edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh; works originally produced 1941 to '47. Golden Age of Comic Books – largely coterminous period in the history of comics == References == == Further reading == Aldiss, Brian Wilson; Wingrove, David (1986). "The Future on a Chipped Plate: The Worlds of John Campbell's Astounding". Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. Atheneum. pp. 208–229. ISBN 978-0-689-11839-5. Ash, Brian, ed. (1977). "Science Fiction Art". The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Harmony Books. p. 288. ISBN 0-517-53174-7. OCLC 2984418. Shortly before the outbreak of war, science fiction was beginning a new phase, one signalled by the appointment of John W. Campbell as editor of Astounding. This next period, roughly from 1938 to 1950, is referred to by some as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Ashley, Mike (2000). "The Golden Age". The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950. The History of the Science-Fiction Magazine. Vol. 1. Liverpool University Press. pp. 135–164. ISBN 978-0-85323-855-3. Beamer, Amelia. "Pulp Science Fiction". In Reid, Robin Anne (ed.). Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Vol. 2: Entries. Greenwood Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-313-33592-1. The 'golden age' of pulp science fiction usually refers to John Campbell's tenure at Astounding from 1938 to 1955. Booker, M. Keith (2014). "Golden Age". Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-8108-7884-6. Lambourne, R. J.; Shallis, M. J.; Shortland, M. (1990). "Science and the Rise of Science Fiction". Close Encounters?: Science and Science Fiction. CRC Press. pp. 1–33. ISBN 978-0-85274-141-2. Mann, George (2001). "John W. Campbell and the Golden Age of SF". The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Carroll & Graf Publishers. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-0-7867-0887-1. Mann, George (2001). "Golden Age". The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Carroll & Graf Publishers. p. 487. ISBN 978-0-7867-0887-1. Page, Michael R. (2018). "Astounding Stories: John W. Campbell and the Golden Age, 1938–1950". In Canavan, Gerry; Link, Eric Carl (eds.). The Cambridge History of Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149–165. ISBN 978-1-107-16609-7. Pringle, David, ed. (1996). "Golden Age". The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide. Carlton. pp. 56–57. ISBN 1-85868-188-X. OCLC 38373691. Prucher, Jeff, ed. (2007). "Golden Age". Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. with an introduction by Gene Wolfe. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8. Vint, Sherryl (2021). "Glossary: Golden Age". Science Fiction. MIT Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-262-53999-9. == External links == Fear of Fiction: Campbell's World and Other Obsolete Paradigms, at Infinity Plus, by Claude Lalumière 'John W. Campbell's Golden Age of Science Fiction: An irreplaceable documentary illuminates the man who invented modern science fiction, by Paul Di Filippo, at SciFi.com Google Books – 'Age of Wonders Chapter One: The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve', David G. Hartwell (1996) YouTube.com – Isaac Asimov on the Golden Age of Science Fiction	Wikipedia/Golden_Age_of_Science_Fiction
Inner space in the context of science fiction refers to works of psychological science fiction emphasizes internal, mental, and emotional experiences over external adventure or technological speculation, which contrasts it with traditional science fiction's fascination with outer space. Works from this genre appeared as part of the emergence of the New Wave in science fiction in the 1960s. They were popularized English writer J.G. Ballard and associated with the New Wave movement in science fiction. Subsequent contributions by critics and writers such as Michael Moorcock, Pat Cadigan, and Greg Bear helped establish inner space as a recurring theme in science fiction discourse. == Characteristics == English writer J.G. Ballard, who is credited with popularizing the concept in the 1960s, offered this definition of the inner space genre: "an imaginary realm in which on the one hand the outer world of reality, and on the other the inner world of the mind meet and merge".: 240 Polish science fiction scholars Andrzej Niewiadowski and Antoni Smuszkiewicz defined inner space as "a category introduced to science fiction by representatives of the New Wave to designate internal, mental experiences as imaginary worlds with no connection to the real world". They also note that "fantastic images painted by [New Wave artists] are... projections of mental states, symbols of unspecified longings and anxieties of modern people".: 308 German science fiction scholar Vera Graaf wrote that inner space "is a polemical statement against the science fiction concept of 'Outer space' – the cosmos". She notes that this genre arose when some writers became critical of poorly defined heroic characters and "romantic idealization of the cosmic 'borderland'". She further writes that "It is a space of imagination where the external real world and the internal world of the spirit meet and merge into one", and the authors who are associated with that genre are "fascinated by the observation and deciphering of the 'inner universe' and 'landscapes of the soul'. She also writes that this genre, "unlike traditional science fiction, which highlights mathematical and natural sciences, brings psychology and psychoanalysis to the fore". She associates the resulting works with "the world of psychedelic experiences, the world of 'pop' music and art".: 164–166 This concept is related but not synonymous with the concept of psychological science fiction.: 41 The term inner space in science fiction is also used in contexts other than psychological ones, including in works about cyberspace or underwater regions.: 489–490 == History == According to John Clute, David Langford and Peter Nicholls, writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, in the context of science fiction the term was probably first used by Robert Bloch in a speech at Worldcon in 1948, although the term did not gain popularity at that time. Clute, Langford and Nicholls, as well as Brian M. Stableford, also observe that the term was subsequently popularized by J. B. Priestley in the article "They Came from Inner Space" (New Statesman, 1954). In this article, Priestley criticized science fiction for describing space adventures rather than exploring the inner cosmos of human psychology, referring to themes such as space travel and exploration, as "childish" and called for works that are "exploring ourselves, the hidden life of the psyche".: 489–490 Stableford also noted that the growing popularity of the term may have been a reaction to the popularity of works using the term "outer space", such as the film It Came from Outer Space (1953).: 489–490 Most often, however, it is J. G. Ballard who is credited with popularizing this concept and giving it greater meaning.: 415 : 260 Don D'Ammassa even credited Ballard with creating the concept.: 23 Ballard, a leading figure associated with the New Wave in science fiction, in his article "Which Way to Inner Space?" published in 1962 in the magazine New Worlds, postulated, similarly to Priestley a decade earlier, that, as Dominika Oramus later summarized it, creators of "ambitious science fiction should abandon repetitive space stories and investigate the inner space of the human mind".: 489–490 The term became popular in the work of New Wave writers in the mid-1960s.: 308 Ballard and Michael Moorcock are often credited as major figures related to this development.: 164–166 One of the first works to refer to this concept by name was a short story by Howard Koch, "Invasion from Inner Space" (1959), although critics disagree whether Koch's story about the psychology of artificial intelligence, and subsequent works about cyberspace, reflect the dimension of human psychological problems described by Priestley and Ballard.: 489–490 Brian Ash noted that science fiction works dealing with psychological topics existed before the concept was coined and popular. The earliest example he points to is H. G. Wells' novel Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928), describing it as a "prototype inner-space [story]".: 238 Rob Mayo traces the genre origins to Peter Phillipps' short story "Dreams Are Sacred" (1948), a work which pioneered the science fiction trope of "dream hacking" and has been described as an example of "technologically assisted journeys into the hypothetical Inner Space of the human mind".: 241 Mayo posits that proto-inner space themes existed prior to Peter Phillip's work, including the medieval genre of Psychomachia (taken from the poem of the same name) which deals with the soul of an individual (acting analogous to the function of the mind in the genre). As well, the mechanics of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's 'mill argument' pointing towards the themeatics of entering inside a working mind as if it were physical space. Rob Mayo wrote that the 1980s was the second "golden age" of inner space, associated with writers such as Pat Cadigan and Greg Bear; he also notes the movie Dreamscape (1984), which he calls "the first inner space film". He notes that the genre once again returned the 2000s, here noting the movies The Cell (2000) and Inception (2010), as well as the video game Psychonauts (2005). He notes that Inception marked "the transition of inner space fiction from a marginal genre (SF literature) to a viable mainstream (Hollywood cinema)".: 240, 254, 260 == Representative writers == Writers whose works are often associated with the inner space genre include: Brian W. Aldiss: 237 J.G. Ballard: 237 Barrington J. Bayley Greg Bear: 240 John Brunner: 240 : 237 Pat Cadigan: 240 Philip K. Dick: 238–239 Thomas M. Disch: 237 Harlan Ellison: 237 Philip José Farmer Ursula K. Le Guin: 245–246 Doris Lessing Michael Moorcock: 237 Christopher Priest: 246 Robert Silverberg: 245 John T. Sladek: 237 Norman Spinrad: 237 James Tiptree Jr.: 246 Roger Zelazny: 240 == See also == Innerspace, a 1987 American science fiction comedy film == References == == Further reading == Latham, Rob (2008). "J.G. Ballard and the Shift to Inner Space". In Seed, David (ed.). A Companion to Science Fiction. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 207–209. ISBN 978-0-470-79701-3.	Wikipedia/Inner_space_(science_fiction)
Rubber science is a science fiction term describing a quasi-scientific explanation for an aspect of a science fiction setting. Rubber science explanations are fictional but convincing enough to avoid upsetting the suspension of disbelief. Rubber science is a feature of most genres of science fiction, with the exception of hard science fiction. == Coinage == The term rubber science was coined by Norman Spinrad in his essay "Rubber Sciences", published in Reginald Bretnor's anthology The Craft of Science Fiction (1976). Rubber science was Spinrad's term for "pseudo-science ... made up by the writer with literary care that it not be discontinuous with the reader's realm of the possible." In "Rubber Sciences," Spinrad proposed eight rules of rubber science to write plausibly about future technology: Explanations must feel scientifically correct and have internal consistency.: 58 Principles used for plot purposes must be planted in the reader's mind long before they are used as plot elements.: 58 Concepts shouldn't be over-explained; a theoretical basis is sufficient.: 59 When creating a new science, authors should pay attention to how established sciences evolve.: 59 Interfacing two or more existing sciences will create a plausible new science.: 61 Plausibility can be lent by systematizing terminology and relating it to existing human knowledge by choosing words for metaphorical resonance.: 61 Rubber science can be solidified with believable hardware.: 62 Rubber science can "contribute to the dialectic of scientific evolution": 62 as a tool for intellectually exploring the unknown.: 64 == Usage == The term and concept have been adopted by science fiction writers to describe science based on "speculation, extrapolation, fabrication or invention." Vonda N. McIntyre calls rubber science "a grand tradition" in science fiction and places it in "a hierarchy of rules for science in sf": "if you can make it right, you should; if you can't make it right, at least make it plausible; if you can't make it right or plausible, you had better make it fun." In their writing guide On Writing Science Fiction, George H. Scithers, Darrell Schweitzer, and John M. Ford cite Spinrad's rules for rubber science as a way to "play fair with the reader," building a background logically from a minimum of assumptions, and focusing on the consequences of those assumptions rather than the assumptions themselves. Science fiction author Poul Anderson references Spinrad's concept of rubber science in his article "On Imaginary Science". Anderson prefers the term imaginary science to avoid plagiarizing Spinrad. He divides imaginary science into three types of usage: routine use, where the concepts are taken for granted; loose use, where concepts are treated for their own sake but without rigor; and brilliant use, where the implications of concepts are deeply explored. Anderson reiterates Spinrad's requirement that authors using rubber science know real science and avoid violating it unless they are conscious of what they're doing and what it means. === In other media === While rubber science was coined in reference to science fiction literature, the term has spread to discussion of science fiction in other media, including film, television, comic books, and gaming. Star Trek: Voyager script consultant Andre Bormanis used "the so-called rubber science or the very speculative, consistent with reality" when he was unable to find scientific explanations "based in fairly well-established real science". Game designer Steven S. Long included guidance for implementing rubber science in his Hero System tabletop role-playing game ruleset. === Criticism === Some science fiction authors have used the term disparagingly. Bill Ransom associates rubber science with science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s, an era marked by "lots of cool gadgets," before "the genre became more character driven" under the influence of writers such as Frank Herbert and Samuel Delany, focusing on humans rather than technology solving dilemmas. Lucius Shepard, responding to a negative review by George Turner, decried the suggestion that he "haul a gob of rubber science out of the vat in order to justify and explain [his] physics". Ann C. Crispin considered Star Trek's rubber science to be a forgivable flaw. John G. Cramer included an afterword in his hard science fiction novel Twistor to note places where he departed from accurate real science into speculative rubber science. He expressed concern that as a literary device, rubber science added drama at the expense of potentially deceiving the reader into believing the rubber science was factual; he documented his use of rubber science for readers interested in "where the boundaries are between the real and the rubber science" in his novel. Reviewers have used the term to praise deft or plausible scientific explanations, and to criticise underdeveloped or distracting worldbuilding; for instance, a Washington Post review criticized Orson Scott Card's novel Xenocide for its "chapter long dialogues about rubber science". == See also == Technobabble == References ==	Wikipedia/Rubber_science
In science fiction, uplift is the intervention in the evolution of species of low-intelligence or even nonsentient species in order to increase their intelligence. This is usually accomplished by cultural, technological, or evolutionary interventions such as genetic engineering. The earliest appearance of the concept is in H. G. Wells's 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. The term was popularized by David Brin in his Uplift series in the 1980s. == History == The concept of uplift can be traced to H. G. Wells's 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which the titular scientist transforms animals into horrifying parodies of humans through surgery and psychological torment. The resulting animal-people obsessively recite the Law, a series of prohibitions against a reversion to animal behaviors, with the haunting refrain of "Are we not men?". Wells's novel reflects Victorian concerns about vivisection and of the power of unrestrained scientific experimentation to do terrible harm. Other early literary examples can be found in the following works: Franz Kafka's A Report to an Academy (1917) is a short story in which Red Peter, an ape, describes his capture by humans, adaptation and mimicry of their behavior, habits and speech (originally in order to escape), and subsequent integration into human society. L. Sprague de Camp's "Johnny Black" stories (beginning with "The Command") about a black bear raised to human-level intelligence, published in Astounding Science-Fiction from 1938–1940. In Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series "underpeople" are created from animals through unexplained technological means explicitly to be servants of humanity, and were often treated as less than slaves by the society that used them, until the laws were reformed in the story "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" (1962). Smith's characterizations of underpeople are frequently quite sympathetic, and one of his most memorable characters is C'Mell, the cat-woman who appears in "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" and in Norstrilia (1975). David Brin has stated that his Uplift Universe was written at least in part in response to the common assumption in earlier science fiction such as Smith's work and Planet of the Apes that uplifted animals would, or even should, be treated as possessions rather than people. As a result, a significant part of the conflict in the series revolves around the differing policies of Galactics and humans toward their client races. Galactic races traditionally hold their uplifted "clients" in a hundred-millennium-long indenture, during which the "patrons" have extensive rights and claims over clients' lives and labor power. In contrast, humans have given their uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees near-equal civil rights, with a few legal and economic disabilities related to their unfinished state. A key scene in Startide Rising is a discussion between a self-aware computer (the Niss) and a leading human (Gillian) about how the events during their venture (and hence the novel's plot) relate to the morality of the Galactics' system of uplift. == Analysis == Some commentators, such as M. Keith Booker, have argued that some pieces of literature have used uplift as an allegory for the white man's burden and colonialism. Booker singles out Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth as a novel that mirrors Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in a science-fiction setting. Other authors, by contrast, have used uplift as a narrative foil to colonialism, presenting uplift not only as benevolent but as a virtuous reversal of colonial attitudes. == Selected works == == See also == Animal cognition Eugenics Intelligence amplification Talking animal Transhumanism Heart of a Dog == References == === Citations === === Sources === Booker, M. Keith [in German] (2015). Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8108-7884-6. Polo, Susana (21 March 2017). "The lore of Mass Effect: A complete guide". Polygon. Retrieved 7 November 2024. == Further reading == Pilkington, Ace G. (2017). "Uplift". Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas. Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Vol. 58. McFarland. pp. 145–149. ISBN 978-0-7864-9856-7. == External links == All Together Now: Developmental and Ethical Considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals by George Dvorsky Great Ape Trust Fiction with "Uplifted" Animals: An Annotated Bibliography	Wikipedia/Uplift_(science_fiction)
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continuously revised, edition was published online from 2011; a change of web host was announced as the launch of a fourth edition in 2021. == History == === First edition === The first edition, edited by Peter Nicholls with John Clute, was published by Granada in 1979. It was retitled The Science Fiction Encyclopedia when published by Doubleday in the United States. Accompanying its text were numerous black and white photographs illustrating authors, book and magazine covers, film and TV stills, and examples of artists' work. === Second edition === A second edition, jointly edited by Nicholls and Clute, was published in 1993 by Orbit in the UK and St. Martin's Press in the US. The second edition contained 1.3 million words, almost twice the 700,000 words of the 1979 edition. The 1995 paperback edition included a sixteen-page addendum (dated "7 August 1995"). Unlike the first edition, the print versions did not contain illustrations. There was also a CD-ROM version in 1995, styled variously as The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Grolier Science Fiction. This contained text updates through 1995, hundreds of book covers and author photos, a small number of old film trailers, and author video clips taken from the TVOntario series Prisoners of Gravity. The companion volume, published after the second print edition and following its format closely, is The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant. === Third edition === In July 2011, Orion Publishing Group announced that the third edition of The Science Fiction Encyclopedia would be released online later that year by SFE Ltd in association with Victor Gollancz, Orion's science fiction imprint. The "beta text" of the third edition launched online on 2 October 2011, with editors John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls (as editor emeritus until his death in 2018) and Graham Sleight. The encyclopedia is updated regularly (usually several times a week) by the editorial team with material written by themselves and contributed by science fiction academics and experts. It received the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2012. Though the SFE is a composite work with a considerable number of contributors, the three main editors (Clute, Langford and Nicholls) have themselves written almost two-thirds of the 5.2 million words to date (September 2016), giving a sense of unity to the whole. === Fourth edition === The Encyclopedia ended its arrangement with Orion on 29 September 2021 and moved to a new, self-owned web server. The move was completed by 6 October 2021, and announced as the launch of the fourth edition. While based on the earlier design, the new edition incorporates a number of revisions; for instance, many author entries now include thumbnails of the author's book covers, randomly selected from the relevant Gallery pages. == Contents == The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction contains entries under the categories of authors, themes, terminology, science fiction in various countries, films, filmmakers, television, magazines, fanzines, comics, illustrators, book publishers, original anthologies, awards, and miscellaneous. The online edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction was released in October 2011 with 12,230 entries, totaling 3,200,000 words. The editors predicted that it would contain 4,000,000 words upon completion of the first round of updates at the end of 2012; this figure was actually reached in January 2013, and 5,000,000 words in November 2015. == Reception == Writer Ian Watson reviewed the first edition in 1980, the journal Foundation. Watson noted his positive surprise that the publication contains much smaller amount of errors than expected, and noted that its format allows for easy correction of those in the expected second edition. He concluded that the "volume is a genuine encyclopedia - the first such. It is the Britannica of the sf field", positively commenting on the breadth and scope of the entries, and even the illustrations, which are informative, and not just decorations. Edward James, a British scholar of medieval history and science fiction, praised the second edition of the encyclopedia in his review (also for the journal Foundation) in 1993, writing that it is "the one indispensable volume on every sf readers' shelf: not only the best reference work in the field, but one of the best reference works I have seen in ''any'' field". He did, however, found the "sneering" tone of some film entries (de facto film reviews) less than ideal for an encyclopedia. James also noted that although the project is a collaborative effort, nearly half of the entries for that edition have been written by Clute, which he saw as a very impressive achievement on his part. Writer Gary Westfahl also reviewed the second edition, for the journal Extrapolation. He called it "an invaluable compendium of and contribution to fifty years of science fiction research", representing "a true conceptual breakthrough" for the field of science fiction studies, and noted that even more than the encyclopedia's previous edition, this one "is the one essential reference book for anyone interested in science fiction". He also predicted that "this work will justifiably be cited in all studies of science fiction during the next decade, and those studies will be significantly better because of Clute and Nicholl's painstaking work". Nonetheless he noted that the volume is not perfect, and contains some errors as well as several entries on novel topics that could use more grounding in prior research before being written about in an encyclopedia". Nicholas Ruddick briefly commented on the second edition, noting that it has been "highly praised". Briefly commenting on the third edition, Andrew M. Butler called it "a gold standard for reference works in the field". The encyclopedia also received several other reviews, by writers and scholars such as Gary K. Wolfe, Don D'Ammassa and David G. Hartwell. == Awards == == Publications == First edition: Nicholls, Peter, ed. (1979). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated A to Z. St Albans, Herts, UK: Granada Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-246-11020-6. 672 pp. Second edition: Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). London: Orbit Books. ISBN 978-1-85723-124-3. xxxvi + 1370 pp. Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-13486-0. xxxvi + 1386 pp. Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1995). The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (CD-ROM) (2nd ed.). Danbury, CT: Grolier Science Fiction. ISBN 978-0-7172-3999-3. Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter, eds. (1999). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). London: Orbit Books. ISBN 978-1-85723-897-6. xxxvi + 1396 pp. Third edition: Clute, John; Langford, David; Nicholls, Peter; Sleight, Graham, eds. (2011). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.). London: Gollancz. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Fourth edition: Clute, John; Langford, David, eds. (2021). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). London and Reading: SFE Ltd and Ansible Editions. Retrieved 7 October 2021. == See also == The Encyclopedia of Fantasy Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978 book) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction == References == == External links == SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 2014—current online edition Self-referential entry on the Encyclopedia, written by David Langford SF Encyclopedia Editorial Home (sf-encyclopedia.co.uk)—with data on multiple editions "Formats and Editions of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" at WorldCat 1993 SF Encyclopedia Updates—"New Data, Typographical Errors, Factual Corrections, and Miscellanea; Last updated September 2002"—superseded by the 2011 edition Grolier product information, 1995 Multimedia edition at the Wayback Machine (archived October 17, 2008) "Q&A with the Founder of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", The Independent, 12 January 2012—Neela Debnath with Peter Nicholls	Wikipedia/The_Encyclopedia_of_Science_Fiction
Bengali science fiction (Bengali: বাংলা বিজ্ঞান কল্পকাহিনী Bangla Bigyan Kalpakahini) is a part of Bengali literature containing science fiction elements. It is called Kalpabigyan (কল্পবিজ্ঞান lit. 'fictional science'), or stories of imaginative science, in Bengali literature. The term was first coined by Adrish Bardhan during his editorship years. == Earliest writers == Bengali writers authored various science fiction works in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the British Raj, before the partition of India. Isaac Asimov's assertion that "true science fiction could not really exist until people understood the rationalism of science and began to use it with respect in their stories" is true for the earliest science fiction written in the Bengali language. The earliest notable Bengali science fiction was Jagadananda Roy's "Shukra Bhraman" ("Travels to Venus"). This story is of particular interest to literary historians, as it describes a journey to another planet; its description of the alien creatures on Venus used an evolutionary theory similar to the origins of man: "They resembled our apes to a large extent. Their bodies were covered with dense black fur. Their heads were larger in comparison with their bodies, limbs sported long nails and they were completely naked." Some specialists credit Hemlal Dutta as one of the earliest Bengali science fiction writers for his "Rohosso" ("The Mystery"). This story was published in two installments in 1882 in the pictorial magazine Bigyan Darpan. The story is notable for mentioning security alarm as a science-fiction element. In 1896, Jagadish Chandra Bose, known as the father of Bengali science fiction, wrote "Niruddesher Kahini". This tale of weather control, one of the first Bengali science fiction works, features getting rid of a cyclone using a little bottle of hair oil ("Kuntol Keshori"). Later, he included the story with changes in the collection of essays titled Abyakto (1921) as "Palatak Tufan" ("Runaway Cyclone"). Both versions of the story have been translated into English by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay. Roquia Sakhawat Hussain (Begum Rokeya), an early Islamic feminist, wrote "Sultana's Dream," one of the earliest examples of feminist science fiction in any language. It depicts a feminist utopia of role reversal, in which men are locked away in seclusion in a manner corresponding to the traditional Muslim practice of purdah for women. The short story written in English was first published in the Madras-based Indian Ladies Magazine in 1905, and three years later, it appeared as a book. Hemendra Kumar Ray's Meghduter Morte Agomon ("The Ascension of God's Messengers on Earth"), a work inspired by Wells' "The War of The Worlds", describes the first contact between two sentient species. Ray's Martians, instead of invading a metropolis like Calcutta or London, descend to a rural Bengal village called Bilaspur. Though the superstitious villagers call the new arrivals creatures of supernatural chaos, the protagonist, Binoy-babu, a person of scientific temper, says, "This is neither the work of a ghost nor human. This is the work of an unknown force that you will not find on this Earth. That power that scientists all over the world have been seeking has made its very first appearance here, in this Bengal! Oh, Kamal, you cannot imagine how happy I am!" As the father of Bengali adventure fiction, Ray puts the reader through Binoy's narrative. It is divided into two parts, the first is a futuristic, Indianized take on Fermi paradox, and the second is a prehistoric adventure inspired by Wells' The Time Machine. In his later novels, Roy also Indianized Doyle's The Lost World as Maynamatir Mayakanon ("The Surreal Garden of Maynamati"). His "Nobojuger Mohadanob" is considered the first piece of Bengali literature on robots. == Post-colonial Kalpabigyan era in India == Several writers from West Bengal, India, have written science fiction. Adrish Bardhan, one of the most notable of West Bengal's sci-fi writers, is considered the curator of Bengali science fiction/Kalpavigyan. Under the pen name Akash Sen, he helped with the editorship of Ashchorjo (1963–72), the first Bengali science fiction magazine in the Indian Subcontinent. While having a very short run, this magazine gave birth to a slew of new literary voices such as Ranen Ghosh, Khitindranarayan Bhattacharya, Sujit Dhar, Gurnick Singh, Dilip Raychaudhuri, Enakkhi Chattopadhyay, Premendra Mitra and Satyajit Ray. Ashchorjo also published translated works of Golden Age Western sci-fi, like Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. At its peak, Bardhan, along with Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra and Dilip Raychaudhari, presented a radio program on All India Radio, two broadcasts based on the idea of shared universes, called Mohakashjatri Bangali ("The Bengali Astronauts"), and Sobuj Manush ("The Saga of The Green Men"). The first science fiction cine club in India, possibly in Southeast Asia as well, was Bardhan's brainchild. Bardhan also created Prof. Nutboltu Chokro, a science fiction series based on a character of the same name. Following Bardhan's family trauma, which led to the cessation of Ashchorjo's publication, he relaunched the magazine under the title Fantastic in 1975, with Ranen Ghosh serving as coeditor. The term "Kalpavigyan" made its first appearance in this magazine. Unlike Ashchorjo, Fantastic was not exclusively a science fiction publication; it also included other speculative genres such as fantasy and horror. Despite an erratic publication schedule and a heavy reliance on reprints, Fantastic continued for over a decade before ceasing publication in 2007. In the in-between years, another sci-fi magazine, Vismoy, was edited by Sujit Dhar and Ranen Ghosh but was only published for two years. Magazines like Anish Deb's Kishor Vismoy, Samarjit Kar, and Rabin Ball's Kishor Gyan Biggan are honorable mentions. Eminent filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray also enriched Bengali science fiction by writing many short stories ("Bonkubabur Bondhu", "Moyurkonthi Jelly", "Brihachanchu", etc.) as well as a science fantasy series about scientist and inventor Professor Shonku. These stories were created keeping the MG and young adult audience of Bengal in mind, particularly the subscribers of Sandesh, of which Ray was an editor. The last two Shonku stories were completed by Sudip Deb. Ray translated Bradbury's Mars Is Heaven! and Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God as well. Ray's short story "The Alien" is about an extraterrestrial called "Mr. Ang" who gained popularity among Bengalis in the early 1960s. It is alleged that the script for Steven Spielberg's film E.T. was based on a script for The Alien that Ray had sent to the film's producers in the late 1960s. Sumit Bardhan's Arthatrisna is the first steampunk detective novel in Bengali. Other notable science fiction writers include Leela Majumdar, Premendra Mitra, Ranen Ghosh, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Syed Mustafa Siraj, Samarjit Kar, Anish Deb, Biswajit Ganguly, Siddhartha Ghosh, Suman Sen, Rajesh Basu, Abhijnan Roychowdhury, Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay, Debojyoti Bhattacharya, Saikat Mukhopadhyay, Sumit Bardhan, Rebanta Goswami, Soham Guha, Sandipan Chattopadhyay and Mallika Dhar. == Science fiction in Bangladesh == After Qazi Abdul Halim's Mohasunner Kanna ("Tears of the Cosmos") was the first modern East Bengali science fiction novel. After independence, Humayun Ahmed wrote the Bengali science fiction novel Tomader Jonno Valobasa (Love For You All), published in 1973. This book is treated as the first full-fledged Bangladeshi science fiction novel. He also wrote Tara Tinjon ("They were Three"), Irina, Anonto Nakshatra Bithi ("Endless Galaxy"), Fiha Somikoron ("Fiha Equation"), and other works. Bengali science fiction is considered to have reached a new level of literary sophistication with the contributions of Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. Iqbal wrote the story "Copotronic Sukh Dukho" when he was a student of Dhaka University. This was later included in a compilation of Iqbal's work in a book by the same name. Muktodhara, a famous publishing house of Dhaka, was the publisher of this book. This collection gained huge popularity and a new trend of science fiction emerged among Bengali writers and readers. After this first collection, Iqbal transformed his science fiction cartoon strip, Mohakashe Mohatrash ("Terror in the Cosmos") into a novel. All told, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal has written the greatest number of science fiction works in Bengali science fiction. In 1997, Moulik, the first and longest-running Bangladeshi science fiction magazine, was first published, with famous cartoonist Ahsan Habib as editor. This monthly magazine played an important role in the development of Bengali science fiction in Bangladesh. A number of new and promising science fiction writers including Rabiul Hasan Avi, Anik Khan, Asrar Masud, Sajjad Kabir, Russel Ahmed, and Mizanur Rahman Kallol came of age while working with the magazine. === Other writers of Bangladesh === Other notable writers in the genre include Vobdesh Ray, Rakib Hasan, Nipun Alam, Ali Imam, Qazi Anwar Hussain, Abdul Ahad, Anirudha Alam, Ahsanul Habib, Kamal Arsalan, Dr. Ahmed Mujibar Rahman, Moinul Ahsan Saber, Swapan Kumar Gayen, Mohammad Zaidul Alam, Mostafa Tanim, Jubaida Gulshan Ara Hena, Amirul Islam, Touhidur Rahman, Zakaria Swapan, Qazi Shahnur Hussain and Milton Hossain. Muhammad Anwarul Hoque Khan writes science fiction about parallel worlds and mysteries of science and mathematics. Altamas Pasha is a science fiction writer, whose recent book is Valcaner Shopno, published by Utthan Porbo. Following the footsteps of the pioneers, more and more writers, especially young writers, have started writing science fiction, and a new era of writing has started in Bengali literature. == Science fiction magazines == After the ceasing of Fantastic, there was a void in science fiction in the Bengali literary space. While popular magazines for young adult readers, such as Shuktara, Kishore Bharati, and Anandamela, have published special issues dedicated to science fiction, new platforms promoting science fiction in Bengali through online web magazines have emerged. Popular web-magazines like Joydhakweb have published science fiction stories. In 2016, a significant development occurred with the publication of Kalpabiswa (কল্পবিশ্ব), the first science fiction and fantasy-themed Bengali web-magazine for adult readers. In its themed issues, Kalpabiswa has addressed many themes of Kalpavigyan, as well as of global science fiction, such as feminism in sci-fi, climate fiction, the Golden Age of world science fiction, various punk subgenres, and sci-fi in Japanese literature (i.e. manga and anime). Under the guidance of Jadavpur University, Kalpabiswa held the first Science Fiction Conference of Eastern India in 2018. == Portrayal of characters == Most Bengali science fiction authors use different characters for different stories, building them up in different forms according to the theme of the story. The stories by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal sometimes repeat names but have never used the same character in more than one story. Qazi Shahnur Hussain, the eldest son of Qazi Anwar Hussain and grandson of Qazi Motahar Hussain, wrote the sci-fi Chotomama Series. These are the adventures of a young Bangladeshi scientist Rumi Chotomama and his nephew. Satyajit Ray's Professor Shonku is portrayed as an aged man, proficient in 72 different languages, who has created many innovative inventions. He is regularly accompanied by other characters including scientists Jeremy Saunders and Wilhelm Krol, his neighbour Mr. Abinash, his servant Prahlad and his beloved cat, Newton. In his paper "Hemendra Kumar Ray and the birth of adventure Kalpabigyan", Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay said, "Amaanushik Maanush becomes science fiction by incorporating both science and science fiction, particularly lost race narratives and subverting their positions internally. Amaanushik Maanush can be recognised as science fiction not only because of what it claims as science within the text, but more specifically because it is framed within a cluster of science fiction tales that allows us to identify it as part of a genre. It is in its handling of myth that Amanushik Maanush can be identified more distinctly as kalpabigyan." Premendra Mitra created the immensely popular fictional character Ghanada, a teller of tell tales with a scientific basis. In an interview with the magazine SPAN in 1974, Mitra said that he tried to keep the stories "as factually correct and as authentic as possible." In the July 1974 issue of the monthly magazine SPAN, AK Ganguly discusses Premendra Mitra's novel "Manu Dwadash" (The Twelfth Manu), which transports readers to a distant future following near-total devastation from nuclear holocausts. In this post-apocalyptic world, only three small tribes remain, each on the brink of extinction due to radiation-induced loss of procreative ability. The author adeptly navigates the scientific and philosophical complexities arising from this apocalyptic scenario. Mitra remarks, "If Huxley's "Brave New World" can be regarded as science fiction and it is indeed science fiction par excellence, my "Manu Dwadash" can advance some claim to this title." == See also == Science fiction films in India Indian military fiction == References == == Bibliography == Science Fiction: Ek Osadharan Jagat. Preface of Science Fiction Collection, edited by Ali Imam and Anirudho Alam Different issues of Rohosso Potrika == External links == Bengal at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Article on Bangla Science Fiction in Science Fiction Studies by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay Kalpabiswa web-magazine	Wikipedia/Bengali_science_fiction
Publication of comic strips and comic books focusing on science fiction became increasingly common during the early 1930s in newspapers published in the United States. They have since spread to many countries around the world. == History == The first science fiction comic was the gag cartoon Mr. Skygack, from Mars by A.D. Condo, which debuted in newspapers in 1907. The first non-humorous science fiction comic strip, Buck Rogers, appeared in 1929, and was based on a story published that year in Amazing Stories. It was quickly followed by others in the genre, such as Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford, and the British strip Dan Dare. This influence spread to comic books, in which science fiction themes became increasingly more popular; one title was Planet Comics. With the introduction of Superman, the superhero genre was born, which often included science fiction elements. EC Comics had success and popularity in publishing science fiction comics of increasing complexity. However, a wave of anti-comic feeling stirred-up among parents and educators by Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent threatened to drive them out of business. In spite of opposition, science fiction in comics continued in the U.S. through the 1960s with stories for children and teenagers, and began to return to the adult market again in the late 1960s with the wave of hippy underground comics. === Japan === Japanese manga also featured science fiction elements. In the 1950s, Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy was one of the first major manga that centered around science fiction. In the following decades, many other creators and works would follow, including Leiji Matsumoto (e.g. Galaxy Express 999), Katsuhiro Otomo (e.g. Akira) and Masamune Shirow (e.g. Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell). === United Kingdom === In the UK, the publication of Eagle gave a platform for the launch of Dan Dare in 1950. Dan Dare and other comics in Briton at this time were aimed at children and they were printed on newsprint. Magazines on the other hand were aimed at adults and were printed on better glossier paper these magazines were mostly in black and white. Starting in the mid-sixties, The Trigan Empire, drawn by Don Lawrence (who would later go on to create Storm) was featured in Look and Learn. In the 1970s, publications, such as 2000 AD, featured a selection of regular stories putting a science fiction spin on popular themes, like sports or war. Its success spawned a number of spin-offs in imitators like Tornado, Starlord, and Crisis, none of which lasted more than a few years, with the earlier titles being merged back into 2000 AD. === France === The first French comic with a science fiction theme was Zig et Puce au XXIème Siècle (Zig & Puce In The 21st Century), originally serialized in a French Sunday newspaper before being published as an album in 1935; this was one of the many adventures of the teenage characters Zig and Puce first created in 1925. The first French science fiction comics story that was not geared toward the adolescent audience was Futuropolis, serialized in the comics magazine Junior in 1937-1938; the pseudo-sequel Electropolis followed in 1940. When the Nazi occupation forces banned the import of Flash Gordon into France, Le Rayon U (The U Ray) was created as replacement in the magazine Bravo which had been running the former. Other French science fiction comics which debuted in 1943 include Otomox, featuring a powerful robot, serialized in Pic et Nic, and L'Épervier Bleu (The Blue Hawk), serialized in Spirou magazine. The first French comics magazine exclusively featuring a science fiction hero was in 1947 with the relatively short-lived Radar. A far longer lasting French comics magazine would be the small-format Meteor, published from 1953 through 1964; its main feature was Les Connquerants de l'espace (The Conquerors of Space). Subsequent notable French science fiction include publications like Métal Hurlant and authors like Enki Bilal (e.g. The Nikopol Trilogy) and Moebius. === Webcomics === With the invention of the Internet, a number of science fiction comics have been published primarily online. Among the earliest science fiction webcomics was Polymer City Chronicles, which first appeared in 1994. Other notable comics include Schlock Mercenary, and Starslip Crisis. == Graphic novels == A science fiction graphic novel is a full-length book that uses images necessarily to depict a story of a fictional nature that explores different/future time lines, theoretical societies, technology and/or both. The first recorded usage of the term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), is in 1978 by Will Eisner: "A contract with God: and other tenement stories... A graphic novel", though graphic novels existed for years prior. While predating the term, a graphic novel based on science fiction, Astro Boy, by Osamu Tezuka, was published in 1951, starring a childlike robot Astro Boy who was activated in the year 2003. == List of science fiction comic books == The following list is based on A complete history of American comic books. Planet Comics (1940) Weird Fantasy (1950) Weird Science (1950) Strange Adventures (1950) Strange Worlds (1950) Flying Saucers (1950) Mystery in Space (1951) House of Mystery (1951) Weird Thrillers (1951) Earthman on Venus (1951) Space Detective (1951) Space Adventures (1952) Space Busters (1952) Space Western Comics (1952) Mysteries and Unexplored Words (1956) Alarming Tales (1957) Outer Space (1958) Race for the Moon (1958) Tales to Astonish (1959) Space Man (1962) Outer Limits (1964) The Trigan Empire (1965) Star Trek (1967) Outer Space (1968) UFO Flying Saucers (1968) Planet of the Apes (1968) Worlds Unknown (1973) Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction (1975) Space: 1999 (1975) Doomsday + 1 (1975) Star Reach (1975) Imagine (1976) Starstream (1976) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1976) 2000 AD (1977) Heavy Metal (1977) Star Wars (1977) Space War (1978) Micronauts (1979) Starblazer (1979) Alien Encounters (1981) Alien Worlds (1985) Men in Black (1990) == References == == Further reading == Benton, Mike (1992). Science Fiction Comics: The Illustrated History. Taylor History of Comics. Taylor Publishing. p. 153. ISBN 0-87833-789-X. == External links == Comics on The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_comics
Space travel,: 69 : 209–210 : 511–512 or space flight: 200–201 (less often, starfaring or star voyaging: 217, 220 ) is a science fiction theme that has captivated the public and is almost archetypal for science fiction. Space travel, interplanetary or interstellar, is usually performed in space ships, and spacecraft propulsion in various works ranges from the scientifically plausible to the totally fictitious.: 8, 69–77 While some writers focus on realistic, scientific, and educational aspects of space travel, other writers see this concept as a metaphor for freedom, including "free[ing] mankind from the prison of the solar system". Though the science fiction rocket has been described as a 20th-century icon,: 744 according to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction "The means by which space flight has been achieved in sf – its many and various spaceships – have always been of secondary importance to the mythical impact of the theme". Works related to space travel have popularized such concepts as time dilation, space stations, and space colonization.: 69–80 : 743 While generally associated with science fiction, space travel has also occasionally featured in fantasy, sometimes involving magic or supernatural entities such as angels.: 742–743 == History == A classic, defining trope of the science fiction genre is that the action takes place in space, either aboard a spaceship or on another planet.: 511–512 Early works of science fiction, termed "proto SF" – such as novels by 17th-century writers Francis Godwin and Cyrano de Bergerac, and by astronomer Johannes Kepler – include "lunar romances", much of whose action takes place on the Moon. Science fiction critic George Slusser also pointed to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1604) – in which the main character is able to see the entire Earth from high above – and noted the connections of space travel to earlier dreams of flight and air travel, as far back as the writings of Plato and Socrates.: 742 In such a grand view, space travel, and inventions such as various forms of "star drive", can be seen as metaphors for freedom, including "free[ing] mankind from the prison of the solar system". In the following centuries, while science fiction addressed many aspects of futuristic science as well as space travel, space travel proved the more influential with the genre's writers and readers, evoking their sense of wonder.: 69 Most works were mainly intended to amuse readers, but a small number, often by authors with a scholarly background, sought to educate readers about related aspects of science, including astronomy; this was the motive of the influential American editor Hugo Gernsback, who dubbed it "sugar-coated science" and "scientifiction".: 70 Science fiction magazines, including Gernsback's Science Wonder Stories, alongside works of pure fiction, discussed the feasibility of space travel; many science fiction writers also published nonfiction works on space travel, such as Willy Ley's articles and David Lasser's book, The Conquest of Space (1931).: 71 : 743 From the late 19th and early 20th centuries on, there was a visible distinction between the more "realistic", scientific fiction (which would later evolve into hard sf)), whose authors, often scientists like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Max Valier, focused on the more plausible concept of interplanetary travel (to the Moon or Mars); and the more grandiose, less realistic stories of "escape from Earth into a Universe filled with worlds", which gave rise to the genre of space opera, pioneered by E. E. Smith and popularized by the television series Star Trek, which debuted in 1966.: 743 This trend continues to the present, with some works focusing on "the myth of space flight", and others on "realistic examination of space flight"; the difference can be described as that between the authors' concern with the "imaginative horizons rather than hardware". The successes of 20th-century space programs, such as the Apollo 11 Moon landing, have often been described as "science fiction come true" and have served to further "demystify" the concept of space travel within the Solar System. Henceforth writers who wanted to focus on the "myth of space travel" were increasingly likely to do so through the concept of interstellar travel. Edward James wrote that many science fiction stories have "explored the idea that without the constant expansion of humanity, and the continual extension of scientific knowledge, comes stagnation and decline.": 252 While the theme of space travel has generally been seen as optimistic,: 511–512 some stories by revisionist authors, often more pessimistic and disillusioned, juxtapose the two types, contrasting the romantic myth of space travel with a more down-to-Earth reality. George Slusser suggests that "science fiction travel since World War II has mirrored the United States space program: anticipation in the 1950s and early 1960s, euphoria into the 1970s, modulating into skepticism and gradual withdrawal since the 1980s.": 743 On the screen, the 1902 French film A Trip to the Moon, by Georges Méliès, described as the first science fiction film, linked special effects to depictions of spaceflight.: 744 With other early films, such as Woman in the Moon (1929) and Things to Come (1936), it contributed to an early recognition of the rocket as the iconic, primary means of space travel, decades before space programs began.: 744 Later milestones in film and television include the Star Trek series and films, and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (1968), which visually advanced the concept of space travel, allowing it to evolve from the simple rocket toward a more complex space ship.: 744 Stanley Kubrick's 1968 epic film featured a lengthy sequence of interstellar travel through a mysterious "star gate". This sequence, noted for its psychedelic special effects conceived by Douglas Trumbull, influenced a number of later cinematic depictions of superluminal and hyperspatial travel, such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).: 159 I == Means of travel == Generic terms for engines enabling science fiction spacecraft propulsion include "space drive" and "star drive".: 198, 216 In 1977 The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction listed the following means of space travel: anti-gravity, atomic (nuclear), bloater, cannon one-shot, Dean drive, faster-than-light (FTL), hyperspace, inertialess drive,: 75 ion thruster, photon rocket, plasma propulsion engine, Bussard ramjet, R. force, solar sail, spindizzy, and torchship.: 8, 69–77 The 2007 Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction lists the following terms related to the concept of space drive: gravity drive, hyperdrive, ion drive, jump drive, overdrive, ramscoop (a synonym for ram-jet), reaction drive, stargate, ultradrive, warp drive and torchdrive.: 94, 141, 142, 253 Several of these terms are entirely fictitious or are based on "rubber science", while others are based on real scientific theories.: 8, 69–77 : 142 Many fictitious means of travelling through space, in particular, faster than light travel, tend to go against the current understanding of physics, in particular, the theory of relativity.: 68–69 Some works sport numerous alternative star drives; for example the Star Trek universe, in addition to its iconic "warp drive", has introduced concepts such as "transwarp", "slipstream" and "spore drive", among others. Many, particularly early, writers of science fiction did not address means of travel in much detail, and many writings of the "proto-SF" era were disadvantaged by their authors' living in a time when knowledge of space was very limited — in fact, many early works did not even consider the concept of vacuum and instead assumed that an atmosphere of sorts, composed of air or "aether", continued indefinitely. Highly influential in popularizing the science of science fiction was the 19th-century French writer Jules Verne, whose means of space travel in his 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon (and its sequel, Around the Moon), was explained mathematically, and whose vehicle — a gun-launched space capsule — has been described as the first such vehicle to be "scientifically conceived" in fiction.: 69 : 743 Percy Greg's Across the Zodiac (1880) featured a spaceship with a small garden, an early precursor of hydroponics.: 69 Another writer who attempted to merge concrete scientific ideas with science fiction was the turn-of-the-century Russian writer and scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who popularized the concept of rocketry. George Mann mentions Robert A. Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo (1947) and Arthur C. Clarke's Prelude to Space (1951) as early, influential modern works that emphasized the scientific and engineering aspects of space travel.: 511–512 From the 1960s on, growing popular interest in modern technology also led to increasing depictions of interplanetary spaceships based on advanced plausible extensions of real modern technology.: 511–512 The Alien franchise features ships with ion propulsion, a developing technology at the time that would be used years later in the Deep Space 1, Hayabusa 1 and SMART-1 spacecraft. === Interstellar travel === ==== Slower than light ==== With regard to interstellar travel, in which faster-than-light speeds are generally considered unrealistic, more realistic depictions of interstellar travel have often focused on the idea of "generation ships" that travel at sub-light speed for many generations before arriving at their destinations. Other scientifically plausible concepts of interstellar travel include suspended animation and, less often, ion drive, solar sail, Bussard ramjet, and time dilation.: 74 ==== Faster than light ==== Some works discuss Einstein's general theory of relativity and challenges that it faces from quantum mechanics, and include concepts of space travel through wormholes or black holes.: 511–512 Many writers, however, gloss over such problems, introducing entirely fictional concepts such as hyperspace (also, subspace, nulspace, overspace, jumpspace, or slipstream) travel using inventions such as hyperdrive, jump drive, warp drive, or space folding.: 75 : 511–512 : 214 Invention of completely made-up devices enabling space travel has a long tradition — already in the early 20th century, Verne criticized H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901) for abandoning realistic science (his spaceship relied on anti-gravitic material called "cavorite").: 69 : 743 Of fictitious drives, by the mid-1970s the concept of hyperspace travel was described as having achieved the most popularity, and would subsequently be further popularized — as hyperdrive — through its use in the Star Wars franchise.: 75 While the fictitious drives "solved" problems related to physics (the difficulty of faster-than-light travel), some writers introduce new wrinkles — for example, a common trope involves the difficulty of using such drives in close proximity to other objects, in some cases allowing their use only beginning from the outskirts of the planetary systems.: 75–76 While usually the means of space travel is just a means to an end, in some works, particularly short stories, it is a central plot device. These works focus on themes such as the mysteries of hyperspace, or the consequences of getting lost after an error or malfunction.: 74–75 == See also == Flying saucer Human spaceflight Space warfare in science fiction Space elevator Space flight simulation game Teleportation Unidentified flying object == Notes == == References == == Further reading == Alcubierre, Miguel (2017-06-20). "Astronomy and space on the big screen: How accurately has cinema portrayed space travel and other astrophysical concepts?". Metode Science Studies Journal (7): 211–219. doi:10.7203/metode.7.8530. hdl:10550/79712. ISSN 2174-9221. Clarke, Arthur C. (September 1950). "Space-Travel in Fact and Fiction". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 9 (5): 213–230. Fraknoi, Andrew (January 2024). "Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index" (PDF). Astronomical Society of the Pacific (7.3 ed.). p. 19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-02-10. Retrieved 2024-03-23. Freedman, Russell (1963). 2000 Years of Space Travel. Holiday House. Kanas, Nick (November 2015). "Ad Astra! Interstellar Travel in Science Fiction". Analog. 135 (11): 4–7. Ley, Willy (1964). "Writer's Choice". Missiles, Moonprobes, and Megaparsecs. New American Library. pp. 112–125. May, Andrew (2018). "Journey into Space". Rockets and Ray Guns: The Sci-Fi Science of the Cold War. Science and Fiction. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 41–79. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89830-8_2. ISBN 978-3-319-89830-8. Mollmann, Steven (2011). "Space Travel in Science Fiction". In Grossman, Leigh (ed.). Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 978-1-4344-4035-8. Moskowitz, Sam (October 1959). Santesson, Hans Stefan (ed.). "Two Thousand Years of Space Travel". Fantastic Universe. Vol. 11, no. 6. pp. 80–88, 79. ISFDB series #18631. Moskowitz, Sam (February 1960). Santesson, Hans Stefan (ed.). "To Mars And Venus in the Gay Nineties". Fantastic Universe. Vol. 12, no. 4. pp. 44–55. ISFDB series #18631. Ruehrwein, Donald (May 1, 1979). "A History of Interstellar Space Travel (As Presented in Science Fiction)". Odyssey. 5 (5): 14–17. Russo, Arturo (2001). "Dreams of Space Flight". In Bleeker, Johan A.M.; Geiss, Johannes; Huber, Martin C.E. (eds.). The Century of Space Science. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 26–29. ISBN 978-94-010-0320-9. Weitekamp, Margaret A. (2019). ""Ahead, Warp Factor Three, Mr. Sulu": Imagining Interstellar Faster-Than-Light Travel in Space Science Fiction". The Journal of Popular Culture. 52 (5): 1036–1057. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12844. ISSN 1540-5931. S2CID 211643287. Westfahl, Gary (2022). "Spaceships—Rockets to Ride: The Spaceships of Science Fiction". The Stuff of Science Fiction: Hardware, Settings, Characters. McFarland. pp. 41–50. ISBN 978-1-4766-8659-2. == External links == "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database. Search Records by Subject: SPACE TRAVEL". sffrd.library.tamu.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-21.	Wikipedia/Space_travel_in_science_fiction
Aspects of genetics including mutation, hybridisation, cloning, genetic engineering, and eugenics have appeared in fiction since the 19th century. Genetics is a young science, having started in 1900 with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's study on the inheritance of traits in pea plants. During the 20th century it developed to create new sciences and technologies including molecular biology, DNA sequencing, cloning, and genetic engineering. The ethical implications were brought into focus with the eugenics movement. Since then, many science fiction novels and films have used aspects of genetics as plot devices, often taking one of two routes: a genetic accident with disastrous consequences; or, the feasibility and desirability of a planned genetic alteration. The treatment of science in these stories has been uneven and often unrealistic. The film Gattaca did attempt to portray science accurately but was criticised by scientists. == Background == Modern genetics began with the work of the monk Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, on the inheritance of traits in pea plants. Mendel found that visible traits, such as whether peas were round or wrinkled, were inherited discretely, rather than by blending the attributes of the two parents. In 1900, Hugo de Vries and other scientists rediscovered Mendel's research; William Bateson coined the term "genetics" for the new science, which soon investigated a wide range of phenomena including mutation (inherited changes caused by damage to the genetic material), genetic linkage (when some traits are to some extent inherited together), and hybridisation (crosses of different species). Eugenics, the production of better human beings by selective breeding, was named and advocated by Charles Darwin's cousin, the scientist Francis Galton, in 1883. It had both a positive aspect, the breeding of more children with high intelligence and good health; and a negative aspect, aiming to suppress "race degeneration" by preventing supposedly "defective" families with attributes such as profligacy, laziness, immoral behaviour and a tendency to criminality from having children. Molecular biology, the interactions and regulation of genetic materials, began with the identification in 1944 of DNA as the main genetic material; the genetic code and the double helix structure of DNA was determined by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. DNA sequencing, the identification of an exact sequence of genetic information in an organism, was developed in 1977 by Frederick Sanger. Genetic engineering, the modification of the genetic material of a live organism, became possible in 1972 when Paul Berg created the first recombinant DNA molecules (artificially assembled genetic material) using viruses. Cloning, the production of genetically identical organisms from some chosen starting point, was shown to be practicable in a mammal with the creation of Dolly the sheep from an ordinary body cell in 1996 at the Roslin Institute. == Genetics themes == === Mutants and hybrids === Mutation and hybridisation are widely used in fiction, starting in the 19th century with science fiction works such as Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein and H. G. Wells's 1896 The Island of Dr. Moreau. In her 1977 Biological Themes in Modern Science Fiction, Helen Parker identified two major types of story: "genetic accident", the uncontrolled, unexpected and disastrous alteration of a species; and "planned genetic alteration", whether controlled by humans or aliens, and the question of whether that would be either feasible or desirable. In science fiction up to the 1970s, the genetic changes were brought about by radiation, breeding programmes, or manipulation with chemicals or surgery (and thus, notes Lars Schmeink, not necessarily by strictly genetic means). Examples include The Island of Dr. Moreau with its horrible manipulations; Aldous Huxley's 1932 Brave New World with a breeding programme; and John Taine's 1951 Seeds of Life, using radiation to create supermen. After the discovery of the double helix and then recombinant DNA, genetic engineering became the focus for genetics in fiction, as in books like Brian Stableford's tale of a genetically modified society in his 1998 Inherit the Earth, or Michael Marshall Smith's story of Organ farming in his 1997 Spares. Comic books have imagined mutated superhumans with extraordinary powers. The DC Universe (from 1939) imagines "metahumans"; the Marvel Universe (from 1961) calls them "mutants", while the Wildstorm (from 1992) and Ultimate Marvel (2000–2015) Universes name them "posthumans". Stan Lee introduced the concept of mutants in the Marvel X-Men books in 1963; the villain Magneto declares his plan to "make Homo sapiens bow to Homo superior!", implying that mutants will be an evolutionary step up from current humanity. Later, the books speak of an X-gene that confers powers from puberty onwards. X-men powers include telepathy, telekinesis, healing, strength, flight, time travel, and the ability to emit blasts of energy. Marvel's god-like Celestials are later (1999) said to have visited Earth long ago and to have modified human DNA to enable mutant powers. James Blish's 1952 novel Titan's Daughter (in Kendell Foster Crossen's Future Tense collection) featured stimulated polyploidy (giving organisms multiple sets of genetic material, something that can create new species in a single step), based on spontaneous polyploidy in flowering plants, to create humans with more than normal height, strength, and lifespans. === Cloning === Cloning, too, is a familiar plot device. Aldous Huxley's 1931 dystopian novel Brave New World imagines the in vitro cloning of fertilised human eggs. Huxley was influenced by J. B. S. Haldane's 1924 non-fiction book Daedalus; or, Science and the Future, which used the Greek myth of Daedalus to symbolise the coming revolution in genetics; Haldane predicted that humans would control their own evolution through directed mutation and in vitro fertilisation. Cloning was explored further in stories such as Poul Anderson's 1953 UN-Man. In his 1976 novel, The Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin describes the creation of 96 clones of Adolf Hitler, replicating for all of them the rearing of Hitler (including the death of his father at age 13), with the goal of resurrecting Nazism. In his 1990 novel Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton imagined the recovery of the complete genome of a dinosaur from fossil remains, followed by its use to recreate living animals of an extinct species. Cloning is a recurring theme in science fiction films like Jurassic Park (1993), Alien Resurrection (1997), The 6th Day (2000), Resident Evil (2002), Star Wars: Episode II (2002) and The Island (2005). The process of cloning is represented variously in fiction. Many works depict the artificial creation of humans by a method of growing cells from a tissue or DNA sample; the replication may be instantaneous, or take place through slow growth of human embryos in artificial wombs. In the long-running British television series Doctor Who, the Fourth Doctor and his companion Leela were cloned in a matter of seconds from DNA samples ("The Invisible Enemy", 1977) and then—in an apparent homage to the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage—shrunk to microscopic size in order to enter the Doctor's body to combat an alien virus. The clones in this story are short-lived, and can only survive a matter of minutes before they expire. Films such as The Matrix and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones have featured human foetuses being cultured on an industrial scale in enormous tanks. Cloning humans from body parts is a common science fiction trope, one of several genetics themes parodied in Woody Allen's 1973 comedy Sleeper, where an attempt is made to clone an assassinated dictator from his disembodied nose. === Genetic engineering === Genetic engineering features in many science fiction stories. Films such as The Island (2005) and Blade Runner (1982) bring the engineered creature to confront the person who created it or the being it was cloned from, a theme seen in some film versions of Frankenstein. Few films have informed audiences about genetic engineering as such, with the exception of the 1978 The Boys from Brazil and the 1993 Jurassic Park, both of which made use of a lesson, a demonstration, and a clip of scientific film. In 1982, Frank Herbert's novel The White Plague described the deliberate use of genetic engineering to create a pathogen which specifically killed women. Another of Herbert's creations, the Dune series of novels, starting with Dune in 1965, emphasises genetics. It combines selective breeding by a powerful sisterhood, the Bene Gesserit, to produce a supernormal male being, the Kwisatz Haderach, with the genetic engineering of the powerful but despised Tleilaxu. === Eugenics === Eugenics plays a central role in films such as Andrew Niccol's 1997 Gattaca, the title alluding to the letters G, A, T, C for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA. Genetic engineering of humans is unrestricted, resulting in genetic discrimination, loss of diversity, and adverse effects on society. The film explores the ethical implications; the production company, Sony Pictures, consulted with a gene therapy researcher, French Anderson, to ensure that the portrayal of science was realistic, and test-screened the film with the Society of Mammalian Cell Biologists and the American National Human Genome Research Institute before its release. This care did not prevent researchers from attacking the film after its release. Philim Yam of Scientific American called it "science bashing"; in Nature Kevin Davies called it a ""surprisingly pedestrian affair"; and the molecular biologist Lee Silver described the film's extreme genetic determinism as "a straw man". == Myth and oversimplification == The geneticist Dan Koboldt observes that while science and technology play major roles in fiction, from fantasy and science fiction to thrillers, the representation of science in both literature and film is often unrealistic. In Koboldt's view, genetics in fiction is frequently oversimplified, and some myths are common and need to be debunked. For example, the Human Genome Project has not (he states) immediately led to a Gattaca world, as the relationship between genotype and phenotype is not straightforward. People do differ genetically, but only very rarely because they are missing a gene that other people have: people have different alleles of the same genes. Eye and hair colour are controlled not by one gene each, but by multiple genes. Mutations do occur, but they are rare: people are 99.99% identical genetically, the 3 million differences between any two people being dwarfed by the hundreds of millions of DNA bases which are identical; nearly all DNA variants are inherited, not acquired afresh by mutation. And, Koboldt writes, believable scientists in fiction should know their knowledge is limited. == See also == Evolution in fiction Category:Fiction about genetic engineering Parasites in fiction == References ==	Wikipedia/Genetic_engineering_in_science_fiction
Science Fiction and Futurology (Polish: Fantastyka i futurologia) is a monograph of Stanisław Lem about science fiction and futurology, first printed by Wydawnictwo Literackie in 1970. The official Lem website describes the book as a triple feature: an attempt to create a theory of the genre, a self-interpretation of Lem's own works, and a review of the world's science fiction, "a yet another Lem's General Theory of Everything - everything related to science fiction and its role in human knowledge acquisition". In the book, Lem reviews and classifies works of over 400 science fiction writers. The book was acutely critical of Western science fiction. As Lem wrote, "SF became a vulgar mythology of a technological civilization.... This monograph is an expression of my personal utopia, my longing for better SF, the one that should be." In the 1972 edition the criticism was somewhat softened, in particular, in the judgement of the works of Philip K. Dick. Lem confessed that his opinion about Philip K. Dick was based on limited knowledge of his works, not the best ones. == Contents == (Omitting forewords and afterwords) === Volume 1. Structures === I. The language of a literary work II. The world of a literary work (chapter changed since the second edition of 1972) III. Structures of literary creation IV. From structuralism to traditional criticism V. Sociology of science fiction === Volume 2. Problem Fields of Science Fiction === I. Catastrophe II. Robots and people III. Outer space and science fiction IV. Metaphysics of science fiction and futurology of faith V. Erotics and sex VI. Man and superman VII. Remanent Lem writes that before starting with the two last huge subjects of the book, he would like to briefly dwell upon a large number of topics not covered in the book. Some of them, such as horror in science fiction and space opera, are only mentioned in passing. The section analyzes some motives of "biological" science fiction, the ones, in Lem's opinion, having gnoseological value, only briefly reviewing the subject of fictional mutants of various types, ranging from post-apocalyptic to experiments of mad scientists. VIII. Experiment in science fiction. From Bradbury to "New Wave" IX. Utopia and futurology == References == == Further reading == "Igraszki i powinności fantastyki naukowej", an afterword by Jerzy Jarzębski about the book	Wikipedia/Science_Fiction_and_Futurology
Science fiction opera is a subgenre of science fiction. It refers to operas whose subject-matter fits in the science fiction genre. Like science-fiction literature, science-fiction operas may be set in the future and involve spaceflight or alien invasion. Other science-fiction operas focus on a dystopian view of the future. Like Lorin Maazel's opera 1984, they may be based on a previously written science fiction book. == List of science fiction operas == The following is a partial list of science fiction operas. Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916–1968): Aniara (based on the poem of that name by Harry Martinson) Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944): The Emperor of Atlantis Eef van Breen (born 1978) ’u’, the first opera in Klingon Gavin Bryars (born 1943): Doctor Ox's Experiment (based on the book by Jules Verne) Søren Nils Eichberg (born 1973): Oryx and Crake (based on the novel by Margaret Atwood) Philip Glass (born 1937): The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 and The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (based on the books by Doris Lessing), 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, and The Voyage Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Il mondo della luna (The World of the Moon), 1777 Leoš Janáček (1854–1928): The Makropulos Affair (based on the play by Karel Čapek), premiered 1926; and The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century (1920) Karel Janovický (b 1930): The Utmost Sail (1958) a one act opera inspired by the launch of the satellite Sputnik in 1957. It concerns the crew of a space ship flying into space and watching the Earth being consumed in a nuclear holocaust. Lorin Maazel (1930–2014) 1984 (based on the book by George Orwell) Tod Machover (born 1953) Valis (1987) (based on the novel VALIS by Philip K. Dick) Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) A Bride from Pluto (1982) and Help, Help, the Globolinks! (1968) Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) Le voyage dans la lune (based on the book De la terre à la lune by Jules Verne), premiered 1875. Poul Ruders (born 1949) The Handmaid's Tale (based on the book of that name by Margaret Atwood) Howard Shore (born 1946): The Fly (based on David Cronenberg's 1986 film) Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) Licht (based on The Urantia Book) Steven Andrew Taylor's Paradises Lost after a short story from Ursula K. Le Guin's collection The Birthday of the World Michael Tippett's New Year (1989), which features a spaceship and time travelers from the future. == See also == Science fiction theatre Space opera == References ==	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_opera
U.S. television science fiction is a popular genre of television in the United States that has produced many of the best-known and most popular science fiction shows in the world. Most famous of all, and one of the most influential science-fiction series in history, is the iconic Star Trek and its various spin-off shows, which comprise the Star Trek franchise. Other hugely influential programs have included the 1960s anthology series The Twilight Zone, the internationally successful The X-Files, and a wide variety of television movies and continuing series for more than half a century. == History == === 20th century === ==== 1940s through the mid-1960s ==== ===== The adventure serials ===== The first popular science-fiction program on American television was the DuMont Television Network children's adventure serial Captain Video and His Video Rangers, which ran from June 1949 to April 1955. Within eight months of Captain Video's debut, two other landmark series were launched - Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (August 1950 - June 1955) and Space Patrol (March 1950 - February 1955). ABC attempted to cash in on the burgeoning television science fiction market with a small screen version of Buck Rogers in 1950, but failed within months. Another series of the 1950s, Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers broadcast live Saturdays from April 18, 1953, to May 29, 1954. The show was eventually cancelled due to a copyright infringement lawsuit based on the show's conceptual similarity to Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Although Captain Video was not a very sophisticated program by later standards, this series took advantage of many newly developed technologies, such as luminance key effects to create superimposition, although it also fell back on such older techniques as using stock footage from film libraries to cover scene breaks. Its reported budget for new props was just $25 per episode. Nevertheless, Captain Video proved to be very popular, drawing audiences of 3.5 million at its peak, a more than respectable number for television at that time. It fired the imaginations of many of its young viewers, who had never before seen science fiction outside of cinemas, and had never been able to follow the same characters in a science-fiction setting over a prolonged period of time. The financial crisis of the DuMont Network eventually led to the cancellation of Captain Video, and soon the collapse of the entire network itself. However, the program had made its mark, and other science-fiction shows followed during the 1950s. Within eight months of the debut of Captain Video, two other series would come to eclipse the program in popular memory. Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950–55) and Space Patrol (1950–55) were a fast-turnaround second generation of TV sci-fi, telling more compelling stories on larger budgets. Thanks to a stronger connection to their sponsors, both shows offered a shower of mail-in premiums that solidified their brand names, leading to the first TV tie-in toys on store shelves. Both offered daily radio programs featuring the television casts to augment their television adventures, and the actors were pressed into service for public appearances on a weekly basis. The schedule was grueling, but the resulting media blitz resulted in a large and loyal fan base for both programs. Both of these shows offered something Captain Video could not - due to the poor budget of the series, Captain Video was earthbound. The space adventures of Tom Corbett and Space Patrol forced Captain Video to eventually take to the stars to compete. (A sidenote: most modern television viewers are aware of Captain Video only by his mention by Art Carney on The Honeymooners; by the time the episode was aired, the show had already been cancelled, and the space helmet Carney wore was a commercially available toy marketed from Space Patrol.) ABC’s attempt to cash in on the success of this genre was a small screen version of Buck Rogers, which had already proved to be a huge success as a film serial in the 1930s. Running for a single season, 1950–1951, ABC's Buck Rogers starred Kem Dibbs and later Robert Pastene in the lead role. Like Captain Video, it was the victim of a very small budget, which restricted most of its action to a single laboratory set, hardly the most thrilling of situations for its young target audience. Another 1930s serial was also resurrected for the small screen: Flash Gordon, starring Steve Holland in the title role. Episode credits indicate that it was filmed in Germany and France and syndicated in the U.S. It ran for a single season of 39 episodes, from 1953 to 1954. Another film hero, an alien living on Earth, transitioned to television in the Adventures of Superman which ran from 1952 to 1958. Other series existed, but mostly in independent syndication. Captain Z-Ro was initially broadcast locally in San Francisco beginning in 1951, but moved to national syndication during its final two years of production beginning in 1954. Rocky Jones, Space Ranger was syndicated nationally for its two-year run from 1954 to 1955. Generally a superior program to most of the sci-fi series of the time, Rocky Jones was a victim of timing; by 1954, public interest was returning to the western genre. By the end of 1955, all of the episodic science fiction adventure series were gone from the airwaves. ===== The anthology series ===== Gradually, television producers realized that there was an adult audience as well as a young audience for science fiction. Television began to cater to a more cerebral brand of science fiction viewer, possibly inspired by the contemporary boom in literary science fiction by the likes of Isaac Asimov, or by the popularity of the allegorical science-fiction movies that were produced during the decade, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still. One of the stalwarts of science fiction television programming in its early decades was the anthology series, in which a completely new story would be presented in each episode, with new actors, settings, and situations. The only continuing link was the producers, the genre, and the series title. The first series of this kind was Tales of Tomorrow running for 85 episodes, between 1951 and 1953, it was meant to be the first science fiction show for adults. The next popular series was Science Fiction Theatre, a syndicated series that ran for 78 episodes between 1955 and 1957. Two years after its run finished, a much more popular and influential program in the same vein debuted on the CBS Network: The Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling. The Twilight Zone began life as a one-off pilot, commissioned after the success of a science-fiction episode of the general drama anthology series Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse. In its original form, the series ran for five years, from September 1959 until September 1964, with 156 episodes aired during that time. Presenting a vast array of science-fiction and horror concepts, its run included many memorable episodes whose imagery still lingers in American popular consciousness. One of its most enduring motifs has been its theme music, which is now recognized internationally. The Twilight Zone was the bedrock of the more grown-up science fiction that would be produced during the 1960s. It was shot on film (as was now standard for much American non-live television programs), well-produced, and featured imaginative writing. One of the best-known episodes was the 1963 installment "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," which starred a young William Shatner (later cast as Star Trek's Captain Kirk) as a man convinced that a hideous monster is lurking on the wing of the airplane in which he is traveling, even though nobody else can see it. That episode helped launch the career of Shatner, as well as a film version and a revival series during the 1980s. ABC twice attempted their own science fiction anthologies, first with 1959's One Step Beyond, then with 1963's The Outer Limits. (ABC briefly tried to hire Serling after The Twilight Zone ended, but Serling noted that ABC's proposal was more horror-oriented in that it "booked (him) into a graveyard every week" and turned the network down.) Although The Outer Limits had a much shorter run, finishing in 1965, it proved to be famous and influential as well. Like its CBS contemporary, it spawned an only moderately successful revival decades later. One Step Beyond survived in frequent reruns because its owner, Alcoa, abandoned the copyright. ===== Return of the adventure series ===== Irwin Allen, who later went on to produce famous 1970s disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, produced a whole range of popular science fiction series shows on American television during the 1960s. These included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-1968), The Time Tunnel (1966-1967), and Land of the Giants (1968-1970). All involved futuristic, scientific concepts played out as the background to glossily produced action/adventure shows. Critics of Allen’s output often argue that it is all rather soulless and shallow, but as mass-produced entertainment it proved popular with American and international audiences. A popular non-Allen production was The Wild Wild West (1965 to 1969) which incorporated classic Western elements, espionage thriller and science fiction/alternate history concepts (in a similar vein to what would later be called steampunk). The mid 1960s would prove to be an important period in the history of US television science fiction. It saw the creation of two brand new "space opera"-based science fiction shows, both featuring broad galactic exploration themes, with each show dealing with them in very different manners. The first of these was Irwin Allen's CBS show Lost in Space, which ran for three seasons from 1965 to 1968, and the other series, which premiered on NBC in 1966, was Star Trek. ==== Star Trek and its influence ==== ===== The series ===== Star Trek (later retronymically known as Star Trek: The Original Series) began as an unscreened pilot made in 1964 before the series began in 1966. The show was conceived by screenwriter and producer Gene Roddenberry, depicting a future of galactic exploration and struggle, with all creeds and colors of humanity working together to explore the stars in a similar manner to the pioneers of the old West in America. Produced by Paramount for the NBC Network, Roddenberry’s original 1964 pilot for Star Trek, called "The Cage" and starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, was regarded as being too intellectual and slow-moving by the network: however, they had sufficient faith in the ideas behind the program to commission a second pilot, which replaced the character of Pike and all but one of the rest (Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was the only character carried over from the original 1964 pilot) with a new crew commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner. The show used a few established science fiction authors. Harlan Ellison wrote “The City on the Edge of Forever”, Richard Matheson wrote "The Enemy Within," and Theodore Sturgeon wrote “Shore Leave” and “Amok Time”. ===== Star Trek and social commentary ===== Star Trek was also known for its social commentary. The background for this commentary was a set of alien cultures that roughly paralleled the Earth of today. The United Federation of Planets was analogous to America, Starfleet to NATO, the Klingons to the Soviet Union, and the Romulans to China. When that background seemed restrictive, Star Trek would create new cultures and new situations. When an episode was written about racial prejudice (“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”), half-black and half-white aliens were created. Frank Gorshin, playing Commissioner Bele, was black on the right side of his body, and white on the left. He was trying to arrest Lokai, played by Lou Antonio, who was black on the left, and white on the right. When Bele brought Lokai back to their home planet, no one was left alive. A racial war had killed everybody. In spite of Kirk saying “Give up your hate”, Bele and Lokai fled the Enterprise and continued their fight on the planet's surface. The focus of this episode was not technology, but feelings and philosophy. The prejudice, and the pursuit of Lokai by Bele could have been a story without the presence of a star ship, and a pursuit across the galaxy. Therefore, it would be an example of soft science fiction. Star Trek could also be technical. In the episode "The Changeling," Nomad is an Earth space probe that becomes damaged, and then somehow merges with the alien probe Tan-Ru. Its programming somehow changes, and it now seeks out and destroys imperfect life-forms. Nomad destroys the Malurian System's four billion inhabitants, and then encounters the Enterprise. Kirk and his crew discover Nomad's past and its new programming, and have to stop it before it destroys any more races. This, of course, they do. This is a classic case of out-of-control technology. Without Nomad, the technological artifact, there could have been no story. Science is used to analyze Nomad, and to determine how to defeat it. Therefore, this episode is an example of hard science fiction. In this new form, Star Trek ran for three years until 1969, although it was never a huge ratings hit and stopped two years short of its planned five-year run. Only a fan campaign had prevented it from being canceled after the second season, but despite this apparent unpopularity, the show had a special quality to it that attracted a loyal fan base, and during syndication of the program in the early 1970s it proved to have an enduring popularity that would not go away. An animated series was commissioned, and eventually in the late 1970s a sequel series, Star Trek: Phase II was planned and work begun. However, after the success of Star Wars in the cinema, Paramount scrapped the idea of a new series and decided instead upon launching Star Trek as a film franchise. Star Trek would return to the small screen in a new form in due course, but not until 1987, some eighteen years after its original cancellation. Star Trek's propensity for social commentary, in an era when American viewers were more receptive of it, was a factor in the rise in popularity of science fiction in American culture in the late 1960s. Much of this rise came at the expense of the more traditionally-positioned TV western, which collapsed in popularity at the same time. ==== 1970s ==== Apart from repeats of Star Trek gathering popularity in syndication, the early 1970s proved to be at something of a low ebb for television science fiction in the US. Very few series of any great note or popularity were produced, and few if any from this period are remembered today. The success in syndication of the original Star Trek series, and fan pressure for a Star Trek revival, led to The Animated Series (1973–1974). The Animated Series continued the adventures of the Enterprise and its crew, and is considered canonical. After several false starts, a second live-action Star Trek series began development in 1977, prospectively titled Star Trek: Phase II. However, the show was abruptly cancelled just weeks away from commencing production and Paramount decided to make a feature film instead, which was eventually released in 1979. After the end of the original Star Trek series, and before the first Star Trek movie, producer Gene Roddenberry tried unsuccessfully to pitch new science fiction shows; while most never got off the ground, some made it to the pilot stage and aired as TV movies, though none became fully-fledged series. Genesis II (1973) starred Alex Cord as a scientist who finds himself involved in a post-apocalyptic war after centuries spent in suspended animation. The story was recycled and retooled over two further pilot films, Planet Earth (1974) and Strange New World (1975), neither of which were successful. Roddenberry's later The Questor Tapes (1974) involves an android that disappears to seek his creator. It was not until later in the decade, again inspired by the post-Star Wars boom of 1977 and beyond, that science fiction series began to return to prominence. One of those particularly keen on exploiting the networks’ new interest in the genre was producer Glen A. Larson, who created two new science fiction series in quick succession: his own original creation Battlestar Galactica/Galactica 1980 (1978–80) and another television version of Buck Rogers, this time entitled Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979–81). Both of these series had much in common. They were glossily produced on high budgets, with pilot episodes that were released theatrically into cinemas in some territories. However, both series seemed to place an emphasis on style over content, with the scripts generally being run of-the-mill action/adventure affairs with few of the more challenging concepts of science fiction of their predecessors. It is perhaps for this reason that both programs were so short lived, although they did attract highly dedicated and vociferous fan bases and do still linger to a certain extent in the popular consciousness. A successful British science fiction series Doctor Who was syndicated in the US starting in 1972, with selected episodes of Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor. In 1978, Tom Baker's first four seasons as the Doctor were sold to PBS stations across the United States. ==== 1980s ==== Science fiction print authors didn't usually make it onto TV. Most TV scripts were created originally for TV. One of the few famous print authors to make it to the small screen was Ray Bradbury. His collection of linked stories The Martian Chronicles, was produced as a mini-series that first aired in 1980. Labeled as “faithful” but “bland'” it included such stars as Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, Roddy McDowall and Bernadette Peters. The most significant US science fiction television series of the early 1980s was the 1983 miniseries V, which aired on NBC. An allegorical tale paralleling the rise of Nazism in Germany of the 1930s with the arrival on Earth of an apparently friendly alien race with hidden motives, the miniseries proved to be highly popular and iconic, spawning both a sequel V: The Final Battle the following year, and then a full-blown television series for the 1984–1985 season, although neither of these were as successful as the original, being more action-oriented and somewhat less cerebral. 1987 saw the arrival of what is perhaps the most successful, in terms of sales and worldwide viewing figures, science fiction series of all time, Gene Roddenberry’s re-launching of his Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Taking place on a new starship Enterprise some seventy years after the events of the original series, unlike its predecessor it was not supported by a network, but instead sold directly into syndication. The program was a huge success, running for seven seasons and like the original series spawning several feature film spin-offs. Another 1987 series was the oddball Max Headroom. Originally a British pilot film, it was picked up and re-made in America as a darkly comical drama series which followed an investigative video news journalist, Edison Carter (played by Matt Frewer) as he pursued stories and exposed scandals in a dystopian, TV-obsessed future. Edison was aided and abetted by a group of friends and colleagues, and by his electronic alter-ego, the stuttering, sarcastic iconoclast, Max Headroom. Although Max himself became something of a pop-culture phenomenon of the 1980s, the series itself was not a great success—despite being lauded for its portrayal of a world "20 minutes into the future", a Blade Runner-like cyberpunk world, where TV channels and ratings wars were everything, and people (particularly those at the margins of society known as "blanks", who had no record in the worldwide computer database and hence did not officially exist) were nothing. A 1988 television series was the immensely successful British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. It originated from a 1980s' recurring radio sketch: Dave Hollins: Space Cadet and ran for 10 series over three time periods - Series 1-6 between 1988 and 1993, Series 7 & 8 between 1997 and 1999, plus a 3-parter (Series 9) in 2008 and Series 10 in 2012. In addition to the television series, there are four bestselling novels, two pilot episodes for an American version of the show, a radio version produced for BBC Radio 7,[2] tie-in books, magazines and other merchandise. Red Dwarf was a mining ship running between Earth and Jupiter which experienced a radiation leak that kills almost all the crew. The series is based on the "odd couple" survivors. In the fall of 1989, the Alien Nation television series premiered. The drama was based on the 1988 film which was written by Rockne S. O'Bannon (who would become a television showrunner in his own right and would create several other science fiction television shows) and starred actor James Caan. The original film was a buddy cop action picture with a plot involving extraterrestrials who land on earth and attempt to assimilate into human society. The television series continued the storyline, but among the theme of science fiction, the writers injected other elements such as discrimination and racism into the episodes. The series lasted only one season, but it did spawn five television films, a comics series, and a number of novels. Star Wars is less known for its television products aside from animated shows. The mega-franchises' only known live-action television productions are the spin-off movies Ewoks: Caravan of Courage, Ewoks: Battle for Endor and the 2019 Disney+ show The Mandalorian. ==== 1990s ==== The success of Star Trek: The Next Generation led to further Star Trek series which took place within the same time frame: firstly Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–99) and later UPN’s Star Trek: Voyager (1994–2001) and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–05). All of these series have helped affirm the iconic status of the Star Trek franchise, but as well as this they helped lead to a science fiction boom of the 1990s, as many networks and production companies sought to make their own shows in a genre which had shown itself to be incredibly popular and profitable again. Although there were many run-of-the-mill series that did not get past a single season, this boom decade for science-fiction produced many intelligently written, creative, imaginative shows that have in a very short period of time been able to establish themselves in the popular consciousness of television viewers not just in the US, but worldwide as well. Earth 2, story, with female lead, about castaways/colonists on extrasolar planet was cancelled after first season (1994-95). Space: Above and Beyond also lasted just one season – 1995–96. The basic premise was space Marines defending Earth against hostile aliens. seaQuest DSV, on the other hand, had a star in Roy Scheider. He played Captain Nathan Bridger from 1993 to 1995. He was replaced for the 1995–96 season by Michael Ironside, who played Captain Oliver Hudson. The show was cancelled after that season. However, one of the more successful and most artistically ambitious series of this period was Babylon 5. Produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski with creative input by Harlan Ellison, this show attempted to create a series-long epic tale that avoided many of the clichés of the television genre. The series was highly acclaimed for its writing and its innovative visuals as the first television series to extensively use computer-generated imagery to create spectacular visual effects for an economical price. In addition, its five-season run (1993–98), the intended length of the series, was longer than any American non Star Trek space series up to that time. ===== 1990s Earth-bound series ===== There were time-travel and dimension-hopping series in the vein of Quantum Leap (1989–93) and Sliders (1995–2000), and mysterious conspiracy thrillers such as The X-Files (1993–2002). The latter series in particular enshrined itself within the pop culture of a generation in a manner in which few television series are able, and the entire decade produced a rich vein of highly successful science fiction shows. === 21st century === ==== 2000s ==== ===== Declining interest ===== At the turn of the century, however, a change began in the type of telefantasy program that was popular with the viewing masses. Most of the genre programming to be found on the networks was horror or fantasy based rather than science-fiction as such: there was perhaps a sense that audiences were tired of science-fiction, and sought other types of programs. Others would say there was a TV exec backlash against the Genre, others would claim a media conglomerate displeasure with the costs associated with high production values needed by a good quality science fiction show. Thus the rise to production of such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel and the stylistically similar Charmed. All of these were set in the real world of the present day, but involved fantastical and horrific threats to the central characters, and possessed a wit and self-awareness that had perhaps been lacking in some of their more po-faced science-fiction predecessors, not to mention much lower costs to produce. ===== Other shows ===== Nonetheless, the popularity of science fiction as a genre means that several notable programs enjoyed significant longevity. Stargate SG-1 began in 1997 and aired 10 seasons, and is somewhat unusual in being a successful spin-off series from the 1994 movie. The series became the longest-running North American science fiction television series, which warranted two spin-offs: Stargate Atlantis, which ran for five seasons; and Stargate Universe, which ran for only two seasons instead of the originally-planned five. Stargate SG-1 retained its record until Smallville completed its run with 218 episodes in 2011 and broke its record. The Sci-Fi Channel "original series" Farscape (which is in fact not American, but actually Australian, and premiered on the Nine Network, although the series was conceived by an American (the aforementioned Rockne S. O'Bannon)), while never garnering a widespread audience, was heralded by critics and gained a dedicated fanbase, which helped the creators wrap up several story lines in the miniseries event Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars after the show's cancellation. The aforementioned Star Trek: Enterprise ran for four seasons, and the Sci Fi Channel aired a mini-series based on the original Battlestar Galactica, whose success paved the way for the acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, which lasted for four seasons and two movies, Battlestar Galactica: Razor and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Fringe, which featured a mad scientist character and explored alternate universes, aired for 100 episodes (2008-2013) on Fox. The nature of science fiction as a genre and the trends of American culture allows is to explore the whole range of all types of science fiction from comedy to drama, just entertainment to socially relevant, youth to adult, soft to hard, gross to tasteful, cheap to expensive productions, and lame to thoughtful. Despite trends in television, science fiction as a genre has firmly established its place in the make-up of American programming. The future of science fiction could be significantly helped by the advances in digital imagery, which allows for spectacular visual effects for a relatively economical price. == Other science fiction television genres == Two other subgenres were comic science fiction, and youth science fiction (children and teenagers). Examples of the former are My Favorite Martian, CBS, 1963–66; Mork & Mindy, ABC 1978–1982; ALF, NBC, 1986–90; and 3rd Rock from the Sun, NBC, 1996–2001. There are many examples of youth science fiction. They are characterized by relatively simple plots, and characters despite lacking production value. The animated Colonel Bleep launched in 1957 and went on to a long run in first-run syndication. A British import using marionettes was Fireball XL5, initially released in 1962. Fireball XL5 was a rocket ship protecting Sector 25 of the Solar System. Also first released in 1962 was Space Angel, a cartoon. “Space Angel” was the code name for Scott McCloud, captain of a space ship. The Jetsons, an animated domestic sitcom that debuted in 1962, was noted for its unusually accurate portrayal of future society. Jeffrey A. Tucker wrote in 2011 that The Jetsons is "distinguished in science-fiction lore by the fact that it is a rare attempt in this genre that actually succeeds in predicting the future." Usually, Jonny Quest, (1964–65), was a cartoon adventure, but with science fiction technology, e.g. a rocket ship and a hovercraft. Higher production values were quite evident in the Zenon trilogy released by the Disney Channel. Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was released in 1999, Zenon: The Zequel was released in 2001, and Zenon: Z3 was released in 2004. == Notes == == References == == Bibliography == Asherman, Allan (1986). The Star Trek Compendium. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-62726-0. Malcom, Nollinger, Rudolph, Tomashoff, Weeks, & Williams (August 1, 2004). 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends. TV Guide, pp. 31–39. gateworld.com/Smallville bows with Stargates world record May 6, 2011	Wikipedia/U.S._television_science_fiction
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet. Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, novella or (usually serialized) novel form, a format that continues into the present day. Many also contain editorials, book reviews or articles, and some also include stories in the fantasy and horror genres. == History of science fiction magazines == Malcolm Edwards and Peter Nicholls write that early magazines were not known as science fiction: "if there were any need to differentiate them, the terms scientific romance or 'different stories' might be used, but until the appearance of a magazine specifically devoted to sf there was no need of a label to describe the category. The first specialized English-language pulps with a leaning towards the fantastic were Thrill Book (1919) and Weird Tales (1923), but the editorial policy of both was aimed much more towards weird-occult fiction than towards sf." Major American science fiction magazines include Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. The most influential British science fiction magazine was New Worlds; newer British SF magazines include Interzone and Polluto. Many science fiction magazines have been published in languages other than English, but none has gained worldwide recognition or influence in the world of anglophone science fiction. There is a growing trend toward important work being published first on the Internet, both for reasons of economics and access. A web-only publication can cost as little as one-tenth of the cost of publishing a print magazine, and as a result, some believe the e-zines are more innovative and take greater risks with material. Moreover, the magazine is internationally accessible, and distribution is not an issue—though obscurity may be. Magazines like Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Jim Baen's Universe, and the Australian magazine Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine are examples of successful Internet magazines. (Andromeda provides copies electronically or on paper.) Web-based magazines tend to favor shorter stories and articles that are easily read on a screen, and many of them pay little or nothing to the authors, thus limiting their universe of contributors. However, multiple web-based magazines are listed as "paying markets" by the SFWA, which means that they pay the "professional" rate of 8c/word or more. These magazines include popular titles such as Strange Horizons, InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Clarkesworld Magazine. The SFWA publishes a list of qualifying magazine and short fiction venues that contains all current web-based qualifying markets. The World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) awarded a Hugo Award each year to the best science fiction magazine, until that award was changed to one for Best Editor in the early 1970s; the Best Semi-Professional Magazine award can go to either a news-oriented magazine or a small press fiction magazine. Magazines were the only way to publish science fiction until about 1950, when large mainstream publishers began issuing science fiction books. Today, there are relatively few paper-based science fiction magazines, and most printed science fiction appears first in book form. Science fiction magazines began in the United States, but there were several major British magazines and science fiction magazines that have been published around the world, for example in France and Argentina. == The first science fiction magazines == The first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, was published in a format known as bedsheet, roughly the size of Life but with a square spine. Later, most magazines changed to the pulp magazine format, roughly the size of comic books or National Geographic but again with a square spine. Now, most magazines are published in digest format, roughly the size of Reader's Digest, although a few are in the standard roughly 8.5" x 11" size, and often have stapled spines, rather than glued square spines. Science fiction magazines in this format often feature non-fiction media coverage in addition to the fiction. Knowledge of these formats is an asset when locating magazines in libraries and collections where magazines are usually shelved according to size. The premiere issue of Amazing Stories (April 1926), edited and published by Hugo Gernsback, displayed a cover by Frank R. Paul illustrating Off on a Comet by Jules Verne. After many minor changes in title and major changes in format, policy and publisher, Amazing Stories ended January 2005 after 607 issues. Except for the last issue of Stirring Science Stories, the last true bedsheet size sf (and fantasy) magazine was Fantastic Adventures, in 1939, but it quickly changed to the pulp size, and it was later absorbed by its digest-sized stablemate Fantastic in 1953. Before that consolidation, it ran 128 issues. Much fiction published in these bedsheet magazines, except for classic reprints by writers such as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, is only of antiquarian interest. Some of it was written by teenage science fiction fans, who were paid little or nothing for their efforts. Jack Williamson for example, was 19 when he sold his first story to Amazing Stories. His writing improved greatly over time, and until his death in 2006, he was still a publishing writer at age 98. Some of the stories in the early issues were by scientists or doctors who knew little or nothing about writing fiction, but who tried their best, for example, David H. Keller. Probably the two best original sf stories ever published in a bedsheet science fiction magazine were "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum and "The Gostak and the Doshes" by Miles Breuer, who influenced Jack Williamson. "The Gostak and the Doshes" is one of the few stories from that era still widely read today. Other stories of interest from the bedsheet magazines include the first Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 A.D, by Philip Francis Nowlan, and The Skylark of Space by coauthors E. E. Smith and Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby, both in Amazing Stories in 1928. There have been a few unsuccessful attempts to revive the bedsheet size using better quality paper, notably Science-Fiction Plus edited by Hugo Gernsback (1952–53, eight issues). Astounding on two occasions briefly attempted to revive the bedsheet size, with 16 bedsheet issues in 1942–1943 and 25 bedsheet issues (as Analog, including the first publication of Frank Herbert's Dune) in 1963–1965. The fantasy magazine Unknown, also edited by John W. Campbell, changed its name to Unknown Worlds and published ten bedsheet-size issues before returning to pulp size for its final four issues. Amazing Stories published 36 bedsheet size issues in 1991–1999, and its last three issues were bedsheet size, 2004–2005. == The pulp era == Astounding Stories began in January 1930. After several changes in name and format (Astounding Science Fiction, Analog Science Fact & Fiction, Analog) it is still published today (though it ceased to be pulp format in 1943). Its most important editor, John W. Campbell, Jr., is credited with turning science fiction away from adventure stories on alien planets and toward well-written, scientifically literate stories with better characterization than in previous pulp science fiction. Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Robert A. Heinlein's Future History in the 1940s, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity in the 1950s, and Frank Herbert's Dune in the 1960s, and many other science fiction classics all first appeared under Campbell's editorship. By 1955, the pulp era was over, and some pulp magazines changed to digest size. Printed adventure stories with colorful heroes were relegated to the comic books. This same period saw the end of radio adventure drama (in the United States). Later attempts to revive both pulp fiction and radio adventure have met with very limited success, but both enjoy a nostalgic following who collect the old magazines and radio programs. Many characters, most notably The Shadow, were popular both in pulp magazines and on radio. Most pulp science fiction consisted of adventure stories transplanted, without much thought, to alien planets. Pulp science fiction is known for clichés such as stereotypical female characters, unrealistic gadgetry, and fantastic monsters of various kinds. However, many classic stories were first published in pulp magazines. For example, in the year 1939, all of the following renowned authors sold their first professional science fiction story to magazines specializing in pulp science fiction: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, A. E. van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon. These were among the most important science fiction writers of the pulp era, and all are still read today. == Digest-sized magazines == After the pulp era, digest size magazines dominated the newsstand. The first sf magazine to change to digest size was Astounding, in 1943. Other major digests, which published more literary science fiction, were The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction and If. Under the editorship of Cele Goldsmith, Amazing and Fantastic changed in notable part from pulp style adventure stories to literary science fiction and fantasy. Goldsmith published the first professionally published stories by Roger Zelazny (not counting student fiction in Literary Cavalcade), Keith Laumer, Thomas M. Disch, Sonya Dorman and Ursula K. Le Guin. There was also no shortage of digests that continued the pulp tradition of hastily written adventure stories set on other planets. Other Worlds and Imaginative Tales had no literary pretensions. The major pulp writers, such as Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, continued to write for the digests, and a new generation of writers, such as Algis Budrys and Walter M. Miller, Jr., sold their most famous stories to the digests. A Canticle for Leibowitz, written by Walter M. Miller, Jr., was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Most digest magazines began in the 1950s, in the years between the film Destination Moon, the first major science fiction film in a decade, and the launching of Sputnik, which sparked a new interest in space travel as a real possibility. Most survived only a few issues. By 1960, in the United States, there were only six sf digests on newsstands, in 1970 there were seven, in 1980 there were five, in 1990 only four and in 2000 only three. == Around the world == === British science fiction magazines === The first British science fiction magazine was Tales of Wonder, pulp size, 1937–1942, 16 issues, (unless Scoops is taken into account, a tabloid boys' paper that published 20 weekly issues in 1934). It was followed by two magazines, both named Fantasy, one pulp size publishing three issues in 1938–1939, the other digest size, publishing three issues in 1946–1947. The British science fiction magazine, New Worlds, published three pulp size issues in 1946–1947, before changing to digest size. With these exceptions, the pulp phenomenon, like the comic book, was largely a US format. By 2007, the only surviving major British science fiction magazine is Interzone, published in "magazine" format, although small press titles such as PostScripts and Polluto are available. == Transition from print to online science fiction magazines == During recent decades, the circulation of all digest science fiction magazines has steadily decreased. New formats were attempted, most notably the slick-paper stapled magazine format, the paperback format and the webzine. There are also various semi-professional magazines that persist on sales of a few thousand copies but often publish important fiction. As the circulation of the traditional US science fiction magazines has declined, new magazines have sprung up online from international small-press publishers. An editor on the staff of Science Fiction World, China's longest-running science fiction magazine, claimed in 2009 that, with "a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue", it was "the World's most-read SF periodical", although subsequent news suggests that circulation dropped precipitously after the firing of its chief editor in 2010 and the departure of other editors. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America lists science fiction periodicals that pay enough to be considered professional markets. == List of current magazines == For a complete list, including defunct magazines, see List of science fiction magazines. === American magazines === Abyss & Apex Magazine, 2003–present Analog Science Fiction and Fact (a.k.a. Astounding Stories, Astounding Science-Fiction and Analog Science Fact & Fiction), 1930–present Apex Magazine, 2005–present Aphelion the Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 1997–present Ares Magazine (New Edition), 2017–present (Based on defunct magazine Ares) Asimov's Science Fiction (a.k.a. Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine), 1977–present Bards and Sages Quarterly, 2009–present Bull Spec, 2009–present Clarkesworld Magazine, 2006–present Compelling Science Fiction, 2016–present Daily Science Fiction, 2010–present Escape Pod, 2005–present, fiction podcast and online FIYAH Literary Magazine, 2016-present The Future Fire, 2005–present, US/UK Galaxy's Edge Magazine, 2013–present GUD Magazine 2006–present, print/pdf Hypnos, 2012–present Illuminations of the Fantastic (online, 2020–current) InterGalactic Medicine Show, 2005–2019 Leading Edge (a.k.a. The Leading Edge Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy), 1981–present Lightspeed, 2010–present Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, 1968–present The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (a.k.a. The Magazine of Fantasy), 1949–present Nebula Rift, 2012–present Not one of us, 1986–present Perihelion Science Fiction, 1967–1969, revived 2012–present Planet Magazine, 1994–present Planetary Stories, 2005–present Quantum Muse E-Zine, 1997–present Reactor (magazine) (formerly Tor.com), 2008–present Shimmer Magazine, 2005–2018 Space Adventure Magazine, 2011–present Space and Time Magazine, 1966–present Strange Horizons, 2000–present Three-lobed Burning Eye, 1999–present Uncanny Magazine, 2014–present Unfit Magazine, 2018–present Waylines Magazine, 2013–present – US/Japan Weird Tales, 1923–1954, revived 1988–present === British magazines === Arc, 2012–present Doctor Who Magazine, 1979–present Fever Dreams Magazine, online publication 2012–present The Future Fire, 2005–present – US/UK Interzone, 1982–present SFX, 1995–present Starburst, 1977–present === Other magazines === Albedo One, 1993–present, Ireland Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, 2002–present, Australia Aurealis, 1990–present, Australia Fantastyka (also known as Nowa Fantastyka), 1982–present, Poland Futura, 1992–present, Croatia Galaktika, 1972–1995, revived 2004–present, Hungary Helice, 2006–present, Spain-Latin America Kalpabiswa, 2016–present, India Mir Fantastiki, 2003–present, Russia Mithila Review, 2016–present, India Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, 2003–present, Canada (English) NewFoundSpecFic, 2009–present, Canada (English) Nova Science Fiction, 1982–1987, revived 2004–present, Sweden On Spec, 1989–present, Canada (English) Quarber Merkur, Austria Portti, 1982–present, Finland RBG-Azimuth, 2006–present, Ukraine Science Fiction World, 1979–present, China Sci Phi Journal, 2014–present, Belgium SF Magazine, 1959–present, Japan Sirius B, 2011–present, Croatia Solaris, 1974–present, Canada (French) Tähtivaeltaja, 1982–present, Finland Ubiq, 2007–present, Croatia Universe Pathways, 2005–present, Greece Urania, 1952–present, Italy Usva webzine, 2005–present, Finland == See also == Fantasy fiction magazine George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection Horror fiction magazine == References == === Sources === Several sources give updates on the state of science fiction magazines. Gardner Dozois presents a summary of the state of magazines in the introduction to the annual The Year's Best Science Fiction volume. Locus lists the circulation and discusses the status of pro and semi-pro SF magazines in their February year-in-review issue, and runs periodic summaries of non-US science fiction. Day, Donald B., Index to the Science Fiction Magazines: 1926–1950, Perri Press, 1952. Strauss, Erwin S., The MIT Science Fiction Society's Index to the S-F Magazines: 1951–1965, MITSFS, 1965. Clute, John and Nicholls, Peter, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, St. Martin's Press, 1993. Knight, Damon, Science Fiction in the 30s, Avon Books, 1977. Asimov, Isaac and Greenberg, Martin H., Isaac Asimov presents Great Science Fiction Stories of 1939, DAW Books, 1979. == External links == Website for Locus, the newsmagazine of the science fiction field Illustrated checklists for over 1000 SF/fantasy/horror magazines: Galactic Central website Duotrope – search engine for fiction magazine markets Howard and Jane Frank Collection of Science Fiction Pulp Magazines at the University of Maryland Libraries Early Science Fiction Pulp Magazines: Resources in Special Collections at Michigan State University Libraries The Pulp Magazines Project Jim Linwood's Nebula site – information on fan contributions, letters, artwork, scans of all the covers, and a complete archive of Ken Slater's book review columns	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_magazine
Science fiction comedy (sci-fi comedy) or comic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedic effect. The genre often mocks or satirizes standard science fiction conventions, concepts and tropes – such as alien invasion of Earth, interstellar travel, or futuristic technology. It can also satirize and criticize present-day society. An early example was the Pete Manx series by Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes (sometimes writing together and sometimes separately, under the house pen-name of Kelvin Kent). Published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the series featured a time-traveling carnival barker who uses his con-man abilities to get out of trouble. Two later series cemented Kuttner's reputation as one of the most popular early writers of comic science fiction: the Gallegher series (about a drunken inventor and his narcissistic robot) and the Hogben series (about a family of mutant hillbillies). The former appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1943 and 1948 and was collected in hardcover as Robots Have No Tails (Gnome, 1952), and the latter appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the late 1940s. In the 1950s of the authors contributing to the sub-genre included: Alfred Bester, Harry Harrison, C. M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl, and Robert Sheckley. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series written by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it later morphed into other formats, including stage shows, novels, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 computer game, and 2005 feature film. A prominent series in British popular culture, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has become an international multi-media phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. Terry Pratchett's 1981 novel Strata also exemplifies the science fiction comedy genre. == See also == List of science fiction comedy works List of science fiction comedy films Fantasy comedy == References ==	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_comedy
Mundane science fiction (MSF) is a niche literary movement within science fiction that developed in the early 2000s, with principles codified by the "Mundane Manifesto" in 2004, signed by author Geoff Ryman and the "2004 class" of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. The movement proposes "mundane science fiction" as its own subgenre of science fiction, typically characterized by its setting on Earth or within the Solar System; a lack of interstellar travel, intergalactic travel or human contact with extraterrestrials; and a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or a plausible extension of existing technology. There is debate over the boundaries of MSF and over which works can be considered canonical. Rudy Rucker has noted MSF's similarities to hard science fiction and Ritch Calvin has pointed out MSF's similarities to cyberpunk. Some commentators have identified science fiction films and television series which embody the MSF ethos of near-future realism. MSF has garnered a mixed reception from the science fiction community. While some science fiction authors have defended the proposed subgenre, others have argued that MSF is contrary to the longstanding imaginative tradition of science fiction, or questioned the need for a new subgenre. == History and origins == === Mundane Manifesto === The MSF movement, which was inspired by an idea from British computer programmer Julian Todd, was founded in 2004 during the 2004 Clarion West class by novelist Geoff Ryman among others. The beliefs of the movement were later codified as the Mundane Manifesto.The authors of the Manifesto stated that they were "pissed off and needing a tight girdle of discipline to restrain our sf imaginative silhouettes". Ryman and his collaborators believed that much of science fiction was too escapist, and they thought that setting their stories in a world closer to our own would give the narratives more political and social power. Kit Reed's 2004 interview with Ryman states that the "young writers decided they wanted to limit themselves to the most likely future. This meant facing up to what we know is coming, dealing with it, and imagining good futures that are likely." Ryman explained the MSF Manifesto in a speech to BORÉAL’s 2007 Science Fiction convention in Montreal. Ryman claims that the MSF Manifesto was "jokey" and that it was not intended to be a "serious" statement. The authors of the MSF Manifesto, apart from Ryman, are anonymous. === Precursor movements: 1930s–1970s === Lisa Yaszek states that in the early 1930s, the editor of Amazing Stories, scientist and science journalist T. O'Conor Sloane, wrote "'mundane science fiction' before that term ever existed, and he banned faster-than-light travel from science fiction stories" in the magazine, so writers began using "dream narratives... as a way to travel through time and space and time." Nataliya Krynytska states that in the 1940s and 1950s, Soviet literature had a genre called "near-future science fiction". Describing the context for the emergence of MSF, Christopher Cokinos cites Chris Nakashima-Brown in noting that a considerable body of science fiction entails fantasies about escape from scientific reality: "the escape from the subtly Nihilistic dominion of reason in the post-Enlightenment West, into a generically unbound Jungian Disneyland...". He argues that in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, stodgy tales of space opera "bland prose" and "formulas of planetary romances, über-robots, and cold equations" dominated. He also points out that SF writer Thomas Disch has similarly opined that the preference for weak, implausible depictions of science in sci fi is an "American aspect of our 'lie-loving' culture" used by readers for escapism. Some Golden Age writers, however, such as Theodore Sturgeon, Philip José Farmer, and Ray Bradbury did transcend these formulas and developed nuanced characters and stories. Cokinos goes on to state that in the 1960s, various authors launched science fiction's New Wave, when "stylistic experimentation" in the writing and new topics meant less formulas and clichés. The authors had a profound "skepticism about science and technology", and there was an examination of "inner space" (J. G. Ballard), "feminist...critiques, and ecology (Frank Herbert’s Dune). Similarly, BBC TV critic Hugh Montgomery notes that J.G. Ballard believed that the Golden Age’s focus on advanced interstellar spaceships was "clichéd and unilluminating", preferring to write stories about humans’ "next five minutes" and "near future", which is "immediately recognisable to us, but invariably with a pretty unpleasant twist or three." In Damon Knight's essay entitled "Goodbye, Henry J. Kostkos, Goodbye", from the 1972 Clarion II workshop, he criticizes "old guard" science fiction, including space operas and stories about travel between stars and space colonization. Knight states that "it [would] perhaps be better to stay on this planet, clean it up a little, and reduce our numbers to some reasonable figure". === 1990s–2000s === In Nader Elhefnawy's book The End of Science Fiction?, he cites John Horgan's 1996 book The End of Science, which claims that science will not achieve a new scientific revolution of similar significance to past revolutions to claim that this may lessen science fiction writers' potential use of new scientific discoveries as a source of inspiration. Elhefnawy says this "end of science" may be behind Ryman et al's disinterest in hypothetical future science such as FTL travel and their shift to MSF. Ritch Calvin argues that the goals of MSF were predated by sociologist Wayne Brekhus, who in 2000 published "A Mundane Manifesto", calling for "analytically interesting studies of the socially uninteresting." He argues for a focus on the "mundane" because the "extraordinary draws disproportionate theoretical attention from researchers", which weakens the development of theory and creates a distorted image of reality. He stated that he hoped that the humanities would also focus on the mundane. Calvin noted that in 2001, the sci-fi website Futurismic came out against the traditional forms of SF, and instead called for an examination of the impact of scientific discoveries on human society. Futurismic is against all "fantasy, horror, and space opera, as well as off-world SF, distant futures, aliens, alternate histories, and time travel". Futurismic accepts fiction that is mundane, "post-cyberpunk sf, satirical/gonzo futurism, and realistic near future hard sf." In his book review of "Dust", scholar Paul McAuley described Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park as an example of mundane science fiction. == Style and ethos == MSF is a postulated science fiction subgenre:60 that exists between science fiction and the mainstream. American SF author Nancy Kress defines MSF as a strict form of hard SF. She states that "[h]ard SF has several varieties, starting with really hard, which does not deviate in any way from known scientific principles in inventing the future"; she says "this is also called by some “mundane SF.”" According to the Manifesto, MSF writers believe it is unlikely that alien intelligence will overcome the physical constraints on interstellar travel any better than we can. As such, the Manifesto imagines a future on Earth and within the Solar System. The Manifesto states that alternative universes, parallel worlds, magic and the supernatural (including telepathy and telekinesis), time travel and teleportation are similarly avoided. MSF rarely involves interstellar travel or communication with alien civilization. In the MSF ethos, unfounded speculation about interstellar travel can lead to an illusion of a universe abundant with planets as hospitable to life as Earth, which encourages wasteful attitude to the abundance on Earth. MSF thus focuses on stories set on or near the Earth, with a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or which is a plausible extension of existing technology. MSF works explore topics such as enhanced genomes, environmental degradation, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics, robotics, and virtual reality. MSF claims to describe change "already in effect" and claims "ideological significance". The boundaries between the proposed mundane subgenre and other genres, such as hard science fiction, dystopias, or cyberpunk are not defined. With MSF, the canonical works are vaguer than with cyberpunk. Science fiction author Aliette de Bodard said in an interview with Nature that "Science fiction has moved into the mainstream in step with the infusion of science into the everyday; thus, it can risk losing its outlandish feel, even as other fictional forms borrow its tropes." In its issue on mundane science fiction, British science fiction magazine Interzone attempted a checklist of topics that cannot be included for a work to be considered "mundane": Faster-than-light travel, psionic powers, nanobots, aliens, computer consciousness, profitable space travel, immortality, mind uploading, teleportation, or time travel. == Media == === Reception and controversy === In 2007 science fiction writer Rudy Rucker, author of the 1983 Transrealist Manifesto, blogged a response to the Mundane Manifesto. Rucker stated that he "prefer[s] to continue searching for ways to be less and less Mundane". He pointed out that alternate universes are "quite popular in modern physics" and stated that perhaps other worlds exist in other dimensions. He noted that fiction writers outside of SF use stories about time travel, so while implausible, it was worth exploring. While Rucker also rejected SF's "escapist" tendencies, and called for transrealism, he argued that elements of SF which MSF advocates reject are "symbolic of archetypal modes of perception" that are needed in SF. In the March 2008 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, in writer Jim Kelly's ongoing "On the Net" column he agreed with many elements of MSF. At the same time, he wondered, "how was Mundane SF all that different from what had up until then been called hard science fiction?". Kelly states that too many of his favorite works fall outside the tenets of MSF. Both Kelly and Calvin mention the criticism by British author Ian McDonald, and his fundamental objection, that much good science fiction is being written without any awareness of or need for the manifesto. Niall Harrison argued that Interzone #216's collection of MSF stories does not develop "a convincing case for mundane sf." Also in 2008, Chris Cokinos described The Mundane Manifesto as anthropocentric. He noted that the concern in MSF about wasting the abundance of Earth is influenced by the "...moral climate that permeates North American and British nature writing", adding that MSF is intended "more as compass than chimera". In 2009, writer Kate McKinney Maddalena noted that the MSF blog was first used as a forum for debate about the new subgenre and that by 2009, bloggers were identifying MSF from the SF literature, and looking for newly published MSF ("mundane spotting"). Maddelena added that Ryman's naming of MSF "only marks (and encourages) a high point in SF’s social and ecological consciousness and conscience.” Also in 2009, SF writer Claire L. Evans called it a "controversial recent sub-genre"; while stating MSF was a "useful category for an already-existing genre of science fiction". Evans disagreed with MSF in that it was often "the wildest, least likely prognostications that come to pass". She also criticized Ryman for disrespecting SF’s tradition of creating prophecies, thus influencing real life, which she stated means he "completely misses the point of [science fiction]". In a 2015 interview, when science fiction author Scott H. Jucha was asked his views about MSF, in light of Jucha's depiction of interstellar colonization in his The Silver Ships series, he said he has "two opinions on the Mundane Science Fiction Movement’s premise." Jucha says that as "someone focused on our environment, I believe space exploration and habitation throughout our system will yield inventions that will aid our planet’s resource management, recycling efficiency, and environmental cleanup." At the same time, Jucha supports "science fiction speculation" arguing that "[w]ho would have thought that sixty or seventy years ago, we would have landed on the Moon or [now] be planning a mission to Mars…". Commentary on MSF continued in the 2010s. In 2011 a Fantastic Worlds journal critic criticized the "very selective" use of science in MSF and its depressing nature. In 2012, Emmet Byrne and Susannah Schouweiler called MSF the Dogme 95 of science fiction, a reference to a realist Danish film manifesto. Byrne and Schouweiler also called MSF the inverse of "design fiction", a type of writing advocated by Julian Bleecker which explores the "symbiotic relationship between science fiction and science fact" by focusing on a specific artifact. Bruce Sterling defines design fiction as the "deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change". In 2013 Linda Nagata noted the relationship between hard science fiction and MSF, but stated, "the term 'mundane' has the 'implication of "boring'? To me, the term is another marketing disaster." Also in 2013, The New Museum's digital art arm Rhizome published Martine Syms' "The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto", which asserts that "Mundane Afrofuturism is the ultimate laboratory for worldbuilding outside of imperialist, capitalist, white patriarchy." In 2019, Roger Luckhurst, a professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, stated the MSF movement was developed because writers did not want "…to imagine shiny, hard futures [but [rather] give a] sense of sliding from one version of our present into something slightly alienated". In 2013, Nick Foster, a designer and futurist from California, was inspired by Ryman's MSF principles to propose a new form of industrial design for films set in the future called "The Future Mundane." Just as MSF is against fanciful speculation, Foster's "The Future Mundane" is "counter to the fantasy-laden future worlds generated by our [industrial design] industry." It consists of designing everyday objects (e.g., corkscrews and milk packaging) for background characters in films; depicting technology as an "accretive space", where advanced technologies sit side by side with dusty antique devices and tools; and the technologies should not function seamlessly (they should be shown having glitches). Science fiction author August Cole advocates the use of "Fictional Intelligence" ("FicInt"), which he defines as “useful fictions." FicInt, a concept developed by Cole in 2015, combines “fiction writing with intelligence to imagine future scenarios in ways grounded in reality." === Literature === In 2007 the British sci fi magazine Interzone devoted an issue to the subgenre. Science fiction author Ted Chiang states that Ryman's 2004 novel Air, while "taken by some readers to be an example of Mundane sf" due to its author, was initially not classified by Ryman as mundane science fiction. However, in 2007, Ryman referred to it as a "Mundane fantasy" novel (it depicts an "Air technology" that has no scientific basis). Brian Attebery argues that Air is "largely mundane", and he asserts that Ryman's use of some fantasy elements (an "impossible pregnancy" and "time slippage") strengthen the novel's themes and make the story more interesting, so he says that a "test" for MSF status need not be used. The 2009 short story collection When It Changed: Science Into Fiction, edited by Ryman, is a collection of mundane science fiction stories, each written by a science fiction author with advice from a scientist, and with an endnote by that scientist explaining the plausibility of the story. In 2015 a reviewer from ‘’Boing Boing’’ called Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel Aurora, a generation ship novel, MSF's "most significant novel". In 2019 Robert Harris' The Second Sleep was described as the best MSF novel of the year. In Jeff Somers' 2015 article for Barnes and Noble, he identified six novels: Geoff Ryman's Air, which he calls "low-key, small-scale science fiction" that exemplifies the movement; Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, about "an attempt to terraform and establish a colony on Mars" that leads to a revolution; Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark, about "genetic procedures that remove disease and deformity"; Andy Weir's The Martian, about an astronaut accidentally stranded on Mars who has to learn to survive on the lifeless planet using leftover equipment; Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, an alternate future in which the "United States has experienced a communist revolution after a period of economic decline", and China has become the superpower; and Charles Stross' Halting State, which is set in a virtual world, enabling him to depict cyber-created orcs and dragons while still respecting the limits of MSF. In the 2016 edition of SFX (#277, September) it calls Nicholas Soutter's The Water Thief (2012) an example of "Mundane SF future-history". In November 10, 2020, Nina Munteanu listed Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 as one of the top 15 eco-fiction novels, referring to it as "an impeccable climate-novel of mundane SF." Solarpunk fiction can include elements of mundane science fiction. In Solarpunk Futures interview with Nina Munteanu regarding her solarpunk novel A Diary in the Age of Water, a "climate-induced journey...[of] four generations of women...against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water", she added elements of mundane science fiction to add the "gritty realism of “the mundane” to the story. She says the "diary-aspect of the book characterizes it as “mundane science fiction” in that it presents "an “ordinary” setting for characters to play out" in. === Films and television === In 2008, Christopher Cokinos stated that films such as Gattaca (1997), about a society based on genetic testing and ranking, and Moon (2009), about a lonely one-man mining operation on the Moon, "fit the Mundane Manifesto’s interest in near-future realism, even if they don’t directly deal with the beauties and heartbreaks of the Earth". Other examples Cokinos cited are French filmmaker Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983) and the film version of Children of Men (2006), which shows a "heart-wrenching film of a grim, near-future Earth". Film reviewer Rick Norwood states that The Time Traveler's Wife is a "very good example" of MSF. After Yang is a 2021 film by Kogonada about a couple who buy a realistic, sophisticated android named Yang who they treat like a member of the family. Yang helps look after their adopted Chinese daughter Mika and give her a culturally-appropriate upbringing. Yang teaches her about her Chinese heritage and helps her feel less anxious about being adopted. When Yang starts malfunctioning and has to be taken to the android repair shop, Mika misses his emotional support. When they learn he cannot be fixed, the entire family has to come to terms with losing Yang's presence in their lives. Paste reviewer Elijah Gonzalez states that the appeal of this film's "mundane science fiction" is that its "low-key" approach "shrink[s] the scope of conflict, [so that] relatively commonplace concerns gain increased impact, emulating the worries we deal with in the here and now." Gonzalez states that by "combining the [sci-fi] genre’s ability to realize far-flung technology with Kogonoda’s precise imagery, After Yang proves that there is fertile ground for moving, mundane science fiction." In 2019, UK television critic Hugh Montgomery identified MSF television series and films which are set in the near future and which use plausible technologies; his list includes Black Mirror; The Handmaid’s Tale (a dystopian drama set in a totalitarian, misogynist theocracy); Osmosis (about a dating app that requires a bodily implant for users); Years and Years (a family drama set over the next 15 years, in a world facing ecological disasters); and Children of Men. === Related genres === In Ritch Calvin's opinion, MSF shares "characteristics with cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and near-future science fiction". For instance, William Gibson’s novels show a "near future urban" world, while Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix depicts the impacts of global capitalism. == See also == Lab lit Pastoral science fiction == References == == Further reading == Kelly, James Patrick. "On the Net: Mundane". Asimov’s Science Fiction. 2007. 2 June 2009. Knabe, Susan; Pearson, Wendy Gay. "Introduction: Mundane Science Fiction, Harm and Healing the World". Extrapolation (pre-2012); Brownsville Vol. 49, Iss. 2, (Summer 2008): 181–194,179-180. Nattermann, Udo. "Mundane Boundaries: Eco-political Elements in Three Science Fiction Stories", ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Volume 20, Issue 1, Winter 2013, Pages 112–124, doi:10.1093/isle/ist012. Rucker, Rudy. "To Be or Not to Be: Mundane SF." New York Review of Science Fiction 230 (October 2006): 18–19. == External links == The full text of "The Mundane Manifesto" Mundane SF blog	Wikipedia/Mundane_science_fiction
The New York Review of Science Fiction is a monthly literary magazine of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. For the first 24 years, it was published by David G. Hartwell's Dragon Press, but with the start of volume 25, it has shifted to publisher Kevin J. Maroney's Burrowing Wombat Press. The journal is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and other subject-specific literature and cultural studies indexes. A complete and up-to-date index in Microsoft Excel format is available online. Although international in coverage, the journal also sponsors SF events in the New York City area, principally including a series of readings from prominent writers that are generally broadcast on WBAI. == History == The New York Review of Science Fiction was established in 1988 by Hartwell, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Susan Palwick, Samuel R. Delany, and Kathryn Cramer. Gordon Van Gelder has also been on the editorial staff over the years. It was a print publication until the end of volume 24; now it is available electronically. Tables of contents, editorials, and some featured articles are offered for free online. For example, Delany's 1998 essay Racism and Science Fiction was often referenced during online debates about race and science fiction in early 2009 and in response to a subscriber request, the essay was posted online. == References == == External links == Official website The New York Review of Science Fiction series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database	Wikipedia/New_York_Review_of_Science_Fiction
Deutscher Science Fiction Preis is a German literary award. Together with the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis, it is one of the most prestigious awards for German science fiction literature. The award was established in 1985 by the Science Fiction Club Deutschland, a German Science Fiction society. Each year, the award is given to the best German science fiction short story and the best German novel from the previous year. == Winners == === Best Novel === 1985: Herbert W. Franke, Die Kälte des Weltraums 1986: Thomas R. P. Mielke, Der Tag an dem die Mauer brach 1987: Claus-Peter Lieckfeld/Frank Wittchow, 427 - Im Land der grünen Inseln und Friedrich Scholz, Nach dem Ende 1988: Gudrun Pausewang, Die Wolke 1989: Fritz Schmoll, Kiezkoller 1990: Maria J. Pfannholz, Den Überlebenden 1991: Herbert W. Franke, Zentrum der Milchstraße 1992: Christian Mähr, Fatous Staub 1993: Herbert Rosendorfer, Die Goldenen Heiligen 1994: Dirk C. Fleck, GO! Die Ökodiktatur 1995: Gisbert Haefs, Traumzeit für Agenten 1996: Andreas Eschbach, The Carpet Makers 1997: Andreas Eschbach, Solarstation 1998: Robert Feldhoff, Grüße vom Sternenbiest 1999: Andreas Eschbach, Jesus Video 2000: Matthias Robold, Hundert Tage auf Stardawn 2001: Fabian Vogt, Zurück 2002: Oliver Henkel, Die Zeitmaschine Karls des Großen 2003: Oliver Henkel, Kaisertag 2004: Andreas Eschbach, Der Letzte seiner Art 2005: Frank Schätzing, The Swarm 2006: Wolfgang Jeschke, Das Cusanus-Spiel 2007: Ulrike Nolte, Die fünf Seelen des Ahnen 2008: Frank W. Haubold, Die Schatten des Mars 2009: Dirk C. Fleck, Das Tahiti-Projekt 2010: Karsten Kruschel, Vilm. Der Regenplanet / Vilm. Die Eingeborenen 2011: Uwe Post, Walpar Tonnraffir und der Zeigefinger Gottes 2012: Karsten Kruschel, Galdäa. Der ungeschlagene Krieg 2013: Andreas Brandhorst, Das Artefakt 2014: Wolfgang Jeschke, Dschiheads 2015: Markus Orths, Alpha & Omega: Apokalypse für Anfänger 2016 Andreas Brandhorst, Das Schiff 2017 Dirk van den Boom, Die Welten der Skiir 1: Prinzipat 2018 Marc-Uwe Kling, Qualityland 2019 Tom Hillenbrand, Hologrammatica 2020 Bijan Moini, Der Würfel === Best Short Story === 1985: Thomas R. P. Mielke, Ein Mord im Weltraum 1986: Wolfgang Jeschke, Nekyomanteion 1987: Reinmar Cunis, Vryheit do ik jo openbar 1988: Ernst Petz, Das liederlich-machende Liedermacher-Leben 1989: Rainer Erler, Der Käse 1990: Gert Prokop, Kasperle ist wieder da! 1991: Andreas Findig, Gödel geht 1992: Egon Eis, Das letzte Signal 1993: Norbert Stöbe, 10 Punkte 1994: Wolfgang Jeschke, Schlechte Nachrichten aus dem Vatikan 1995: Andreas Fieberg, Der Fall des Astronauten 1996: Marcus Hammerschmitt, Die Sonde 1997: Michael Sauter, Der menschliche Faktor 1998: Andreas Eschbach, Die Wunder des Universums 1999: Michael Marrak, Die Stille nach dem Ton 2000: Michael Marrak, Wiedergänger 2001: Rainer Erler, Ein Plädoyer 2002: Michael K. Iwoleit, Wege ins Licht 2003: Arno Behrend, Small Talk 2004: Michael K. Iwoleit, Ich fürchte kein Unglück 2005: Karl Michael Armer, Die Asche des Paradieses 2006: Michael K. Iwoleit, Psyhack 2007: Marcus Hammerschmitt, Canea Null 2008: Frank W. Haubold, Heimkehr 2009: Karla Schmidt, Weg mit Stella Maris 2010: Matthias Falke, Boa Esperança 2011: Wolfgang Jeschke, Orte der Erinnerung 2012: Heidrun Jänchen, In der Freihandelszone 2013: Michael K. Iwoleit, Zur Feier meines Todes 2014: Axel Kruse, Seitwärts in die Zeit 2015: Eva Strasser, Knox 2016: Frank Böhmert, Operation Gnadenakt 2017: Michael K. Iwoleit, Das Netz der Geächteten 2018: Uwe Hermann, Das Internet der Dinge 2019: Thorsten Küper, Confinement 2020: Tom Turtschi, Don’t Be Evil == See also == Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis == References == == External links == Deutscher Science Fiction Preis site (German)	Wikipedia/Deutscher_Science_Fiction_Preis
The Museum of Science Fiction (MOSF) is a 501c(3) nonprofit museum that originally had plans to be based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in the spring of 2013 by Greg Viggiano and a team of 22 volunteer professionals with a goal of becoming the world's first comprehensive science fiction museum. As of 2023, the Museum does not yet have a permanent building or location and is currently developing a virtual reality-based photo-realistic, digital twin of several proposed museum galleries and exhibitions. The Museum is also a frequent collaborator with other organizations, such as the London Science Museum for their 2022 exhibition on science fiction. == Establishment == The Museum of Science Fiction was planning to open a preview museum in late 2015 as a step toward opening the full museum in 2018. The preview museum was envisioned to be a 4,000 square foot multi-purpose location, open for 48 months near a DC Metro station before redeployment as a satellite location that traveled to other global cities to promote the Museum and its mission. This first physical iteration of the preview museum was to feature four gallery change-outs to encourage higher revisit-rates and provide a way for curators to capture early visitor feedback. The interior was expected to also function as a venue for special events including dinners, presentations, film screenings, and lectures with seating for up to 150 attendees. Despite an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign not reaching its goal, in July 2014 the Museum hosted an architecture design contest for the Museum's first home, with locations in D.C. and northern Virginia under consideration. In August 2014, the Museum hosted an exhibit design competition seeking exhibits that would have been used in the four-year life of the preview museum. The Museum intends to develop seven permanent galleries that celebrate and encourage the human tendency to always ask, "What if?" The permanent galleries include: The Creators; Other Worlds; Vehicles; Time Travel; Lifeforms; Computers and Robots; and Technology. Science fiction is to be presented as a form of rational speculation that has influenced and been influenced by scientific and technological progress for centuries. In March 2022, it was announced that work had begun on a VR museum that would provide a photo-realistic virtual reality experience until a physical space is constructed. The first group of galleries are on schedule to open in the fall of 2023. In September 2022, the Museum received a community education grant from BAE Systems for the design of a quantum computer virtual reality tour to be part of the Computer and Robots Gallery in its VR Museum. == Publishing == === Landscapes of Dying Worlds: The Art of Michal Klimczak === In October 2024, the Museum launched a Kickstarter campaign for an art book entitled "Landscapes of Dying Worlds." The hardcover coffee table book features over 140 pieces of surrealist, post-apocalyptic art and includes augmented reality features on select pages. Polish artist Michał Klimczak, whose work was also featured in the Museum's Ukrainian online exhibition, created all of the artwork. The project was fully funded in November. === Convergence: Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing: Social, Economic, and Policy Impacts === In 2023, the Museum of Science Fiction published a collection of essays on two converging technologies: quantum computing and artificial intelligence. These essays cover how quantum AI may impact our economies, governments, businesses, and ethics as a society. Prominent authors such as Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann and Hugo and Nebula award-winning author David Brin are featured, as well as a diverse array of experts from industry, academia, and government. Polish artist, Michal Klimczak created the cover art for the book. A second volume will be published in 2024, featuring essays that discuss the application of the aforementioned technologies. === Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction === In October 2016, the Museum of Science Fiction launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its first "take-home exhibit," an anthology entitled Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction. The campaign was fully funded by November 2016. The Kindle eBook edition of the anthology was released for general purchase on 14 November 2017, and hardback and paperback editions were released in December 2017. Julie Dillon created the cover art for Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers. Monica Louzon was the lead on the anthology's editorial team, which also included Jake Weisfeld, Heather McHale, Barbara Jasny, and Rachel Frederick. The anthology includes three new poems by 2017 SFWA Grand Master Jane Yolen and new short stories from Floris M. Kleijne, AJ Lee, Seanan McGuire, Pat Murphy, Sarah Pinsker, and Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam. Reprinted works included in the anthology were written by Eleanor Arnason, Catherine Asaro, Monica Byrne, Betsy Curtis, Kiini Ibura Salaam, N. K. Jemisin, Nancy Kress, Naomi Kritzer, Karen Lord, Anthea Sharp, Carrie Vaughn, and Sarah Zettel. === MOSF Journal of Science Fiction === The MOSF Journal of Science Fiction is a triannual peer-reviewed open access academic journal covering science fiction studies published by the Museum of Science Fiction from January 2016. The current managing editor is Anthony Boynton II. According to its editorial policy, the Journal "seeks to uphold the spirit of educated inquiry and speculation through the publication of peer-reviewed, academic articles, essays and book reviews exploring the myriad facets of science fiction." As of April 2023, it has published 14 issues with three to four academic articles per issue. == Activities == === Ukrainian Online Exhibition === In May 2022, the Museum of Science Fiction opened an online digital art exhibition of art in support of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. The exhibition featured digital artwork by artist Michał Klimczak which could be downloaded for free as a “take home exhibition,” and an exhibition narrative translated into 18 different languages. The Museum launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in Fall 2024 to fund production of an art book of Klimczak's work, titled 'Landscapes of Dying Worlds.' === Competitions === The Museum of Science Fiction has sponsored several educational competitions since its inception, ranging from artistic exhibitions to engineering projects. === Escape Velocity === From July 1 through 3, 2016, the Museum of Science Fiction and NASA hosted its first annual convention called Escape Velocity. Described as a futuristic world's fair to promote STEAM education within the context of science fiction using the fun of comic cons and fascination of science and engineering festivals, the convention featured guests with backgrounds in both science and science fiction such as Rod Roddenberry, Adam Nimoy and Jamie Anderson. A gallery showcasing original replicas of props, models, and costumes from notable works of science fiction offered a preview of the kinds of exhibits which will be on display in the permanent museum. The second annual Escape Velocity was held September 1 through 3, 2017. The theme of the show was Robotics, Computers, AI, and Drones, and guest speakers included Thomas Dolby, Joe Haldeman, and Cas Anvar. The third Escape Velocity event took place May 25 through 27, 2018. The theme of the show was "Other Worlds", and guest speakers included Greg Nicotero and award-winning author and Museum board member, Greg Bear. The Museum of Science Fiction in cooperation with The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation also celebrated the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This celebration featured a special program with a film screening, special guests, and never-before-seen prop reproductions - such as the full size EVA pod. Escape Velocity 2019, the fourth iteration hosted the first ever Cosmic Encounter Galactic Championship Tournament as well as the first public reunion of the original three primary Cosmic Encounter designers Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle in many years. Special guests included actresses Dominique Tipper from the Expanse and Gigi Edgley from Farscape. On July 29, 2020, author of the Martian, Andy Weir led an online panel discussion on the Artemis Mission as part of the Escape Velocity Extra program series, an online-only alternative experience to the annual Escape Velocity convention which could not be held due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. === Teacher Development Workshop === In May 2016, the Museum of Science Fiction held a Teacher Development Workshop to offer educators new approaches for teaching STEAM courses through the use of science fiction. The workshop was held on Sunday, July 3, 2016 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center as part of the Museum’s first annual Escape Velocity convention. The convention featured appearances by science fiction legacies Rod Roddenberry, Adam Nimoy, and Jamie Anderson who are active supporters of education. === Future of Travel Exhibit === In July 2015, the Museum opened its first public exhibition in the form of the “Future of Travel” gallery. This four-month exhibition in the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport featured a large-scale model of the Orion III spaceplane from 2001: A Space Odyssey, retro-futuristic travel posters designed by artist Steve Thomas, and a digital companion guide via the Museum mobile app. === Mobile App === In June 2015, the Museum released a free mobile app for iPhones that featured a science fiction trivia game and guide to the Future of Travel exhibit that it would open the following month. === Film Screenings === In 2014, the Museum of Science Fiction partnered with the District of Columbia Public Library system to host a monthly science fiction movie screening. === Partnerships === Beginning in 2014, the Museum started a partnership with the John Eaton Elementary School (Washington, DC) to bring a range of STEAM programs to local school children using science fiction as an educational tool. The Museum worked with educators to develop enrichment experiences and classroom workshops for students. Planned activities include the art of storytelling, writing, illustration techniques, and numerous project-based learning science activities. Additional notable partnerships which have been reported in the Washington Post include the Science Channel and Awesome Con. In January 2018, the Museum of Science Fiction began a quarterly lecture series in Washington, DC that focused on present day and near future developments in the fields of commercial space travel, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other technology. The first lecture, "AI and Cognitive Computing," took place on February 22 at the offices of K&L Gates, a co-sponsor of the series. In February 2016, the Museum of Science Fiction co-sponsored a workshop in Los Angeles on the future of human space exploration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Science & Entertainment Exchange. “Homesteading in Space — Inspiring the Nation through Science Fiction” brought together stakeholders from academia, government, the commercial space industry, and the entertainment industry to focus on developing a positive, inventive view of future space exploration. In May 2015, the Museum entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA which helped to support the launch of the first Escape Velocity convention the following year. In addition to the Space Act Agreement, in 2016 the Museum of Science Fiction joined the NASA Heliophysics Education Consortium at the Goddard Space Flight Center and received a $200,000 5-year grant through a NASA Cooperative Agreement. During this time, NASA and the Museum prototyped a VR environment of a 4,000 square-foot museum space that allowed visitors to interact with exhibits and operate a heliophysics science station that offers an unprecedented view of the sun. The solar data provided by NASA satellites ensured that visitors experienced the most realistic and scientifically accurate presentation of the heliosphere and solar weather. "We are always looking for disruptive innovations on better storytelling," said Bryan Stephenson, a VR developer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center working on the project. "New virtual reality technologies, like the Oculus Rift, will bring about a revolution in education and entertainment that will completely change how we experience digital realms. We are delighted to begin exploring how we may deliver this new content with the Museum of Science Fiction." The VR Museum was later incorporated into NASA's STEM Innovation Lab. In spring of 2015, the Museum partnered with the costume production MFA program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to create screen-accurate costume replicas for display of iconic costumes from science fiction films. These costumes are displayed at the Escape Velocity convention and are part of the museum's permanent collection. The graduate students create the replicas under the supervision of the program faculty and with the assistance of undergraduate costume lab students. Examples of costumes created are the spaceflight attendant from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Neo's costume in the first Matrix film, the Stillsuit from the original Dune film, a Borg unit from Star Trek, and the Frankenstein creature from classic horror iconography. The Museum of Science Fiction has also hosted a monthly science fiction movie screening in conjunction with the District of Columbia Public Library System. == References == == External links == Official website MOSF Journal of Science Fiction website	Wikipedia/Museum_of_Science_Fiction
The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films is an American non-profit organization established in 1972 dedicated to the advancement of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Academy is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and was founded by Dr. Donald A. Reed. The Academy distributes its Saturn Awards annually to what it considers the best films of the genres. The award was initially and is still sometimes loosely referred to as a Golden Scroll. The Academy also publishes Saturn Rings, its official organ. == See also == Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences == References == == External links == Official website	Wikipedia/Academy_of_Science_Fiction,_Fantasy_and_Horror_Films
British television science fiction refers to programmes in the genre that have been produced by both the BBC and Britain's largest commercial channel, ITV. BBC's Doctor Who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and has been called the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. == Early years == The first known science fiction television programme was produced by the BBC's pre-war television service. On 11 February 1938, a 35-minute adapted extract of the play R.U.R., written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, was broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios. Concerning a future world in which robots rise up against their human masters, it was the only piece of science fiction to be produced before the television service was suspended for the duration of the war. Only a few on-set publicity photographs survive. R.U.R. was produced a second time on 4 March 1948, this time in a full 90-minute live production, adapted for television by the producer Jan Bussell, who had also been responsible for the screening in 1938. The BBC began producing more science fiction, with further literary adaptations such as The Time Machine (1949) and children's serials like Stranger from Space (1951–1952). In the summer of 1953, the six-part serial The Quatermass Experiment was broadcast live. An adult-themed science-fiction drama specially written for television by BBC staff writer Nigel Kneale, its budget consumed the majority of the finances reserved for drama that year. This successful serial led to three additional Quatermass serials and three feature film adaptations from Hammer Film Productions. The Quatermass Experiment is also the first piece of British television science fiction to partially survive, albeit only in the form of poor-quality telerecordings of its first two episodes. The second serial Quatermass II (1955) is the earliest BBC science fiction production to exist in its entirety. Kneale could not rely on sophisticated special effects to convey his narratives. Instead, he based his stories around characterization and characters' reactions to the strange events unfolding around them, using science fiction themes to tell allegorical stories such as paralleling real-life racial tensions with the Martian "infection" of Quatermass and the Pit (1958–1959). On 12 December 1954, a live adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, produced by the Quatermass team of writer Nigel Kneale and director Rudolph Cartier, achieved the highest television ratings since the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. It was so controversial that it was debated in Parliament, and campaigners tried to have the second performance the following Thursday banned. The BBC's Head of Drama, Michael Barry, refused to concede. Science fiction productions were rare and almost always one-offs. A for Andromeda (1961, starring a young Julie Christie) and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962) were exceptions. == Creation of Doctor Who and ITV == ITV, Britain's first commercial television network, explored science fiction for programming purposes in the early 1960s. A proponent for such experimentation was Canadian-born producer Sydney Newman, who had become Head of Drama at ABC. He produced the science-fiction serial Pathfinders in Space (1960) and its sequels Pathfinders to Mars (1960) and Pathfinders to Venus (1961) and oversaw the science-fiction anthology series Out of This World (1962), the first of its kind in the UK. ITV also made an attempt at children's science fiction, with its short-lived programme Emerald Soup (1963), which coincidentally aired the same night that Doctor Who premiered. Two important events for the future of British television science fiction occurred in 1962. The first was that the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Eric Maschwitz, commissioned Head of the Script Department, Donald Wilson, to prepare a report on the viability of producing a new science-fiction series for television. The second was that Sydney Newman was tempted away from ABC to accept the position of Head of Drama at the BBC, officially joining the corporation at the beginning of 1963. The BBC developed an idea of Newman's into Britain's first durable science-fiction television series. Taking advantage of the research Wilson's department had completed, Newman initiated the creation of a new series, and along with Wilson and BBC staff writer C. E. Webber oversaw its development; Newman named it "Doctor Who." After much development work, the series was launched on 23 November 1963. It ran for 26 seasons in its original form, through which first emerged many of the writers who, until the 1980s, would create most of the genre's successful British shows. One of the few science fiction series to have become part of the popular consciousness, its success led the BBC to produce others in the genre, notably the science fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown (1965–1971), which ran for four seasons. Some of the ITV companies were imitating American styles of production, shooting some of their series on film rather than in the multi-camera electronic studio, for lucrative sales in the "international" market. One producer who was keen to make science fiction for the commercial network was Gerry Anderson, who initially used puppets for his shows. His science fiction shows in Supermarionation include Supercar (1961–1962), Fireball XL5 (1962–1963), Stingray (1964–1965), Thunderbirds (1965–1966), Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–1968), and Joe 90 (1968–1969). Their success led his backers ITC to finance the live-action shows Anderson most wanted to develop. The first of these was UFO (1970–1971), which featured American actor Ed Bishop as the head of an undercover military organization with responsibility for combating aliens who came to Earth in the eponymous spacecraft. A planned second season was delayed and eventually reformatted as a new show, entitled "Space: 1999" (1975–1977), which ran for two seasons and was a moderate success. == Television science fiction in the 1970s == The 1970s is viewed by fans of the genre as a "golden age." Doctor Who was going through its strongest period with first Jon Pertwee (1970–1974) and later Tom Baker (1974–1981) in the leading role, already firmly entrenched in the public consciousness. Various Doctor Who alumni had moved on to produce their own acclaimed genre programmes. The series' former scientific adviser Kit Pedler and former script editor Gerry Davis collaborated to create Doomwatch (1970–1972), a series that recounted the story of a governmental scientific group formed to investigate and combat ecological and scientific threats to humankind. In the Quatermass tradition of allegorical storytelling (Nigel Kneale was invited, but declined to contribute scripts to the programme), it used its science-fiction basis to try to convey real warnings about the state of the world, as well as telling tense, dramatic stories and not being afraid of shocking its audience, such as in the killing off of popular lead character Toby Wren (played by Robert Powell). Writer Terry Nation had created the Dalek race for Doctor Who in 1963, assuring much of its early popularity. For the rest of the 1960s, Nation concentrated on writing for ITV film series, but in the early 1970s he returned to science fiction, contributing Dalek stories to Doctor Who again from 1973 to 1975 and in 1975 creating his own science-fiction series, Survivors (1975–1977). It ran for three seasons and was generally well received. Nation followed Survivors with Blake's 7 (1978–1981). Pitched by him as "the Dirty Dozen in space," Blake's 7 originally revolved around righteous freedom fighter Roj Blake, his battle with a corrupt Galactic Federation, and the ragtag group of pirates, criminals, and smugglers who are reluctantly forced to work with him after an escape from a prison ship. Running for four seasons, the early evening series had a hard edge. The moral ambiguity of the leading characters made them interesting, and as with Doomwatch, it was not afraid of shocking the audience by killing off leading characters, climaxing by wiping out the entire crew in its final episode. ITV was continuing to produce science fiction in this era. Keen to catch some of the young audience who followed Doctor Who, some of the ITV companies sought to create their own youth-oriented genre programmes, such as the 1970's cult classic sci-fi drama series Timeslip (1970), and the original The Tomorrow People (1973–1979). Although it presented some intriguing (if bizarre) storylines, it never rivaled Doctor Who, possibly because, unlike the BBC programme, it attempted to identify with children by featuring children, thus making the crossover appeal to an adult audience much more difficult. A more respected show, produced by ATV in a similar manner to Doctor Who (i.e., on videotape using a serial form), was Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982). The tale of two "time detectives" played by David McCallum and Joanna Lumley, Sapphire & Steel was an atmospheric piece of television, although its production run was often hampered by the unavailability of its two leads. == 1980s == Longer-running science-fiction series became few and far between. Although Doctor Who was still running, in terms of audience, it was struggling to compete with US imports in the genre, which began to re-emerge following the box-office success of contemporary films like the Star Wars franchise. For the television channel controllers, these had the benefit of transmission rights having a lower cost than domestic productions. Dr. Who's place in the Saturday schedule was briefly lost when it was moved to a weekday slot. Nonetheless, in the early part of the decade there were several serials produced, albeit mainly by the BBC; the bought-in series mainly aired on ITV. Adaptations of novels such as The Day of the Triffids (1981), The Invisible Man (1984), and The Nightmare Man (1981, from the novel Child of the Vodyanoi) were produced, and the BBC began an adaptation of The White Mountains novels under the name The Tripods (1984–1985). The Tripods had run for two of its planned three series when it was cancelled by the Controller of BBC1, Michael Grade. At the same time, Grade abandoned a whole season of Doctor Who; the series was on hiatus for eighteen months. It appeared to be generally felt at the BBC that science fiction was more expensive to produce than other types of programmes, but did not return a higher audience for the outlay, or particular critical acclaim. Some BBC popular and critical successes, such as Edge of Darkness (1985), had science fiction as a secondary element. The industry's shift to drama productions being entirely mounted on film rather than using the film/video "hybrid" form, with increased costs, edged out genre's thought marginal. Perhaps the last original series of its kind in the multi-camera era of BBC science fiction was Star Cops (1987), which ran for only nine episodes to poor viewing figures on the corporation's second channel, BBC2. It was written by Chris Boucher, who had contributed scripts to Doctor Who and Blake's 7, and was script editor for the later series' entire run. The 1980s also saw the arrival on the BBC of two science fiction comedy series, both having origins on radio. The first was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) by Douglas Adams, which amalgamated aspects of the original radio series with material from the subsequent novel. The second was Red Dwarf (1988-1999, 2009-2020), created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. It parodies most (if not all) of the subgenres of science fiction but is first and foremost an "odd couple" type comedy (the couple in question being the characters of Rimmer and Lister). Running for more than eight series, the idea was originally developed from the Dave Hollins: Space Cadet sketches introduced on Grant and Naylor's 1984 BBC Radio 4 show Son of Cliché. == Doctor Who revival and other developments == The original version of Doctor Who lasted until 1989. Apart from a television movie in 1996, Doctor Who did not re-emerge in a bigger-budget version until 2005. Affected by rights issues for some years, many of those behind the new series were fans of the show when they were younger. Doctor Who returned to television screens on 26 March 2005, gaining a profile reminiscent of the earlier series at its peak. Perhaps the most high-profile of those behind the movement to return Doctor Who to the screens was writer Russell T Davies, who worked in the BBC children's department earlier in his career and contributed to British TV science fiction there. Davies' first sci-fi serial was the six-part Dark Season (1991), which co-starred a young Kate Winslet as well as former Blake's 7 star Jacqueline Pearce. Two years later, Davies wrote a second, much more complex serial called Century Falls (1993). ITV contributed a new version of The Tomorrow People (1992–1994) made as an international co-production with US and Australian companies, and there were various other child-oriented sci-fi type series such as ITV's Mike & Angelo (1989–1999) and the BBC's Watt on Earth (1991), although these lacked the crossover adult appeal that Davies' shows had possessed. Interest in making British TV science fiction seemed to return to broadcasters towards the middle of the 1990s, as companies began to see the possibility of lucrative overseas sales and tie-in products that other genres could not match. In the mid-1990s, the BBC screened four seasons of the glossy sci-fi action-adventure series Bugs (1995–1998), made by independent company Carnival. They co-produced the six-part serial Invasion: Earth (1998) with the US Sci-Fi Channel, and ITV began to market British sci-fi again with serials such as The Uninvited (1997) and The Last Train (1999). The BBC also produced several children's science fiction shows in the late 1990s to mid-2000s. For example, Aquila (1997–1998), based on the novel by Andrew Norriss, and Jeopardy (2002–2004), which won the 2002 BAFTA for Best Children's Drama. A "live" remake of The Quatermass Experiment was broadcast on BBC Four on 2 April 2005. Various series have followed the new success of Doctor Who, including two spin-offs entitled Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), a time travel drama Life on Mars (BBC 2006–2007), Eleventh Hour (ITV 2008–2009), Primeval (ITV 2007–2011), and in 2009 a new story for Red Dwarf, now shown exclusively on Dave rather than the BBC, followed by Red Dwarf X in 2012. A short-lived but lively show, Dirk Gently, was adapted from Douglas Adams' book in 2010. == References ==	Wikipedia/British_television_science_fiction
Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality. == Visual production process and methods == The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond the reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of the 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into the basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By the late 1990s, improved technology and more training and cross-training within the industry made all of these techniques easier to use, so that directors of individual episodes could make decisions to use one or more methods, so such artistic choices no longer needed to be baked into the series concept. === Special effects === Special effects (or "SPFX") have been an essential tool throughout the history of science fiction on television: small explosives to simulate the effects of various rayguns, squibs of blood and gruesome prosthetics to simulate the monsters and victims in horror series, and the wire-flying entrances and exits of George Reeves as Superman. The broad term "special effects" includes all the techniques here, but more commonly there are two categories of effects. Visual effects ("VFX") involve photographic or digital manipulation of the onscreen image, usually done in post-production. Mechanical or physical effects involve props, pyrotechnics, and other physical methods used during principal photography itself. Some effects involved a combination of techniques; a ray gun might require a pyrotechnic during filming, and then an optical glowing line added to the film image in post-production. Stunts are another important category of physical effects. In general, all kinds of special effects must be carefully planned during pre-production. === Computer-generated imagery === Babylon 5 was the first series to use computer-generated imagery, or "CGI", for all exterior space scenes, even those with characters in space suits. The technology has made this more practical, so that today models are rarely used. In the 1990s, CGI required expensive processors and customized applications, but by the 2000s (decade), computing power has pushed capabilities down to personal laptops running a wide array of software. === Models and puppets === Models have been an essential tool in science fiction television since the beginning, when Buck Rogers took flight in spark-scattering spaceships wheeling across a matte backdrop sky. The original Star Trek required a staggering array of models; the USS Enterprise had to be built in several different scales for different needs. Models fell out of use in filming in the 1990s as CGI became more affordable and practical, but even today, designers sometimes construct scale models which are then digitized for use in animation software. Models of characters are puppets. Gerry Anderson created a series of shows using puppets living in a universe of models and miniature sets, notably Thunderbirds. ALF depicted an alien living in a family, while Farscape included two puppets as regular characters. In Stargate SG-1, the Asgard characters are puppets in scenes where they are sitting, standing, or lying down. In Mystery Science Theater 3000, the characters of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, two of the show's main (and most iconic) characters, are puppets constructed from random household items. === Animation === As animation is completely free of the constraints of gravity, momentum, and physical reality, it is an ideal technique for science fiction and fantasy on television. In a sense, virtually all animated series allow characters and objects to perform in unrealistic ways, so they are almost all considered to fit within the broadest category of speculative fiction (in the context of awards, criticism, marketing, etc.) The artistic affinity of animation to comic books has led to a large amount of superhero-themed animation, much of this adapted from comics series, while the impossible characters and settings allowed in animation made this a preferred medium for both fantasy and for series aimed at young audiences. Originally, animation was all hand-drawn by artists, though in the 1980s, beginning with Captain Power, computers began to automate the task of creating repeated images; by the 1990s, hand-drawn animation became defunct. === Animation in live-action === In recent years as technology has improved, this has become more common, notably since the development of the Massive software application permits producers to include hordes of non-human characters to storm a city or space station. The robotic Cylons in the new version of Battlestar Galactica are usually animated characters, while the Asgard in Stargate SG-1 are animated when they are shown walking around or more than one is on screen at once. == Science fiction television economics and distribution == In general, science fiction series are subject to the same financial constraints as other television shows. However, high production costs increase the financial risk, while limited audiences further complicate the business case for continuing production. Star Trek was the first television series to cost more than $100,000 per episode, while Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first to cost more than $1 million per episode. == Media fandom == One of the earliest forms of media fandom was Star Trek fandom. Fans of the series became known to each other through the science fiction fandom. In 1968, NBC decided to cancel Star Trek. Bjo Trimble wrote letters to contacts in the National Fantasy Fan Foundation, asking people to organize their local friends to write to the network to demand the show remain on the air. Network executives were overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of correspondence, and they kept the show on the air. Although the series continued to receive low ratings and was canceled a year later, the enduring popularity of the series resulted in Paramount creating a set of movies, and then a new series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which by the early 1990s had become one of the most popular dramas on American television. Star Trek fans continued to grow in number, and first began organizing conventions in the 1970s. No other show attracted a large organized following until the 1990s, when Babylon 5 attracted both Star Trek fans and a large number of literary SF fans who previously had not been involved in media fandom. Other series began to attract a growing number of followers. The British series, Doctor Who, has similarly attracted a devoted following. In the late 1990s, a market for celebrity autographs emerged on eBay, which created a new source of income for actors, who began to charge money for autographs that they had previously been doing for free. This became significant enough that lesser-known actors would come to conventions without requesting any appearance fee, simply to be allowed to sell their own autographs (commonly on publicity photos). Today most events with actor appearances are organized by commercial promoters, though a number of fan-run conventions still exist, such as Toronto Trek and Shore Leave. The 1985 series Robotech is most often credited as the catalyst for the Western interest in anime. The series inspired a few fanzines such as Protoculture Addicts and Animag both of which in turn promoted interest in the wide world of anime in general. Anime's first notable appearance at SF or comic book conventions was in the form of video showings of popular anime, untranslated and often low quality VHS bootlegs. Starting in the 1990s, anime fans began organizing conventions. These quickly grew to sizes much larger than other science fiction and media conventions in the same communities; many cities now have anime conventions attracting five to ten thousand attendees. Many anime conventions are a hybrid between non-profit and commercial events, with volunteer organizers handling large revenue streams and dealing with commercial suppliers and professional marketing campaigns. For decades, the majority of science fiction media fandom has been represented by males of all ages and for most of its modern existence, a fairly diverse racial demographic. The most highly publicized demographic for science fiction fans is the male adolescent; roughly the same demographic for American comic books. Female fans, while always present, were far fewer in number and less conspicuously present in fandom. With the rising popularity of fanzines, female fans became increasingly vocal. Starting in the 2000s (decade), genre series began to offer more prominent female characters. Many series featured women as the main characters with males as supporting characters. True Blood is an example. Also, such shows premises moved away from heroic action-adventure and focused more on characters and their relationships. This has caused the rising popularity of fanfiction, a large majority of which is categorized as slash fanfiction. Female fans comprise the majority of fanfiction writers. == Science fiction television history and culture == === American television science fiction === American television science fiction has produced Lost in Space, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and The X-Files, among others. === British television science fiction === British television science fiction began in 1938 when the broadcast medium was in its infancy with the transmission of a partial adaptation of Karel Čapek's play R.U.R.. Despite an occasionally chequered history, programmes in the genre have been produced by both the BBC and the largest commercial channel, ITV. Nigel Kneale's The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and its sequels have been called "one of BBC Television's earliest audience successes" and Kneale became "one of the most influential television and film writers to emerge in the 1950s". Doctor Who, which launched in 1963 and ran until 1989, then was revived in 2005, was listed in the Guinness World Records in 2006 as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. Other cult British series in the science fiction genre include The Tomorrow People, Space: 1999, Blake's 7, Star Cops and Red Dwarf. === Canadian science fiction television === Science fiction in Canada was produced by the CBC as early as the 1950s. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost. In the 1980s, Canadian animation studios including Nelvana, began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation. In the 1990s, Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with dozens of series like Forever Knight, Robocop, and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1. Many series have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black and MythQuest. In the first decade of the 21st century, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver. Recent popular series produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone, Smallville, Andromeda, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, The 4400, Sanctuary and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Because of the small size of the domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. However, in recent years, new partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada and elsewhere. === Australian science fiction television === Australia's first locally produced Science Fiction series was The Stranger (1964–65) produced and screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Later series made in the 1960s included The Interpretaris (1966) Vega 4 (1967), and Phoenix Five (1970). The country's best-known science fiction series was Farscape; an American co-production, it ran from 1999 to 2003. A significant proportion of Australian produced Science Fiction programmes are made for the teens/young Adults market, including The Girl from Tomorrow, the long-running Mr. Squiggle, Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left, Ocean Girl, Crash Zone, Watch This Space and Spellbinder. Other series like Time Trax, Roar, and Space: Above and Beyond were filmed in Australia, but used mostly US crew and actors. === Japanese television science fiction === Japan has a long history of producing science fiction series for television. Some of the most famous are anime such as Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, the Super Robots such as Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go (Gigantor) and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z, and the Real Robots such as Yoshiyuki Tomino's Gundam series and Shōji Kawamori's Macross series. Other primary aspects of Japanese science fiction television are the superhero tokusatsu (a term literally meaning special effects) series, pioneered by programs such as Moonlight Mask and Planet Prince. The suitmation technique has been used in long running franchises include Eiji Tsuburaya's Ultra Series, Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider Series, and the Super Sentai Series. In addition, several dramas utilize science fiction elements as framing devices, but are not labeled as "tokusatsu" as they do not utilize actors in full body suits and other special effects. === Continental European science fiction series === ==== German series ==== Among the notable German language productions are: Raumpatrouille, a German series first broadcast in 1966, The miniseries Das Blaue Palais by Rainer Erler, Star Maidens (1975, aka "Medusa" or "Die Mädchen aus dem Weltraum") was a British-German coproduction of pure SF. Der Androjäger (1982/83) was a sci-fi comedy produced by Bavaraia Filmstudios in cooperation with Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Lexx, a German-Canadian co-production from 2000. ==== Danish series ==== Danish television broadcast the children's TV-series Crash in 1984 about a boy who finds out that his room is a space ship. ==== Dutch series ==== Early Dutch television series were Morgen gebeurt het (Tomorrow it will happen), broadcast from 1957 to 1959, about a group of Dutch space explorers and their adventures, De duivelsgrot (The devil's cave), broadcast from 1963 to 1964, about a scientist who finds the map of a cave that leads to the center of the Earth and Treinreis naar de Toekomst (Train journey to the future) about two young children who are taken to the future by robots who try to recreate humanity, but are unable to give the cloned humans a soul. All three of these television series were aimed mostly at children. Later television series were Professor Vreemdeling (1977) about a strange professor who wants to make plants speak and Zeeuws Meisje (1997) a nationalistic post-apocalyptic series where the Netherlands has been built full of housing and the highways are filled with traffic jams. The protagonist, a female superhero, wears traditional folkloric clothes and tries to save traditional elements of Dutch society against the factory owners. ==== Italian series ==== Italian TV shows include A come Andromeda (1972) which was a remake of 1962 BBC serial, A for Andromeda (from the novels of Hoyle and Elliott), Geminus (1968), Il segno del comando (1971), Gamma (1974) and La traccia verde (1975). ==== French series ==== French series are Highlander: The Series, French science-fiction/fantasy television series (both co-produced with Canada) and a number of smaller fiction/fantasy television series, including Tang in 1971, about a secret organization that attempts to control the world with a new super weapon, "Les atomistes" and 1970 miniseries "La brigade des maléfices". Another French-produced science fiction series was the new age animated series Il était une fois... l'espace (English: Once upon a time...space). Anime-influenced animation includes a series of French-Japanese cartoons/anime, including such titles as Ulysses 31 (1981), The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982), and Ōban Star-Racers (2006). ==== Spanish series ==== The first Spanish SF series was Diego Valor, a 22 episode TV adaption of a radio show hero of the same name based on Dan Dare, aired weekly between 1958 and 1959. Nothing was survived of this series, not a single still; it is not known if the show was even recorded or just a live broadcast. The 60s were dominated by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Narciso Ibáñez Menta, who adapted SF works from Golden Age authors and others to a series titled Mañana puede ser verdad. Only 11 episodes were filmed. The 70s saw three important television films, Los pajaritos (1974), La Gioconda está triste (1977), and La cabina (1972), this last one, about a man who becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him, won the 1973 International Emmy Award for Fiction. The series Plutón B.R.B. Nero (2008) was a brutal SF comedy by Álex de la Iglesia, in the line of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Red Dwarf, or Doctor Who, with 26 episodes of 35 minutes. Other series of the 2010s were Los protegidos (2010-2012), El barco (2011-2013), and El internado (2007-2010), all three inspired by North American productions, with minor SF elements. The latest success is El ministerio del tiempo (The ministry of time), premiered on February 24, 2015 on TVE's main channel La 1. The series follows the exploits of a patrol of the fictional Ministry of Time, which deals with incidents caused by time travel. It has garnered several national prizes in 2015, like the Ondas Prize, and has a thick following on-line, called los ministéricos. ==== Eastern European series ==== Serbia produced The Collector (Sakupljač), a science fiction television series based upon Zoran Živković's story, winner of a World Fantasy Award. Návštěvníci (The Visitors) was a Czechoslovak (and Federal German, Swiss and French) TV series produced in 1981 to 1983. The family show aired in a larger number of European countries. == Significant creative influences == For a list of notable science fiction series and programs on television, see: List of science fiction television programs. People who have influenced science fiction on television include: Irwin Allen, creator of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space and Land of the Giants Gerry Anderson, creator of Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, UFO, Space: 1999, Terrahawks, Space Precinct and New Captain Scarlet. Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, animators and producers of The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Mightor, and Samson & Goliath Rick Berman, producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation and creator of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen, Harsh Realm, and Millennium Russell T Davies, revived the Doctor Who franchise and created its spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures Kenneth Johnson, producer and director of The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, V (also creator), and Alien Nation Sid & Marty Krofft, producers and creators of Land of the Lost and its 1991 remake, The Lost Saucer, Far Out Space Nuts, and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl Nigel Kneale, writer and creator of the Quatermass serials Glen A. Larson, creator of Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Galactica 1980 and Knight Rider Carl Macek, producer of the 1985 American anime series Robotech (based on adaptations of 3 separate Japanese animated series). Also producer of Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years. Ronald D. Moore, creator of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica; producer and writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Roswell Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks in Doctor Who, and of his own shows Survivors and Blake's 7 Sydney Newman, creator of Doctor Who, The Avengers, and other telefantasy series Rockne S. O'Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, seaQuest DSV, and Farscape. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Earth: Final Conflict, and Andromeda Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano, creators of The Outer Limits. J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, Crusade, Jeremiah, and Sense8. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse. Robert Hewitt Wolfe, writer, producer, and/or executive producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Andromeda, The Dead Zone, The 4400, and The Dresden Files. Brad Wright, writer, producer, co-creator and/or executive producer of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe == See also == Cultural influence of Star Trek Fantasy television List of programs broadcast by Syfy List of science fiction sitcoms List of science fiction television films List of Star Wars television series Science fiction film Science fiction television series == References == == External links == Media related to Science fiction television programmes at Wikimedia Commons	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_on_television
The New Wave was a science fiction style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences. New Wave authors often considered themselves as part of the modernist tradition of fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate change from the traditions of the science fiction characteristic of pulp magazines, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant or unambitious. The most prominent source of New Wave science fiction was the British magazine New Worlds, edited by Michael Moorcock, who became editor during 1964. In the United States, Harlan Ellison's 1967 anthology Dangerous Visions is often considered as the best early representation of the genre. Worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin, Stanisław Lem, J. G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, Roger Zelazny, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree Jr. (a pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon), Thomas M. Disch and Brian Aldiss were also major writers associated with the style. The New Wave was influenced by postmodernism, surrealism, the politics of the 1960s, such as the controversy concerning the Vietnam War, and by social trends such as the drug subculture, sexual liberation, and environmentalism. Although the New Wave was critiqued for the self-absorption of some of its writers, it was influential in the development of subsequent genres, primarily cyberpunk and slipstream. == Origins and use of the term == === Origins === The phrase "New Wave" was used generally for new artistic fashions during the 1960s, imitating the term nouvelle vague used for certain French cinematic styles. P. Schuyler Miller, the regular book reviewer of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, first used it in the November 1961 issue to describe a new generation of British authors: "It's a moot question whether Carnell discovered the ‘big names’ of British science fiction—Wyndham, Clarke, Russell, Christopher—or whether they discovered him. Whatever the answer, there is no question at all about the ‘new wave’: Tubb, Aldiss, and to get to my point, Kenneth Bulmer and John Brunner". === Subsequent usage === The term 'New Wave' has been incorporated into the concept of New Wave Fabulism, a form of magic realism "which often blend a realist or postmodern aesthetic with nonrealistic interruptions, in which alternative technologies, ontologies, social structures, or biological forms make their way in to otherwise realistic plots".:76 New Wave Fabulism itself has been related to the slipstream literary genre, an interface between mainstream or postmodern fiction and science fiction. The concept of a 'new wave' has been applied to science fiction in other countries, including for some Arabic science fiction, with Ahmed Khaled Tawfik's best-selling novel Utopia being considered a prominent example, and Chinese science fiction, where it has been applied to some of the work of Wang Jinkang and Liu Cixin, including Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (2006–2010), works that emphasize China's increase of power, the development myth, and posthumanity. == Description == The early proponents of New Wave considered it to be a major change from the genre's past, and that is the way that it was experienced by many readers during the late 1960s and early 1970s. New Wave writers often considered themselves as part of the modernist and then postmodernist traditions and sometimes mocked the traditions of older science fiction, which many of them regarded as stodgy, adolescent and badly written. Many also rejected the content of the Golden Age of Science Fiction; rejecting an emphasis on physical science and adventures in outer space, they preferred to examine human psychology, subjectivity, dreams, and the unconscious. Nonetheless, during the New Wave period, traditional types of science fiction continued to appear, and in Rob Latham's opinion, the broader genre had absorbed the New Wave's agenda and mostly neutralized it by the conclusion of the 1970s. === Format === The New Wave coincided with a major change in the production and distribution of science fiction, as the pulp magazine era was replaced by the book market; it was in a sense also a reaction against typical pulp magazine styles. === Topics === The New Wave interacted with a number of themes during the 1960s and 1970s, including sexuality; drug culture, especially the work of William S. Burroughs and the use of psychedelic drugs; and the popularity of environmentalism. J. G. Ballard's themes included alienation, social isolation, class discrimination, and the end of civilization, in settings ranging from a single apartment block (High Rise) to entire worlds. Rob Latham noted that several of J. G. Ballard's works of the 1960s (e.g., the quartet begun by The Wind from Nowhere [1960]), engaged with the concept of eco-catastrophe, as did Disch's The Genocides and Ursula K. Le Guin's short novel The Word for World Is Forest. The latter, with its description of the use of napalm on indigenous people, was also influenced by Le Guin's perceptions of the Vietnam War, and both emphasized anti-technocratic fatalism instead of imperial hegemony via technology, with the New Wave later interacting with feminism, ecological activism and postcolonial rhetoric. One characteristic of New Wave authors was a fascination with entropy, i.e. with the idea that the world and the universe tend to disorder and must eventually end in "heat death". The New Wave also engaged with utopia, a common theme of science fiction, offering more nuanced interpretations.:74–80 === Style === Transformation of style was part of the basis of the New Wave fashion.:286 Combined with controversial topics, it introduced innovations of form, style, and aesthetics, involving more literary ambitions and experimental use of language, with significantly less emphasis on physical science or technological themes in its content. For example, in the story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (1963), Roger Zelazny introduces numerous literary allusions, complex onomastic patterns, multiple meanings, and innovative themes, and other Zelazny works, such as "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" (1965) and He Who Shapes (1966) involve literary self-reflexivity, playful collocations, and neologisms. In stories like "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, Harlan Ellison is considered as using gonzo-style syntax. Many New Wave authors used obscenity and vulgarity intensely or frequently. Concerning visual aspects, some scenes of J. G. Ballard's novels reference the surrealist paintings of Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. === Differences between American and British New Waves === The British and American New Wave trends overlapped but were somewhat different. Judith Merril noted that New Wave SF was being called "the New Thing". In a 1967 article for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction she contrasted the SF New Wave of England and the United States, writing: They call it the New Thing. The people who call it that mostly don't like it, and the only general agreements they seem to have are that Ballard is its Demon and I am its prophetess—and that it is what is wrong with Tom Disch, and with British s-f in general... The American counterpart is less cohesive as a "school" or "movement": it has had no single publication in which to concentrate its development, and was, in fact, till recently, all but excluded from the regular s-f magazines. But for the same reasons, it is more diffuse and perhaps more widespread.:105 The science fiction academic Edward James also discussed differences between the British and American SF New Wave. He believed that the former was, due to J. G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock, associated mainly with a specific magazine with a set programme that had little subsequent influence. James noted additionally that even the London-based American writers of the time, such as Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, and John Sladek, had their own agendas. James asserted the American New Wave did not reach the status of a "movement" but was rather a concordance of talent that introduced new ideas and better standards to the authoring of science fiction, including through the first three seasons of Star Trek. In his opinion, "...the American New Wave ushered in a great expansion of the field and of its readership... it is clear that the rise in literary and imaginative standards associated with the late 1960s contributed a great deal to some of the most original writers of the 1970s, including John Crowley, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree, Jr., and John Varley.": 176 == History == === Influences and predecessors === Though the New Wave began during the 1960s, some of its tenets can be found in H. L. Gold's editorship of Galaxy, which began publication in 1950. James Gunn described Gold's emphasis as being "not on the adventurer, the inventor, the engineer, or the scientist, but on the average citizen," and according to SF historian David Kyle, Gold's work would result in the New Wave.:119-120 The New Wave was partly a rejection of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Algis Budrys in 1965 wrote of the "recurrent strain in 'Golden Age' science fiction of the 1940s—- the implication that sheer technological accomplishment would solve all the problems, hooray, and that all the problems were what they seemed to be on the surface". The New Wave was not defined as a development from the science fiction which came before it, but initially reacted against it. New Wave writers did not operate as an organized group, but some of them felt the tropes of the pulp magazine and Golden Age periods had become over-used, and should be abandoned: J. G. Ballard stated in 1962 that "science fiction should turn its back on space, on interstellar travel, extra-terrestrial life forms, (and) galactic wars", and Brian Aldiss said in Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction that "the props of SF are few: rocket ships, telepathy, robots, time travel...like coins, they become debased by over-circulation." Harry Harrison summarised the period by saying "old barriers were coming down, pulp taboos were being forgotten, new themes and new manners of writing were being explored". New Wave writers began to use non-science fiction literary themes, such as the example of beat writer William S. Burroughs—New Wave authors Philip José Farmer and Barrington J. Bayley wrote pastiches of his work (The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod and The Four Colour Problem, respectively), while J. G. Ballard published an admiring essay in an issue of New Worlds. Burroughs' use of experimentation such as the cut-up technique and his use of science fiction tropes in new manners proved the extent to which prose fiction could seem revolutionary, and some New Wave writers sought to emulate this style. Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the newer writers to be published during the 1960s, describes the transition to the New Wave era thus: Without in the least dismissing or belittling earlier writers and work, I think it is fair to say that science fiction changed around 1960, and that the change tended toward an increase in the number of writers and readers, the breadth of subject, the depth of treatment, the sophistication of language and technique, and the political and literary consciousness of the writing. The sixties in science fiction were an exciting period for both established and new writers and readers. All the doors seemed to be opening.: 18 Other writers and works seen as preluding or transitioning to the New Wave include Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Walter M. Miller's 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz, Cyril M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl's anti-hyper-consumerist The Space Merchants (1952), Kurt Vonnegut's mocking Player Piano (1952) and The Sirens of Titan (1959), Theodore Sturgeon's humanist More Than Human (1953) and the hermaphrodite society of Venus Plus X (1960), and Philip José Farmer's human-extraterrestrial sexual encounters in The Lovers (1952) and Strange Relations (1960). === Beginnings === There is not any consensus about a precise beginning for the New Wave—British author Adam Roberts refers to Alfred Bester as having single-handedly invented the genre, and in the introduction to a collection of Leigh Brackett's short fiction, Michael Moorcock referred to her as one of the genre's "true godmothers". Algis Budrys said that in New Wave writers "there are echoes... of Philip K. Dick, Walter Miller, Jr. and, by all odds, Fritz Leiber". However, it is accepted by many critics that the New Wave began in England with the magazine New Worlds and Michael Moorcock. who was appointed editor in 1964 (first issue number 142, May and June: 251 ); Moorcock was editor until 1973. While the American magazines Amazing Stories and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction had from the start printed unusually literary stories, Moorcock made that into a more definite policy, and he sought to use the magazine to "define a new avant-garde role" for science fiction by the use of "new literary techniques and modes of expression".:251-252 No other science fiction magazine was made to differ as consistently from traditional science fiction as much as New Worlds. By the time it ceased regular publication it had rejected identification with the genre of science fiction itself, styling itself as an experimental literary journal. In the United States, the best known representation of the genre is probably the 1967 anthology Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison. According to Brian W. Aldiss, during Moorcock's editorship of New Worlds, "galactic wars went out; drugs came in; there were fewer encounters with aliens, more in the bedroom. Experimentation in prose styles became one of the orders of the day, and the baleful influence of William Burroughs often threatened to gain the upper hand.": 27 Judith Merril observed, "...this magazine [''New Worlds''] was the publishing thermometer of the trend that was dubbed "the New Wave". In the United States the trend created an intense, incredible controversy. In Britain people either found it of interest or they didn't, but in the States it was heresy on the one hand and wonderful revolution on the other.": 162–163 Brooks Landon, professor of English at the University of Iowa, says of Dangerous Visions that it was innovative and influential before it had any readers simply because it was the first big original anthology of SF, offering prices to its writers that were competitive with the magazines. The readers soon followed, however, attracted by 33 stories by SF writers both well-established and relatively unheard of. These writers responded to editor Harlan Ellison's call for stories that could not be published elsewhere or had never been written in the face of almost certain censorship by SF editors... [T]o SF readers, especially in the United States, Dangerous Visions certainly felt like a revolution... Dangerous Visions marks an emblematic turning point for American SF.: 157 As an anthologist and speaker Merril with other authors advocated a reestablishment of science fiction within the literary mainstream and better literary standards. Her "incredible controversy" is characterized by David Hartwell in the opening sentence of a book chapter entitled "New Wave: The Great War of the 1960s": "Conflict and argument are an enduring presence in the SF world, but literary politics has yielded to open warfare on the largest scale only once.": 141 The changes were more than the experimental and explicitly provocative as inspired by Burroughs; in coherence with the literary nouvelle vague, although not in close association to it, and addressing a less restricted pool of readers, the New Wave was reversing the standard hero's attitude toward action and science. It illustrated egotism—often by depriving the plot of motivation toward a rational explanation.:87 In 1962 Ballard wrote: I've often wondered why s-f shows so little of the experimental enthusiasm which has characterized painting, music and the cinema during the last four or five decades, particularly as these have become wholeheartedly speculative, more and more concerned with the creation of new states of mind, constructing fresh symbols and languages where the old cease to be valid... The biggest developments of the immediate future will take place, not on the Moon or Mars, but on Earth, and it is inner space, not outer, that need to be explored. The only truly alien planet is Earth. In the past the scientific bias of s-f has been towards the physical sciences—rocketry, electronics, cybernetics—and the emphasis should switch to the biological sciences. Accuracy, that last refuge of the unimaginative, doesn't matter a hoot... It is that inner space-suit which is still needed, and it is up to science fiction to build it!: 197 In 1963 Moorcock wrote, "Let's have a quick look at what a lot of science fiction lacks. Briefly, these are some of the qualities I miss on the whole—passion, subtlety, irony, original characterization, original and good style, a sense of involvement in human affairs, colour, density, depth, and, on the whole, real feeling from the writer..." Roger Luckhurst pointed out that J. G. Ballard's 1962 essay, Which Way to Inner Space? "showed the influence of media theorist Marshall McLuhan and the 'anti-psychiatry' of R. D. Laing.": 148 Luckhurst traces the influence of both these thinkers in Ballard's fiction, in particular The Atrocity Exhibition (1970).: 152 After Ellison's Dangerous Visions, Judith Merril contributed to this fiction in the United States by editing the anthology England Swings SF: Stories of Speculative Fiction (Doubleday 1968). The New Wave also had political associations: Most of the 'classic' writers had begun writing before the Second World War, and were reaching middle age by the early 1960s; the writers of the so-called New Wave were mostly born during or after the war, and were not only reacting against the sf writers of the past, but playing their part in the general youth revolution of the 1960s which had such profound effects upon Western culture. It is no accident that the New Wave began in Britain at the time of the Beatles, and took off in the United States at the time of the hippies—both, therefore at a time of cultural innovation and generational shake-up...: 167 Eric S. Raymond observed: The New Wave's inventors (notably Michael Moorcock, J. G. Ballard and Brian Aldiss) were British socialists and Marxists who rejected individualism, linear exposition, happy endings, scientific rigor and the U.S.'s cultural hegemony over the SF field in one fell swoop. The New Wave's later American exponents were strongly associated with the New Left and opposition to the Vietnam War, leading to some rancorous public disputes in which politics was tangled together with definitional questions about the nature of SF and the direction of the field. For example, Judith Merril, "one of the most visible—and voluble—apostles of the New Wave in 1960s sf":251 remembers her return from England to the United States: "So I went home ardently looking for a revolution. I kept searching until the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. I went to Chicago partly to seek out a revolution, if there was one happening, and partly because my seventeen-year-old daughter... wanted to go.": 167 Merril said later, "At the end of the Convention week, the taste of America was sour in all our mouths";: 169 she soon became a political refugee living in Canada.: 142 Roger Luckhurst disagreed with critics who perceived the New Wave mainly in terms of difference (he gives the example of Thomas Clareson), suggesting that such a model "doesn't quite seem to map onto the American scene, even though the wider conflicts of the 1960s liberalization in universities, the civil rights movement and the cultural contradictions inherent in consumer society were starker and certainly more violent than in Britain.": 160 In particular, he noted: The young turks within SF also had an ossified 'ancient regime' to topple: John Campbell's intolerant right-wing editorials for Astounding Science Fiction (which he renamed Analog in 1960) teetered on the self parody. In 1970, when the campus revolt against American involvement in Vietnam reached its height and resulted in the National Guard shooting four students dead in Kent State University, Campbell editorialized that the 'punishment was due', and rioters should expect to be met with lethal force. Vietnam famously divided the SF community to the extent that, in 1968, 'Galaxy' magazine carried two adverts, one signed by writers in favour and one by those against the war.: 160 Caution is needed when assessing any literary movement, particularly regarding transitions. Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, reacting to his association with another SF movement in the 1980s, remarked, "When did the New Wave SF end? Who was the last New Wave SF writer? You can't be a New Wave SF writer today. You can recite the numbers of them: Ballard, Ellison, Spinrad, Delaney, blah, blah, blah. What about a transitional figure like Zelazny? A literary movement isn't an army. You don't wear a uniform and swear allegiance. It's just a group of people trying to develop a sensibility." Similarly, Rob Latham observed: ...indeed, one of the central ways the New Wave was experienced, in the US and Britain, was as a "liberated" outburst of erotic expression, often counterpoised, by advocates of the "New Thing" (as Merril called it), with the priggish Puritanism of the Golden Age. Yet this stark contrast, while not unreasonable, tends ultimately, as do most of the historical distinctions drawn between the New Wave and its predecessors, to overemphasize rupture at the expense of continuity, effectively "disappearing" some of the pioneering trends in 1950s sf that paved the way for the New Wave's innovations.: 252 However, Darren Harris-Fain of Shawnee State University emphasized New Wave in terms of difference: The split between the New Wave and everyone else in American SF during the late 1960s was nearly as dramatic as the division at the same time between young protesters and what they called "the establishment," and in fact, the political views of the younger writers, often prominent in their work, reflect many contemporary concerns. New Wave accused what became de facto the old wave of being old-fashioned, patriarchal, imperialistic, and obsessed with technology; many of the more established writers thought the New Wave shallow, said that its literary innovations were not innovations at all (which in fact, outside of SF, they were not), and accused it of betraying SF's grand view of humanity's role in the universe. Both assertions were largely exaggerations, of course, and in the next decade both trends would merge into a synthesis of styles and concerns. However, in 1970 the issue was far from settled and would remain a source of contention for the next few years.: 13–14 === Decline === In the August 1970 issue of the SFWA Forum, a publication for Science Fiction Writers of America members, Harlan Ellison stated that the New Wave furore, which had flourished during the late 1960s, appeared to have been "blissfully laid to rest". He also claimed that there was no real conflict between writers: It was all a manufactured controversy, staged by fans to hype their own participation in the genre. Their total misunderstanding of what was happening (not unusual for fans, as history... shows us) managed to stir up a great deal of pointless animosity and if it had any real effect I suspect it was in the unfortunate area of causing certain writers to feel they were unable to keep up and consequently they slowed their writing output. Latham however remarks that Ellison's analysis "obscures Ellison's own prominent role—and that of other professional authors and editors such as Judith Merril, Michael Moorcock, Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, and Donald A. Wollheim—in fomenting the conflict...": 296 For Roger Luckhurst, the closing of New Worlds magazine in 1970 (one of many years it closed) "marked the containment of New Wave experiment with the rest of the counter-culture. The various limping manifestations of New World across the 1970s... demonstrated the posthumous nature of its avant-gardism.": 168 By the early 1970s, a number of writers and readers were commenting about the differences between the winners of the Nebula Awards, which had been created in 1965 by the SFWA and were awarded by professional writers, and winners of the Hugo Awards, awarded by fans at the annual World Science Fiction Convention, with some arguing that this indicated that many authors were alienated from the sentiments of their readers: "While some writers and fans continued to argue about the New Wave until the end of the 1970s—in The World of Science Fiction, 1926–1976: The History of a Subculture, for instance, Lester Del Ray devotes several pages to castigating the movement—for the most part the controversy died down as the decade wore on.": 20 == Impact == In a 1979 essay, Professor Patrick Parrinder, commenting on the nature of science fiction, noted that "any meaningful act of defamiliarization can only be relative, since it is not possible for man to imagine what is utterly alien to him; the utterly alien would also be meaningless.": 48 He also states, "Within SF, however, it is not necessary to break with the wider conventions of prose narrative in order to produce work that is validly experimental. The 'New Wave' writing of the 1960s, with its fragmented and surrealistic forms, has not made a lasting impact, because it cast its net too wide. To reform SF one must challenge the conventions of the genre on their own terms.": 55–56 Others ascribe a more important, though still limited, effect. Veteran science fiction writer Jack Williamson (1908–2006) when asked in 1991: "Did the [New] Wave's emphasis on experimentalism and its conscious efforts to make SF more 'literary' have any kind of permanent effects on the field?" replied: After it subsided—it's old hat now—it probably left us with a sharpened awareness of language and a keener interest in literary experiment. It did wash up occasional bits of beauty and power. For example, it helped launch the careers of such writers as [Samuel R.] Chip Delany, Brian Aldiss, and Harlan Ellison, all of whom seem to have gone on their own highly individualistic directions. But the key point here is that New Wave SF failed to move people. I'm not sure if this failure was due to its pessimistic themes or to people feeling the stuff was too pretentious. But it never really grabbed hold of people's imaginations. Hartwell observed that "there is something efficacious in sf's marginality and always tenuous self-identity—its ambiguous generic distinction from other literary categories—and, perhaps more importantly, in its distinction from what has variously been called realist, mainstream, or mundane fiction.": 289 Hartwell maintained that after the New Wave, science fiction had still managed to retain this "marginality and tenuous self-identity": The British and American New Wave in common would have denied the genre status of SF entirely and ended the continual development of new specialized words and phrases common to the body of SF, without which SF would be indistinguishable from mundane fiction in its entirety (rather than only out on the borders of experimental SF, which is properly indistinguishable from any other experimental literature). The denial of special or genre status is ultimately the cause of the failure of the New Wave to achieve popularity, which, if it had become truly dominant, would have destroyed SF as a separate field.: 153 Scientific and technological themes were more important than literary trends to Campbell, and some major Astounding contributors Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Sprague de Camp had scientific or engineering educations. Asimov said in 1967 "I hope that when the New Wave has deposited its froth and receded, the vast and solid shore of science fiction will appear once more".: 388 Yet, Asimov himself was to illustrate just how that "SF shore" did indeed re-emerge—- but changed. A biographer noted that during the 1960s: ...stories and novels that Asimov must not have liked and must have felt were not part of the science fiction he had helped to shape were winning acclaim and awards. He also must have felt that science fiction no longer needed him. His science fiction writing... became even more desultory and casual. Asimov's return to serious writing in 1972 with The Gods Themselves (when much of the debate about the New Wave had dissipated) was an act of courage...: 105 Darren Harris-Fain observed on this resumption of writing SF by Asimov that ...the novel [The Gods Themselves] is noteworthy for how it both shows that Asimov was indeed the same writer in the 1970s that he had been in the 1950s and that he nonetheless had been affected by the New Wave even if he was never part of it. His depiction of an alien ménage a trois, complete with homoerotic scenes between the two males, marks an interesting departure from his earlier fiction, in which sex of any sort is conspicuously absent. Also there is some minor experimentation with structure.: 43 Other themes dealt with in the novel are concerns for the environment and "human stupidity and the delusional belief in human superiority", both frequent topics in New Wave SF.: 44 Still other commentators ascribe a much greater effect to the New Wave. Commenting in 2002 on the publication of the 35th Anniversary edition of Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthology, the critic Greg L. Johnson remarked that ...if the New Wave did not entirely revolutionize the way SF was written, (the exploration of an invented world through the use of an adventure plot remains the prototypical SF story outline), they did succeed in pushing the boundaries of what could be considered SF, and their use of stylistic innovations from outside SF helped raise standards. It became less easy for writers to get away with stock characters spouting wooden dialogue laced with technical jargon. Such stories still exist, and are still published, but are no longer typical of the field. Asimov agreed that "on the whole, the New Wave was a good thing".: 137 He described several "interesting side effects" of the New Wave. Non-American SF became more prominent and the genre became an international phenomenon. Other changes noted were that "the New Wave encouraged more and more women to begin reading and writing science fiction... The broadening of science fiction meant that it was approaching the 'mainstream'... in style and content. It also meant that increasing numbers of mainstream novelists were recognizing the importance of changing technology and the popularity of science fiction, and were incorporating science fiction motifs into their own novels.": 138–139 Critic Rob Latham identifies three trends that associated New Wave with the emergence of cyberpunk during the 1980s. He said that changes of technology as well as an economic recession constricted the market for science fiction, generating a "widespread" malaise among fans, while established writers were forced to reduce their output (or, like Isaac Asimov, shifted their emphasis to other subjects); finally, editors encouraged new methods that earlier ones tended to discourage. == Criticisms == Moorcock, Ballard, and others engendered some animosity to their writings. When reviewing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lester del Rey described it as "the first of the New Wave-Thing movies, with the usual empty symbolism". When reviewing World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, Algis Budrys mocked Ellison's " 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" and two other stories as "rudimentary social consciousness... deep stuff" and insufficient for "an outstanding science-fiction story". Hartwell noted Budrys's "ringing scorn and righteous indignation" that year in "one of the classic diatribes against Ballard and the new mode of SF then emergent":: 146 A story by J. G. Ballard, as you know, calls for people who don't think. One begins with characters who regard the physical universe as a mysterious and arbitrary place, and who would not dream of trying to understand its actual laws. Furthermore, to be the protagonist of a J. G. Ballard novel, or anything more than a very minor character therein, you must have cut yourself off from the entire body of scientific education. In this way, when the world disaster—be it wind or water—comes upon you, you are under absolutely no obligation to do anything about it but sit and worship it. Even more further, some force has acted to remove from the face of the world all people who might impose good sense or rational behavior on you... Budrys in Galaxy, when reviewing a collection of recent stories from the magazine, said in 1965 that "There is this sense in this book... that modern science fiction reflects a dissatisfaction with things as they are, sometimes to the verge of indignation, but also retains optimism about the eventual outcome". Despite his criticism of Ballard and Aldiss ("the least talented" of the four), Budrys called them, Roger Zelazny, and Samuel R. Delany "an earthshaking new kind" of writers. Asimov said in 1967 of the New Wave, "I want science fiction. I think science fiction isn't really science fiction if it lacks science. And I think the better and truer the science, the better and truer the science fiction", but Budrys that year warned that the four would soon leave those "still reading everything from the viewpoint of the 1944 Astounding... nothing but a complete collection of yellowed, crumble-edged bewilderment". While acknowledging the New Wave's "energy, high talent and dedication", and stating that it "may in fact be the shape of tomorrow's science fiction generally — hell, it may be the shape of today's science fiction", as examples of the fashion Budrys much preferred Zelazny's This Immortal to Thomas Disch's The Genocides. Predicting that Zelazny's career would be more important and lasting than Disch's, he described the latter's book as "unflaggingly derivative of" the New Wave and filled with "dumb, resigned victims" who "run, hide, slither, grope and die", like Ballard's The Drowned World but unlike The Moon is a Harsh Mistress ("about people who do something about their troubles"). Writing in The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, Disch observed that "Literary movements tend to be compounded, in various proportions, of the genius of two or three genuinely original talents, some few other capable or established writers who have been co-opted or gone along for the ride, the apprentice work of epigones and wannabes, and a great deal of hype. My sense of the New Wave, with twenty-five years of hindsight, is that its irreducible nucleus was the dyad of J. G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock...": 105 == Authors and works == The New Wave was not a formal organization with a fixed membership. Thomas M. Disch, for instance, rejected his association with some other New Wave authors.:425 Nonetheless, it is possible to associate specific authors and works, especially anthologies, with the fashion. Michael Moorcock, J. G. Ballard, and Brian Aldiss are considered principal writers of the New Wave. Judith Merril's annual anthologies (1957–1968) "were the first heralds of the coming of the [New Wave] cult,":105 and Damon Knight's Orbit series and Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions featured American writers inspired by British writers as well as British authors. Among the stories Ellison printed in Dangerous Visions were Philip José Farmer's Riders of the Purple Wage, Norman Spinrad's "Carcinoma Angels", Samuel R. Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah" and stories by Brian Aldiss, J. G. Ballard, John Brunner, David R. Bunch, Philip K. Dick, Sonya Dorman, Carol Emshwiller, John Sladek, Theodore Sturgeon, and Roger Zelazny. Alfred Bester was championed by New Wave writers and is seen as a major influence. Thomas M. Disch's work is associated with the New Wave, and The Genocides has been seen as emblematic of the genre, as has the 1971 Disch anthology of eco-catastrophe stories The Ruins of Earth. Critic John Clute wrote of M. John Harrison's early writing that it "...reveals its New-Wave provenance in narrative discontinuities and subheads after the fashion of J. G. Ballard". Brian Aldiss's Barefoot in the Head (1969) and Norman Spinrad's No Direction Home (1971) are seen as illustrative of the effect of the drug culture, especially psychedelics, on New Wave. On the topic of entropy, Ballard provided "an explicitly cosmological vision of entropic decline of the universe" in "The Voices of Time", which provided a typology of ideas that subsequent New Wave writers developed in different contexts, with one of the best instances being Pamela Zoline's "The Heat Death of the Universe".: 158 Like other writers for New Worlds, Zoline used "science-fictional and scientific language and imagery to describe perfectly 'ordinary' scenes of life", and by doing so produced "altered perceptions of reality in the reader". New Wave works engaging with utopia, gender, and sexuality include Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1975), and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976).:82–85 In Robert Silverberg's story The Man in the Maze, in a reversal typical of the New Wave, Silverberg portrays a disabled man using an alien labyrinthine city to reject abled society. Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17 (1966) provides an example of a New Wave work engaging with Sapir-Whorfian linguistic relativity, as does Ian Watson's The Embedding (1973).:86–87 Two examples of New Wave writers using utopia as a theme are Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974) and Samuel R. Delany's Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia (1976),:74–80 while John Brunner is a primary exponent of dystopian New Wave science fiction. Examples of modernism in New Wave include Philip José Farmer's Joycean Riders of the Purple Wage (1967), John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar (1968), which is written in the style of John Don Passos's U.S.A. trilogy (1930–1936), and Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration, which includes a stream of literary references, including to Thomas Mann.:61–62 The influence of postmodernism in New Wave can be seen in Brian Aldiss's Report on Probability A, Philip K. Dick's Ubik, J. G. Ballard's collection The Atrocity Exhibition, and Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren and Triton.:66–67 The majority of stories in Ben Bova's The Best of the Nebulas, such as Roger Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", are considered as being by New Wave writers or as involving New Wave techniques. The Martian Time-Slip (1964) and other works by Philip K. Dick are viewed as New Wave. Brian Aldiss, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Norman Spinrad, and Roger Zelazny are writers whose work, though not necessarily considered New Wave at the time of publication, later became associated with the term. Of later authors, some of the work of Joanna Russ is considered to bear stylistic resemblance to New Wave. == See also == Avant-Pop Cyberpunk Feminist science fiction The Golden Age of Science Fiction Interstitial Fiction Mundane science fiction Pulp fiction Slipstream Transrealism == Explanatory notes == == References == Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1999). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd ed.). Orbit. ISBN 1-85723-897-4. == Further reading == Broderick, D. (2003). "New wave and backwash: 1960–1980". In The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, pp. 48–63, Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521816262.004. Butler, Andrew M. (2013). Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s, Liverpool University Press, Online ISBN 9781846317798. Clute, John, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.). SFE: SF Encyclopedia Home Page. "New Wave". Harris-Fain, D. "Dangerous Visions". In G. Canavan & E. Link (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (pp. 31–43), Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCO9781107280601.005. Lockwood, Stephen P. (1985). The New Wave in Science Fiction: A Primer, Indiana University. Steble, Janez (2014). New Wave in Science Fiction or the Explosion of the Genre. Doctoral dissertation, University of Ljubljana. Taylor, John W. (Winter 1990). "From Pulpstyle to Innerspace: The Stylistics of American New-Wave SF". Style. 24 (4: Bibliography/SF/Stylistics): 611–627. JSTOR 42946165.	Wikipedia/New_Wave_science_fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with the impact of imagined innovations in science or technology. Science Fiction may also refer to: == Music == === Albums === Science Fiction (Alice Cooper album), 1991 variant release of Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival 1969, Volume IV, or the title song Science Fiction (Blackmail album), 1999 Science Fiction (Brand New album), 2017 Science Fiction (Jonathan Thulin album) or the title song, 2015 Science Fiction (Ornette Coleman album) or the title track, 1972 Science Fiction (Tom Bailey album) or the title song, 2018 Science Fiction (Hikaru Utada album), 2024 === Songs === "Science Fiction" (song), by Divinyls, 1982 "Science Fiction", by Arctic Monkeys from Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, 2018 "Science Fiction", by Christine and the Queens from Chaleur humaine, 2014 == Publications == Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, a 1985 nonfiction book by David Pringle A two-volume reference work by E. F. Bleiler and Richard Bleiler: Science-Fiction: The Early Years, 1990 Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years, 1998 Science Fiction (American magazine) (1939–1941), later Future Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories Science Fiction (Australian magazine), (1977–present) Science Fiction (French magazine) (1998-present) Science Fiction (Polish magazine), (2001–2012) Science Fiction Magasinet, early name (1971-1973) of Nova (magazine) S-F Magazine, Japanese magazine (1959-present) Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine, British magazine (1954-1956) The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, American magazine (1949-present) Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Canadian magazine (2003-present) Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, American magazine (May to November 1977) == Films == "Science Fiction", a 2003 German film by Franz Müller == Television == "Science/Fiction", a 2023 episode of Loki == See also == All pages with titles beginning with Science Fiction All pages with titles beginning with Science-Fiction All pages with titles containing Science Fiction Science Friction (disambiguation)	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_(disambiguation)
A Science fiction podcast (sometimes shortened to sci-fi podcast or SF podcast) is a podcast belonging to the science fiction genre, which focuses on futuristic and imaginative advances in science and technology while exploring the impact of these imagined innovations. Characters in these stories often encounter scenarios that involve space exploration, extraterrestrials, time travel, parallel universes, artificial intelligence, robots, and human cloning. Despite the focus on fictional settings and time periods, science fiction podcasts regularly contain or reference locations, events, or people from the real world. The intended audience of a science fiction podcast can vary from young children to adults. Science fiction podcasts developed out of radio dramas. Science fiction podcasts are a subgenre of fiction podcasts and are distinguished from fantasy podcasts and horror podcasts by the absence of magical or macabre themes, respectively, though these subgenres regularly overlap. Science fiction podcasts have often been adapted into television programs, graphic novels, and comics. == Genre and subgenres == Science fiction podcasts often focus on themes such as time travel, space exploration, robots, and artificial intelligence. For instance, science fiction podcasts focused on time travel include Snap Judgement, A Winkle in Time, and Black Box. Examples of science fiction podcast centered on space travel are The Hyacinth Disaster, Wolf 359, Arca-45672, and Voyage to the Stars. An example of a science fiction podcast focused on robots is Electric Easy. SAYER and Chrysalis are two science fiction podcast that focus on Artificial Intelligence. Prominent science fiction podcasts that focus on fictional politics, conspiracy theories, journalism, and crime are Welcome to Night Vale, Andromeda, and Wellspring. The Apocrypha Chronicles and Girl in Space are two science fiction podcasts that explore indigenous futurisms. === Science fiction and fantasy podcasts === The content of fantasy podcasts often overlaps with science fiction podcasts. These two genres are often grouped together under the label science fiction and fantasy podcasts, which is sometimes shortened to sci-fi/fantasy podcasts or simply SFF. Some examples of podcasts that cover both science fiction and fantasy topics include Imaginary Worlds, Sword & Laser, SFF Yeah!, and The SFF Audio Podcast. Two of the longest running science fiction and fantasy podcasts, as of 2021, are Sword and Laser and the Clarkesworld Magazine podcast, which have both been regularly releasing episodes since 2008. === Sci-fi thriller podcasts === Science fiction podcasts are typically distinguished from horror podcasts by the absence of macabre or thriller themes, however, the genres often overlap. For instance, sci-fi thrillers like Immunities, Cipher, Forest 404 have very similar themes to horror podcasts. === News and reviews === Science fiction podcasts that focus on news and reviews of science fiction media include SFF Yeah!, Hugos There, 372 Pages We’ll never Get Back, Flash Forward, Spectology: The Sci-Fi Book Club Podcast, The SFF Audio Podcast, Sword & Laser, Imaginary Worlds, and Newcomers. Other science fiction podcasts focused on discussing, reviewing, and critiquing other works of science fiction are Imaginary Worlds, Eye on Sci-Fi, and Our Opinions Are Correct. === Sci-fi improv podcasts === Science fiction podcasts that are delivered in an improvised fashion include Mission to Zyxx, Illusionoid, and Stellar Firma. === Audio dramas === Science fiction podcasts that are delivered in an audio drama format include Marsfall, The Call of the Void The Left Right Game, Wolf 359, Within the Wires, and Red Valley. Others include NULL/VOID, Murmurs, Black Friday, A World Where, Gay Future, The Great Chameleon War, Fun City, Dreambound, Paired, and The Rest Is Electric. == History == Two of the longest running science fiction podcasts, as of 2021, are Sword and Laser and The Clarkesworld Magazine podcast, which have been regularly releasing episodes since 2007 and 2008 respectively. Two of the most notable science fiction podcasts are The Bright Sessions and Welcome to Night Vale. The podcast revolution led to the production of some science fiction podcasts. The intended audience of a science fiction podcast can be a young child like the podcasts Six Minutes, Historynauts, and The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. Science fiction podcast producers can be children as well. For instance, The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian is written by Jonathan Messinger but edited and voiced by his seven year old son Griffin Messinger. Young adults have also produced science fiction podcasts such as Lauren Shippen, who was only twenty-four at the time that she started The Bright Sessions. Businesses have utilized science fiction podcasts as a method of increasing brand visibility and advertising. For instance, General Electric in partnership with Panoply produced a science fiction podcast entitled The Message, and then later produced a sequel entitled LifeAfter. BMW has also created a science fiction podcast called Hypnopolis. VMware produced a science fiction podcast called I.T. > Sci-Fi. Science fiction podcasts have even been used by museums. For instance, the science fiction podcast called We Are Not Alone was used as an audio tour of the Louvre Abu Dhabi art museum. Audiobook companies that produce fantasy and science fiction audiobooks have often expanded into fantasy and science fiction podcasts. The audiobook publishing company Argon released a science fiction podcast with the title Fantastic stories and where to find them. The audiobook company Tor Labs also produced a science fiction podcast called Steal the Stars. Theatre companies have also used podcasts as an alternative form of employment. Science fiction podcasts have also been included in podcast awards, music awards, and film festivals. For instance the science fiction podcast, Earth Break, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, and a podcast award category was established for the 2021 festival. The COVID-19 pandemic created an increase in audio productions because film and TV production was difficult to continue under the restrictions put in place as a response to the pandemic. Nonfiction podcasts have been very popular, but fiction podcasts have gained popularity since 2012 after Welcome to Night Vale and Limetown started. For instance, There Be Monsters, From Now, The Oyster, and In Astra were all started during the pandemic. Madeline Wells of SFGate recommended listening to science fiction podcasts during the pandemic. == Adaptions == The science fiction entertainment industry has used podcasts as a medium to test out new ideas for TV and film because it's cheap and easy to produce a podcast. Science fiction podcasts that have been adapted into film and TV series include Limetown, The Left Right Game, Carrier, The Second Oil Age, and The Bright Sessions. There have also been science fiction podcasts entirely based on films such as Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone. While other science fiction podcast such as The Cryptids has been adapted into a video podcasts. Science fiction magazines have been adapted into podcasts and vice versa. For instance, the Escape Pod magazine podcast and the Clarkesworld Magazine podcast. Science fiction podcasts have been adapted into books, comics, and films. For instance, Sword and Laser has been adapted into a book. Voyage to the stars was adapted into a comic series. The Bright Sessions was adapted into young adult novels, the first of which is entitled The Infinite Noise. == See also == Horror podcast Fantasy podcast Science fiction == References == == Further reading == Machado, Carmen Maria; Adams, John Joseph (October 2019). Page 403. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9781328604378. Helfers, John; Hardy, Jason M.; Schmetzer, Jason (May 14, 2010). Shadowrun: Spells and Chrome: A Shadowrun Anthology. Catalyst Game Labs. Stackpole, Michael A. (April 1999). Page 339. Isard's Revenge. Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553579031. Walch, Rob; Lafferty, Mur (May 22, 2006). Page 361. Tricks of the Podcasting Masters. Pearson Education. ISBN 9780132714730. Morris, Tee; Terra, Evo; Miceli, Dawn; Domkus, Drew (November 7, 2005). Page 322. Podcasting For Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 9780471788881. == External links == Scifi Category at FictionPodcasts.com	Wikipedia/Science_fiction_podcast
Yugoslav science fiction comprises literary works, films, comic books and other works of art in the science fiction genre created in Yugoslavia during its existence (1918–1991). == Literature == === In Serbo-Croatian === ==== Origins ==== The pioneers of the Serbo-Croatian science fiction were Serbian writer Dragutin Ilić (older brother of better-known realist poet Vojislav Ilić), and Lazar Komarčić. Dragutin Ilić's play Posle milion godina (After Million Years), published in 1889, is considered the first science fiction work written in Serbo-Croatian, being also one of the first plays in the complete history of science fiction literature. Komarčić published the first science fiction novel in Serbo-Croatian, Jedna ugašena zvezda (One Extinguished Star), in 1903. ==== Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ==== Only a small number of notable science fiction works and works with science fiction elements were published in the years prior to and the years following World War I: Fran Galović's Začarano ogledalo (Magical Mirror, 1913), Marija Jurić Zagorka's Crveni ocean (Red Ocean, 1918), Dragutin Ilić's Sekund večnosti (A Second of Eternity, 1921), Josip Kulundžić's Lunar (1922), Milan Šuflaj's Na Pacifiku 2255 (In the Pacific 2255, 1924). The late 1920s and the early 1930s brought the appearance of three science fiction works that are viewed as milestones in the history of Yugoslav science fiction literature. In 1928, scientist Milutin Milanković wrote the book Kroz vasionu i vekove (Through Distant Worlds and Times), which combined elements of autobiography, scientific essay and science fiction. In 1932, Mate Hanžeković published Gospodin čovjek (Mr Man), the first utopian novel in the history of literature in Serbo-Croatian. In 1933, Stojan Radonić's Život u vasioni (Life in the Universe) was published, the book dealing with the rise, the development and the downfall of the Martian civilization. The late 1930s brought a number of serialized novels, published mostly in Zagreb magazines. One of the most notable authors of this period was Aldion Degal, who published the novels Atomska raketa (Atomic Rocket, 1930), Zrake smrti (Death Rays, 1932) and Smaragdni Skarabej (The Emerald Scarab, 1934), the first novel having first contact as the theme and the latter two introducing the motif of death rays into Yugoslav science fiction. However, most of the authors of these serialized novels used pen names or left their work unsigned. Many of these novels lacked originality and were heavily influenced by science fiction works by foreign authors; for instance, the novel Leteća lađa (The Flying Ship) was a literary paraphrase of Jules Verne's Master of the World, and the novel Put na mars (Voyage to Mars) paraphrased Aleksey Tolstoy's Aelita. Writer and science fiction historian Zoran Živković considered Mladen Horvat's Muri Massanga, dealing with telepathy, the best Yugoslav science fiction work from this period. The last two novels published in series before the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia were Crveni duh (The Red Ghost) and Majstor Omega (Master Omega), written by Stanko Radovanović and Zvonimir Furtinger (the latter would become one of Yugoslavia's most notable post-World War II science fiction authors), signed under the pen name Stan Rager. Before World War II, there were several notable works with science fiction elements written by essentially non-science fiction and critically acclaimed writers. These include stories "Posle sto godina" ("After Hundred Years", 1911) by Stojan Novaković, "Zbilo se čudo u gradu" ("A Miracle Happened in the City", 1930) by Slavko Batušić and "San doktora Prospera Lupusa" ("The Dream of Doctor Prosper Lupus", 1930) by August Cesarec. In 1921, poet and translator Stanislav Vinaver published his surrealist story collection Gromobran svemira (Lightning Rod of the Universe), with the title story and the story "Osveta" ("Revenge") featuring the elements of science fiction. Certain elements of science fiction could be found in the novel Burleska gospodina Peruna boga groma (The Burlesque of Mr. Perun the God of Thunder), written by another surrealist writer, Rastko Petrović, and published during the same year. ==== Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1991) ==== In the years following World War II, the new communist authorities proclaimed socialist realism the desired form of art. However, after the Yugoslav–Soviet split, Yugoslavia became more open to other artistic movements and popular culture. As a result, many science fiction translations and a new generation of Yugoslav science fiction authors appeared since the beginning of the 1950s. Sneg i led (Snow and Ice, 1951) by academically acclaimed writer Erih Koš is considered the first Yugoslav post-World War II science fiction novel. However, during this period science fiction was mostly perceived as children's and young adult literature, so the largest part of science fiction works from these years was intended for these age categories. The most notable children's and young adult science fiction works from this period include Čedo Vuković's Svemoguće oko (The Almighty Eye, 1953), Voja Carić's Aparat profesora Kosa (The Device of Professor Kos, 1958), Predrag Jirsak's Mjesečeva djeca (Children of the Moon, 1959) and Zvonko Veljačić's Dječak Dub putuje svemirom (Boy Dub Travels through Universe, 1959). Children's and young adult science fiction will remain popular until the 1980s. The novel Osvajač 2 se ne javlja (No Reports from Conqueror 2), written by Zvonimir Furtinger and Mladen Bjažić and published in 1959, marked the beginning of a new era, with works dedicated to the adult audience gaining in popularity. The following year Furtinger and Blažić would publish three novels: Svemirska nevjesta (Space Bride), Varamunga, tajanstveni grad (Varamunga, the Mysterious City) and Zagonetni stroj profesora Kružića (The Mysterious Machine of Professor Kružić), becoming the first Serbo-Croatian authors dedicated primarily to science fiction. Besides this duo, the 1960s brought several more science fiction authors, the most notable being Ritig Angelo, with his novels Sasvim neobično buđenje (Quite Unusual Awakening, 1961) and Ljubav u neboderu (Love in the Skyscraper, 1965). Other authors from this period include Milan Nikolić, Silvio Ružić, Vladimir Imperl, Slobodan Petković, Franjo Ivanušec, Danilo Alargić. Another notable work frotm the 1960s was the dystopian novel Bajka (Fairytale, 1965), written by politician and academically acclaimed writer Dobrica Ćosić, being his only work to venture into science fiction. In the 1960s, Rešad Kadić under the pseudonym Aleksandar Radenković, who wrote under the pen name Al Radek and had success with his detective novels, published two science fiction works: Čovek iz žute kuće (A Man from the Yellow House, 1960) i Druga smrt doktora Langa (Dr Lang's Second Death, 1960). The decade also brought new works intended for children and young adults, the most notable being Čedo Vuković's Letilica profesora Bistrouma (Professor Brightmind's Aircraft, 1961) i Halo nebo (Hello, Sky, 1963), Zvonko Veljačić's Dječak Dub u svijetu čudovišta (Boy Dub in the World of Monsters, 1961), Milivoj Matušec's Suvišan u svemiru (Redundant in Space, 1961) and Berislav Kosier's Brik i kompanija (Brik and the Company, 1967). During the 1960s, several publishing houses started publishing series of science fiction works. In 1967, the publishing house Jugoslavija started its Kentaur (Centaur) series, which would, during the following decades, publish the most notable Serbo-Croatian science fiction novels. During this decade a number of newspapers and magazines (like Večernje novosti and Politikin Zabavnik) started to publish science fiction stories regularly or periodically, and in the end of the decade, in 1969, the first science fiction magazine was started, Kosmoplov (Spacecraft), the publication of which, however, ended in 1970. The 1970s brought the appearance of three notable publications, all three debuting in 1976. The magazine for popularization of science Galaksija (Galaxy) — which, since its founding in 1972, regularly published science fiction stories – started the annual Andromeda, which organized the first Yugoslav competition for the best science fiction story, but also published a number of essays on Yugoslav genre fiction. Vjesnik newspaper started the Sirius magazine, which would offer an opportunity to science fiction authors to publish their work. Finally, the Kentaur series, ended in 1968, were revived. During the following years, the most important works of world science fiction would be published in the series. The end of the decade also featured the short-lived book series SF tom (SF Volume), published by Dečje novine. The 1970s also brought the appearance of self-published science fiction work, with the story collection Priče stvarnosti i mašte (Tales of Reality and Imagination) by Dragan Hajduković, published in 1970, being the first Yugoslav self-published science fiction book. During the decade a much bigger number of translated works was published in contrast to a much smaller number of works by Yugoslav authors. Most notable works from this period include the novel Beli potop (White Flood, 1975) by Berislav Kosier and the story collection Zemlja je u kvaru (The Earth is Malfunctioning, 1977) by Dušica Lukić. Terasa XI (Terrace XI, 1972) was the first post-World War II Yugoslav science fiction work written by a female author, Marija-Vera Mrak. The beginning of the 1970s brought the last book written by the Furtinger-Bjažić duo, Ništa bez Božene (It's All Useless without Božena, 1970), while the end of the decade brought Predrag Raos' novel Brodolom kod Thule (A Shipwreck at Thula, 1979), which announced the 1980s renaissance of Serbo-Croatian science fiction. At the beginning of the 1980s Kentaur and Sirius were joined by Zvezdane staze (Star Trek) series, published by Narodna knjiga, X-100 SF series, published by Dnevnik, and Džepna knjiga (Paperback), published by Dečje novine. However, more notable than these series, published by state-owned publishing houses, were book series published by small, private publishers. Zoran Živković and Žika Bogadnović started Polaris book series, which published contemporary foreign science fiction, with some works, like Arthur Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three having its world premiere in the series. Znak Sagite (Sign of Sagitta), started by Boban Knežević, and Zoroaster, started by Branislav Brkić, also published contemporary and classic works of world science fiction. Knežević also started the annual Monolit (Monolith). Another notable annual was Alef (Aleph), which was, however, published irregularly. During the 1980s, Yugoslav science fiction scene annually brought about twenty-five new titles by Yugoslav authors. About one third of science fiction titles in this period, both Yugoslav and translated, were published as a part of Dnevnik's X-100 SF series. However, a large part of it was pulp science fiction written by Yugoslav writers under foreign pen names. Most notable of these authors were Dušan Belča, writing under the pen name Bell Ch. A, and Slobodan Ćurčić, writing under the pen name S. Tyrkley. Belča wrote ten books, mostly space operas, while Ćurčić wrote six, some of them, like the story collection Šuma, kiše, grad i zvezde (Forest, Rains, City and Stars) reaching higher artistic value. Other authors who published their books as a part of X-100 SF series were Ljubiša Jovanović (under the pen name M. L. Arnaud), Boban Knežević (under the pen name Andrew Osborne), Radmilo Anđelković (under the pen name R. Angelakis), Ratislav Durman (under the pen name D. T. Bird), Slobodan Marković (under the pen name Liberty Borom), Vladimir Lazović (under the pen name Valdemar Lazy), Stevan Babić (under the pen name Steve McClain) and Zoran Jakšić (under the pen name David J. Storm). Three more authors from the 1980s published their books under pen names: Dejan Đorđević (as Dave George), Milan Drašković (as Mike Draskov) and Brana Nikolić (as Derek Finnegan). While Đorđević and Drašković remained within the boundaries of space opera, Nikolić wrote several dozen pulp novels in the Ninja series, published by Dečje novine, some of the stories featuring elements of science fiction. (These novels would later in the decade inspire the Ninja comic book, published by Dečje novine.) The 1980s, however, also brought many authors which did not use pen names and wrote with artistic aspirations. The most notable authors include Dragan Biskupović, his most notable work being Ateisti grade crkvu (Atheists Are Building a Church), Dragan Filipović, his most notable work being Oreska, Hrvoje Hitrec, his most notable work being Ur, Nikola Panić, his most notable work being Regata Plerus (Regatta Plerus), Đorđe Pisarev, his most notable work being Knjiga naroda lutaka (The Book of the Puppet People), Predrag Raos, his most notable work being Mnogo vike nizašto (Much Ado About Nothing) and Damir Mikulić, his most notable work being O. Other authors of the decade include Joža Horvat, Ljubomir Prelić, Majo Topolovac, Predrag Urošević, Ante Škobalj, Dejan Đorđević, Zlatko Krilić, Radomir Vuga, Neven Orhel, Aleksandar Manić, Ariel Šimek, Radovan Ždrale and Dragan Orlović. The 1980s brought the first science fiction anthology consisting entirely of the stories by Yugoslav authors, entitled Tamni vilajet (The Dark Vilayet). The 1980s were notable for the fact that academically acclaimed writers started to show interest for science fiction and to incorporate science fiction elements into their work. Borislav Pekić, one of the most important Serbian writers of the twentieth century, wrote several science fiction works: Besnilo (Rabies), Atlantida (Atlantis) and 1999. The theme of dystopia prevails in the works of science fiction writers during this decade, however, the most notable dystopian novels from the 1980s were works by authors which generally did not write genre fiction: Utov dnevnik (Uto's Diary) by writer, film director, theorist and critic Branko Belan, Trojanski konj (Trojan Horse) and Epitaf carskog gurmana (Epitaph of the Imperial Gourmet) by writer and gastronomy expert Veljko Barbieri, Na kraju ostaje reč (The Word Is All that Is Left) by writer, translator and diplomat Ivan Ivanji, Donji svetovi (Lower Worlds) by writer, painter and sculptor Zvonimir Kostić and Atomokalipsa (Atomocalypse) by writer, diplomat, lieutenant general of the Yugoslav People's Army and bearer of the Order of the People's Hero Aleksandar Vojinović. During this decade science fiction genre started to gain academical recognition, with the appearance of numerous theoretical texts and first dissertations about science fiction. Although less popular than in the previous decades, children's and young adult science fiction was still present on the Serbo-Croatian literary scene. Most notable authors include Dušica Lukić, Marija-Vera Mrak, Ivan Godina and Anto Gradaš. Gradaš published the trilogy about professor Leopold and his son, consisting of books Ljubičasti planet (The Purple Planet), Bakreni Petar (Copper Peter) and Izum profesora Leopolda (The Invention of Professor Leopold). === In Slovene === ==== Origins ==== Simon Jenko's story "Mikromega" ("Micromega"), published in 1851, is considered the first science fiction work in Slovene. Mikromega was a literary paraphrase of Voltaire's novella of the same title. Certain utopian elements in the story would inspire a number of works by Slovene authors from the second part of the 19th century. The first Slovene science fiction novel was Andrej Volkar's Dijak v Lunihe (Student on the Moon), published in 1871. Heroes of the novel travel to the Moon via balloon, where they find an arcadian utopia. Another utopian novel was Josip Stritar's novel Deveta dežela (The Ninth Country), published in 1878. In 1884, Anton Mahnič published the dystopian response to Deveta dežela entitled Indija Komandija (Command India), which would itself be a subject of parody in Ivan Tavčar's 1891 satirical work 4000. In 1888, Janez Trdina published Razodetje (Revelation), featuring a utopian vision of Slovenia in 2175. Another notable work from this period was Ivan Toporiš's Arheološko predavanje leta 5000 (Archaeological Lecture from the Year 5000). In 1893 three notable works were published. The first was Simon Šubic's Pogubni malik sveta (The Harmful Idol of the World). The title refers to money, which is absent from utopian society on Mars, where the story is set. The second was Abadon by Janez Mencinger, the most notable dystopian novel in the history of Slovene literature, dealing with the dark future caused by technological revolution. The third one was Josip Jaklič's Pantheon, a story of travel to utopian societies on Mars and Mercury. ==== Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ==== After the era of utopian and dystopian works, came a new era during which fiction with the elements of popular science prevailed. It was an announced by Etbin Kristan's 1914 work Pertinčarjevo pomlajevanje (Pertničar's Rejuvenation), dealing with unsuccessful attempts in creating the new race of men. During the mid 1930s Vladimir Bartol published a number of stories dealing with the imperfections of man. Similar motif appears in Anton Novačan's play Nadčlovek (Superhuman, 1939), in which men evolve into superhumans, before devolving into apes. As a contrast to the works which express doubt in progress based on scientific discoveries appeared Vernesque works glorifying scientific progress. The most notable representative of this stream was Damir Feigel, whose science fiction adventure novels Pasja dlaka! (Hair of the Dog!, 1926), Na skrivnostnih tleh (On the Mysterious Ground, 1929), Čudežno oko (The Miraculous Eye, 1930), Okoli sveta/8 (Around the World/8, 1935) and Supervitalin (1938) offer optimistic visions of the future. Pavel Brežnik wrote in similar fashion, his most notable works being Temna zvezda (The Dark Star, 1935) and Marsovske skrivnosti (Secrets of Mars, 1935) and the duo of Metod Jenko and Simon Hasl, their most notable work being Izum (The Invention, 1938). Although less frequent that in the years prior to World War I, the dystopian motifs are still present in Slovene science fiction. They appear in Ivo Šorli's V deželi Čirimurcev (In the Land of Chirimurs, 1929), which introduced the motif of parallel worlds into Yugoslav science fiction. The similar motif appears in Radivoj Rehar's science fiction fairy tale Potovanje po zvezdi Večernici (Travel across the Evening Star, 1931). ==== Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1991) ==== In the years following World War II, the Slovene authors strove to write in accordance to contemporary trends in world science fiction. The theme of extraterrestrial life is one of the predominant themes in the 1950s. The first Slovene science fiction work dealing with the subject was Matej Bor's 1955 novel Vesolje v akvariju (Universe in Aquarium). In this work aliens were described as anthropomorphic beings, but more perfect than humans. Another notable work featuring the motif of anthropomorphic aliens was Branimir Žganjer's Natančno tri dni zamude (Exactly Three Days of Delay). The theatre play Pregnani iz raja (Outlawed from Heaven, 1970) by Franc Puncer and Jure Kislinger was the first to abandon the idea of aliens' anthropomorphic form. First Slovene authors dedicated entirely to science fiction appeared in the 1960s. The most notable among them was writer and psychologist Vid Pečjak. His most notable science fiction works include Drejček in trije Marsovčki (Drejchek and Three Little Martians, 1961), dedicated to young adult audience, Pobegli robot (Runaway Robot, 1967), Adam in Eva na planetu starcev (Adam and Eve on the Planet of Old Men, 1972), Roboti so med nami (The Robots Are among Us, 1974), Kam je izginila Ema Lauš (Where Did Ema Lauš Disappear, 1980) and Tretje življenje (Third Life, 1980), which he wrote together with Boris Grabnar. Another notable author from the 1960s was Leopold Suhodolčan, with his novel Trije v raketi (Three People in the Rocket, 1961); Suhodolčan would return to science fiction a decade and a half later, with Stopinje po zraku (Feet in the Air, 1977). The 1970s brought the emergence of many young authors. Most of these authors created works which were modern in both style and subjects, inspired both by Slovene science fiction tradition and modern tendencies in world science fiction. Most notable authors from this period include Franjo Puncer, Gregor Strniša, Branko Gradišnik, Boris Grabnar, Miha Remec, Milica Kitek, Marjan Tomšič, Tomaž Kralj, Boris Novak, Ivan Sivec and Boris Čevin. Miha Remec would become the most notable Slovene science fiction author in Yugoslavia with his works Prepoznavanje (Recognition, 1977), Iksion (1981), Mana (1985), Lovec (Hunter, 1987) and Nečista hči (Unclean Daughter, 1987). Just as Serbo-Croatian science fiction, the Slovene science fiction experienced renaissance in the 1980s. The influx of new authors was announced in the late 1970s, when Ljubljana magazine Nedeljski dnevnik started publishing science fiction stories by Slovene authors, printing more than 180 stories until December 1981. One of the most published and most talented among these authors was Samo Kuščer. His stories were collected in the book Sabi (1983), which would mark the beginning of his writing career. Besides Kuščer, other notable authors from the 1980s include Brane Dolinar, Miloš Mikeln, Bojan Meserko, Milan Rotner and Veseljko Simonovič. Besides authors, the 1980s brought the new generation of science fiction critics and first theorists of the genre, the most notable ones being Drago Bajt, Jože Dolničar and Žiga Leskovček. === In Macedonian === ==== Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1991) ==== Due to the unfavorable circumstances in which modern Macedonian literature developed, the first Macedonian translations of science fiction novels and the first works of Macedonian science fiction authors appeared in the 1950s, much later than the ones in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene. The first science fiction work by a Macedonian author was the 1959 children's novel Големата авантура (The Great Adventure) by Lazо Naumovski. In the following years, writers Peni Trpkovski, Tome Arsovski and Ljiljana Beleva would write in similar fashion. The first Macedonian science fiction novel for adult audience was Враќање од пеколот (Return from Hell) by Ljubomir Donski, published in 1966, a story about a mad scientist set in a totalitarian dystopia. The beginning of the 1970s brought notable novel Далечно патување (The Long Journey, 1972) by Peni Trpkovski. The novel featured the motif of extraterrestrial origin of humans. In the late 1970s appeared Stojmir Simjanoski, the first Macedonian writer to dedicate himself primarily to science fiction genre. His first novel was the dystopia Ацела (Acella, 1977). Simjanoski published two more novels with similar themes, Двојната Ева (The Double Eve, 1980) and Ќерката на ѕвездите (Daughter of Stars, 1981). The mid 1970s brought the first science fiction book series in Macedonia, Univerzum (Universe), published by Makedonska kniga. The most notable Macedonian author of science fiction during the 1970s and the 1980s was writer, essayist, literary and art critic Vlado Urošević, whose story collections Ноќниот пајтон (The Night Carriage, 1972) and Лов на еднорози (Unicorn Hunt, 1983), although predominantly fantasy-oriented, feature a number of science fiction stories. Urošević also wrote a notable collection of essays on science fiction entitled Подземна палата (Underground Palace, 1987) and the monograph Демони и галаксии (Demons and Galaxies, 1988). Other notable Macedonian science fiction authors from the 1980s include Blagoja Jankovski, Vladimir Simonovski and Ljubomir Mihajlovski. Another notable monograph from the 1980s was Филозофија на иконоклазмот (Philosophy of Iconoclasm, 1983) by Ferid Muhić, the first Yugoslav to write a dissertation on science fiction. == Film == One of the first Yugoslav films with science fiction elements was Veljko Bulajić's Atomic War Bride (1960), dealing with the theme of nuclear war. In 1970 Matjaž Klopčič directed the science fiction drama Oxygen. The science fiction horror film The Rat Savior (1977) by Krsto Papić won the first prize at the International Science Fiction Film Festival in Trieste and Grand Prize at the Fantasporto film festival. Dušan Vukotić's 1981 science fiction comedy film Visitors from the Galaxy won a number of awards at international film festivals, including the Best Screenplay Award at the International Science Fiction Film Festival in Trieste, the Jury Award at Imagfic festival in Madrid, and the Best Director Award at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Other notable films from the 1980s were science fiction drama Butnskala (1985) by Franci Slak and the science fiction comedy/adventure film Maja and the Starboy (1988) by Jane Kavčič. == Comics == The first Yugoslav science fiction comic was Gost iz svemira (A Guest from Space), published in 1935 in the Zagreb magazine Oko. The authors of the comic were Božidar Rašić (signed as Apić) and Leontije Bjelski (signed as Tomas). Three more titles debuted in 1935: Zrak smrti (Death Ray) by Đorđe Lobačev and Ljubavnica s marsa (Lover from Mars) and Podzemna carica (Empress of the Underground) by Andrija Maurović. Published soon after the first appearances of Brick Bradford (1933) and Flash Gordon (1934) comics and two years before the first French and Italian science fiction comics, these titles could be considered pioneer works of the genre. Before the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia about ten more titles were published, mostly adaptations of Jules Verne's and H. G. Wells' works. The most notable authors from this period, besides Lobačev and Maurović, include Aleksije Ranhner and Sebastijan Lehner. Yugoslav science fiction comic was revived in 1951 by Zlatko Šešelj. However, until the beginning of the 1980s only about twenty new titles per decade would be published. The most notable authors from the 1950s were brothers Norbert and Valter Nojgebauer, considered the founders of modern science fiction comics in Yugoslavia. Other notable authors from the decade include duos Milorad Dobrić — Milan Kovačević and Aleksandar Hercl – Dragoljub Jovanović. In 1958 debuted Svemirko (Spaceman) comic, created by Vladimir Delač and Nenad Briksi, which would continue to be published for a whole decade, ending in 1968. Valter Nojgebauer and Aleksandar Hercl would continue their work through the 1960s, but the most notable author from this decade would be Božidar Veselinović. The first half of the 1970s brought a very small number of titles, but the end of the decade announced the era of new authors, whose work would, during the 1980s, make Yugoslav science fiction comics relevant on the European scene. The leading authors of this decade include Dragan Bosnić, Radovan Devlić, Branislav Hecel, Zoran Janjetov, Igor Kordej, Dejan Nenadov, Željko Pahek, Dušan Reljić, Dragan Savić, Vladimir Vesović and Krešimir Zimonjić. Works by a number of these artists were published abroad. == Other visual arts == Slovene painters Marjan Remec, Jože Spacal, Samo Kovač and Darko Slavec and Macedonian painters Vasko Taškovski, Kiril Efremov and Vangel Naumovski created a number of works inspired by science fiction. == Music == Science fiction influenced works by numerous popular music artists. Works by composer and pioneer of Yugoslav electronic music Miha Kralj were heavily influenced by science fiction. In 1985, screenwriter Dragan Galović and director Dinko Tucaković filmed a science fiction TV film for Radio Television of Belgrade. The film featured music of the synthpop duo Denis & Denis and starred Denis & Denis members Edi Kraljić and Marina Perazić. == Societies, fandom and fanzines == The first Yugoslav society of science fiction fans, Sfera (Sphere), was formed in Zagreb in 1976. During the 1980s, more societies were formed, most notable ones being Lazar Komarčić Society from Belgrade, Nova from Ljubljana, Pulsar from Skopje, Lira (Lyre) from Niš and Meteor from Subotica. The societies organized science fiction conventions, lectures, exhibitions and film screenings, with Sfera organizing several international conventions. The largest convention in Yugoslavia was Festival SF žanra (SF Festival), held in Belgrade in 1985. There were attempts of uniting these societies into a federal society, but they remained unsuccessful until the breakup of the country. Most of the societies mentioned above published their fanzines. The first Yugoslav science fiction fanzine was Parsek, established by Sfera society in January 1977. Most of Parsek, which was published irregularly, was dedicated to news and reviews of books and films. The fanzine occasionally published theoretical texts. In December 1981, Lazar Komarčić Society established the fanzine Emitor, published on a monthly basis. Besides news, reviews and theoretical texts, Emitor also published stories (mostly by the members of the Lazar Komarčić Society) and comics. Emitor was followed by five more fanzines: Nova, published by the Nova society, Spektar (Spectrum), published by the Belgrade publishing society Kasiopeja, Pulsar, published by the Pulsar society, Meteor, published by the Meteor society, and Misija (Mission), published by the Split publishing society Branko Belan. Most of the fanzines were short-lived, with the exception of Misija, which was established in September 1986 and published regularly on a monthly basis. Misija featured, besides texts in Serbo-Croatian, some texts in Hungarian. In 1987, the federal fanzine Yusfan was established. == See also == Croatian science fiction Serbian science fiction == References ==	Wikipedia/Yugoslav_science_fiction
Science in science fiction is the study or of how science is portrayed in works of science fiction, including novels, stories, and films. It covers a large range of topics. Hard science fiction is based on engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry). Soft science fiction is based on the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, of political science). The accuracy of the science portrayed spans a wide range - sometimes it is an extrapolation of existing technology, sometimes it is a realistic or plausible portrayal of a technology that does not exist, but which is plausible from a scientific perspective; and sometimes it is simply a plot device that looks scientific, but has no basis in science. Examples are: Realistic case: In 1944, the science fiction story Deadline by Cleve Cartmill depicted the atomic bomb. This technology was real, unknown to the author. Extrapolation: Arthur C. Clarke wrote about space elevators, basically a long cable extending from the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit. While we cannot build one today, it violates no physical principles. Plot device: The classic example of an unsupported plot device is faster-than-light drive, often called a "warp drive". It is unsupported by physics as we know it, but needed for galaxy-wide plots with human lifespans. Criticism and commentary on how science is portrayed in science fiction is done by academics from science, literature, film studies, and other disciplines; by literary critics and film critics; and by science fiction writers and sci fi fans and bloggers. == Hard science in science fiction == Planets in science fiction Time travel in science fiction Weapons in science fiction Materials science in science fiction Genetics in fiction == Social science in science fiction == Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction Women in science fiction Gender in speculative fiction Reproduction and pregnancy in speculative fiction == See also == Category Fiction about physics Physics and Star Wars == References == == Bibliography == The Science in Science Fiction by Brian Stableford, David Langford, & Peter Nicholls (1982) Science Fiction with Good Astronomy & Physics	Wikipedia/Science_in_science_fiction
There have been many attempts at defining science fiction. This is a list of definitions that have been offered by authors, editors, critics and fans over the years since science fiction became a genre. Definitions of related terms such as "science fantasy", "speculative fiction", and "fabulation" are included where they are intended as definitions of aspects of science fiction or because they illuminate related definitions—see e.g. Robert Scholes's definitions of "fabulation" and "structural fabulation" below. Some definitions of sub-types of science fiction are included, too; for example see David Ketterer's definition of "philosophically-oriented science fiction". In addition, some definitions are included that define, for example, a science fiction story, rather than science fiction itself, since these also illuminate an underlying definition of science fiction. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, contains an extensive discussion of the problem of definition, under the heading "Definitions of SF". The authors regard Darko Suvin's definition as having been most useful in catalysing academic debate, though they consider disagreements to be inevitable as science fiction is not homogeneous. Suvin's cited definition, dating from 1972, is: "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment". The authors of the Encyclopedia article—Brian Stableford, Clute, and Nicholls—explain that, by "cognition", Suvin refers to the seeking of rational understanding, while his concept of estrangement is similar to the idea of alienation developed by Bertolt Brecht, that is, a means of making the subject matter recognizable while also seeming unfamiliar. Tom Shippey compared George Orwell's Coming Up for Air (1939) with Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth's The Space Merchants (1952), and concluded that the basic building block and distinguishing feature of a science fiction novel is the presence of the novum, a term Darko Suvin adapted from Ernst Bloch and defined as "a discrete piece of information recognizable as not-true, but also as not-unlike-true, not-flatly- (and in the current state of knowledge) impossible." The order of the quotations is chronological; quotations without definite dates are listed last. == Definitions == === In chronological order === Hugo Gernsback. 1926. "By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in a very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well." J. O. Bailey. 1947. "A piece of scientific fiction is a narrative of an imaginary invention or discovery in the natural sciences and consequent adventures and experiences... It must be a scientific discovery—something that the author at least rationalizes as possible to science." Robert A. Heinlein. 1947. "Let's gather up the bits and pieces and define the Simon-pure science fiction story: 1. The conditions must be, in some respect, different from here-and-now, although the difference may lie only in an invention made in the course of the story. 2. The new conditions must be an essential part of the story. 3. The problem itself—the "plot"—must be a human problem. 4. The human problem must be one which is created by, or indispensably affected by, the new conditions. 5. And lastly, no established fact shall be violated, and, furthermore, when the story requires that a theory contrary to present accepted theory be used, the new theory should be rendered reasonably plausible and it must include and explain established facts as satisfactorily as the one the author saw fit to junk. It may be far-fetched, it may seem fantastic, but it must not be at variance with observed facts, i.e., if you are going to assume that the human race descended from Martians, then you've got to explain our apparent close relationship to terrestrial anthropoid apes as well." John W. Campbell, Jr. 1947. "To be science fiction, not fantasy, an honest effort at prophetic extrapolation from the known must be made." ―. "Scientific methodology involves the proposition that a well-constructed theory will not only explain every known phenomenon, but will also predict new and still undiscovered phenomena. Science-fiction tries to do much the same—and write up, in story form, what the results look like when applied not only to machines, but to human society as well." Damon Knight. 1952. At the start of a series of book review columns, Knight stated the following as one of his assumptions: "That the term 'science fiction' is a misnomer, that trying to get two enthusiasts to agree on a definition of it leads only to bloody knuckles; that better labels have been devised (Heinlein's suggestion, 'speculative fiction', is the best, I think), but that we're stuck with this one; and that it will do us no particular harm if we remember that, like 'The Saturday Evening Post', it means what we point to when we say it." This definition is now usually seen in abbreviated form as "Science fiction is [or means] what we point to when we say it." Theodore Sturgeon. 1952. "A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content." Basil Davenport. 1955. "Science fiction is fiction based upon some imagined development of science, or upon the extrapolation of a tendency in society." Edmund Crispin. 1955. A science fiction story "is one that presupposes a technology, or an effect of technology, or a disturbance in the natural order, such as humanity, up to the time of writing, has not in actual fact experienced." Robert A. Heinlein. 1959. "Realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method. To make this definition cover all science fiction (instead of 'almost all') it is necessary only to strike out the word 'future'. Kingsley Amis. 1960. "Science fiction is that class of prose narrative treating of a situation that could not arise in the world we know, but which is hypothesized on the basis of some innovation in science or technology, or pseudo-science or pseudo-technology, whether human or extra-terrestrial in origin." James Blish. 1960 or 1964. Science fantasy is "a kind of hybrid in which plausibility is specifically invoked for most of the story, but may be cast aside in patches at the author's whim and according to no visible system or principle." Rod Serling. 1962. "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible." Judith Merril. 1966. "Speculative fiction: stories whose objective is to explore, to discover, to learn, by means of projection, extrapolation, analogue, hypothesis-and-paper-experimentation, something about the nature of the universe, of man, or 'reality'... I use the term 'speculative fiction' here specifically to describe the mode which makes use of the traditional 'scientific method' (observation, hypothesis, experiment) to examine some postulated approximation of reality, by introducing a given set of changes—imaginary or inventive—into the common background of 'known facts', creating an environment in which the responses and perceptions of the characters will reveal something about the inventions, the characters, or both". James Blish. 1968. "At the very worst, every story ought to contain some trace of some science, and at best they ought to depend on it. This means no fantasies, nothing put in solely because they author wrote a best-selling mainstream novel in 1920, no political parables and no what-is-its". Algis Budrys. 1968. When reviewing Vladislav Krapivin's "Meeting My Brother": "The science in it is used solely for the purpose of offering an otherwise impossible solution to a common human problem; this is the latest definition of science fiction, on either side of the Iron Curtain/time-shift". Frederik Pohl. 1968. "Someone once said that a good science-fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam. We agree". Darko Suvin. 1972. Science fiction is "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment." Thomas M. Disch. 1973. "The basic premise of all s-f—that Absolutely Anything Can Happen and Should—has never been so handsomely and hilariously realized as in An Alien Heat." (Cover blurb for the 1973 Harper and Row edition of the novel by Michael Moorcock). Brian Aldiss. 1973. "Science fiction is the search for a definition of man and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science), and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mould". Revised 1986. "a definition of mankind...", "...post-Gothic mode". Ray Bradbury. 1974. Science fiction is "the one field that reached out and embraced every sector of the human imagination, every endeavor, every idea, every technological development, and every dream." "I called us a nation of Ardent Blasphemers. We ran about measuring not only how things were but how they ought to be. ... We Americans are better than we hope and worse than we think, which is to say, we are the most paradoxical of all of the paradoxical nations in time. Which is what science fiction is all about. For science fiction runs out with tapes to measure Now against Then against Tomorrow Breakfast. It triangulates mankind amongst these geometrical threads, praising him, warning him." "For, above all, science fiction, as far back as Plato trying to figure out a proper society, has always been a fable teacher of morality...There is no large problem in the world this afternoon that is not a science-fictional problem." "Science fiction then is the fiction of revolutions. Revolutions in time, space, medicine, travel, and thought...Above all, science fiction is the fiction of warm-blooded human men and women sometimes elevated and sometimes crushed by their machines." "So science fiction, we now see, is interested in more than sciences, more than machines. That more is always men and women and children themselves, how they behave, how they hope to behave. Science fiction is apprehensive of future modes of behavior as well as future constructions of metal." "Science fiction guesses at sciences before they are sprung out of the brows of thinking men. More, the authors in the field try to guess at machines which are the fruit of these sciences. Then we try to guess at how mankind will react to these machines, how use them, how grow with them, how be destroyed by them. All, all of it fantastic." David Ketterer. 1974. "Philosophically-oriented science fiction, extrapolating on what we know in the context of our vaster ignorance, comes up with a startling donnée, or rationale, that puts humanity in a radically new perspective." Norman Spinrad. 1974. "Science fiction is anything published as science fiction." Isaac Asimov. 1975. "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology." Robert Scholes. 1975. Fabulation is "fiction that offers us a world clearly and radically discontinuous from the one we know, yet returns to confront that known world in some cognitive way." ―. 1975. In structural fabulation, "the tradition of speculative fiction is modified by an awareness of the universe as a system of systems, a structure of structures, and the insights of the past century of science are accepted as fictional points of departure. Yet structural fabulation is neither scientific in its methods nor a substitute for actual science. It is a fictional exploration of human situations made perceptible by the implications of recent science. Its favourite themes involve the impact of developments or revelations derived from the human or physical sciences upon the people who must live with those revelations or developments." ― and Eric Rabkin. 1977. "...science fiction could begin to exist as a literary form only when a different future became conceivable by human beings―specifically a future in which new knowledge, new discoveries, new adventures, new mutations, would make life radically different from the familiar patterns of the past and present." "The worlds of Dante and Milton remain separate from science fiction because they are constructed on a plan derived from religious tradition rather than scientific speculation or imagination based, however loosely, on science." James Gunn. 1977. "Science Fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected into the past, the future, or to distant places. It often concerns itself with scientific or technological change, and it usually involves matters whose importance is greater than the individual or the community; often civilization or the race itself is in danger." Darko Suvin. 1979. "SF is distinguished by the narrative dominance or hegemony of a fictional "novum" (novelty, innovation) validated by cognitive logic." Patrick Parrinder. 1980. "'Hard' SF is related to 'hard facts' and also to the 'hard' or engineering sciences. It does not necessarily entail realistic speculation about a future world, though its bias is undoubtedly realistic. Rather, this is the sort of SF that most appeals to scientists themselves—and is often written by them. The typical 'hard' SF writer looks for new and unfamiliar scientific theories and discoveries which could provide the occasion for a story, and, at its more didactic extreme, the story is only a framework for introducing the scientific concept to the reader." ―. 1980. "In 'space opera' (the analogy is with the Western 'horse opera' rather than the 'soap opera') the reverse [Parrinder is referring to his definition of "hard sf"] is true; a melodramatic adventure-fantasy involving stock themes and settings is evolved on the flimsiest scientific basis." Philip K. Dick. 1981. "I will define science fiction, first, by saying what SF is not. It cannot be defined as “a story (or novel or play) set in the future,” since there exists such a thing as space adventure, which is set in the future but is not SF: it is just that: adventures, fights and wars in the future in space involving super-advanced technology. Why, then, is it not science fiction? It would seem to be, and Doris Lessing (e.g.) supposes that it is. However, space adventure lacks the distinct new idea that is the essential ingredient. Also, there can be science fiction set in the present: the alternate world story or novel. So if we separate SF from the future and also from ultra-advanced technology, what then do we have that can be called SF? We have a fictitious world; that is the first step: it is a society that does not in fact exist, but is predicated on our known society; that is, our known society acts as a jumping-off point for it; the society advances out of our own in some way, perhaps orthogonally, as with the alternate world story or novel. It is our world dislocated by some kind of mental effort on the part of the author, our world transformed into that which it is not or not yet. This world must differ from the given in at least one way, and this one way must be sufficient to give rise to events that could not occur in our society—or in any known society present or past. There must be a coherent idea involved in this dislocation; that is, the dislocation must be a conceptual one, not merely a trivial or bizarre one—this is the essence of science fiction, the conceptual dislocation within the society so that as a result a new society is generated in the author's mind, transferred to paper, and from paper it occurs as a convulsive shock in the reader's mind, the shock of dysrecognition. He knows that it is not his actual world that he is reading about." Barry N. Malzberg. 1982. "Science fiction is that form of literature which deals with the effects of technological change in an imagined future, an alternative present or a reconceived history". David Pringle. 1985. "Science fiction is a form of fantastic fiction which exploits the imaginative perspectives of modern science". Kim Stanley Robinson. 1987. Sf is "an historical literature... In every sf narrative, there is an explicit or implicit fictional history that connects the period depicted to our present moment, or to some moment in our past." Christopher Evans. 1988. "Perhaps the crispest definition is that science fiction is a literature of 'what if?' What if we could travel in time? What if we were living on other planets? What if we made contact with alien races? And so on. The starting point is that the writer supposes things are different from how we know them to be." Isaac Asimov. 1990. "'Hard science fiction' [is] stories that feature authentic scientific knowledge and depend upon it for plot development and plot resolution." Arthur C. Clarke. 2000. "Science fiction is something that could happen—but you usually wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn't happen—though you often only wish that it could." (emphasis original) Jeff Prucher. 2006. Science fiction is "a genre (of literature, film, etc.) in which the setting differs from our own world (e.g. by the invention of new technology, through contact with aliens, by having a different history, etc.), and in which the difference is based on extrapolations made from one or more changes or suppositions; hence, such a genre in which the difference is explained (explicitly or implicitly) in scientific or rational, as opposed to supernatural, terms." Orson Scott Card listed five types of stories that generally fall into science fiction. 2010. All stories set in the future, because the future can't be known. This includes all stories speculating about future technologies, which is, for some people, the only thing that science fiction is good for. Ironically, many stories written in the 1940s and 1950s that were set in what was then the future—the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s—are no longer "futuristic." Yet they aren't "false," either, because few science fiction writers pretend to be writing what will happen. Rather, they write what might happen. So those out-of-date futures, like that depicted in the novel 1984, simply shift from the "future" category to: All stories set in the historical past that contradict known facts of history. Within the field of science fiction, these are called "alternate world" stories. For instance, what if the Cuban Missile Crisis had led to nuclear war? What if Hitler had died in 1939? In the real world, of course, these events did not happen—so stories that take place in such false pasts are the purview of science fiction and fantasy. All stories set in other worlds, because we've never gone there. Whether "future humans" take part in the story or not, if it isn't Earth, it belongs to this genre. All stories supposedly set on Earth, but before recorded history and contradicting the known archaeological record—stories about visits from ancient aliens, or ancient civilizations that left no trace, or "lost kingdoms" surviving into modern times. All stories that contradict some known or supposed law of nature. Obviously, fantasy that uses magic falls into this category, but so does much science fiction: time travel stories, for instance, or "invisible man" stories. Andrew Milner. 2012. Science fiction "is a selective tradition, continuously reinvented in the present, through which the boundaries of the genre are continuously policed, challenged and disrupted, and the cultural identity of the SF community continuously established, preserved and transformed. It is thus essentially and necessarily a site of contestation." Jesse Sheidlower. 2021. Science fiction is "a genre (of fiction, film, etc.) in which the plot or setting features speculative scientific or technological advances or differences." === Undated (alphabetically by author) === John Boyd. "... storytelling, usually imaginative as distinct from realistic fiction, which poses the effects of current or extrapolated scientific discoveries, or a single discovery, on the behavior of individuals [or] society." Frederik Pohl. "Science fiction is a way of thinking about things." Tom Shippey. "Science fiction is hard to define because it is the literature of change and it changes while you are trying to define it." == Notes == == References ==	Wikipedia/Definitions_of_science_fiction
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (or simply E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial he names E.T. who has been stranded on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home. The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore. The film's concept was based on an imaginary friend that Spielberg created after his parents' divorce. In 1980, Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the unrealized project Night Skies. In less than two months, Mathison wrote the first draft of the script, titled E.T. and Me, which went through two rewrites. The project was rejected by Columbia Pictures, who doubted its commercial potential. Universal Pictures eventually purchased the script for $1 million. Filming took place from September to December 1981 on a budget of $10.5 million. Unlike most films, E.T. was shot in rough chronological order to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast. The animatronics for the film were designed by Carlo Rambaldi. E.T. premiered as the closing film of the Cannes Film Festival on May 26, 1982, and was released in the United States on June 11. The film was a smash hit at the box office, surpassing Star Wars (1977) to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held for eleven years until Spielberg's own Jurassic Park surpassed it in 1993. E.T. would receive universal acclaim from critics, and is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. It received nine nominations at the 55th Academy Awards, winning Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing in addition to being nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. It also won five Saturn Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. The film was re-released in 1985 and again in 2002 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, with altered shots, visual effects, and additional scenes. It was also re-released in IMAX on August 12, 2022, to celebrate its 40th anniversary. In 1994, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." == Plot == A race of diminutive aliens visit Earth at night to gather plant specimens in a California forest. One alien, fascinated by the distant lights of a neighborhood, separates from the group, before U.S. government agents arrive and chase the startled creature. The aliens are forced to depart before the agents can find them, leaving their lone member behind. While the agents search the forest, the creature takes shelter in a shed belonging to the family of ten-year-old Elliott Taylor. Initially scared by the creature, who runs away, Elliott spends the following day leaving a trail of Reese's Pieces to lure the alien back to the Taylor's home, where he hides the creature in his room. The following morning, Elliott feigns illness to stay off school and play with the creature, whom he dubs E.T. Elliott eventually introduces E.T. to his older brother, Michael, and five-year-old sister Gertie, who agree to keep E.T. hidden from their hardworking single mother, Mary. When the children ask about his origins, E.T. displays telekinetic abilities by levitating several balls to represent his planetary system, and later demonstrates other extraordinary abilities by reviving a dead chrysanthemum and instantly healing a cut on Elliott's finger. As Elliott and the creature begin to bond, they start to share thoughts and emotions, the two being simultaneously startled when E.T. accidentally opens an umbrella in a different room. At school, Elliott becomes intoxicated because, at home, E.T. is drinking beer and watching television. Sensing E.T.'s desire to be rescued, Elliott impulsively frees the frogs about to be vivisected in his biology class, inspiring the other children to follow his lead, and romantically kisses a girl he likes because E.T. is watching John Wayne kiss Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man (1952); Elliott is sent to the principal's office for his disruptive behavior. Inspired by a Buck Rogers comic strip, depicting the character calling for help with a communication device, E.T. is inspired to build a makeshift device to "phone home", using various parts around the Taylor home. E.T. also learns to speak English, and requests the children's help to build the device. They agree to help find the missing components, unaware that the agents have become suspicious they are harboring the alien. On Halloween, the children disguise E.T. as a ghost and Elliott sneaks E.T. into the forest, where they set up the device to call E.T.'s people. Elliott begs E.T. to stay on Earth with him, before falling asleep and waking alone in the forest the next day. He returns home to his worried family, while Michael searches for E.T., finding him pale and weakened in a culvert. He takes E.T. home, where Elliott is also growing weaker, and reveals the creature to Mary just before government agents invade and quarantine the house. The lead agent, Keys, asks for Elliott's help to save E.T., stating that meeting aliens was his childhood dream and he considers E.T's arrival a genuine miracle. However, E.T. dies while Elliott rapidly recovers. Left alone to say goodbye, Elliott tells E.T. that he loves him, but E.T.'s heart begins to glow and he is revived and restored to health. E.T. tells Elliott that his people are returning for him. Elliott and Michael flee with E.T. on their bikes, flanked by Michael's friends who help them evade the pursuing authorities. Heading towards a roadblock, E.T. levitates the boys to safety and lands them in the forest. E.T.'s ship arrives, and he says goodbye to Michael and Gertie, who gifts him the chrysanthemum he previously revived. Elliott tearfully asks E.T. to stay, but E.T. places his glowing finger on Elliott's head and tells him that he will always be there. The children, Mary, and Keys observe as the ship blasts off into space, leaving a rainbow in the sky. == Cast == Dee Wallace as Mary Taylor, a single mother to Elliott, Michael and Gertie Henry Thomas as Elliott Taylor, a 10-year-old boy who befriends E.T. Peter Coyote as Keys, a government agent bent on capturing E.T. Robert MacNaughton as Michael Taylor, Elliott and Gertie's older brother Drew Barrymore as Gertie Taylor, Elliott and Michael's younger sister K.C. Martel as Greg Sean Frye as Steve C. Thomas Howell as Tyler Erika Eleniak as Pretty Girl David O'Dell as Schoolboy Richard Swingler as Science Teacher Frank Toth as Policeman Robert Barton as Ultra Sound Man Michael Darrell as Van Man Pat Welsh as E.T. (voice; uncredited) == Production == === Development === After his parents' divorce in 1960, Spielberg filled the void with an imaginary alien companion that he later recalled as "a friend who could be the brother [he] never had and a father that [he] didn't feel [he] had anymore". In 1978, he announced that he would shoot a film entitled Growing Up, which he would film in four weeks. However, the project was set aside due to delays on 1941, but the concept of making a small autobiographical film about childhood would stay with him. He also thought about a follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and began to develop a darker project he had planned with John Sayles called Night Skies, in which malevolent aliens terrorize a family. Filming Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia caused a sense of loneliness in Spielberg, far from his family and friends, and made memories of his childhood creation resurface. He told screenwriter Melissa Mathison about Night Skies, and developed a subplot from the failed project in which Buddy, the only friendly alien, befriends an autistic child. Buddy's abandonment on Earth in the script's final scene inspired the concept of E.T. Mathison wrote a first draft titled E.T. and Me in eight weeks, which Spielberg considered perfect. The script went through two more drafts, one by Matthew Robbins which deleted an "Eddie Haskell"–esque friend of Elliott's, named Lance. Robbins helped create the chase sequence and he suggested the scene where E.T. got drunk. In mid-1981, while Raiders of the Lost Ark was being promoted, Columbia Pictures met with Spielberg to discuss the script, after having to develop Night Skies with the director as the intended sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, Marvin Atonowsky, the head of Columbia Pictures' marketing and research development, concluded that it had limited commercial potential, believing that it would appeal to mostly young children. John Veitch, president of Columbia's worldwide productions, also felt that the script was not good or scary enough to be financially viable. On the advice of Atonowsky and Veitch, Columbia CEO Frank Price, who had already funneled nearly $1 million into the film's development (mostly on creature designer Rick Baker's alien models), was now calling it "a wimpy Walt Disney movie". He informed Spielberg that the project was officially being put into turnaround; Spielberg took the project to Sid Sheinberg, president of MCA, then the parent company of Universal Pictures. Spielberg told Sheinberg to acquire the E.T. script from Columbia Pictures, which he did for $1 million and struck a deal with Price in which Columbia would retain 5% of the film's net profits. Veitch later recalled that "I think [in 1982] we made more on that picture than we did on any of our films." === Pre-production === Carlo Rambaldi, who designed the aliens for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was hired to design the animatronics for E.T. Rambaldi's own painting Women of Delta led him to give the creature a unique, extendable neck. Its face was inspired by those of Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway. Producer Kathleen Kennedy visited the Jules Stein Eye Institute to study real and glass eyes. She hired Institute staffers to create E.T.'s eyes, which she felt were particularly important in engaging the audience. Four heads were created for filming, one as the main animatronic and the others for facial expressions, as well as a costume. A team of puppeteers controlled E.T.'s face with animatronics. Two little people, Tamara De Treaux and Pat Bilon, as well as 12-year-old Matthew DeMeritt, who was born without legs, took turns wearing the costume, depending on what scene was being filmed. DeMeritt actually walked on his hands and played all scenes where E.T. walked awkwardly or fell over. The head was placed above that of the actors, and the actors could see through slits in its chest. Caprice Roth, a professional mime, filled prosthetics to play E.T.'s hands. The puppet was created in three months at the cost of $1.5 million. Spielberg declared that it was "something that only a mother could love". Mars, Incorporated refused to allow M&M's to be used in the film, believing that E.T. would frighten children. The Hershey Company was asked if Reese's Pieces could be used, and it agreed. This product placement resulted in a large increase in Reese's Pieces sales. Science and technology educator Henry Feinberg created E.T.'s communicator device. === Casting === Having worked with Cary Guffey on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg felt confident in working with a cast composed mostly of child actors. For the role of Elliott, he auditioned hundreds of boys, including Keith Coogan; before Jack Fisk suggested Henry Thomas for the role because Henry had played the part of Harry in the film Raggedy Man, which Fisk had directed. Thomas, who auditioned in an Indiana Jones costume, did not perform well in the formal testing, but got the filmmakers' attention in an improvised scene. Thoughts of his dead dog inspired his convincing tears. Robert MacNaughton auditioned eight times to play Michael, sometimes with boys auditioning for Elliott. Spielberg felt that Drew Barrymore had the right imagination for the mischievous Gertie after she impressed him with a story that she led a punk rock band. He enjoyed working with the children, and he later said that the experience made him feel ready to be a father. Ralph Macchio was considered for the role of Tyler, before it went to his eventual The Outsiders co-star C. Thomas Howell. The major voice work of E.T. for the film was performed by Pat Welsh. She smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, which gave her voice a quality that sound effects creator Ben Burtt liked. She spent nine-and-a-half hours recording her part, and was paid $380 by Burtt for her services. He also recorded 16 other people and various animals to create E.T.'s "voice". These included Spielberg, actress Debra Winger, his sleeping wife sick with a cold, a burp from his University of Southern California film professor, raccoons, otters, and horses. Doctors working at the USC Medical Center were recruited to play the ones who try to save E.T. after government agents take over Elliott's house. Spielberg felt that actors in the roles, performing lines of technical medical dialogue, would come across as unnatural. During post-production, he decided to cut a scene featuring Harrison Ford as the principal at Elliott's school. It featured his character reprimanding Elliott for his behavior in biology class and warning of the dangers of underage drinking. He is then taken aback as Elliott's chair rises from the floor, while E.T. is levitating his "phone" equipment up the stairs with Gertie. Ford's face is never seen. The footage of this scene was included on the film's 1996 LaserDisc release as a bonus feature. It was not included on the DVD and Blu-ray releases that followed. === Filming === Principal photography began in neighborhoods in Los Angeles County and in the San Fernando Valley on September 8, 1981. The project was filmed under the cover name A Boy's Life, as Spielberg did not want anyone to discover and plagiarize the plot. The actors had to read the script behind closed doors, and everyone on set had to wear an ID card. The shoot began with two days at Culver City High School, and the crew spent the next 11 days moving between locations at Northridge and Tujunga. The next 42 days were spent at Laird International Studios in Culver City for the interiors of Elliott's home. The crew shot at a redwood forest near Crescent City in Northern California for the production's last six days. The exterior Halloween scene and the "flying bicycle" chase scenes were filmed in Porter Ranch. Spielberg shot the film in roughly chronological order to achieve convincing emotional performances from his cast; it was also done to help the child actors with the workload. Spielberg calculated that the film would hit home harder if the children were really saying goodbye to E.T. at the end. In the scene in which Michael first encounters E.T., his appearance caused MacNaughton to jump back and knock down the shelves behind him. The chronological shoot gave the young actors an emotional experience as they bonded with E.T., making the quarantine sequences more moving. Spielberg ensured that the puppeteers were kept away from the set to maintain the illusion of a real alien. For the first time in his career, Spielberg did not storyboard most of the film, in order to facilitate spontaneity in the performances. The film was shot so adults, except for Dee Wallace, are never seen from the waist up in its first half, as a tribute to the cartoons of Tex Avery. According to Spielberg, the scene in which E.T. disguises himself as a stuffed toy in Elliott's closet was suggested by fellow director Robert Zemeckis after he read a draft of the screenplay that Spielberg had sent him. In between takes, the young actors spent time doing activities such as riding bicycles around the sound stages, playing Dungeons & Dragons, the game that Elliott, Michael, Steve, Tyler and Greg play in a scene early in the film, and attending school lessons. The shoot was completed in 61 days, four ahead of schedule. In a 2022 interview, Sean Frye, who played Steve, revealed how the visual effect close-up shots for the climax of the "flying bicycle" chase scene were filmed and reflected on the experience, saying: "We were on these rigs ... They're pulling the trees backwards, past us on tracks, so it looks like we're going through and up and through and over to create this illusion that we're going forward when we're going nowhere. Then the pushing and pulling of the things so that the bike is up and down, and we can get the 'Whoaaaa' effects. That was great." BMX riders Robert Cardoza, Greg Maes, and David Lee served as stunt doubles for the scene. === Music === Spielberg's regular collaborator John Williams described the challenge of creating a score that would generate sympathy for such an odd-looking creature. As with their previous collaborations, Spielberg liked every theme Williams composed and had it included. Spielberg loved the music for the final chase so much that he edited the sequence to suit it. Williams took a modernist approach, especially with his use of polytonality, which refers to the sound of two different keys played simultaneously. The Lydian mode can also be used in a polytonal way. Williams combined polytonality and the Lydian mode to express a mystic, dreamlike and heroic quality. His theme, emphasizing coloristic instruments such as the harp, piano, celesta, and other keyboards, as well as percussion, suggests E.T.'s childlike nature and his "machine". The soundtrack album was first released on June 11, 1982, the same day as the film. An audiobook companion album featuring Williams's score, produced by Quincy Jones and narrated by Michael Jackson, was released on November 15, 1982, exactly two weeks prior to Jackson's acclaimed sixth studio album Thriller. == Themes == Spielberg drew the story of the film from his parents' divorce. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "essentially a spiritual autobiography, a portrait of the filmmaker as a typical suburban kid set apart by an uncommonly fervent, mystical imagination." References to Spielberg's childhood occur throughout: Elliott fakes illness by holding a thermometer to the bulb in his lamp while covering his face with a heating pad, a trick frequently employed by the young Spielberg. Michael picking on Elliott echoes Spielberg's teasing of his younger sisters, and Michael's evolution from tormentor to protector reflects how Spielberg had to take care of his sisters after their father left. Critics have focused on the parallels between the lives of E.T. and Elliott, who is "alienated" by the loss of his father. Pauline Kael noted that "Elliot (his name begins with an 'E' and ends with a T.') is a dutiful, too sober boy who never takes off his invisible thinking cap; the telepathic communication he develops with E.T. eases his cautious, locked-up worries, and he begins to act on his impulses." A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that while E.T. "is the more obvious and desperate foundling," Elliott "suffers in his own way from the want of a home." At the film's heart is the theme of growing up. Some critics have suggested that Spielberg's portrayal of suburbia is very dark, contrary to popular belief. According to A.O. Scott, "the suburban milieu, with its unsupervised children and unhappy parents, its broken toys and brand-name junk food, could have come out of a Raymond Carver story." Charles Taylor of Salon.com wrote that "Spielberg's movies, despite the way they're often characterized, are not Hollywood idealizations of families and the suburbs. The homes here bear what the cultural critic Karal Ann Marling called 'the marks of hard use'." Relatedly, scholarship has emerged on the film regarding its subversion of the nuclear family dynamic, in which Elliott is growing up with a physically absent father and an emotionally absent mother; this aspect of the movie offers an exploration of upbringing within a nontraditional family structure. Other critics found religious parallels between E.T. and Jesus. Andrew Nigels described E.T.'s story as "crucifixion by military science" and "resurrection by love and faith." According to Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride, Universal Pictures appealed directly to the Christian market, with a poster reminiscent of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam (more specifically the "fingers touching" detail) and a logo reading "Peace". Spielberg answered that he did not intend the film to be a religious parable, joking, "If I ever went to my mother and said, 'Mom, I've made this movie that's a Christian parable,' what do you think she'd say? She has a Kosher restaurant on Pico and Doheny in Los Angeles." Several writers have seen the movie as a modern fairy tale. Critic Henry Sheehan described the film as a retelling of Peter Pan from the perspective of a Lost Boy (Elliott): E.T. cannot survive physically on Earth, as Pan could not survive emotionally in Neverland; government scientists take the place of Neverland's pirates. Furthering the parallels, there is a scene in the film where Mary reads Peter Pan to Gertie. Vincent Canby of The New York Times similarly observed that the film "freely recycles elements from" Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz. Kael writes that "from the opening in the dense, vernal woodland that adjoins Elliot's suburb (it's where we first hear E.T.'s frightened sounds), the film has the soft, mysterious inexorability of the classic tale of enchantment. The little shed in the back of the house where Elliott tosses in a ball and E.T. sends it back is part of a dreamscape." Producer Kathleen Kennedy noted that an important theme of the film is tolerance, which would be central to future Spielberg films such as Schindler's List. Having been a loner as a teenager, Spielberg described it as "a minority story". Spielberg's characteristic theme of communication is partnered with the ideal of mutual understanding; he has suggested that the story's central alien-human friendship is an analogy for how real-world adversaries can learn to overcome their differences. == Reception == === Release and sales === E.T. was previewed in Houston, Texas, and premiered at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival's closing gala on May 26, 1982, and was released in the United States on June 11, 1982. It opened at number one at the US box office with a gross of $11 million, and stayed at the top of the box office for six weeks; it then fluctuated between the first and second positions until October, before returning to the top spot for the final time in December during a brief holiday season re-release. In its second weekend, it recorded the highest-grossing second weekend of all time, surpassing the record of $10,765,687 set by Superman II in 1981. In its fourth weekend, it recorded the highest-grossing weekend of all time, surpassing the record of $16,706,592 set earlier that year by Rocky III. It had a record eight weekends with a gross of over $10 million, a feat not matched until Home Alone (1990), and set a record for being at number one for 16 weeks in total. The film began its international rollout in Australia on November 26, 1982, and grossed $839,992 in its first 10 days from nine theatres, setting five weekly house records and 43 daily records. In South Africa, it opened in late November and grossed $724,340 in eight days from 14 screens, setting 13 weekly highs. In France, it opened on December 1, and had 930,000 admissions in its first five days on 250 screens, setting an all-time record in Paris for most daily admissions (Saturday, December 4). In Japan, it opened on December 4, and grossed $1,757,527 in two days from 35 theatres in 11 cities, setting 10 house records on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. In the United Kingdom, it opened on December 9 after a charity performance in London and grossed a record £1 million in its opening weekend. The film added another 138 screens in Japan on December 11, with advance sales of 1.3 million tickets. It later opened in the Philippines in January 1983. In Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the film had minimum age ratings of 8, 12, and 11, respectively, while Denmark had no minimum age limit. There were Swedish people who were opposed to the age limit. In 1983, E.T. surpassed Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time; by the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $359 million in the United States and Canada and $619 million worldwide. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 120 million tickets in its initial U.S. theatrical run. Spielberg earned $500,000 a day from his share of the profits, while The Hershey Company's profits rose 65% due to the film's prominent placement of Reese's Pieces. The "Official E.T. Fan Club" offered photographs, a newsletter that let readers "relive the film's unforgettable moments [and] favorite scenes", and a vinyl record with "phone home" and other sound clips. The film was also a merchandising success, with dolls selling 15 million units by September 1982 and becoming the best-selling toy that Christmas season. E.T. went on to generate over $1 billion in merchandise sales by 1998. Following the success of the film, Kuwahara, the company that created the BMX bikes featured in the film, began producing red and white "E.T." models in three price and quality levels. Kuwahara reissued the E.T. model in 2002, as part of the film's 20th anniversary, and again in 2022 as part of the film's 40th anniversary. The film was re-released in 1985 and 2002, earning another $60 million and $68 million respectively, for a worldwide total of $792 million with $435 million from the United States and Canada. It held the global record until it was surpassed by Jurassic Park, another Spielberg film, in 1993, although it managed to hold on to the United States and Canada record for a further four years, until the release of the Special Edition of Star Wars. It was re-released in IMAX on August 12, 2022, in the United States and Canada, to commemorate the film's 40th anniversary, alongside an IMAX and RealD 3D reissue of another Spielberg film Jaws scheduled for September 2. Jim Orr, Universal's president of distribution remarked "No filmmaker, it's fair to say, has had a greater or more enduring impact on American cinema or has created more indelible cinematic memories for tens of billions of people worldwide. We couldn't think of a more perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of E.T. and the first Universal-Spielberg summer blockbuster, Jaws, than to allow audiences to experience these films in a way they've never been able to before." The IMAX release grossed $490,000 on its first day from 389 theaters, for a three-day total of $1.07 million and a $438 million running total. The film would remain one of Universal's top three highest-grossing films of all time in North America, behind Jurassic World (2015) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), until 2024 with the release of Wicked, the first installment of the musical's two-part film adaptation. As of 2025, the film remains the studio's fifteenth highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. === Home media === E.T. was eventually released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 27, 1988. The videos were priced with a recommended retail price of $24.95, the lowest initial price at the time for a major movie compared to the normal price of $89.95. To combat piracy, the tapeguards and tape hubs on the videocassettes were colored green, and the tape itself was affixed with a small, holographic sticker of the 1963 Universal logo (much like the holograms on a credit card), and encoded with Macrovision. The film doubled the record pre-orders of Cinderella released the same month and went on to sell over 15 million VHS units in the United States, and grossed over $250 million in video sales revenue. The VHS cassette was also rented over six million times during its first two weeks in 1988, a record it held until the VHS release of Batman the following year. Conservative Christians who were still angry about Universal's release of The Last Temptation of Christ earlier in the year called for a boycott of this release. Initial orders internationally exceeded $30 million despite the film often being sold at full price, setting records in the United Kingdom with over 81,000 units and Australia with 35,500 units. It initially shipped 152,000 units in Japan and 87,000 in Germany. In 1991, Sears began selling E.T. videocassettes exclusively at their stores as part of a holiday promotion. It was reissued on VHS and LaserDisc again in 1996, with the latter including a 90-minute documentary produced and directed by Laurent Bouzereau; it included interviews with Spielberg, producer Kathleen Kennedy, composer John Williams, and other cast and crew members, as well as two theatrical trailers, an isolated music score, deleted scenes, and still galleries. The VHS included a 10-minute version of the same documentary from the LaserDisc. Both 1996 home video releases of the film were also THX certified as well. The 2012 release of E.T. on DVD and Blu-ray grossed $24.4 million in sales revenue as of 2017 in the United States. === Critical response === Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "It works as science fiction, it's sometimes as scary as a monster movie, and at the end, when the lights go up, there's not a dry eye in the house." He later added it to his canon of "Great Movies", structuring the essay as a letter to his grandchildren about watching it with them. Of the scene with the flying bicycles, he writes: "I remember when I saw the movie at Cannes: Even the audience there, people who had seen thousands of movies, let out a whoop at that moment." Michael Sragow of Rolling Stone called Spielberg "a space age Jean Renoir. ... for the first time, [he] has put his breathtaking technical skills at the service of his deepest feelings". Derek Malcolm of The Guardian wrote that "E.T. is a superlative piece of popular cinema [...] a dream of childhood, brilliantly orchestrated to involve not only children but anyone able to remember being one". Leonard Maltin included it in his list of "100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century" as one of only two movies from the 1980s. Political commentator George Will was one of few to pan the film, feeling it spread subversive notions about childhood and science. John Nubbin reviewed E.T. for Different Worlds magazine and stated that "E.T. is a totally enjoyable film. The detail lavished on the movie makes it an exquisite viewing experience well above the crowd of the summer releases." The film holds a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 146 reviews, and an average rating of 9.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Playing as both an exciting sci-fi adventure and a remarkable portrait of childhood, Steven Spielberg's touching tale of a homesick alien remains a piece of movie magic for young and old." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 92/100 based on 30 reviews. In addition to the film's wide acclaim, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan were moved by it after a screening at the White House on June 27, 1982. Princess Diana was in tears after watching it. On September 17, 1982, it was screened at the United Nations, and Spielberg received a UN Peace Medal. CinemaScore reported that audiences polled during the opening weekend gave the film a rare "A+" grade, the first film to earn that grade. == Accolades == The film was nominated for nine Oscars at the 55th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gandhi won that award, but its director, Richard Attenborough, said, "I was certain that not only would E.T. win, but that it should win. It was inventive, powerful, wonderful. I make more mundane movies." E.T. won four Academy Awards: Best Original Score, Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, and Gene Cantamessa), Best Sound Effects Editing (Charles L. Campbell and Ben Burtt), and Best Visual Effects (Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, and Kenneth F. Smith). At the 40th Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Picture in the Drama category and Best Original Score; it was also nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best New Male Star for Henry Thomas. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded the film Best Picture, Best Director, and a "New Generation Award" for Melissa Mathison. The film won Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Writing, Best Special Effects, Best Music, and Best Poster Art, while Henry Thomas, Robert McNaughton, and Drew Barrymore won Young Artist Awards. In addition to his Academy, Golden Globe and Saturn, composer John Williams won two Grammy Awards and a BAFTA for the score. The film's audiobook album also won the Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards in 1984. == Legacy == In American Film Institute polls, the film has been voted the 24th greatest film of all time, the 44th most heart-pounding, and the sixth most inspiring. Other AFI polls rated it as having the 14th greatest music score and as the third greatest science-fiction one. The line "E.T. phone home" was ranked 15th on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list, and 48th on Premiere's top movie quote list. In 2005, it topped a Channel 4 poll in the UK of the 100 greatest family films, and was listed by Time as one of the 100 best movies ever made. The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists E.T. as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars." In 2003, Entertainment Weekly called the film the eighth most "tear-jerking"; in 2007, in a survey of both films and television series, the magazine declared it the seventh greatest work of science-fiction media in the past 25 years. The Times also named it as their ninth favorite alien in a film, calling it "one of the best-loved non-humans in popular culture". It is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2011, ABC aired Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, revealing the results of a poll of fans conducted by ABC and People magazine: It was selected as the fifth best film of all time and the second best science fiction film. On October 22, 2012, Madame Tussauds unveiled wax likenesses of E.T. at six of its international locations. A species of sponge, Advhena magnifica, was given the common name "E.T. sponge" due to its resemblance of the creature. In 2023, actress Rita Moreno, who starred in Spielberg's 2021 film adaptation of the musical West Side Story, named E.T. as one of her top five favorite films, saying "Number one, it has superb child actors, which can really only happen because of Steven Spielberg. He is just great with children because he's like a child himself. It's a very interesting phenomenon." Many people in the world of entertainment have cited E.T. as among their favorite films, including filmmakers Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Edgar Wright, J. A. Bayona, Dustin Lance Black, Spenser Cohen, Dustin Guy Defa, Gareth Edwards, Michael Giacchino, Sarah Greenwood, Chad Hartigan, Max Hechtman, Jordan Horowitz, Phil Joanou, Travis Knight, David Lowery, Rod Roddenberry, Céline Sciamma, Ed Solomon, Goran Stolevski, Clement Virgo and Molly Manning Walker, actors Dana Barron, Rosamund Pike, Jeremy Renner and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and television personality Heidi Klum. Elements of the film, particularly the story, iconography and musical score, would go on to influence or be referenced in other media, including the films Back to the Future (1985), Stand by Me (1988), Super 8 (2011), Arrival (2016), Nope (2022) and Elio (2025), as well as the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016–2025). === 20th anniversary version === An extended version of the film, dubbed the "Special Edition" (currently out of circulation), including altered dialogue and visual effects, premiered at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 16, 2002; it was released on home media six days later. Certain shots of E.T. had bothered Spielberg since 1982, as he did not have enough time to perfect the animatronics. Computer-generated imagery (CGI), provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), was used to modify several shots, including ones of E.T. running in the opening sequence and being spotted in the cornfield. The spaceship's design was also altered to include more lights. The first flying sequence where Elliott and E.T. fly on their bicycle through the forest now had the cape of Elliott's Halloween costume flap in the wind as it appeared to have originally been intended to be, a change done to have the sequence, particularly the iconic shot of them flying past the Moon, match the film's poster and the logo of Spielberg's production company Amblin Entertainment. Scenes shot for but not included in the original version were introduced. These included E.T. taking a bath and Gertie telling Mary that Elliott went to the forest on Halloween. Mary's dialogue, during the offscreen argument with Michael about his Halloween costume, was altered to replace the word "terrorist" with "hippie" in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Spielberg did not add the scene featuring Harrison Ford, feeling that would reshape the film too drastically. He became more sensitive about the scene where gun-wielding federal agents confront Elliott and his escaping friends and had them digitally replaced with walkie-talkies. Spielberg later admitted that he regretted editing out the guns from the film, stating that the film should be left untouched to represent the culture of its time. At the premiere, John Williams conducted a live performance of the score. The new release grossed $68 million in total, with $35 million coming from Canada and the United States. The changes to it, particularly the escape scene, were criticized as political correctness. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wondered "Remember those guns the feds carried? Thanks to the miracle of digital, they're now brandishing walkie-talkies. ... Is this what two decades have done to free speech?" Chris Hewitt of Empire wrote, "The changes are surprisingly low-key ... while ILM's CGI E.T. is used sparingly as a complement to Carlo Rambaldi's extraordinary puppet." South Park ridiculed many of the changes in the 2002 episode "Free Hat". The two-disc DVD release which followed on October 22, 2002, contained the original theatrical and 20th Anniversary extended versions of the film. The features on disc one included deleted scenes, an introduction with Spielberg, a "Reunion" featurette and a "Look Back" featurette. Disc two included a 24-minute documentary about the 20th Anniversary edition changes, a 20th Anniversary premiere featurette, John Williams' performance at the 2002 premiere, a Space Exploration game, a trailer, cast and filmmaker bios, production notes, and the still galleries ported from the 1996 LaserDisc set. The two-disc edition, as well as a three-disc collector's edition containing a "making of" book, a certificate of authenticity, a film cell, and special features that were unavailable on the two-disc edition, were placed in moratorium on December 31, 2002. Later, it was re-released on DVD as a single-disc re-issue in 2005, featuring only the 20th Anniversary version. In a June 2011, interview, Spielberg said, [In the future,] ... There's going to be no more digital enhancements or digital additions to anything based on any film I direct. ... When people ask me which E.T. they should look at, I always tell them to look at the original 1982 E.T. If you notice, when we did put out E.T. we put out two E.T.s. We put out the digitally enhanced version with the additional scenes and for no extra money, in the same package, we put out the original '82 version. I always tell people to go back to the '82 version. For the film's 30th anniversary release on Blu-ray in 2012 and for its 35th anniversary release on Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2017, as well as its corresponding digital releases, only the original theatrical edition was released, with the 20th anniversary edition now out of circulation. == Other portrayals == Atari, Inc. produced a video game based on the film for the Atari 2600 and hired Howard Scott Warshaw to program the game. The game was rushed in five weeks to release within the 1982 holiday season. Released in Christmas 1982, the game was critically panned, with nearly every aspect of the game facing heavy criticism. It has since been considered to be one of the worst video games ever made. It was also a commercial failure. It has been cited as a major contributing factor to the video game industry crash of 1983, and has been frequently referenced and mocked in popular culture as a cautionary tale about the dangers of rushed game development and studio interference. In what was initially deemed an urban legend, reports from 1983 stated that as a result of overproduction and returns, millions of unsold cartridges were secretly buried in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill and covered with a layer of concrete. In April 2014, diggers hired to investigate the claim confirmed that the Alamogordo landfill contained many E.T. cartridges, among other games. William Kotzwinkle, author of the film's novelization, wrote a sequel, E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, which was published in 1985. In the novel, E.T. returns home to the planet Brodo Asogi, but is subsequently demoted and sent into exile. He attempts to return to Earth by effectively breaking all of Brodo Asogi's laws. E.T. Adventure, a theme park ride based on the film and drawing inspiration from The Book of the Green Planet, debuted at Universal Studios Florida on June 7, 1990. The $40 million attraction features the title character saying goodbye to visitors by name, along with his home planet. In 1998, E.T. was licensed to appear in television public service announcements produced by the Progressive Corporation. The announcements featured his voice reminding drivers to "buckle up" their seat belts. Traffic signs depicting a stylized E.T. wearing one were installed on selected roads around the United States. The following year, British Telecommunications launched the "Stay in Touch" campaign, with him as the star of various advertisements. The campaign's slogan was "B.T. has E.T.", with "E.T." also taken to mean "extra technology". At Spielberg's suggestion, George Lucas included members of E.T.'s species as background characters in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. E.T. was one of the franchises featured in the 2015 crossover game Lego Dimensions. E.T. appears as one of the playable characters, and a world based on the film where players can receive side quests from the characters is available. During E.T.'s trailer in the sketch for the series known as Meet that Hero!, Supergirl explains his backstory and how they have many things in common, including being aliens that crashed down to Earth and how they both have superpowers that they use to help other people. In 2017, video game developer Zen Studios released a pinball adaptation as part of the Universal Classics add-on pack for the virtual pinball game Pinball FX 3. It features 3-D animated figures of Elliot, E.T. and his spacecraft. == Sequels == === Cancelled sequel === In July 1982, during the film's first theatrical run, Spielberg and Mathison wrote a treatment for a sequel to be titled E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, which would have shown Elliott and his friends getting kidnapped by evil aliens, and attempting to contact E.T. for help. Spielberg decided against pursuing it, feeling it "would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity. E.T. is not about going back to the planet". Spielberg also revealed in a January 2025 interview with Indiewire that he briefly considered adapting E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet into a film. He ultimately decided against it, believing that "it was better as a novel than I think it would have been as a film." In 2022, Henry Thomas said that he hopes a feature-length sequel never gets made, but added "I guarantee you, there are a few men in a very big room now salivating and using their Abacus and slide rules to come up with some really, really big numbers." === Short film sequel === On November 28, 2019, during NBC's broadcast of the 93rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Xfinity released a four-minute commercial directed by Lance Acord, calling it a "short film sequel" to the original film, titled A Holiday Reunion. The commercial stars Henry Thomas, reprising his role as Elliott, now an adult with a family of his own. Julianne Hoyak played his wife, Grace, while Zebastin Borjeau and Alivia Drews played their children, Elliott Jr. and Maggie. The story follows E.T. as he returns to Earth for the holiday season, and focuses on the importance of bringing family together. References and nods to the original film are featured, such as a photo of the Taylors' family dog Harvey on the kitchen fridge and a replica of the makeshift Speak & Spell communication device. The commercial utilizes a practical puppet for E.T. himself. In an interview with Deadline, Acord said that he went this route in order to elicit more realistic performances from the actors, the same way Spielberg did on the original film. John Williams' score from the original film is mixed into the commercial. Spielberg was consulted by Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal, which itself owns Universal Pictures) before production on the commercial began. Peter Intermaggio, SVP for Marketing Communications for Comcast remarked on the making of the commercial: "Our goal is to show how Xfinity and Sky technology connects family, friends and loved ones, which is so important during the holidays ... The classic friendship between E.T. and Elliott resonates around the world." Before the commercial was released, Thomas assured that viewers would "get everything they want out of a sequel without the messy bits that could destroy the beauty of the original and the special place it has in people's minds and hearts ... Looking at the storyboards, I could see exactly why Steven was really behind it, because the integrity of the story isn't lost in this retelling." The full commercial also played on Syfy and theatrically during cinema pre-shows through January 5, 2020, and a two–minute version was edited for Comcast's British subsidiary, Sky UK. == See also == Flight of the Navigator List of films set around Halloween Mac and Me The Alien (unproduced film) == Notes == == References == == Bibliography == == External links == E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at IMDb E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at Box Office Mojo E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at Rotten Tomatoes E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the TCM Movie Database E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 774–775 America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry	Wikipedia/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial
Pastoral science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction which uses bucolic, rural settings, like other forms of pastoral literature. Since it is a subgenre of science fiction, authors may set stories either on Earth or another habitable planet or moon, sometimes including a terraformed planet or moon. Unlike most genres of science fiction, pastoral science fiction works downplay the role of futuristic technologies. The pioneer is author Clifford Simak (1904–1988), a science fiction Grand Master whose output included stories written in the 1950s and 1960s about rural people who have contact with extraterrestrial beings who hide their alien identity. Pastoral science fiction stories typically show a reverence for the land, its life-giving food harvests, the cycle of the seasons, and the role of the community. While fertile agrarian environments on Earth or Earth-like planets are common settings, some works may be set in ocean or desert planets or habitable moons. The rural dwellers, such as farmers and small-townspeople, are depicted sympathetically, albeit with the tendency to portray them as conservative and suspicious of change. The simple, peaceful rural life is often contrasted with the negative aspects of noisy, dirty, fast-paced cities. Some works take a Luddite tone, criticizing mechanization and industrialization and showing the ills of urbanization and over-reliance on advanced technologies. == Terminology == The subgenre is also called "rural science fiction" (RSF) in some 2020s sources. Kirkus Reviews has noted the subgenre of “small-town science fiction” set in the countryside, which takes inspiration from Ray Bradbury’s stories about bucolic towns. Simon Reynolds has applied this subgenre to film, stating that Super 8 is a “small town science fiction movie”. == Theory == American historian and literary critic Leo Marx's book The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Idea (1964) sets out the theoretical underpinnings of modern pastoral literature. He states that the pastoral setting has a "dynamic relationship with [t]echnology", which transforms the pastoral ideal of an idyllic paradise into "commodified nostalgia" about a "middle landscape" (which is in between the small farms that are still within the town gates and the wilderness that lies beyond) where lives can be "lived in harmony, momentarily unburdened by history." This sentimental version of the American pastoral uses rural landscapes and sublimation to create a sense of nostalgia and an "illusion of peace and harmony in a green pasture." Tom Shippey contrasts between the pastoral genre, which focuses on “rural, nostalgic, [and] conservative” communities, and genres focused on societies that use technologies to create new tools and devices. For example, in mainstream science fiction, there is often an emphasis on the role of advanced technologies (spaceships, robots, computers, etc.) and their impact on people and society. Shippey states that these literatures about innovation and technology-oriented "fabril" societies depict these cultures as “overwhelmingly urban, disruptive, future-oriented, eager for novelty,”’ and "centred on the image of the 'faber'" (craftsman, from a root meaning "fashioning" or "fitting") which historically referred to a blacksmith, but in a science fiction context, it refers to creators, designers, and builders of new artefacts and devices. These could be new spaceships, laser weapons, artificial intelligence or other technology, which Darko Suvin collectively refers to as the "novum" element of science fiction. Andy Sawyer argues that the pastoral genre in science fiction depends on the "tension between these two modes", in which pastoral science fiction (SF) focuses on "anxiety about the future", whereas stories about urban faber society tend to enthusiastic about the future and the changes it will bring. Leo Marx gives an example of the busy, noisy urban life disrupting the peaceful rural realm with his recounting of Nathaniel Hawthorne working in the woods in the countryside when the quiet was shattered with the shrieking of a train locomotive whistle, showing "technology’s intrusion into the pastoral landscape." Pastoral stories have a nostalgic and sentimental focus on tradition, in contrast to "faber cultures which are obsessed with developing innovations. Darko Suvin states that due to "cognitive estrangement", the pastoral genre is closer to science fiction than it is to fantasy. Pastoral symbols and myths are at the roots of American cultural narratives. Along with apocalyptic and urban strands, pastoral symbols are "mutually interpenetrating elements" in American Protestant culture and part of the values of the Enlightenment. The pastoral opposition between the country and the city may be recreated by comparing Earth to a technologically advanced alien planet. Sawyer uses English literary critic and poet William Empson's 1950 argument that the pastoral genre "compress[es] complex meaning into emblematic ecological images" of "wilderness, garden and farm" that serve as "metaphor, a poetic idea" showing the impact of technology on how we relate to nature. Pastoral stories typically focus on communities and regular people's life events, such as falling in love, marriage, birth, and death, and on processes that are key to sustaining rural communities, such as harvesting food. As well, pastoral stories often use the changing seasons as an organizing framework and as metaphor for natural cycles (e.g., Brian Aldiss' Helliconia Spring). Sawyer argues that some pastoral utopias have a dark side, in that the idyllic setting for the few settlers or colonists was achieved at the expense of the land being turned into a dystopia for the Indigenous inhabitants who were displaced or used as slaves to clear the land. == Antecedents == One of the antecedents of pastoral science fiction works was nineteenth century rural utopian pastorals which depicted an idyllic Arcadia. Most utopian writers placed a strong emphasis on technological progress as a way to a better future; examples range from Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) to King Gillette's The Human Drift (1894) to Alexander Craig's Ionia (1898) to H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia (1905). However, a minority of nineteenth century utopian writers reacted with a skepticism toward, or even a rejection of, technological progress, and favored a return to a rural, agrarian simplicity. These "pastoral utopias" include William Morris's News from Nowhere (1891), about a future common ownership society based on agrarian production in small communities where people take pleasure in nature; the "Altrurian trilogy" by William Dean Howells, including A Traveler from Altruria (1894), about a faraway island of Altruria where all resources are shared and craftspeople work slowly on their work, as there is no capitalist pressure (and well as its sequels), and W.H. Hudson's A Crystal Age, a pastoral utopia where people have no machines and only simple devices; they plow their fields with horses and use axes to chop down trees. News from Nowhere is both from the pastoral genre and it is soft science fiction, since the premise of the story is time travel to a utopian future. Canadian science fiction author Frederick Philip Grove's novels The Master of the Mill (1944) and Consider Her Ways (1947) blend pastoral science fiction with naturalism and utopian themes. == Hidden aliens in a rural area == One challenge with writing pastoral science fiction is that if the advanced, futuristic technologies are too prominent, their presence may undercut the bucolic rural setting. One solution is to set the story in an isolated rural area, and have aliens with advanced technologies (interstellar travel, spaceships, etc.) land in the region, but keep their advanced technologies hidden from all or almost all people. Sam Jordison states that Simak "pioneered 'pastoral science-fiction'" with Way Station (1963) and earlier stories by creating scenarios in which aliens land in the isolated woods. In Way Station, a Civil War veteran living in a rural farmhouse strikes a deal with aliens soon after the war. In return for letting the aliens convert his house into a hidden "way station" for aliens traveling between galaxies, the aliens give him immortality, so that he is still alive in the 1960s (and appears like a young man). Two other pastoral examples from Simak with "hidden aliens" include "Neighbor" (June 1954 issue of Astounding Science Fiction), which is about a new immigrant to an isolated rural region who arrives with an automated tractor powered by a mysterious advanced technology and the ability to cure illnesses beyond what current medicine can treat (the townsfolk do not realize he is a human-appearing alien), and "A Death in the House" (October 1959 issue of Galaxy), which is about an old farmer who finds a small crashed UFO and an injured alien in the woods, and keeps the discovery hidden from curious big-city scientists until he can repair the alien's spaceship so it can return to its planet. Under the Dome is a 2013-2015 American science-fiction mystery drama television series based on Stephen King's 2009 novel of the same name which is about the residents of a small town who are trapped under massive, transparent and indestructible dome after an alien species sends an "egg" inside a meteor which crashes in the small town. The alien egg explodes, forming a mysterious transparent force that cuts the town off from the rest of the world. The people trapped inside find their own ways to survive with diminishing resources and rising tensions. The Austrian-German science fiction film The Wall (2012), like Under the Dome, depicts a mysterious, transparent force field that suddenly appears. In The Wall, based on the 1963 novel Die Wand by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer, a woman who visits a hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps discovers she is cut off from all human contact by a mysterious invisible wall. In the novel, the female character sees the trappings of modern life visible on the other side of the wall, such as her Mercedes-Benz car, being overgrown by plants. Trapped behind the invisible wall, she learns to hunt animals for food. In The Tommyknockers a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King, a woman living in a rural area in Maine discovers a spaceship that has been buried for millennia on her property. As she excavates the ship, she and the townsfolk gradually fall under the influence of mysterious alien powers. The townsfolk cannot leave the town, due to an invisible barrier, and outsiders are repelled by the noxious gases the ship emits. Nope is a 2022 American science fiction horror film written, directed, and produced by Jordan Peele, about horse-wrangling siblings who attempt to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object or extraterrestrial flying organism at a ranch in the tiny community in Agua Dulce in California's Sierra Pelona Ridge region. In John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), extraterrestrials land a silvery object in the rural village of Midwich and all human and animal life is knocked unconscious by an unknown means; after a day they all recover. However, every woman of child-bearing age is pregnant by xenogenesis. Nine months later, 31 boys and 30 girls are born who have none of the genetic characteristics of their mothers. They not completely human and they have telepathic abilities, they can control others' actions, and they have group minds and accelerated development. No One Will Save You is a 2023 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Brian Duffield about young seamstress living alone, shunned by the local townspeople, who must fight off a home invasion by gray aliens and their associated parasites that take over the townsfolk that has unexpected consequences. Resident Alien is a TV series about an extraterrestrial who crash-lands on Earth in a small Colorado town with a mission to wipe out humanity. Instead , the extraterrestrial kills a vacationing physician and takes on his identity. Only the mayor's young son can see his true alien appearance. He develops compassion for humanity and ends up having to defend them from other extraterrestrial threats. == Pastoral apocalypse == Another way to have a pastoral setting in a futuristic science fiction story is to have an advanced civilization revert to a simple, rural way of life after the cities are destroyed by some apocalyptic disaster. Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow has been called the "first example of the American pastoral apocalypse" story. The story is set after a nuclear war, and it depicts a world where Mennonites and Amish farmers teach agricultural skills to fleeing refugees from the ruined cities. The beleaguered United States government passes the Thirtieth Amendment, an anti-city law that limits towns to a thousand people, in an effort to prevent re-urbanization. As is common in pastoral stories, the rural setting is contrasted with a densely populated city area. In this story, the urban area is a secret underground site, Bartorstown, that uses advanced technologies such as nuclear power and a supercomputer. The farm-dwelling Mennonites view Bartorstown's advanced technology as the tools of the devil. The Wild Shore, Kim Stanley Robinson's first published novel (1984), is the story of survivors of a nuclear war. The nuclear strike consisted of 2,000–3,000 neutron bombs that were detonated in 2,000 of North America's biggest cities in 1987. Survivors have started over, forming villages and living off agriculture and sea. The theme of the first chapters is that of a quite normal pastoral science fiction, which is deconstructed in later chapters. Post-nuclear rural life is hindered from developing further by international treaties imposed by the victorious Soviets, with an unwilling Japan charged with patrolling the West Coast. Pastoral apocalypse stories are not limited to settings where fertile agrarian communities re-emerge in the countryside from the ashes of a huge disaster. James Lovegrove states that Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, in which a father and his young son journey on foot across the bleak, desolate post-apocalyptic ash-covered United States some years after an undefined extinction event (in an America where all plant life and virtually all animal life has died) is a pastoral apocalypse. Paul O. Williams' "Pelbar Cycle" consists of six post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, from The Breaking of Northwall (1981) to The Sword of Forbearance (1985). The Pelbar Cycle is set in North America about a thousand years after a "time of fire" apocalyptic event, in which the world was almost completely depopulated. The novels track a gradual reconnection of the human cultures which developed. Much of the action takes place in the communities of the Pelbar along the Upper Mississippi River, as several cultures, including the matriarchal Pelbar, join to form the Heart River Federation. The apocalypse does not have to be nuclear war or an extinction event. In Fredric Brown's "The Waveries" (1945 edition of Astounding Science Fiction), aliens invade the United States and they prevent inhabitants from using electricity, so the people have to revert to a simple, rural lifestyle resembling the Amish culture, using horses, buggies and hand tools. In the 1980s, pastoral apocalypse themes were used by women science fiction authors to explore feminist issues, such as in Ursula Le Guin's Always Coming Home (1985). Le Guin's novel depicts a women-centric pastoral culture that rebuilds after an apocalypse. The book's setting is a time so post-apocalyptic that only a few folk tales even refer to it. The only signs of our civilization that have lasted into their time are indestructible artefacts such as styrofoam and a self-maintaining, solar-powered computer network. There has been a great sea level rise which floods coastal areas. The Kesh use writing, electricity, and the solar-powered computer network, but they do nothing on an industrial scale, as they deplore domination of the natural environment. They reject cities (literal “civilization”) and limit settlement to a few-dozen multi-family or large family homes. Canadian filmmaker Pixie Cram makes pastoral science fiction films that use a style she calls "rustic futurism", in which "systems and machines have largely broken-down, and nature inspires a new approach to old questions. Her film Pragmatopia is about "three young people adrift in the countryside following the nuclear bombing of their city." The Arrest (2020) is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Jonathan Lethem set in a small Maine town following the global collapse of technology. The pastoral life of the town is challenged when a large, gleaming nuclear-powered vehicle arrives, carrying the novel's antagonist and many new technologies. == Terraforming to create a pastoral idyll == Chris Pak believes that the American Pastoral genre changed when the science fiction concept of "terraforming" became popular in the 1950s. Terraforming stories describe the conversion of alien planets into Earth-like places. These 1950s tales tended to use terraforming stories to retell narratives about American pioneers expanding into the west (repackaged as space pioneers exploring and colonizing uncharted planets). Some stories depict dystopian terraforming situations where the pastoral setting was created using immoral practices, like forcing enslaved aliens to do the terraforming work. As well, stories about terraforming can show how these huge environmental projects can devastate the existing alien environment. Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1958) is a collection of stories, most of which were first published separately in 1946–1952, about the colonization of Mars and its conversion into a planet habitable by humans. Humans settle Mars to escape the problems on Earth, including devastation by a nuclear war. The stories depict indigenous Martians as hostile to the human explorers, who bring chicken pox to the planet which kills most of the Martians. Bradbury said he "subconsciously borrowed" elements from John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which Bradbury read at age nineteen, the year the novel was published. Robert Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky is the earliest novel about terraforming. In the book's future setting, food is carefully rationed on an overcrowded Earth. Teenager Bill Lermer emigrates with his father to a farming colony on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. The arriving colonists realize that the soil has to be built from scratch before it will support crops. Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sands of Mars (1951) is an ironic take on the pastoral depictions of colonization. Examples of stories about planetary adaptation that leads to dystopian outcomes include Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants (1974), Walter M. Miller’s Crucifixus Etiam (1973), and Poul Anderson’s The Big Rain (2001). In the late 1950s, terraforming stories were increasingly focused on humans' efforts to modify planets that already had alien species on them (rather than adding life to a sterile, rocky planet). These stories examined the political and philosophical implications of changing the environment of a planet and the impacts on the native inhabitants. In Robert A Heinlein's Red Planet (1949), teens from a Mars colony meet Martian creatures and realize that the native inhabitants are being oppressed. The teens join the Indigenous inhabitants' rebellion against human colonization. Ursula Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest is set on a military logging colony set up on the fictional planet of Athshe by people from Earth. The colonists have enslaved the gentle native Athsheans, and treat them harshly. Eventually, one of the native inhabitants, whose wife was raped and killed by an Earth military officer, leads a rebellion against the loggers, and ousts them from the planet. However, in the process their peaceful Athshean culture is exposed to war for the first time. Richard McKenna's "Hunter, Come Home" (March 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) is about planet ecologies that safeguard humans. It is set on the fictional planet Mordin, where the human colonists use killing a giant creature, the "Great Russel", as their coming of age ritual. Over the years, young men decimate the Great Russels population through this hunt. To ensure that all young men can keep doing the manhood ritual, which is important to their culture, the government tries to terraform a nearby planet with the plan of breeding Great Russels on it. As a preliminary step, the terraforming team releases poison to kill the native plants, but the plants manage to absorb the poison and the terraforming plans are stymied. == Environmental themes == Christopher Cokinos states that Simak's Time and Again has elements that belie the stereotypes we have of the writer, since the "environmental attitude" expands Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic" while using lyricism that also evokes Leopold's approach. The story is about a lost space traveler who had voyaged to a distant star system who finds his way back to Earth after two decades. The space voyager is no longer human after his decades in space, as he was influenced by an alien species with psychic powers. He finds Earth is a comfortable paradise, except that all is not as it seems. Some of the inhabitants are androids that can reproduce, robots work as slaves, and secret assassins have been sent there from the future to prevent him from writing a book in the future that will have a major impact on society. Sawyer states that Ursula Le Guin is referred to as pastoral science fiction author due to her setting of her science fiction works in "a-technological" countryside settings, such as in City of Illusions (despite the title, most of the story is set in the forest and plains) and the story The Word for World is Forest, which Ian Watson said shows influence from the pastoral poet Andrew Marvell. Jason W. Ellis states that James Cameron’s science fiction film Avatar “on the level of [its] narrative, re-inscribes and challenges the concept of the machine in the garden” as set out by Leo Marx and Ben-Tov. Ellis states that in the film, human space travelers (space marines, scientists and engineers) “and their machines invade Pandora’s idyllic garden as part of an imperialistic expansion of capitalistic rapaciousness. The tranquility of the pastoral scene is disturbed and broken by the technological ends of industrialization.” Ellis notes that the lush alien planet, Pandora, is depicted as “an in-between space” (as set out in Leo Marx's paradigm), but it also shows a “fusion of the pastoral and the technological into a third way, a techno-ecological possibility for hope in a sustainable world.” In Here There Be Tygers (1972), Ray Bradbury depicts a setting in which a beautiful utopia on a green pastoral planet makes a spaceship's resource extraction team reminisce about their childhoods. Becky Chambers' debut novel, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2015), is an “eclogue” or “pastoral dialogue” set on Panga, a fictional Earth-like planet where robots, which achieved sentience in the human cities several centuries ago, have left the urban centers to live free from human oversight in the countryside. Without their computer-automated factories and robot workers, the humans have adopted a simpler agrarian lifestyle based around small communities, using a solarpunk approach in which technology such as solar-powered computers and pedal-powered vehicles are used to live sustainably. For the robots' part, without access to factories producing new robot parts, the robots repair their components using scavenged components. Not all pastoral SF depicts green, fertile agricultural regions or plains teeming with wildlife. Some works in the subgenre are set in forbidding deserts and desolate wastelands such as Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1999). In these harsh environments, humans can only extract meager resources from the land by developing "supportive social frameworks." As such, these works focus on the political implications of resource scarcity for communities. Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean is another example of feminist pastoral science fiction. It is set in the future, on the fictional planet of Shora, a moon covered by water. The inhabitants of this planet, known as Sharers, are all female and they use genetic engineering to control the ecology of their planet. They are peaceful beings who share resources and treat everyone equally. When they are being threatened by an outside power in an invasion, they resist nonviolently. == Other themes == In the British film Skeletons (2010), two psychic investigators "walk through the British countryside" and access portals to "visit couples and others who want to exhume and clear out the secrets" in each other's lives. White Dwarf is a 1995 American science fiction television film directed by Peter Markle which is about a medical student in 3040 who is completing his internship on the fictional rural planet of Rusta. The planet is tidally locked to its primary, so it is divided into contrasting halves of day and night with the halves separated by a wall. “The Contrary Gardener” is a story by Christopher Rowe about a gardener, Kay Lynne, who works in a southeastern part of the United States in the near future. The rigidly controlled society, in which even social interactions are regulated, uses a combination of human gardeners and robots to grow genetically altered fruits and vegetables to provide food. As well, genetically modified beans are used as ammunition in an ongoing war. The movie eXistenZ is about a new virtual reality game that the designer launches at an isolated rural location. The players connect to the game by plugging into a cyber-port drilled into the spine. The game is played in a rural setting, amidst wooded areas, trout aquaculture farms that are growing mutated fish and a small-town gas station where players can get illegal black market bio-ports for game play installed. Reviewer Gilbert Adair notes that it is unusual for a science fiction story to be set in the countryside and calls it a “rural science-fiction movie.” Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish artist who does retro-futuristic digital art “which combine[s] bucolic visions of rural Sweden with sci-fi elements” The settings of his artwork formed the basis for the 2020 Amazon television drama series Tales from the Loop. His graphic novel The Electric State was adapted into the 2025 Netflix film of the same name, which is about the aftermath of fictional 1990 war between humans and robots which left the world in disarray, and which led to robots being banished to a remote desert. == Post-pastoral, urban pastoral and other variants == In 1994, British literature professor Terry Gifford proposed the concept of a "post-pastoral" subgenre. By appending the prefix "post-", Gifford does not intend this to refer to “after” but rather to the sense of "reaching beyond" the contraints of the pastoral genre, but while continuing the core conceptual elements that have defined the pastoral tradition. Gifford states that the post-pastoral is "best used to describe works that successfully suggest a collapse of the human/nature divide whilst being aware of the problematics involved", noting that it is "more about connection than the disconnections essential to the pastoral". He gives examples of post-pastoral works, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (2009) and Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1999), and he points out that these works "raise questions of ethics, sustenance and sustainability that might exemplify [Leo] Marx’s vision of the pastoral needing to find new forms in the face of new conditions". Gifford states that British eco-critics such as Greg Garrard have used the "post-pastoral" concept, as well as other variants: "gay pastoral", the seemingly contradictory "urban pastoral" and "radical pastoral". Gay pastoral is not a new subgenre: homoerotic pastoral fiction dates back to Antiquity, such with works like Virgil's (70 BC – 19 BC) second pastoral eclogue, "Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin" ("The shepherd Corydon burned with passion for pretty Alexis"), which focuses on a shepherd's gay romance. Gifford lists further examples of pastoral variants, which he calls "prefix-pastoral[s]": "postmodern pastoral,...hard pastoral, soft pastoral, Buell’s revolutionary lesbian feminist pastoral, black pastoral, ghetto pastoral, frontier pastoral, militarized pastoral, domestic pastoral and, most recently, a specifically ‘Irish pastoral'". In 2014, The Cambridge Companion to the City in Literature had a chapter on the urban pastoral subgenre. Charles Siebert's Wickerby: An Urban Pastoral describes a man who splits his time between a gritty Brooklyn apartment, where the night is filled with the sounds of pigeons, starlings, and youth gangs shouting, and driving to rural Quebec to squat in an abandoned, tumbledown cabin. == See also == Mundane science fiction (it may also use environmental themes) Climate fiction Solarpunk == References == == Further reading == Ben-Tov, Sharona (1995). The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Bould, Mark (2005). "The Pastoral Science Fiction and Fantasy of Gwyneth Jones/Ann Halam". Foundation. 93: 97–106. Cannavò, Peter F. "American Contradictions and Pastoral Visions: An Appraisal of Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden". Organization & Environment. 14 (1): 74–92. doi:10.1177/1086026601141004. Cioran, Samuel David (1973). "VI. The Pastoral Apocalypse". The apocalyptic symbolism of Andrej Belyj. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 112–136. doi:10.1515/9783111396804. ISBN 978-3-11-103425-6. Ewald, Robert J. (2006). When the Fires Burn High and the Wind is from the North: The Pastoral Science Fiction of Clifford D. Simak. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press. Fisher, Judith L. (Winter 1983). "Trouble in Paradise: The Twentieth-Century Utopian Ideal". Extrapolation. 24 (4): 329. doi:10.3828/extr.1983.24.4.329. Gifford, Terry (2019). Pastoral (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781138124844. Shuttleton, D. E. (2000). "The queer politics of gay pastoral". In Shuttleton, D. E.; Watt, D.; Phillips, R. (eds.). De-Centring Sexualities: Politics and Representation Beyond the Metropolis. Critical geographies. London: Routledge. pp. 125–146. ISBN 9780415194655. Stephensen-Payne, Phil (1991). Clifford D. Simak: Pastoral Spacefarer: a Working Bibliography. Bibliographies for the Avid Reader Series. Vol. 39. University of Virginia. ISBN 1871133289.	Wikipedia/Pastoral_science_fiction
Strange and exotic weapons are a recurring feature in science fiction. In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have been made a reality; other science-fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond the realms of known physical possibility. At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms—mostly variations on real weapons such as guns and swords. Among the best-known of these are the phaser—used in the Star Trek television series, films, and novels—and the lightsaber and blaster—featured in Star Wars movies, comics, novels, and TV shows. Besides adding action and entertainment value, weaponry in science fiction sometimes touches on deeper concerns and becomes a theme, often motivated by contemporary issues. One example is science fiction that deals with weapons of mass destruction. == In early science fiction == Weapons of early science-fiction novels were usually bigger and better versions of conventional weapons, effectively more advanced methods of delivering explosives to a target. Examples of such weapons include Jules Verne's "fulgurator" and the "glass arrow" of the Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. A classic science-fiction weapon, particularly in British and American science-fiction novels and films, is the raygun. A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898). The discovery of X-rays and radioactivity in the last years of the 19th century led to an increase in the popularity of this family of weapons, with numerous examples in the early 20th century, such as the disintegrator rays of George Griffith's future-war novel The Lord of Labour (1911). Early science-fiction film often showed raygun beams giving off bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. Wells also prefigured modern armored warfare with his description of tanks in his 1903 short story "The Land Ironclads", and aerial warfare in his 1907 novel The War in the Air. == Lasers and particle beams == Arthur C. Clarke envisaged particle beam weapons in his 1955 novel Earthlight, in which energy would be delivered by high-velocity beams of matter. After the invention of the laser in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science-fiction writers. For instance, characters in the Star Trek pilot episode The Cage (1964) and in the Lost in Space TV series (1965–1968) carried handheld laser weapons. By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, the raygun began to be replaced by similar weapons with names that better reflected the destructive capabilities of the device. These names ranged from the generic "pulse rifle" to series-specific weapons, such as the phasers from Star Trek. According to The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry claimed that production staff realized that using laser technology would cause problems in the future as people came to understand what lasers could and could not do; this resulted in the move to phasers on-screen, while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style. In the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, a human faction known as the Imperial Guard has a "lasgun", which is described as being a handheld laser weapon, as their main weapon, and larger cannon versions being mounted onto tanks and being carried around by Space Marines. The elf-like Aeldari, meanwhile, have a special unit called the Swooping Hawks equipped with a "lasblaster". In the Command & Conquer video game series, various factions make extensive use of laser and particle-beam technology. The most notable are Allied units Prism Tank from Red Alert 2 and Athena Cannon from Red Alert 3, the Nod's Avatar and Obelisk of Light from Tiberium Wars, as well as various units from Generals constructed by USA faction, including their "superweapon" particle cannon. == Plasma weaponry == Weapons using plasma (high-energy ionized gas) have been featured in a number of fictional universes. == Weapons of mass destruction == Nuclear weapons are a staple element in science-fiction novels. The phrase "atomic bomb" predates their existence, and dates back to H. G. Wells' The World Set Free (1914), when scientists had discovered that radioactive decay implied potentially limitless energy locked inside of atomic particles (Wells' atomic bombs were only as powerful as conventional explosives, but would continue exploding for days on end). Cleve Cartmill predicted a chain reaction-type nuclear bomb in his 1944 science-fiction story "Deadline", which led to the FBI investigating him, due to concern over a potential breach of security on the Manhattan Project. The use of radiological, biological, and chemical weapons is another common theme in science fiction. In the aftermath of World War I, the use of chemical weapons, particularly poison gas, was a major worry, and was often employed in the science fiction of this period, for example Neil Bell's The Gas War of 1940 (1931). Robert A. Heinlein's 1940 story "Solution Unsatisfactory" posits radioactive dust as a weapon that the US develops in a crash program to end World War II; the dust's existence forces drastic changes in the postwar world. In The Dalek Invasion of Earth, set in the 22nd century, Daleks are claimed to have invaded Earth after it was bombarded with meteorites and a plague wiped out entire continents. A subgenre of science fiction, postapocalyptic fiction, uses the aftermath of nuclear or biological warfare as its setting. The Death Star is the Star Wars equivalent to a weapon of mass destruction, and as such, might be the most well-known weapon of mass destruction in science fiction. == Cyberwarfare and cyberweapons == The idea of cyberwarfare, in which wars are fought within the structures of communication systems and computers using software and information as weapons, was first explored by science fiction. John Brunner's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider is notable for coining the word "worm" to describe a computer program that propagates itself through a computer network, used as a weapon in the novel. William Gibson's Neuromancer coined the phrase cyberspace, a virtual battleground in which battles are fought using software weapons and counterweapons. The Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon" is another notable example. Certain Dale Brown novels place cyberweapons in different roles. The first is the "netrusion" technology used by the U.S. Air Force. It sends corrupt data to oncoming missiles to shut them down, as well as hostile aircraft by giving them a "shutdown" order in which the systems turn off one by one. It is also used to send false messages to hostiles, to place the tide of battle in the favor of America. The technology is later reverse-engineered by the Russian Federation to shut down American antiballistic missile satellites from a tracking station at Socotra Island, Yemen. Cyberwarfare has moved from a theoretical idea to something that is now seriously considered as a threat by modern states. In a similar but unrelated series of incidents involved various groups of hackers from India and Pakistan who hacked and defaced several websites of companies and government organizations based in each other's country. The actions were committed by various groups based in both countries, but not known to be affiliated with the governments of India or Pakistan. The cyber wars are believed to have begun in 2008 following the Mumbai attacks believed to be by a group of Indian cyber groups hacking into Pakistani websites. Hours after the cyber attacks, a number of Indian websites (both government and private) were attacked by groups of Pakistani hackers, claiming to be retaliation for Indian attacks on Pakistani websites. The back and forth attacks have persisted on occasions since then. == War on the mind == Themes of brainwashing, conditioning, memory-erasing, and other mind-control methods as weapons of war feature in much science fiction of the late 1950s and 1960s, paralleling the contemporary panic about communist brainwashing, existence of sleeper agents, and the real-world attempts of governments in programs such as MK-ULTRA to make such things real. David Langford's short story "BLIT" (1988) posits the existence of images (called "basilisks") that are destructive to the human brain, which are used as weapons of terror by posting copies of them in areas where they are likely to be seen by the intended victims. Langford revisited the idea in a fictional FAQ on the images, published by the science journal Nature in 1999. The neuralyzer from the Men in Black films are compact objects that can erase and modify the short-term memories of witnesses by the means of a brief flash of light, ensuring that no one remembers encountering either aliens or the agents themselves. The TV series Dollhouse (2009) features technology that can "mindwipe" people (transforming them into "actives", or "dolls") and replace their inherent personalities with another one, either "real" (from another actual person's mind), fabricated (for example, a soldier trained in many styles of combat and weaponry, or unable to feel pain), or a mixture of both. In a future timeline of the series, the technology has been devised into a mass weapon, able to "remote wipe" anyone and replace them with any personality. A war erupts between those controlling actives, and "actuals" (a term to describe those still retaining their original personas). An offshoot technology allows actual people to upload upgrades to their personas (such as fighting or language skills), similar to the process seen in The Matrix, albeit for only one skill at a time. == Parallels between science-fiction and real-world weapons == Some new forms of real-world weaponry resemble weapons previously envisaged in science fiction. The early 1980s-era Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (Intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles), gained the popular name "Star Wars" after the popular franchise created by George Lucas. In some cases, the influence of science fiction on weapons programs has been specifically acknowledged. In 2007, science-fiction author Thomas Easton was invited to address engineers working on a DARPA program to create weaponized cyborg insects, as envisaged in his novel Sparrowhawk. Active research on powered exoskeletons for military use has a long history, beginning with the abortive 1960s Hardiman powered exoskeleton project at General Electric, and continuing into the 21st century. The borrowing between fiction and reality has worked both ways, with the power loader from the film Aliens resembling the prototypes of the Hardiman system. American military research on high-power laser weapons started in the 1960s, and has continued to the present day, with the U.S. Army planning, as of 2008, the deployment of practical battlefield laser weapons. Lower-powered lasers are currently used for military purposes as laser target designators and for military rangefinding. Laser weapons intended to blind combatants have also been developed, but are currently banned by the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, although low-power versions designed to dazzle rather than blind have been developed experimentally. Gun-mounted lasers have also been used as psychological weapons, to let opponents know that they have been targeted to encourage them to hide or flee without having to actually open fire on them. == See also == Post-apocalyptic fiction Autonomous weapon List of fictional military robots List of Star Wars weapons Military science fiction Space warfare in fiction Spy-fi (subgenre) Weapons in Star Trek == References == == Further reading == David Seed. American Science Fiction and the Cold War: literature and film ISBN 1-85331-227-4 John Hamilton. Weapons of Science Fiction ISBN 1-59679-997-8 Westfahl, Gary (2022). "Weapons—Fifty Ways to Kill Your Lover: The Weapons of Science Fiction". The Stuff of Science Fiction: Hardware, Settings, Characters. McFarland. pp. 11–21. ISBN 978-1-4766-8659-2. Stableford, Brian; Langford, David (2023). "Weapons". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved December 4, 2023. == External links == Weapons in science fiction Atomic Rockets: Sidearms	Wikipedia/Weapons_in_science_fiction
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders is an English language reference work on science fiction and fantasy, published in 2005 by Greenwood Press. It was edited by Gary Westfahl and consists of three volumes of 200 entries each. The first two volumes contain entries organized by themes, such as "Aliens in Space", "Asia" or "Rats and Mice", while the third volume lists works such as novels and films which are considered defining for the science fiction and fantasy genres. The reviews of the work were mixed, with most reviewers finding this encyclopedia to be a commendable effort, but criticizing the work for being not comprehensive enough yet overpriced (at $349.95). == Contents == The scope of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy was defined early on as 600 entries written by a number of different authors, ranging from established specialists to doctoral students. It consists of three volumes of 200 entries each, with the first two containing entries on themes, and the last one focusing on selected novels, films, and television series. Each entry is about 800 words long. Themes range from expected "Aliens in Space" or "Dragons", less expected ones such as "Food and Drink" or "Rats and Mice", to ones criticized by some reviewers as likely unnecessary, such as "Christmas" or "Eschatology". == Reception == Shortly after its release, in 2005, Donald M. Hassler reviewed The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy for Extrapolation. He praised the aesthetics of the work, noting that the set is "beautifully bound in boards that look like pulp magazine covers". He found the volumes "useful and fun" but also "idiosyncratic" when it comes to the selection of the topics, concluding that despite professed consultation with other experts over the contents "certain themes rather than others have haunted Westfahl himself". He observed that the last volume, focusing on works, seems to be biased towards 19th century classics, noting the omission of entries on more recent works such as Dhalgren, Mission of Gravity, The End of Eternity, or The Gods Themselves. With the acknowledgement that the editors subjective tastes significantly influenced the selection of topics, he concluded that the work is one of the "stars in the expanding university of science fiction studies". Aaron Parrett, reviewing this work for the Science Fiction Studies in 2006, suggested that it is too limited in scope, and "reflects the idiosyncratic state" of its editor, criticizing the choice of the term encyclopedia in the book's name as misleading. He blamed Greenwood's editorial board for "thwarting a solid survey of a literary field" by limiting this project to 600 entries, particularly given that the book already combines two genres (science fiction and fantasy). With regards to the actual contents, he further criticized the work as lacking many entries he perceives as crucial (ex. Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories. Galaxy Science Fiction, Jurassic Park, Minority Report, THX 1138, Twin Peaks), while having unnecessary entries on topics such as "Christianity" or "Christmas". For the existing entries he argues many are likewise not comprehensive, for example pointing that the entry on The Simpsons fails to mention the show's resident space aliens, Kang and Kodos. He further observed that the book is mostly focused on fantasy, rather than science fiction, and calls the entire project a "sampler" of the relevant literary canon rather than a proper encyclopedia. He did note that "there is plenty here to enjoy and appreciate", highlighting a number of "delightful" entries, and concluded by resigning himself to the fact that by default, any encyclopedic project "that aims for anything less [than everything] will be inevitably limited in scope". Will Slocombe, reviewing this encyclopedia for English the same year, wrote that the project is too ambitious for its limited size, and pointed out that the allocation of roughly the same word count to all entries is not fair for more complex topics (comparing, for example, entries on "Aliens in Space" to "Rats and Mice"), which therefore often fail "to deliver enough depth". Along those lines, he observed that the editorial choice not to have entries on authors, while justifiable, further reinforces the lack of comprehensiveness visible this encyclopedia. He nonetheless acknowledged that "the general quality of the entries is good", and in particular praised "the geographically-themed articles" about different parts of the world, such as "Asia" or "South Pacific", as well as those on niche topics, such as the "Rats and Mice", although he also cautioned that their inclusion can make the work "too ephemeral" on occasion. He concluded that the cost of the work is also likely too prohibitive for most readers, but found the work a "useful inclusion in a library reference section", calling the work "not entirely successful but... an interesting and engaging attempt". Also in 2006, Keith M.C. O'Sullivan reviewed the work for the Reference Reviews. He observed that as a result of trying to cover both science fiction and fantasy genres, the encyclopedia is "a little overreaching". He found the overall organization of this work "quite impressive", although he found the lack of consistency between entries by different authors unfortunate, if expected. The entries themselves he found generally "well researched", although he also noted that there are occasional "surprising oversights", and several weaker entries do little but summarize the plot of the works described. He observed that unfortunately due the space and organizational limits, some shorter but nonetheless important works have been omitted from the 200 entries of canon; here he lists omissions such as The Stone Tape, I Sing the Body Electric, Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon, Being John Malkovich, and the entirety of works of H. P. Lovecraft. He concluded that the "hefty price" of the work makes the work unlikely to be of use to individual readers outside of libraries, and ended by writing that "with many reservations, it is a brave, well-researched and substantial endeavour, and a useful if not perfect reference tool". Steven J. Corvi reviewing the Greenwood Encyclopedia for The Journal of Popular Culture in 2007 likewise noted the book is overpriced (at $349.95) and therefore is not likely to be easily accessible to most casual readers. Second, he criticized the work's "cumbersome organization", noting that as expected from this type of work with a multitude of co-authors, "entries vary in usefulness and quality". Additionally, he observed that the work also misses some "essential" entries, particularly in the realm of influential films. Nonetheless, he concluded that "these faults do not offset the usefulness of this work", and that it is "an essential tool for students writing thematic essays", and teachers planning relevant lessons. He also noted that the very existence of this encyclopedia can help "create an intellectual legitimacy" for those genres. The most common criticism that most reviewers independently noted is that many entries introduce topics – themes, works, people (ex. Chinua Achebe) – that seem important and that the readers may want to research further, but that are just mentioned in passing and have no independent entries. == See also == The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1977) Edited by Brian Ash Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) Edited by Robert Holdstock The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE) (1979) Edited by Pete Nicholls and John Clute Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia (2021) by Westfahl == References == == External links == Contributors and Their Entries (by contributor's surname) at SF Site (Gary Westfahl's official website) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 at the Internet Archive The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 at Google Books	Wikipedia/The_Greenwood_Encyclopedia_of_Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy:_Themes,_Works,_and_Wonders
Black science fiction or black speculative fiction is an umbrella term that covers a variety of activities within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres where people of the African descent take part or are depicted. Some of its defining characteristics include a critique of the social structures leading to black oppression paired with an investment in social change. Black science fiction is "fed by technology but not led by it." This means that black science fiction often explores with human engagement with technology instead of technology as an innate good. In the late 1990s a number of cultural critics began to use the term Afrofuturism to depict a cultural and literary movement of thinkers and artists of the African diaspora who were using science, technology, and science fiction as means of exploring the black experience. However, as Nisi Shawl describes in her Tor.com series on the history of black science fiction, black science fiction is a wide-ranging genre with a history reaching as far back as the 19th century. Also, because of the interconnections between black culture and black science fiction, "readers and critics need first to be familiar with the traditions of African American literature and culture" in order to correctly interpret the nuances of the texts. Indeed, John Pfeiffer has argued that there have always been elements of speculative fiction in black literature. == History == According to Jess Nevins, "a fully accurate history of black speculative fiction ... would be impossible to write" because very little is known of the dime novel authors of the 19th century and the pulp magazine writers of the early 20th century, including notably their ethnicity. Although the concept of science fiction as a discrete genre had already emerged in the late 19th century, its early black exponents do not appear to have been influenced by each other. Moreover, because of the genre of science fiction often prioritizing publication via a set of canonical magazines, it can be difficult to create a timeline for black science fiction because its authors may not have been included in those publications. === 19th century === In 1859, Martin Delany (1812–1885), one of the foremost U.S. black political leaders and known as the "father of Black Nationalism," began publishing Blake; or the Huts of America as a serial in The Anglo-African Magazine. Delany, also internationally known as a scientist and explorer, positioned Blake as an engagement with the racial sciences of the time. The Anglo-African Magazine often also published articles on science, particularly the science of race. The subject of Delany's serial novel is a successful slave revolt in the Southern states and the founding of a new black country in Cuba. Samuel R. Delany described it as "about as close to an SF-style alternate history novel as you can get." The serialization ended prematurely, but the entire novel was eventually published in serial form in the Weekly Anglo-African in weekly installments from November 1861 to May 1862. The Anglo-African was considered the premier publication featuring the work of black scientists and theorists; Blake's inclusion in its serials highlights its connection to a larger political context focused on black citizenship in the antebellum South. Further, while it incorporates elements of the fugitive slave narrative, Blake's narrator is also a scientist, whose focus on data collection and research stand in repudiation of the racial science of the day. In fact, this reflects one of Delany's major themes: that Africa and its contributions to science and math were foundational to the Western world. In terms of genre, Blake represents an early example of black utopian speculative fiction. In Passing and the African American Novel, Maria Giulia Fabi writes, "Less convinced of the libratory potential of technological progress than their white counterparts, African American utopian writers focused on the process of individual and collective ideological change rather than on the accomplished perfection of utopia itself." It is also a proto-Afrofuturist novel. Lisa Yaszek writes, "[I]n a move that would set the tone for nearly a century of Afrofuturist SF to come," Delany explores the ambivalence and precarity of black cultural survival while simultaneously arguing for black technological prowess. Further, because of Delany's interest in black separatism and the establishment of a black state, Blake is an extension and exploration of the themes and ideas he explored in his 1852 publication of The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States. Blake was never published as a complete, stand-alone novel in the nineteenth century. Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932) was a noted writer of folkloric hoodoo stories. His collection The Conjure Woman (1899) is the first known speculative fiction collection written by a person of color. The 1892 novel Iola Leroy by Frances Harper (1825–1911), the leading black woman poet of the 19th century, has been described as the first piece of African-American utopian fiction on account of its vision of a peaceful and equal polity of men and women, whites and former slaves. In contrast, the 1899 novel Imperium in Imperio by Sutton Griggs (1872–1933) ends with preparations for a violent takeover of Texas for African Americans by a secret black government. Imperium in Imperio is credited with being the first political novel written by an African American. Griggs self-published his novel and sold it door-to-door. === Early 20th century === Of One Blood (1902) by the prolific writer and editor Pauline Hopkins (1859–1930), describing the discovery of a hidden civilization with advanced technology in Ethiopia, is the first "lost race" novel by an African-American author. However, unlike other entrants into this genre, Hopkins' "lost race" offers a homecoming to her black protagonists. Light Ahead for the Negro, a 1904 novel by Edward A. Johnson (1860–1944), is an early attempt at imagining a realistic post-racist American society, describing how by 2006 Negroes are encouraged to read books and given land by the government. W. E. B. Du Bois's 1920 story The Comet, in which only a black man and a white woman survive an apocalyptic event, is the first work of post-apocalyptic fiction in which African Americans appear as subjects. George Schuyler (1895–1977), the noted conservative U.S. critic and writer, published several works of speculative fiction in the 1930s, using the framework of pulp fiction to explore racial conflict. Published in The Pittsburgh Courier, Schuyler's serials lampoon the Talented Tenth, criticize colorism, and explore double-consciousness. By the 1920s, speculative fiction was also published by African writers. In South Africa, the popular 1920 novel Chaka, written in Sotho by Thomas Mofolo (1876–1948) presented a magical realist account of the life of the Zulu king Shaka. Nnanga Kôn, a 1932 novel by Jean-Louis Njemba Medou, covers the disastrous first contact of white colonialists with the Bulu people. It became so popular in Medou's native Cameroon that it has become the basis of local folklore. 1934 saw the publication of two Nigerian novels describing the deeds of rulers in a mythic version of the country's past, Gandoki by Muhammadu Bello Kagara (1890–1971) and Ruwan Bagaja by Abubakar Imam. In 1941, the Togolese novelist Félix Couchoro (1900–1968) wrote the magical realist romance novel Amour de Féticheuse. The story Yayne Abäba in the 1945 collection Arremuňň by Mäkonnen Endalkaččäw, an Ethiopian writer writing in Amharic, is notable as an early work of Muslim science fiction, describing the adventures of a teenage Amhara girl sold into slavery. === 1950-present === Writers such as Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Steven Barnes, Nalo Hopkinson, Minister Faust, Nnedi Okorafor, N. K. Jemisin, Tananarive Due, Andrea Hairston, Geoffrey Thorne, Nisi Shawl, Eugen Bacon, Sheree Renée Thomas, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Wole Talabi, Rivers Solomon, Oghenechovye Ekpeki Donald, Milton Davis, M'Shai S. Dash, and Carl Hancock Rux are among the writers who continue to work in black science fiction and speculative fiction. Samuel R. Delany is a noted science fiction writer, literary critic, and memoirist whose science fiction explores and experiments with mythology, race, memory, sexuality, perception and gender. In 2013, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Delany its 30th SFWA Grand Master. Delany addressed the challenges facing African Americans in the science fiction community in an essay titled "Racism and Science Fiction." Since I began to publish in 1962, I have often been asked, by people of all colors, what my experience of racial prejudice in the science fiction field has been. Has it been nonexistent? By no means: It was definitely there. A child of the political protests of the ’50s and ’60s, I’ve frequently said to people who asked that question: As long as there are only one, two, or a handful of us, however, I presume in a field such as science fiction, where many of its writers come out of the liberal-Jewish tradition, prejudice will most likely remain a slight force—until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen, twenty percent of the total. At that point, where the competition might be perceived as having some economic heft, chances are we will have as much racism and prejudice here as in any other field.We are still a long way away from such statistics.But we are certainly moving closer.Misha Green is an African American screenwriter, director, and producer best known as the showrunner for the science fiction/horror TV series Lovecraft Country on HBO. Lovecraft Country's impact on Black science fiction on the screen is visible via its majority Black cast and a storyline depicted through the lens of Black protagonists. The series which is directly inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, an American author of science fiction and a notorious racist and xenophobe, juxtaposes Lovecraft's work by challenging what his stories and ideals represent via the centering of Black culture. ==== The impact of the information age on black science fiction ==== The information age created an opportunity for the emergence of Black science fiction based organizations and media outlets. Media based organizations such as blacksci-fi.com, the Black Science Fiction Society, and the State of Black Science Fiction group on Facebook centers creators of Black science fiction and its fandom. Founded in 1999 by Philadelphia native, Maurice Waters, blacksci-fi.com is one of the first media websites created that is dedicated to Black science fiction and other Black speculative fiction. == Afrofuturism == More and more, science fiction is paralleled with afrofuturism as a subgenre as science fiction is an exploration of a rewiring of the present. In writer Kodwo Eshun's journal, Future Considerations on Afrofuturism, he expands upon this notion in which "Afrofuturism studies the appeals that black artists, musicians, critics, and writers have made to the future, in moments where any future was made difficult for them to imagine". Afrofuturism and science fiction continually intersect as "most science fiction tales dramatically deal with how the individual is going to contend with these alienating, dislocating societies and circumstances and that pretty much sums up the mass experiences of black people in the postslavery twentieth century" (298). Like the works of Afrofuturism, science fiction represents a form of unapologetic Black art that isn't categorized. Specifically with Black science fiction as a genre, it fits the mold of the post-soul as it takes different experiences of the diaspora to produce something new and "science fiction operates through the power of falsification, the drive to rewrite reality, and the will to deny plausibility, while the scenario operates through the control and prediction of plausible alternative tomorrows". The workings of science function can serve as metaphors for the fundamental experience of post-slavery Black people in the twentieth century. Octavia E. Butler was an extremely influential science fiction writer and instructor. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to win the MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the "Genius Grant." In 2007, the Carl Brandon Society established the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship which provides support to a student of color attending Clarion Writers' Workshop or Clarion West Writers Workshop. According to the Carl Brandon Society's website, "It furthers Octavia’s legacy by providing the same experience/opportunity that Octavia had to future generations of new writers of color." Nalo Hopkinson is a renowned science fiction and fantasy writer, professor, and editor whose short stories explore class, race, and sexuality using themes from Afro-Caribbean culture, Caribbean Folklore, and feminism. Skin Folk, a collection of short stories which won the 2002 World Fantasy Award for Best Story Collection, takes its influence from Caribbean history and language, with its tradition of written storytelling. The Carl Brandon Society is a group originating in the science fiction community dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The Society recognizes works by authors of color and featuring characters of color through awards, provides reading lists for educators and librarians, including one for Black History Month and has a wiki specifically for collecting information about people of color working in these genres. The 2017 Black Speculative Fiction Report notes that only 4.3% of published speculative fiction works released in 2017 were written by black authors. === Black Quantum Futurism === Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) is a theoretical framework and methodology that proposes "a new approach to living and experiencing reality by way of the manipulation of space-time in order to see into possible futures, and/or collapse space-time into a desired future in order to bring about that future’s reality." Literature such as Black Quantum Futurism Theory & Practice, Volume 1 written by Afrofuturist and black science fiction author, Rasheedah Phillips, explores the framework and methodology of BQF and how it is applied within afrofuturism centered art and literature. == Africanfuturism == Africanfuturism is a cultural aesthetic and philosophy of science that centers on the fusion of African culture, history, mythology, point of view, with technology based in Africa and not limiting to the diaspora. It was coined by Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor in 2019 in a blog post as a single word. Nnedi Okorafor defines Africanfuturism as a sub-category of science fiction that is "directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view..and...does not privilege or center the West," is centered with optimistic "visions in the future," and is written by (and centered on) "people of African descent" while rooted in the African continent. As such its center is African, often does extend upon the continent of Africa, and includes the Black diaspora, including fantasy that is set in the future, making a narrative "more science fiction than fantasy" and typically has mystical elements. It is different from Afrofuturism, which focuses mainly on the African diaspora, particularly the United States. Works of Africanfuturism include science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror and magic realism. Writers of Africanfuturism include Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Tade Thompson, Namwali Serpell, Sofia Samatar, Wole Talabi, Suyi Davies Okungbowa. == Subgenres == Kali Tal argues that one of the subgenres of black science fiction is black near-future militant fiction, and categorizes Imperium and Black Empire as examples of this subgenre. == See also == Afrofuturism Africanfuturism List of Afrofuturist films Speculative fiction by writers of color List of black superheroes == References == Notes Bibliography Grayson, Sandra M. (2003). Visions of the third millennium: Black science fiction novelists write the future. Africa World Press. ISBN 9781592210220. Name, Adilifu (2008). Black Space: imagining race in science fiction film. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292717459. v.a. Dark Matter, a collection series of stories and essays from writers of African descent Carrington, André M. (2016). Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. == External links == BlackScienceFictionSociety.com BlackSci-Fi.com African Speculative Fiction Society Daathverse	Wikipedia/Black_science_fiction
The Google Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base from which Google serves relevant information in an infobox beside its search results. This allows the user to see the answer in a glance, as an instant answer. The data is generated automatically from a variety of sources, covering places, people, businesses, and more. The information covered by Google's Knowledge Graph grew quickly after launch, tripling its data size within seven months (covering 570 million entities and 18 billion facts). By mid-2016, Google reported that it held 70 billion facts and answered "roughly one-third" of the 100 billion monthly searches they handled. By May 2020, this had grown to 500 billion facts on 5 billion entities. There is no official documentation of how the Google Knowledge Graph is implemented. According to Google, its information is retrieved from many sources, including the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia. It is used to answer direct spoken questions in Google Assistant and Google Home voice queries. It has been criticized for providing answers with neither source attribution nor citations. == History == Google announced its Knowledge Graph on May 16, 2012, as a way to significantly enhance the value of information returned by Google searches. Initially available only in English, it was expanded in December 2012 to Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Italian. Bengali support was added in March 2017. The Knowledge Graph was powered in part by Freebase. In August 2014, New Scientist reported that Google had launched a Knowledge Vault project. After publication, Google reached out to Search Engine Land to explain that Knowledge Vault was a research report, not an active Google service. Search Engine Land expressed indications that Google was experimenting with "numerous models" for gathering meaning from text. Google's Knowledge Vault was meant to deal with facts, automatically gathering and merging information from across the Internet into a knowledge base capable of answering direct questions, such as "Where was Madonna born?" In a 2014 report, the Vault was reported to have collected over 1.6 billion facts, 271 million of which were considered "confident facts" deemed to be more than 90% true. It was reported to be different from the Knowledge Graph in that it gathered information automatically instead of relying on crowd-sourced facts compiled by humans. == Features == === Google Knowledge Panel === A Google Knowledge Panel which is part of Google search engine result pages, presents an overview of entities such as individuals, organizations, locations, or objects directly within the search interface. This feature uses data from Google Knowledge Graph, an extensive database that organizes and interconnects information about entities, enhancing the retrieval and presentation of relevant content to users. == Criticism == === Lack of source attribution === By May 2016, knowledge boxes were appearing for "roughly one-third" of the 100 billion monthly searches the company processed. Dario Taraborelli, head of research at the Wikimedia Foundation, told The Washington Post that Google's omission of sources in its knowledge boxes "undermines people’s ability to verify information and, ultimately, to develop well-informed opinions". The publication also reported that the boxes are "frequently unattributed", such as a knowledge box on the age of actress Betty White, which is "as unsourced and absolute as if handed down by God". === Declining Wikipedia article readership === According to The Register in 2014 the display of direct answers in knowledge panels alongside Google search results caused significant readership declines for Wikipedia, from which the panels obtained some of their information. Also in 2014, The Daily Dot noted that "Wikipedia still has no real competitor as far as actual content is concerned. All that's up for grabs are traffic stats. And as a nonprofit, traffic numbers don't equate into revenue in the same way they do for a commercial media site". After the article's publication, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, stated that it "welcomes" the knowledge panel functionality, that it was "looking into" the traffic drops, and that "We've also not noticed a significant drop in search engine referrals. We also have a continuing dialog with staff from Google working on the Knowledge Panel". In his 2020 book, Dariusz Jemielniak noted that as most Google users do not realize that many answers to their questions that appear in the Knowledge Graph come from Wikipedia, this reduces Wikipedia's popularity, and in turn limited the site's ability to raise new funds and attract new volunteers. === Bias === The algorithm has been criticized for presenting biased or inaccurate information, usually because of sourcing information from websites with high search engine optimization. It had been noted in 2014 that while there was a Knowledge Graph for most major historical or pseudo-historical religious figures such as Moses, Muhammad and Gautama Buddha, there was none for Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. On June 3, 2021, a knowledge box identified Kannada as the ugliest language in India, prompting outrage from the Kannada-language community; the state of Karnataka, where most Kannada speakers live, also threatened to sue Google for damaging the public image of the language. Google promptly changed the featured snippet for the search query and issued a formal apology. == See also == DBpedia Google Assistant Linked data Knowledge graph Semantic integration Semantic network Wikidata AI Overviews == References ==	Wikipedia/Knowledge_Graph
Universal Networking Language (UNL) is a declarative formal language specifically designed to represent semantic data extracted from natural language texts. It can be used as a pivot language in interlingual machine translation systems or as a knowledge representation language in information retrieval applications. == Structure == In UNL, the information conveyed by the natural language is represented sentence by sentence as a hypergraph composed of a set of directed binary labeled links between nodes or hypernodes. As an example, the English sentence "The sky was blue?!" can be represented in UNL as follows: In the example above, sky(icl>natural world) and blue(icl>color), which represent individual concepts, are UW's attributes of an object directed to linking the semantic relation between the two UWs; "@def", "@interrogative", "@past", "@exclamation" and "@entry" are attributes modifying UWs. UWs are expressed in natural language to be humanly readable. They consist of a "headword" (the UW root) and a "constraint list" (the UW suffix between parentheses), where the constraints are used to disambiguate the general concept conveyed by the headword. The set of UWs is organized in the UNL Ontology. Relations are intended to represent semantic links between words in every existing language. They can be ontological (such as "icl" and "iof"), logical (such as "and" and "or"), or thematic (such as "agt" = agent, "ins" = instrument, "tim" = time, "plc" = place, etc.). There are currently 46 relations in the UNL Specs that jointly define the UNL syntax. Within the UNL program, the process of representing natural language sentences in UNL graphs is called UNLization, and the process of generating natural language sentences out of UNL graphs is called NLization. UNLization is intended to be carried out semi-automatically (i.e., by humans with computer aids), and NLization is intended to be carried out automatically. == History == The UNL program started in 1996 as an initiative of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Japan. In January 2001, the United Nations University set up an autonomous and non-profit organization, the UNDL Foundation, to be responsible for the development and management of the UNL program. It inherited from the UNU/IAS the mandate of implementing the UNL program. The overall architecture of the UNL System has been developed with a set of basic software and tools. It was recognized by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) for the "industrial applicability" of the UNL, which was obtained in May 2002 through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); the UNL acquired the US patents 6,704,700 and 7,107,206. == See also == Semantic network Abstract semantic graph Semantic translation Semantic unification Abstract Meaning Representation == External links == UNLweb, the UNLweb portal UNDL Foundation where UNL development is coordinated. Online book on UNL UNL system description === UNL Society === UNL in Bangladesh UNL in Brazil UNL in Egypt UNL in France UNL in Germany UNL in India UNL in Italy UNL in Japan UNL in Jordan UNL in Latvia UNL in Russia, Russian⇔UNL⇔English converter UNL in Spain UNL in Thailand	Wikipedia/Universal_Networking_Language
Co-occurrence network, sometimes referred to as a semantic network, is a method to analyze text that includes a graphic visualization of potential relationships between people, organizations, concepts, biological organisms like bacteria or other entities represented within written material. The generation and visualization of co-occurrence networks has become practical with the advent of electronically stored text compliant to text mining. By way of definition, co-occurrence networks are the collective interconnection of terms based on their paired presence within a specified unit of text. Networks are generated by connecting pairs of terms using a set of criteria defining co-occurrence. For example, terms A and B may be said to “co-occur” if they both appear in a particular article. Another article may contain terms B and C. Linking A to B and B to C creates a co-occurrence network of these three terms. Rules to define co-occurrence within a text corpus can be set according to desired criteria. For example, a more stringent criteria for co-occurrence may require a pair of terms to appear in the same sentence. Co-occurrence networks were found to be particularly useful to analyze large text and big data, when identifying the main themes and topics (such as in a large number of social media posts), revealing biases in the text (such as biases in news coverage), or even mapping an entire research field. == Methods and development == The process of constructing co-occurrence networks includes identifying keywords in the text, calculating the frequencies of co-occurrences, and analyzing the networks to find central words and clusters of themes in the network. Co-occurrence networks can be created for any given list of terms (any dictionary) in relation to any collection of texts (any text corpus). Co-occurring pairs of terms can be called “neighbors” and these often group into “neighborhoods” based on their interconnections. Individual terms may have several neighbors. Neighborhoods may connect to one another through at least one individual term or may remain unconnected. Individual terms are, within the context of text mining, symbolically represented as text strings. In the real world, the entity identified by a term normally has several symbolic representations. It is therefore useful to consider terms as being represented by one primary symbol and up to several synonymous alternative symbols. Occurrence of an individual term is established by searching for each known symbolic representations of the term. The process can be augmented through NLP (natural language processing) algorithms that interrogate segments of text for possible alternatives such as word order, spacing and hyphenation. NLP can also be used to identify sentence structure and categorize text strings according to grammar (for example, categorizing a string of text as a noun based on a preceding string of text known to be an article). Graphic representation of co-occurrence networks allow them to be visualized and inferences drawn regarding relationships between entities in the domain represented by the dictionary of terms applied to the text corpus. Meaningful visualization normally requires simplifications of the network. For example, networks may be drawn such that the number of neighbors connecting to each term is limited. The criteria for limiting neighbors might be based on the absolute number of co-occurrences or more subtle criteria such as “probability” of co-occurrence or the presence of an intervening descriptive term. Quantitative aspects of the underlying structure of a co-occurrence network might also be informative, such as the overall number of connections between entities, clustering of entities representing sub-domains, detecting synonyms, etc. == Applications and use == Some working applications of the co-occurrence approach are available to the public through the internet. PubGene is an example of an application that addresses the interests of biomedical community by presenting networks based on the co-occurrence of genetics related terms as these appear in MEDLINE records. PubGene's CoreMine Medical has been used in studies relating genes/proteins to potentially effective drugs and drug candidates in multiple sclerosis, fibrosis, and hepatitis. CoreMine Medical was also used in a study of genes implicated in post-traumatic stress disorder. The website NameBase is an example of how human relationships can be inferred by examining networks constructed from the co-occurrence of personal names in newspapers and other texts (as in Ozgur et al.). Networks of information are also used to facilitate efforts to organize and focus publicly available information for law enforcement and intelligence purposes (so called "open source intelligence" or OSINT). Related techniques include co-citation networks as well as the analysis of hyperlink and content structure on the internet (such as in the analysis of web sites connected to terrorism). == See also == Topic spotting Social network analysis == References == Liu, Chua T-S (2001). "Building semantic perceptron net for topic spotting". Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics: 378–385. doi:10.3115/1073012.1073061.	Wikipedia/Co-occurrence_networks
Semantic neural network (SNN) is based on John von Neumann's neural network [von Neumann, 1966] and Nikolai Amosov M-Network. There are limitations to a link topology for the von Neumann’s network but SNN accept a case without these limitations. Only logical values can be processed, but SNN accept that fuzzy values can be processed too. All neurons into the von Neumann network are synchronized by tacts. For further use of self-synchronizing circuit technique SNN accepts neurons can be self-running or synchronized. In contrast to the von Neumann network there are no limitations for topology of neurons for semantic networks. It leads to the impossibility of relative addressing of neurons as it was done by von Neumann. In this case an absolute readdressing should be used. Every neuron should have a unique identifier that would provide a direct access to another neuron. Of course, neurons interacting by axons-dendrites should have each other's identifiers. An absolute readdressing can be modulated by using neuron specificity as it was realized for biological neural networks. There’s no description for self-reflectiveness and self-modification abilities into the initial description of semantic networks [Dudar Z.V., Shuklin D.E., 2000]. But in [Shuklin D.E. 2004] a conclusion had been drawn about the necessity of introspection and self-modification abilities in the system. For maintenance of these abilities a concept of pointer to neuron is provided. Pointers represent virtual connections between neurons. In this model, bodies and signals transferring through the neurons connections represent a physical body, and virtual connections between neurons are representing an astral body. It is proposed to create models of artificial neuron networks on the basis of virtual machine supporting the opportunity for paranormal effects. SNN is generally used for natural language processing. == Related models == Computational creativity Semantic hashing Semantic Pointer Architecture Sparse distributed memory == References == Neumann, J., 1966. Theory of self-reproducing automata, edited and completed by Arthur W. Burks. - University of Illinois press, Urbana and London Dudar Z.V., Shuklin D.E., 2000. Implementation of neurons for semantic neural nets that’s understanding texts in natural language. In Radio-electronika i informatika KhTURE, 2000. No 4. Р. 89-96. Shuklin D.E., 2004. The further development of semantic neural network models. In Artificial Intelligence, Donetsk, "Nauka i obrazovanie" Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Ukraine, 2004, No 3. P. 598-606 Shuklin D.E. The Structure of a Semantic Neural Network Extracting the Meaning from a Text, In Cybernetics and Systems Analysis, Volume 37, Number 2, 4 March 2001, pp. 182–186(5) [1] Shuklin D.E. The Structure of a Semantic Neural Network Realizing Morphological and Syntactic Analysis of a Text, In Cybernetics and Systems Analysis, Volume 37, Number 5, September 2001, pp. 770–776(7) Shuklin D.E. Realization of a Binary Clocked Linear Tree and Its Use for Processing Texts in Natural Languages, In Cybernetics and Systems Analysis, Volume 38, Number 4, July 2002, pp. 503–508(6)	Wikipedia/Semantic_neural_network
Cognition Network Technology (CNT), also known as Definiens Cognition Network Technology, is an object-based image analysis method developed by Nobel laureate Gerd Binnig together with a team of researchers at Definiens AG in Munich, Germany. It serves for extracting information from images using a hierarchy of image objects (groups of pixels), as opposed to traditional pixel processing methods. To emulate the human mind's cognitive powers, Definiens used patented image segmentation and classification processes, and developed a method to render knowledge in a semantic network. CNT examines pixels not in isolation, but in context. It builds up a picture iteratively, recognizing groups of pixels as objects. It uses the color, shape, texture and size of objects as well as their context and relationships to draw conclusions and inferences, similar to human analysis. == History == In 1994 Professor Gerd Binnig founded Definiens. CNT was first available with the launch of the eCognition software in May 2000. In June 2010, Trimble Navigation Ltd (NASDAQ: TRMB) acquired Definiens business asset in earth sciences markets, including eCognition software, and also licensed Definiens' patented CNT. In 2014, Definiens was acquired by MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, for an initial consideration of $150 million. == Software == === Definiens Tissue Studio === Definiens Tissue Studio is a digital pathology image analysis software application based on CNT. The intended use of Definiens Tissue Studio is for biomarker translational research in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples which have been treated with immunohistochemical staining assays, or hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). The central concept behind Definiens Tissue Studio is a user interface that facilitates machine learning from example digital histopathology images in order to derive an image analysis solution suitable for the measurement of biomarkers and/or histological features within pre-defined regions of interest on a cell-by-cell basis, and within sub-cellular compartments. The derived image analysis solution is then automatically applied to subsequent digital images in order to objectively measure defined sets of multiparametric image features. These data sets are used for further understanding the underlying biological processes that drive cancer and other diseases. Image processing and data analysis are performed either on a local desktop computer workstation, or on a server grid. === eCognition === The eCognition suite offers three components which can be used stand-alone or in combination to solve image analysis tasks. eCognition Developer is a development environment for object-based image analysis. It is used in earth sciences to develop rule sets (or applications) for the analysis of remote sensing data. eCognition Architect enables non-technical users to configure, calibrate and execute image analysis workflows created in eCognition Developer. eCognition Server software provides a processing environment for batch execution of image analysis jobs. eCognition software is utilized in numerous remote sensing and geospatial application scenarios and environments, using a variety of data types: Generic: Rapid Mapping, Change Detection, Object Recognition By environment: Diverse Landcover Mapping, Urban Analysis (i.e. impervious surface area analysis for taxation, property assessment for insurance, inventory of green infrastructure), Forestry (i.e. biomass measurement, species identification, firescar measurement), Agriculture (i.e. regional planning, precision farming, crisis response), Marine and Riparian (i.e. ecosystem evaluation, disaster management, harbor monitoring). Other: Defense, security, atmosphere and climate The online eCognition community was launched in July 2009 and had 2813 members as of July 9, 2010. Membership is distributed globally and user conferences are held regularly, the last having taken place in November 2009 in Munich, Germany. The bi-annual GEOBIA (Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis) conference is heavily attended by eCognition users, with the majority of presentations based on eCognition software. == References == == Further reading == Benz, U. C.; Hofmann, P.; Willhauck, G.; Lingenfelder, I.; Heynen, M. (2004). "Multi-resolution, object-oriented fuzzy analysis of remote sensing data for GIS-ready information". ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 58 (3): 239–258. Bibcode:2004JPRS...58..239B. doi:10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2003.10.002. Athelogou, Maria; Schmidt, Günter; Schäpe, Arno; Baatz, Martin; Binnig, Gerd (2007). "Cognition Network Technology – A Novel Multimodal Image Analysis Technique for Automatic Identification and Quantification of Biological Image Contents". Imaging Cellular and Molecular Biological Functions. Principles and Practice. pp. 407–422. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-71331-9_15. ISBN 978-3-540-71330-2. ISSN 1866-914X. == External links == Computer Vision & Machine Learning	Wikipedia/Cognition_Network_Technology
Co-occurrence network, sometimes referred to as a semantic network, is a method to analyze text that includes a graphic visualization of potential relationships between people, organizations, concepts, biological organisms like bacteria or other entities represented within written material. The generation and visualization of co-occurrence networks has become practical with the advent of electronically stored text compliant to text mining. By way of definition, co-occurrence networks are the collective interconnection of terms based on their paired presence within a specified unit of text. Networks are generated by connecting pairs of terms using a set of criteria defining co-occurrence. For example, terms A and B may be said to “co-occur” if they both appear in a particular article. Another article may contain terms B and C. Linking A to B and B to C creates a co-occurrence network of these three terms. Rules to define co-occurrence within a text corpus can be set according to desired criteria. For example, a more stringent criteria for co-occurrence may require a pair of terms to appear in the same sentence. Co-occurrence networks were found to be particularly useful to analyze large text and big data, when identifying the main themes and topics (such as in a large number of social media posts), revealing biases in the text (such as biases in news coverage), or even mapping an entire research field. == Methods and development == The process of constructing co-occurrence networks includes identifying keywords in the text, calculating the frequencies of co-occurrences, and analyzing the networks to find central words and clusters of themes in the network. Co-occurrence networks can be created for any given list of terms (any dictionary) in relation to any collection of texts (any text corpus). Co-occurring pairs of terms can be called “neighbors” and these often group into “neighborhoods” based on their interconnections. Individual terms may have several neighbors. Neighborhoods may connect to one another through at least one individual term or may remain unconnected. Individual terms are, within the context of text mining, symbolically represented as text strings. In the real world, the entity identified by a term normally has several symbolic representations. It is therefore useful to consider terms as being represented by one primary symbol and up to several synonymous alternative symbols. Occurrence of an individual term is established by searching for each known symbolic representations of the term. The process can be augmented through NLP (natural language processing) algorithms that interrogate segments of text for possible alternatives such as word order, spacing and hyphenation. NLP can also be used to identify sentence structure and categorize text strings according to grammar (for example, categorizing a string of text as a noun based on a preceding string of text known to be an article). Graphic representation of co-occurrence networks allow them to be visualized and inferences drawn regarding relationships between entities in the domain represented by the dictionary of terms applied to the text corpus. Meaningful visualization normally requires simplifications of the network. For example, networks may be drawn such that the number of neighbors connecting to each term is limited. The criteria for limiting neighbors might be based on the absolute number of co-occurrences or more subtle criteria such as “probability” of co-occurrence or the presence of an intervening descriptive term. Quantitative aspects of the underlying structure of a co-occurrence network might also be informative, such as the overall number of connections between entities, clustering of entities representing sub-domains, detecting synonyms, etc. == Applications and use == Some working applications of the co-occurrence approach are available to the public through the internet. PubGene is an example of an application that addresses the interests of biomedical community by presenting networks based on the co-occurrence of genetics related terms as these appear in MEDLINE records. PubGene's CoreMine Medical has been used in studies relating genes/proteins to potentially effective drugs and drug candidates in multiple sclerosis, fibrosis, and hepatitis. CoreMine Medical was also used in a study of genes implicated in post-traumatic stress disorder. The website NameBase is an example of how human relationships can be inferred by examining networks constructed from the co-occurrence of personal names in newspapers and other texts (as in Ozgur et al.). Networks of information are also used to facilitate efforts to organize and focus publicly available information for law enforcement and intelligence purposes (so called "open source intelligence" or OSINT). Related techniques include co-citation networks as well as the analysis of hyperlink and content structure on the internet (such as in the analysis of web sites connected to terrorism). == See also == Topic spotting Social network analysis == References == Liu, Chua T-S (2001). "Building semantic perceptron net for topic spotting". Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics: 378–385. doi:10.3115/1073012.1073061.	Wikipedia/Co-occurrence_network
A phenomenon (pl. phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which cannot be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms. Far predating this, the ancient Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus also used phenomenon and noumenon as interrelated technical terms. == Common usage == In popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary, unusual or notable event. According to the Dictionary of Visual Discourse:In ordinary language 'phenomenon/phenomena' refer to any occurrence worthy of note and investigation, typically an untoward or unusual event, person or fact that is of special significance or otherwise notable. == Philosophy == In modern philosophical use, the term phenomena means things as they are experienced through the senses and processed by the mind as distinct from things in and of themselves (noumena). In his inaugural dissertation, titled On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World, Immanuel Kant (1770) theorizes that the human mind is restricted to the logical world and thus can only interpret and understand occurrences according to their physical appearances. He wrote that humans could infer only as much as their senses allowed, but not experience the actual object itself. Thus, the term phenomenon refers to any incident deserving of inquiry and investigation, especially processes and events which are particularly unusual or of distinctive importance. == Science == In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, including the use of instrumentation to observe, record, or compile data. Especially in physics, the study of a phenomenon may be described as measurements related to matter, energy, or time, such as Isaac Newton's observations of the Moon's orbit and of gravity; or Galileo Galilei's observations of the motion of a pendulum. In natural sciences, a phenomenon is an observable happening or event. Often, this term is used without considering the causes of a particular event. Example of a physical phenomenon is an observable phenomenon of the lunar orbit or the phenomenon of oscillations of a pendulum. A mechanical phenomenon is a physical phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects. Some examples are Newton's cradle, engines, and double pendulums. == Sociology == Group phenomena concern the behavior of a particular group of individual entities, usually organisms and most especially people. The behavior of individuals often changes in a group setting in various ways, and a group may have its own behaviors not possible for an individual because of the herd mentality. Social phenomena apply especially to organisms and people in that subjective states are implicit in the term. Attitudes and events particular to a group may have effects beyond the group, and either be adapted by the larger society, or seen as aberrant, being punished or shunned. == See also == == References == == External links == The dictionary definition of phenomenon at Wiktionary Quotations related to Phenomenon at Wikiquote Media related to Phenomena at Wikimedia Commons	Wikipedia/Phenomena_(philosophy)
The Association for Logic Programming (ALP) was founded in 1986. Its mission is "to contribute to the development of Logic Programming, relate it to other formal and also to humanistic sciences, and to promote its uses in academia and industry all over the world". It manages the International Conference on Logic Programming, oversees the journal Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP), and publishes an electronic newsletter. The activities of the Association are directed by an Executive Committee and President, elected by ALP members. The current president is Enrico Pontelli. Here is a list of all presidents: 2024- Enrico Pontelli at New Mexico State University 2019-2024 Thomas Eiter (pro term 2019-2020) at Vienna University of Technology 2014-2019 Torsten Schaub at the University of Potsdam 2010-2014 Gopal Gupta at the University of Texas, Dallas 2005-2009 Manuel Hermenegildo at the Technical University of Madrid 2001-2004 Veronica Dahl at Simon Fraser University 1997-2000 Krzysztof R. Apt at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam 1993-1996 David Scott Warren at Stony Brook 1989-1992 Herve' Gallaire at the European Computer-Industry Research Center in Munich 1986-1988 Keith Clark at Imperial College London In 1997, the ALP bestowed to fifteen recognized researchers in logic programming the title Founders of Logic Programming to recognize them as pioneers in the field. == The ALP Alain Colmerauer Prize == The ALP Alain Colmerauer Prolog Heritage Prize (in short: the Alain Colmerauer Prize) is organized by the ALP. The Prize is given for recent accomplishments and practical advances in Prolog-inspired computing, understood in a broad sense, where foundational, technological, and practical contributions are eligible with proven evidence or potential for the future development of Logic Programming. == References == == External links == Association for Logic Programming (ALP) Theory and Practice of Logic Programming journal	Wikipedia/Theory_and_Practice_of_Logic_Programming
Interactive evolutionary computation (IEC) or aesthetic selection is a general term for methods of evolutionary computation that use human evaluation. Usually human evaluation is necessary when the form of fitness function is not known (for example, visual appeal or attractiveness; as in Dawkins, 1986) or the result of optimization should fit a particular user preference (for example, taste of coffee or color set of the user interface). == IEC design issues == The number of evaluations that IEC can receive from one human user is limited by user fatigue which was reported by many researchers as a major problem. In addition, human evaluations are slow and expensive as compared to fitness function computation. Hence, one-user IEC methods should be designed to converge using a small number of evaluations, which necessarily implies very small populations. Several methods were proposed by researchers to speed up convergence, like interactive constrain evolutionary search (user intervention) or fitting user preferences using a convex function. IEC human–computer interfaces should be carefully designed in order to reduce user fatigue. There is also evidence that the addition of computational agents can successfully counteract user fatigue. However IEC implementations that can concurrently accept evaluations from many users overcome the limitations described above. An example of this approach is an interactive media installation by Karl Sims that allows one to accept preferences from many visitors by using floor sensors to evolve attractive 3D animated forms. Some of these multi-user IEC implementations serve as collaboration tools, for example HBGA. == IEC types == IEC methods include interactive evolution strategy, interactive genetic algorithm, interactive genetic programming, and human-based genetic algorithm. === IGA === An interactive genetic algorithm (IGA) is defined as a genetic algorithm that uses human evaluation. These algorithms belong to a more general category of Interactive evolutionary computation. The main application of these techniques include domains where it is hard or impossible to design a computational fitness function, for example, evolving images, music, various artistic designs and forms to fit a user's aesthetic preferences. Interactive computation methods can use different representations, both linear (as in traditional genetic algorithms) and tree-like ones (as in genetic programming). == See also == Evolutionary art Human-based evolutionary computation Human-based genetic algorithm Human–computer interaction Karl Sims Electric Sheep SCM-Synthetic Curriculum Modeling User review == References == Banzhaf, W. (1997), Interactive Evolution, Entry C2.9, in: Handbook of Evolutionary Computation, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0750308953 == External links == "EndlessForms.com, Collaborative interactive evolution allowing you to evolve 3D objects and have them 3D printed". Archived from the original on 2018-11-14. Retrieved 2011-06-18. "Art by Evolution on the Web Interactive Art Generator". Archived from the original on 2018-04-15. Retrieved 2010-04-09. "Facial composite system using interactive genetic algorithms". "Galapagos by Karl Sims". "E-volver". "SBART, a program to evolve 2D images". "GenJam (Genetic Jammer)". "Evolutionary music". "Darwin poetry". Archived from the original on 2006-04-12. "Takagi Lab at Kyushu University". "Interactive one-max problem allows to compare the performance of interactive and human-based genetic algorithms". Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2006-12-03.. "Webpage that uses interactive evolutionary computation with a generative design algorithm to generate 2d images". "Picbreeder service, Collaborative interactive evolution allowing branching from other users' creations that produces pictures like faces and spaceships". Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2007-08-02. "Peer to Peer IGA Using collaborative IGA sessions for floorplanning and document design".	Wikipedia/Interactive_genetic_algorithms
In astronomy, a correlation function describes the distribution of objects (often stars or galaxies) in the universe. By default, "correlation function" refers to the two-point autocorrelation function. The two-point autocorrelation function is a function of one variable (distance); it describes the excess probability of finding two galaxies separated by this distance (excess over and above the probability that would arise if the galaxies were simply scattered independently and with uniform probability). It can be thought of as a "clumpiness" factor - the higher the value for some distance scale, the more "clumpy" the universe is at that distance scale. The following definition (from Peebles 1980) is often cited: Given a random galaxy in a location, the correlation function describes the probability that another galaxy will be found within a given distance. However, it can only be correct in the statistical sense that it is averaged over a large number of galaxies chosen as the first, random galaxy. If just one random galaxy is chosen, then the definition is no longer correct, firstly because it is meaningless to talk of just one "random" galaxy, and secondly because the function will vary wildly depending on which galaxy is chosen, in contradiction with its definition as a function. Assuming the universe is isotropic (which observations suggest), the correlation function is a function of a scalar distance. The two-point correlation function can then be written as ξ 2 ( \| x 1 − x 2 \| ) = ⟨ δ ( x 1 ) δ ( x 2 ) ⟩ , {\displaystyle \xi _{2}(\left\|\mathbf {x} _{1}-\mathbf {x} _{2}\right\|)=\langle \delta (\mathbf {x} _{1})\delta (\mathbf {x} _{2})\rangle ,} where δ ( x ) = ( ρ ( x ) − ρ ¯ ) / ρ ¯ {\displaystyle \delta (\mathbf {x} )=(\rho (\mathbf {x} )-{\bar {\rho }})/{\bar {\rho }}} is a unitless measure of overdensity, defined at every point. Letting Δ = \| x 1 − x 2 \| {\displaystyle \Delta =\left\|\mathbf {x} _{1}-\mathbf {x} _{2}\right\|} , it can also be expressed as the integral ξ 2 ( Δ ) = 1 V ∫ d 3 x δ ( x ) δ ( x + Δ ) . {\displaystyle \xi _{2}(\Delta )={\frac {1}{V}}\int d^{3}x\,\delta (\mathbf {x} )\delta (\mathbf {x} +\mathbf {\Delta } ).} The spatial correlation function ξ ( r ) {\displaystyle \xi (r)} is related to the Fourier space power spectrum of the galaxy distribution, P ( k ) {\displaystyle P(k)} , as ξ ( r ) = 1 2 π 2 ∫ d k k 2 P ( k ) sin ⁡ ( k r ) k r {\displaystyle \xi (r)={\frac {1}{2\pi ^{2}}}\int dk\,k^{2}P(k)\,{\frac {\sin(kr)}{kr}}} The n-point autocorrelation functions for n greater than 2 or cross-correlation functions for particular object types are defined similarly to the two-point autocorrelation function. The correlation function is important for theoretical models of physical cosmology because it provides a means of testing models which assume different things about the contents of the universe. == See also == Ripley's K and Besag's L function Correlation function in statistics Spatial point process == References == Peebles, P.J.E. 1980, The large scale structure of the universe Theuns, Physical Cosmology	Wikipedia/Correlation_function_(astronomy)
Rate–distortion theory is a major branch of information theory which provides the theoretical foundations for lossy data compression; it addresses the problem of determining the minimal number of bits per symbol, as measured by the rate R, that should be communicated over a channel, so that the source (input signal) can be approximately reconstructed at the receiver (output signal) without exceeding an expected distortion D. == Introduction == Rate–distortion theory gives an analytical expression for how much compression can be achieved using lossy compression methods. Many of the existing audio, speech, image, and video compression techniques have transforms, quantization, and bit-rate allocation procedures that capitalize on the general shape of rate–distortion functions. Rate–distortion theory was created by Claude Shannon in his foundational work on information theory. In rate–distortion theory, the rate is usually understood as the number of bits per data sample to be stored or transmitted. The notion of distortion is a subject of on-going discussion. In the most simple case (which is actually used in most cases), the distortion is defined as the expected value of the square of the difference between input and output signal (i.e., the mean squared error). However, since we know that most lossy compression techniques operate on data that will be perceived by human consumers (listening to music, watching pictures and video) the distortion measure should preferably be modeled on human perception and perhaps aesthetics: much like the use of probability in lossless compression, distortion measures can ultimately be identified with loss functions as used in Bayesian estimation and decision theory. In audio compression, perceptual models (and therefore perceptual distortion measures) are relatively well developed and routinely used in compression techniques such as MP3 or Vorbis, but are often not easy to include in rate–distortion theory. In image and video compression, the human perception models are less well developed and inclusion is mostly limited to the JPEG and MPEG weighting (quantization, normalization) matrix. == Distortion functions == Distortion functions measure the cost of representing a symbol x {\displaystyle x} by an approximated symbol x ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {x}}} . Typical distortion functions are the Hamming distortion and the Squared-error distortion. === Hamming distortion === d ( x , x ^ ) = { 0 if x = x ^ 1 if x ≠ x ^ {\displaystyle d(x,{\hat {x}})={\begin{cases}0&{\text{if }}x={\hat {x}}\\1&{\text{if }}x\neq {\hat {x}}\end{cases}}} === Squared-error distortion === d ( x , x ^ ) = ( x − x ^ ) 2 {\displaystyle d(x,{\hat {x}})=\left(x-{\hat {x}}\right)^{2}} == Rate–distortion functions == The functions that relate the rate and distortion are found as the solution of the following minimization problem: inf Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) I Q ( Y ; X ) subject to D Q ≤ D ∗ . {\displaystyle \inf _{Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)}I_{Q}(Y;X){\text{ subject to }}D_{Q}\leq D^{}.} Here Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) {\displaystyle Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)} , sometimes called a test channel, is the conditional probability density function (PDF) of the communication channel output (compressed signal) Y {\displaystyle Y} for a given input (original signal) X {\displaystyle X} , and I Q ( Y ; X ) {\displaystyle I_{Q}(Y;X)} is the mutual information between Y {\displaystyle Y} and X {\displaystyle X} defined as I ( Y ; X ) = H ( Y ) − H ( Y ∣ X ) {\displaystyle I(Y;X)=H(Y)-H(Y\mid X)\,} where H ( Y ) {\displaystyle H(Y)} and H ( Y ∣ X ) {\displaystyle H(Y\mid X)} are the entropy of the output signal Y and the conditional entropy of the output signal given the input signal, respectively: H ( Y ) = − ∫ − ∞ ∞ P Y ( y ) log 2 ⁡ ( P Y ( y ) ) d y {\displaystyle H(Y)=-\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }P_{Y}(y)\log _{2}(P_{Y}(y))\,dy} H ( Y ∣ X ) = − ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∫ − ∞ ∞ Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) P X ( x ) log 2 ⁡ ( Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) ) d x d y . {\displaystyle H(Y\mid X)=-\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)P_{X}(x)\log _{2}(Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x))\,dx\,dy.} The problem can also be formulated as a distortion–rate function, where we find the infimum over achievable distortions for given rate constraint. The relevant expression is: inf Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) E [ D Q [ X , Y ] ] subject to I Q ( Y ; X ) ≤ R . {\displaystyle \inf _{Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)}E[D_{Q}[X,Y]]{\text{ subject to }}I_{Q}(Y;X)\leq R.} The two formulations lead to functions which are inverses of each other. The mutual information can be understood as a measure for 'prior' uncertainty the receiver has about the sender's signal (H(Y)), diminished by the uncertainty that is left after receiving information about the sender's signal ( H ( Y ∣ X ) {\displaystyle H(Y\mid X)} ). Of course the decrease in uncertainty is due to the communicated amount of information, which is I ( Y ; X ) {\displaystyle I\left(Y;X\right)} . As an example, in case there is no communication at all, then H ( Y ∣ X ) = H ( Y ) {\displaystyle H(Y\mid X)=H(Y)} and I ( Y ; X ) = 0 {\displaystyle I(Y;X)=0} . Alternatively, if the communication channel is perfect and the received signal Y {\displaystyle Y} is identical to the signal X {\displaystyle X} at the sender, then H ( Y ∣ X ) = 0 {\displaystyle H(Y\mid X)=0} and I ( Y ; X ) = H ( X ) = H ( Y ) {\displaystyle I(Y;X)=H(X)=H(Y)} . In the definition of the rate–distortion function, D Q {\displaystyle D_{Q}} and D ∗ {\displaystyle D^{}} are the distortion between X {\displaystyle X} and Y {\displaystyle Y} for a given Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) {\displaystyle Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)} and the prescribed maximum distortion, respectively. When we use the mean squared error as distortion measure, we have (for amplitude-continuous signals): D Q = ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∫ − ∞ ∞ P X , Y ( x , y ) ( x − y ) 2 d x d y = ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∫ − ∞ ∞ Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) P X ( x ) ( x − y ) 2 d x d y . {\displaystyle D_{Q}=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }P_{X,Y}(x,y)(x-y)^{2}\,dx\,dy=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)P_{X}(x)(x-y)^{2}\,dx\,dy.} As the above equations show, calculating a rate–distortion function requires the stochastic description of the input X {\displaystyle X} in terms of the PDF P X ( x ) {\displaystyle P_{X}(x)} , and then aims at finding the conditional PDF Q Y ∣ X ( y ∣ x ) {\displaystyle Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)} that minimize rate for a given distortion D ∗ {\displaystyle D^{*}} . These definitions can be formulated measure-theoretically to account for discrete and mixed random variables as well. An analytical solution to this minimization problem is often difficult to obtain except in some instances for which we next offer two of the best known examples. The rate–distortion function of any source is known to obey several fundamental properties, the most important ones being that it is a continuous, monotonically decreasing convex (U) function and thus the shape for the function in the examples is typical (even measured rate–distortion functions in real life tend to have very similar forms). Although analytical solutions to this problem are scarce, there are upper and lower bounds to these functions including the famous Shannon lower bound (SLB), which in the case of squared error and memoryless sources, states that for arbitrary sources with finite differential entropy, R ( D ) ≥ h ( X ) − h ( D ) {\displaystyle R(D)\geq h(X)-h(D)\,} where h(D) is the differential entropy of a Gaussian random variable with variance D. This lower bound is extensible to sources with memory and other distortion measures. One important feature of the SLB is that it is asymptotically tight in the low distortion regime for a wide class of sources and in some occasions, it actually coincides with the rate–distortion function. Shannon Lower Bounds can generally be found if the distortion between any two numbers can be expressed as a function of the difference between the value of these two numbers. The Blahut–Arimoto algorithm, co-invented by Richard Blahut, is an elegant iterative technique for numerically obtaining rate–distortion functions of arbitrary finite input/output alphabet sources and much work has been done to extend it to more general problem instances. The computation of the rate-distortion function requires knowledge of the underlying distribution, which is often unavailable in contemporary applications in data-science and machine learning. However, this challenge can be addressed using deep learning-based estimators of the rate-distortion function. These estimators are typically referred to as 'neural estimators', involving the optimization of a parametrized variational form of the rate distortion objective. When working with stationary sources with memory, it is necessary to modify the definition of the rate distortion function and it must be understood in the sense of a limit taken over sequences of increasing lengths. R ( D ) = lim n → ∞ R n ( D ) {\displaystyle R(D)=\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }R_{n}(D)} where R n ( D ) = 1 n inf Q Y n ∣ X n ∈ Q I ( Y n , X n ) {\displaystyle R_{n}(D)={\frac {1}{n}}\inf _{Q_{Y^{n}\mid X^{n}}\in {\mathcal {Q}}}I(Y^{n},X^{n})} and Q = { Q Y n ∣ X n ( Y n ∣ X n , X 0 ) : E [ d ( X n , Y n ) ] ≤ D } {\displaystyle {\mathcal {Q}}=\{Q_{Y^{n}\mid X^{n}}(Y^{n}\mid X^{n},X_{0}):E[d(X^{n},Y^{n})]\leq D\}} where superscripts denote a complete sequence up to that time and the subscript 0 indicates initial state. === Memoryless (independent) Gaussian source with squared-error distortion === If we assume that X {\displaystyle X} is a Gaussian random variable with variance σ 2 {\displaystyle \sigma ^{2}} , and if we assume that successive samples of the signal X {\displaystyle X} are stochastically independent (or equivalently, the source is memoryless, or the signal is uncorrelated), we find the following analytical expression for the rate–distortion function: R ( D ) = { 1 2 log 2 ⁡ ( σ x 2 / D ) , if 0 ≤ D ≤ σ x 2 0 , if D > σ x 2 . {\displaystyle R(D)={\begin{cases}{\frac {1}{2}}\log _{2}(\sigma _{x}^{2}/D),&{\text{if }}0\leq D\leq \sigma _{x}^{2}\\0,&{\text{if }}D>\sigma _{x}^{2}.\end{cases}}} The following figure shows what this function looks like: Rate–distortion theory tell us that 'no compression system exists that performs outside the gray area'. The closer a practical compression system is to the red (lower) bound, the better it performs. As a general rule, this bound can only be attained by increasing the coding block length parameter. Nevertheless, even at unit blocklengths one can often find good (scalar) quantizers that operate at distances from the rate–distortion function that are practically relevant. This rate–distortion function holds only for Gaussian memoryless sources. It is known that the Gaussian source is the most "difficult" source to encode: for a given mean square error, it requires the greatest number of bits. The performance of a practical compression system working on—say—images, may well be below the R ( D ) {\displaystyle R\left(D\right)} lower bound shown. === Memoryless (independent) Bernoulli source with Hamming distortion === The rate-distortion function of a Bernoulli random variable with Hamming distortion is given by: R ( D ) = { H b ( p ) − H b ( D ) , 0 ≤ D ≤ min ( p , 1 − p ) 0 , D > min ( p , 1 − p ) {\displaystyle R(D)=\left\{{\begin{matrix}H_{b}(p)-H_{b}(D),&0\leq D\leq \min {(p,1-p)}\\0,&D>\min {(p,1-p)}\end{matrix}}\right.} where H b {\displaystyle H_{b}} denotes the binary entropy function. Plot of the rate-distortion function for p = 0.5 {\displaystyle p=0.5} : == Connecting rate-distortion theory to channel capacity == Suppose we want to transmit information about a source to the user with a distortion not exceeding D. Rate–distortion theory tells us that at least R ( D ) {\displaystyle R(D)} bits/symbol of information from the source must reach the user. We also know from Shannon's channel coding theorem that if the source entropy is H bits/symbol, and the channel capacity is C (where C < H {\displaystyle C<H} ), then H − C {\displaystyle H-C} bits/symbol will be lost when transmitting this information over the given channel. For the user to have any hope of reconstructing with a maximum distortion D, we must impose the requirement that the information lost in transmission does not exceed the maximum tolerable loss of H − R ( D ) {\displaystyle H-R(D)} bits/symbol. This means that the channel capacity must be at least as large as R ( D ) {\displaystyle R(D)} . == See also == Blahut–Arimoto algorithm – Class of algorithms in information theory Data compression – Compact encoding of digital data Decorrelation – Process of reducing correlation within one or more signals Rate–distortion optimization – decision algorithm used in video compressionPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback Sphere packing – Geometrical structure White noise – Type of signal in signal processing == References == == External links == Marzen, Sarah; DeDeo, Simon. "PyRated: a python package for rate distortion theory". PyRated is a very simple Python package to do the most basic calculation in rate-distortion theory: the determination of the "codebook" and the transmission rate R, given a utility function (distortion matrix) and a Lagrange multiplier beta. VcDemo Image and Video Compression Learning Tool	Wikipedia/Rate_distortion_theory
Itô calculus, named after Kiyosi Itô, extends the methods of calculus to stochastic processes such as Brownian motion (see Wiener process). It has important applications in mathematical finance and stochastic differential equations. The central concept is the Itô stochastic integral, a stochastic generalization of the Riemann–Stieltjes integral in analysis. The integrands and the integrators are now stochastic processes: Y t = ∫ 0 t H s d X s , {\displaystyle Y_{t}=\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}\,dX_{s},} where H is a locally square-integrable process adapted to the filtration generated by X (Revuz & Yor 1999, Chapter IV), which is a Brownian motion or, more generally, a semimartingale. The result of the integration is then another stochastic process. Concretely, the integral from 0 to any particular t is a random variable, defined as a limit of a certain sequence of random variables. The paths of Brownian motion fail to satisfy the requirements to be able to apply the standard techniques of calculus. So with the integrand a stochastic process, the Itô stochastic integral amounts to an integral with respect to a function which is not differentiable at any point and has infinite variation over every time interval. The main insight is that the integral can be defined as long as the integrand H is adapted, which loosely speaking means that its value at time t can only depend on information available up until this time. Roughly speaking, one chooses a sequence of partitions of the interval from 0 to t and constructs Riemann sums. Every time we are computing a Riemann sum, we are using a particular instantiation of the integrator. It is crucial which point in each of the small intervals is used to compute the value of the function. The limit then is taken in probability as the mesh of the partition is going to zero. Numerous technical details have to be taken care of to show that this limit exists and is independent of the particular sequence of partitions. Typically, the left end of the interval is used. Important results of Itô calculus include the integration by parts formula and Itô's lemma, which is a change of variables formula. These differ from the formulas of standard calculus, due to quadratic variation terms. This can be contrasted to the Stratonovich integral as an alternative formulation; it does follow the chain rule, and does not require Itô's lemma. The two integral forms can be converted to one-another. The Stratonovich integral is obtained as the limiting form of a Riemann sum that employs the average of stochastic variable over each small timestep, whereas the Itô integral considers it only at the beginning. In mathematical finance, the described evaluation strategy of the integral is conceptualized as that we are first deciding what to do, then observing the change in the prices. The integrand is how much stock we hold, the integrator represents the movement of the prices, and the integral is how much money we have in total including what our stock is worth, at any given moment. The prices of stocks and other traded financial assets can be modeled by stochastic processes such as Brownian motion or, more often, geometric Brownian motion (see Black–Scholes). Then, the Itô stochastic integral represents the payoff of a continuous-time trading strategy consisting of holding an amount Ht of the stock at time t. In this situation, the condition that H is adapted corresponds to the necessary restriction that the trading strategy can only make use of the available information at any time. This prevents the possibility of unlimited gains through clairvoyance: buying the stock just before each uptick in the market and selling before each downtick. Similarly, the condition that H is adapted implies that the stochastic integral will not diverge when calculated as a limit of Riemann sums (Revuz & Yor 1999, Chapter IV). == Notation == The process Y defined before as Y t = ∫ 0 t H d X ≡ ∫ 0 t H s d X s , {\displaystyle Y_{t}=\int _{0}^{t}H\,dX\equiv \int _{0}^{t}H_{s}\,dX_{s},} is itself a stochastic process with time parameter t, which is also sometimes written as Y = H · X (Rogers & Williams 2000). Alternatively, the integral is often written in differential form dY = H dX, which is equivalent to Y − Y0 = H · X. As Itô calculus is concerned with continuous-time stochastic processes, it is assumed that an underlying filtered probability space is given ( Ω , F , ( F t ) t ≥ 0 , P ) . {\displaystyle (\Omega ,{\mathcal {F}},({\mathcal {F}}_{t})_{t\geq 0},\mathbb {P} ).} The σ-algebra F t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{t}} represents the information available up until time t, and a process X is adapted if Xt is F t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{t}} -measurable. A Brownian motion B is understood to be an F t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{t}} -Brownian motion, which is just a standard Brownian motion with the properties that Bt is F t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{t}} -measurable and that Bt+s − Bt is independent of F t {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{t}} for all s,t ≥ 0 (Revuz & Yor 1999). == Integration with respect to Brownian motion == The Itô integral can be defined in a manner similar to the Riemann–Stieltjes integral, that is as a limit in probability of Riemann sums; such a limit does not necessarily exist pathwise. Suppose that B is a Wiener process (Brownian motion) and that H is a right-continuous (càdlàg), adapted and locally bounded process. If { π n } {\displaystyle \{\pi _{n}\}} is a sequence of partitions of [0, t] with mesh width going to zero, then the Itô integral of H with respect to B up to time t is a random variable ∫ 0 t H d B = lim n → ∞ ∑ [ t i − 1 , t i ] ∈ π n H t i − 1 ( B t i − B t i − 1 ) . {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H\,dB=\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\sum _{[t_{i-1},t_{i}]\in \pi _{n}}H_{t_{i-1}}(B_{t_{i}}-B_{t_{i-1}}).} It can be shown that this limit converges in probability. For some applications, such as martingale representation theorems and local times, the integral is needed for processes that are not continuous. The predictable processes form the smallest class that is closed under taking limits of sequences and contains all adapted left-continuous processes. If H is any predictable process such that ∫0t H2 ds < ∞ for every t ≥ 0 then the integral of H with respect to B can be defined, and H is said to be B-integrable. Any such process can be approximated by a sequence Hn of left-continuous, adapted and locally bounded processes, in the sense that ∫ 0 t ( H − H n ) 2 d s → 0 {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}(H-H_{n})^{2}\,ds\to 0} in probability. Then, the Itô integral is ∫ 0 t H d B = lim n → ∞ ∫ 0 t H n d B {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H\,dB=\lim _{n\to \infty }\int _{0}^{t}H_{n}\,dB} where, again, the limit can be shown to converge in probability. The stochastic integral satisfies the Itô isometry E [ ( ∫ 0 t H s d B s ) 2 ] = E [ ∫ 0 t H s 2 d s ] {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[\left(\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}\,dB_{s}\right)^{2}\right]=\mathbb {E} \left[\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}^{2}\,ds\right]} which holds when H is bounded or, more generally, when the integral on the right hand side is finite. == Itô processes == An Itô process is defined to be an adapted stochastic process that can be expressed as the sum of an integral with respect to Brownian motion and an integral with respect to time, X t = X 0 + ∫ 0 t σ s d B s + ∫ 0 t μ s d s . {\displaystyle X_{t}=X_{0}+\int _{0}^{t}\sigma _{s}\,dB_{s}+\int _{0}^{t}\mu _{s}\,ds.} Here, B is a Brownian motion and it is required that σ is a predictable B-integrable process, and μ is predictable and (Lebesgue) integrable. That is, ∫ 0 t ( σ s 2 + \| μ s \| ) d s < ∞ {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}(\sigma _{s}^{2}+\|\mu _{s}\|)\,ds<\infty } for each t. The stochastic integral can be extended to such Itô processes, ∫ 0 t H d X = ∫ 0 t H s σ s d B s + ∫ 0 t H s μ s d s . {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H\,dX=\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}\sigma _{s}\,dB_{s}+\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}\mu _{s}\,ds.} This is defined for all locally bounded and predictable integrands. More generally, it is required that Hσ be B-integrable and Hμ be Lebesgue integrable, so that ∫ 0 t ( H 2 σ 2 + \| H μ \| ) d s < ∞ . {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}\left(H^{2}\sigma ^{2}+\|H\mu \|\right)ds<\infty .} Such predictable processes H are called X-integrable. An important result for the study of Itô processes is Itô's lemma. In its simplest form, for any twice continuously differentiable function f on the reals and Itô process X as described above, it states that Y t = f ( X t ) {\displaystyle Y_{t}=f(X_{t})} is itself an Itô process satisfying d Y t = f ′ ( X t ) μ t d t + 1 2 f ′ ′ ( X t ) σ t 2 d t + f ′ ( X t ) σ t d B t . {\displaystyle dY_{t}=f^{\prime }(X_{t})\mu _{t}\,dt+{\tfrac {1}{2}}f^{\prime \prime }(X_{t})\sigma _{t}^{2}\,dt+f^{\prime }(X_{t})\sigma _{t}\,dB_{t}.} This is the stochastic calculus version of the change of variables formula and chain rule. It differs from the standard result due to the additional term involving the second derivative of f, which comes from the property that Brownian motion has non-zero quadratic variation. == Semimartingales as integrators == The Itô integral is defined with respect to a semimartingale X. These are processes which can be decomposed as X = M + A for a local martingale M and finite variation process A. Important examples of such processes include Brownian motion, which is a martingale, and Lévy processes. For a left continuous, locally bounded and adapted process H the integral H · X exists, and can be calculated as a limit of Riemann sums. Let πn be a sequence of partitions of [0, t] with mesh going to zero, ∫ 0 t H d X = lim n → ∞ ∑ t i − 1 , t i ∈ π n H t i − 1 ( X t i − X t i − 1 ) . {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H\,dX=\lim _{n\to \infty }\sum _{t_{i-1},t_{i}\in \pi _{n}}H_{t_{i-1}}(X_{t_{i}}-X_{t_{i-1}}).} This limit converges in probability. The stochastic integral of left-continuous processes is general enough for studying much of stochastic calculus. For example, it is sufficient for applications of Itô's Lemma, changes of measure via Girsanov's theorem, and for the study of stochastic differential equations. However, it is inadequate for other important topics such as martingale representation theorems and local times. The integral extends to all predictable and locally bounded integrands, in a unique way, such that the dominated convergence theorem holds. That is, if Hn → H and \|Hn\| ≤ J for a locally bounded process J, then ∫ 0 t H n d X → ∫ 0 t H d X , {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H_{n}\,dX\to \int _{0}^{t}H\,dX,} in probability. The uniqueness of the extension from left-continuous to predictable integrands is a result of the monotone class lemma. In general, the stochastic integral H · X can be defined even in cases where the predictable process H is not locally bounded. If K = 1 / (1 + \|H\|) then K and KH are bounded. Associativity of stochastic integration implies that H is X-integrable, with integral H · X = Y, if and only if Y0 = 0 and K · Y = (KH) · X. The set of X-integrable processes is denoted by L(X). == Properties == The following properties can be found in works such as (Revuz & Yor 1999) and (Rogers & Williams 2000): The stochastic integral is a càdlàg process. Furthermore, it is a semimartingale. The discontinuities of the stochastic integral are given by the jumps of the integrator multiplied by the integrand. The jump of a càdlàg process at a time t is Xt − Xt−, and is often denoted by ΔXt. With this notation, Δ(H · X) = H ΔX. A particular consequence of this is that integrals with respect to a continuous process are always themselves continuous. Associativity. Let J, K be predictable processes, and K be X-integrable. Then, J is K · X integrable if and only if JK is X-integrable, in which case J ⋅ ( K ⋅ X ) = ( J K ) ⋅ X {\displaystyle J\cdot (K\cdot X)=(JK)\cdot X} Dominated convergence. Suppose that Hn → H and \|Hn\| ≤ J, where J is an X-integrable process. then Hn · X → H · X. Convergence is in probability at each time t. In fact, it converges uniformly on compact sets in probability. The stochastic integral commutes with the operation of taking quadratic covariations. If X and Y are semimartingales then any X-integrable process will also be [X, Y]-integrable, and [H · X, Y] = H · [X, Y]. A consequence of this is that the quadratic variation process of a stochastic integral is equal to an integral of a quadratic variation process, [ H ⋅ X ] = H 2 ⋅ [ X ] {\displaystyle [H\cdot X]=H^{2}\cdot [X]} == Integration by parts == As with ordinary calculus, integration by parts is an important result in stochastic calculus. The integration by parts formula for the Itô integral differs from the standard result due to the inclusion of a quadratic covariation term. This term comes from the fact that Itô calculus deals with processes with non-zero quadratic variation, which only occurs for infinite variation processes (such as Brownian motion). If X and Y are semimartingales then X t Y t = X 0 Y 0 + ∫ 0 t X s − d Y s + ∫ 0 t Y s − d X s + [ X , Y ] t {\displaystyle X_{t}Y_{t}=X_{0}Y_{0}+\int _{0}^{t}X_{s-}\,dY_{s}+\int _{0}^{t}Y_{s-}\,dX_{s}+[X,Y]_{t}} where [X, Y] is the quadratic covariation process. The result is similar to the integration by parts theorem for the Riemann–Stieltjes integral but has an additional quadratic variation term. == Itô's lemma == Itô's lemma is the version of the chain rule or change of variables formula which applies to the Itô integral. It is one of the most powerful and frequently used theorems in stochastic calculus. For a continuous n-dimensional semimartingale X = (X1,...,Xn) and twice continuously differentiable function f from Rn to R, it states that f(X) is a semimartingale and, d f ( X t ) = ∑ i = 1 n f i ( X t ) d X t i + 1 2 ∑ i , j = 1 n f i , j ( X t ) d [ X i , X j ] t . {\displaystyle df(X_{t})=\sum _{i=1}^{n}f_{i}(X_{t})\,dX_{t}^{i}+{\frac {1}{2}}\sum _{i,j=1}^{n}f_{i,j}(X_{t})\,d[X^{i},X^{j}]_{t}.} This differs from the chain rule used in standard calculus due to the term involving the quadratic covariation [Xi,Xj ]. The formula can be generalized to include an explicit time-dependence in f , {\displaystyle f,} and in other ways (see Itô's lemma). == Martingale integrators == === Local martingales === An important property of the Itô integral is that it preserves the local martingale property. If M is a local martingale and H is a locally bounded predictable process then H · M is also a local martingale. For integrands which are not locally bounded, there are examples where H · M is not a local martingale. However, this can only occur when M is not continuous. If M is a continuous local martingale then a predictable process H is M-integrable if and only if ∫ 0 t H 2 d [ M ] < ∞ , {\displaystyle \int _{0}^{t}H^{2}\,d[M]<\infty ,} for each t, and H · M is always a local martingale. The most general statement for a discontinuous local martingale M is that if (H2 · [M])1/2 is locally integrable then H · M exists and is a local martingale. === Square integrable martingales === For bounded integrands, the Itô stochastic integral preserves the space of square integrable martingales, which is the set of càdlàg martingales M such that E[Mt2] is finite for all t. For any such square integrable martingale M, the quadratic variation process [M] is integrable, and the Itô isometry states that E [ ( H ⋅ M t ) 2 ] = E [ ∫ 0 t H 2 d [ M ] ] . {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[(H\cdot M_{t})^{2}\right]=\mathbb {E} \left[\int _{0}^{t}H^{2}\,d[M]\right].} This equality holds more generally for any martingale M such that H2 · [M]t is integrable. The Itô isometry is often used as an important step in the construction of the stochastic integral, by defining H · M to be the unique extension of this isometry from a certain class of simple integrands to all bounded and predictable processes. === p-Integrable martingales === For any p > 1, and bounded predictable integrand, the stochastic integral preserves the space of p-integrable martingales. These are càdlàg martingales such that E(\|Mt\|p) is finite for all t. However, this is not always true in the case where p = 1. There are examples of integrals of bounded predictable processes with respect to martingales which are not themselves martingales. The maximum process of a càdlàg process M is written as Mt = sups ≤t \|Ms\|. For any p ≥ 1 and bounded predictable integrand, the stochastic integral preserves the space of càdlàg martingales M such that E[(Mt)p] is finite for all t. If p > 1 then this is the same as the space of p-integrable martingales, by Doob's inequalities. The Burkholder–Davis–Gundy inequalities state that, for any given p ≥ 1, there exist positive constants c, C that depend on p, but not M or on t such that c E [ [ M ] t p 2 ] ≤ E [ ( M t ∗ ) p ] ≤ C E [ [ M ] t p 2 ] {\displaystyle c\mathbb {E} \left[[M]_{t}^{\frac {p}{2}}\right]\leq \mathbb {E} \left[(M_{t}^{})^{p}\right]\leq C\mathbb {E} \left[[M]_{t}^{\frac {p}{2}}\right]} for all càdlàg local martingales M. These are used to show that if (Mt)p is integrable and H is a bounded predictable process then E [ ( ( H ⋅ M ) t ∗ ) p ] ≤ C E [ ( H 2 ⋅ [ M ] t ) p 2 ] < ∞ {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[((H\cdot M)_{t}^{*})^{p}\right]\leq C\mathbb {E} \left[(H^{2}\cdot [M]_{t})^{\frac {p}{2}}\right]<\infty } and, consequently, H · M is a p-integrable martingale. More generally, this statement is true whenever (H2 · [M])p/2 is integrable. == Existence of the integral == Proofs that the Itô integral is well defined typically proceed by first looking at very simple integrands, such as piecewise constant, left continuous and adapted processes where the integral can be written explicitly. Such simple predictable processes are linear combinations of terms of the form Ht = A1{t > T} for stopping times T and FT-measurable random variables A, for which the integral is H ⋅ X t ≡ 1 { t > T } A ( X t − X T ) . {\displaystyle H\cdot X_{t}\equiv \mathbf {1} _{\{t>T\}}A(X_{t}-X_{T}).} This is extended to all simple predictable processes by the linearity of H · X in H. For a Brownian motion B, the property that it has independent increments with zero mean and variance Var(Bt) = t can be used to prove the Itô isometry for simple predictable integrands, E [ ( H ⋅ B t ) 2 ] = E [ ∫ 0 t H s 2 d s ] . {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[(H\cdot B_{t})^{2}\right]=\mathbb {E} \left[\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}^{2}\,ds\right].} By a continuous linear extension, the integral extends uniquely to all predictable integrands satisfying E [ ∫ 0 t H 2 d s ] < ∞ , {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[\int _{0}^{t}H^{2}\,ds\right]<\infty ,} in such way that the Itô isometry still holds. It can then be extended to all B-integrable processes by localization. This method allows the integral to be defined with respect to any Itô process. For a general semimartingale X, the decomposition X = M + A into a local martingale M plus a finite variation process A can be used. Then, the integral can be shown to exist separately with respect to M and A and combined using linearity, H · X = H · M + H · A, to get the integral with respect to X. The standard Lebesgue–Stieltjes integral allows integration to be defined with respect to finite variation processes, so the existence of the Itô integral for semimartingales will follow from any construction for local martingales. For a càdlàg square integrable martingale M, a generalized form of the Itô isometry can be used. First, the Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem is used to show that a decomposition M2 = N + ⟨M⟩ exists, where N is a martingale and ⟨M⟩ is a right-continuous, increasing and predictable process starting at zero. This uniquely defines ⟨M⟩, which is referred to as the predictable quadratic variation of M. The Itô isometry for square integrable martingales is then E [ ( H ⋅ M t ) 2 ] = E [ ∫ 0 t H s 2 d ⟨ M ⟩ s ] , {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} \left[(H\cdot M_{t})^{2}\right]=\mathbb {E} \left[\int _{0}^{t}H_{s}^{2}\,d\langle M\rangle _{s}\right],} which can be proved directly for simple predictable integrands. As with the case above for Brownian motion, a continuous linear extension can be used to uniquely extend to all predictable integrands satisfying E[H2 · ⟨M⟩t] < ∞. This method can be extended to all local square integrable martingales by localization. Finally, the Doob–Meyer decomposition can be used to decompose any local martingale into the sum of a local square integrable martingale and a finite variation process, allowing the Itô integral to be constructed with respect to any semimartingale. Many other proofs exist which apply similar methods but which avoid the need to use the Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem, such as the use of the quadratic variation [M] in the Itô isometry, the use of the Doléans measure for submartingales, or the use of the Burkholder–Davis–Gundy inequalities instead of the Itô isometry. The latter applies directly to local martingales without having to first deal with the square integrable martingale case. Alternative proofs exist only making use of the fact that X is càdlàg, adapted, and the set {H · Xt: \|H\| ≤ 1 is simple previsible} is bounded in probability for each time t, which is an alternative definition for X to be a semimartingale. A continuous linear extension can be used to construct the integral for all left-continuous and adapted integrands with right limits everywhere (caglad or L-processes). This is general enough to be able to apply techniques such as Itô's lemma (Protter 2004). Also, a Khintchine inequality can be used to prove the dominated convergence theorem and extend the integral to general predictable integrands (Bichteler 2002). == Differentiation in Itô calculus == The Itô calculus is first and foremost defined as an integral calculus as outlined above. However, there are also different notions of "derivative" with respect to Brownian motion: === Malliavin derivative === Malliavin calculus provides a theory of differentiation for random variables defined over Wiener space, including an integration by parts formula (Nualart 2006). === Martingale representation === The following result allows to express martingales as Itô integrals: if M is a square-integrable martingale on a time interval [0, T] with respect to the filtration generated by a Brownian motion B, then there is a unique adapted square integrable process α {\displaystyle \alpha } on [0, T] such that M t = M 0 + ∫ 0 t α s d B s {\displaystyle M_{t}=M_{0}+\int _{0}^{t}\alpha _{s}\,\mathrm {d} B_{s}} almost surely, and for all t ∈ [0, T] (Rogers & Williams 2000, Theorem 36.5). This representation theorem can be interpreted formally as saying that α is the "time derivative" of M with respect to Brownian motion B, since α is precisely the process that must be integrated up to time t to obtain Mt − M0, as in deterministic calculus. == Itô calculus for physicists == In physics, usually stochastic differential equations (SDEs), such as Langevin equations, are used, rather than stochastic integrals. Here an Itô stochastic differential equation (SDE) is often formulated via x ˙ k = h k + g k l ξ l , {\displaystyle {\dot {x}}_{k}=h_{k}+g_{kl}\xi _{l},} where ξ j {\displaystyle \xi _{j}} is Gaussian white noise with ⟨ ξ k ( t 1 ) ξ l ( t 2 ) ⟩ = δ k l δ ( t 1 − t 2 ) {\displaystyle \langle \xi _{k}(t_{1})\,\xi _{l}(t_{2})\rangle =\delta _{kl}\delta (t_{1}-t_{2})} and Einstein's summation convention is used. If y = y ( x k ) {\displaystyle y=y(x_{k})} is a function of the xk, then Itô's lemma has to be used: y ˙ = ∂ y ∂ x j x ˙ j + 1 2 ∂ 2 y ∂ x k ∂ x l g k m g m l . {\displaystyle {\dot {y}}={\frac {\partial y}{\partial x_{j}}}{\dot {x}}_{j}+{\frac {1}{2}}{\frac {\partial ^{2}y}{\partial x_{k}\,\partial x_{l}}}g_{km}g_{ml}.} An Itô SDE as above also corresponds to a Stratonovich SDE which reads x ˙ k = h k + g k l ξ l − 1 2 ∂ g k l ∂ x m g m l . {\displaystyle {\dot {x}}_{k}=h_{k}+g_{kl}\xi _{l}-{\frac {1}{2}}{\frac {\partial g_{kl}}{\partial {x_{m}}}}g_{ml}.} SDEs frequently occur in physics in Stratonovich form, as limits of stochastic differential equations driven by colored noise if the correlation time of the noise term approaches zero. For a recent treatment of different interpretations of stochastic differential equations see for example (Lau & Lubensky 2007). == See also == == References ==	Wikipedia/Itō_calculus
Design for testing or design for testability (DFT) consists of integrated circuit design techniques that add testability features to a hardware product design. The added features make it easier to develop and apply manufacturing tests to the designed hardware. The purpose of manufacturing tests is to validate that the product hardware contains no manufacturing defects that could adversely affect the product's correct functioning. Tests are applied at several steps in the hardware manufacturing flow and, for certain products, may also be used for hardware maintenance in the customer's environment. The tests are generally driven by test programs that execute using automatic test equipment (ATE) or, in the case of system maintenance, inside the assembled system itself. In addition to finding and indicating the presence of defects (i.e., the test fails), tests may be able to log diagnostic information about the nature of the encountered test fails. The diagnostic information can be used to locate the source of the failure. In other words, the response of vectors (patterns) from a good circuit is compared with the response of vectors (using the same patterns) from a DUT (device under test). If the response is the same or matches, the circuit is good. Otherwise, the circuit is not manufactured as intended. DFT plays an important role in the development of test programs and as an interface for test applications and diagnostics. Automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) is much easier if appropriate DFT rules and suggestions have been implemented. == History == DFT techniques have been used at least since the early days of electric/electronic data processing equipment. Early examples from the 1940s/50s are the switches and instruments that allowed an engineer to "scan" (i.e., selectively probe) the voltage/current at some internal nodes in an analog computer [analog scan]. DFT often is associated with design modifications that provide improved access to internal circuit elements such that the local internal state can be controlled (controllability) and/or observed (observability) more easily. The design modifications can be strictly physical in nature (e.g., adding a physical probe point to a net) and/or add active circuit elements to facilitate controllability/observability (e.g., inserting a multiplexer into a net). While controllability and observability improvements for internal circuit elements definitely are important for test, they are not the only type of DFT. Other guidelines, for example, deal with the electromechanical characteristics of the interface between the product under test and the test equipment. Examples are guidelines for the size, shape, and spacing of probe points, or the suggestion to add a high-impedance state to drivers attached to probed nets such that the risk of damage from back-driving is mitigated. Over the years the industry has developed and used a large variety of more or less detailed and more or less formal guidelines for desired and/or mandatory DFT circuit modifications. The common understanding of DFT in the context of electronic design automation (EDA) for modern microelectronics is shaped to a large extent by the capabilities of commercial DFT software tools as well as by the expertise and experience of a professional community of DFT engineers researching, developing, and using such tools. Much of the related body of DFT knowledge focuses on digital circuits while DFT for analog/mixed-signal circuits takes somewhat of a backseat. == Objectives of DFT for microelectronics products == DFT affects and depends on the methods used for test development, test application, and diagnostics. Most tool-supported DFT practiced in the industry today, at least for digital circuits, is predicated on a Structural test paradigm. Structural test makes no direct attempt to determine if the overall functionality of the circuit is correct. Instead, it tries to make sure that the circuit has been assembled correctly from some low-level building blocks as specified in a structural netlist. For example, are all specified logic gates present, operating correctly, and connected correctly? The stipulation is that if the netlist is correct, and structural testing has confirmed the correct assembly of the circuit elements, then the circuit should be functioning correctly. Note that this is very different from functional testing, which attempts to validate that the circuit under test functions according to its functional specification. This is closely related to the functional verification problem of determining if the circuit specified by the netlist meets the functional specifications, assuming it is built correctly. One benefit of the Structural paradigm is that test generation can focus on testing a limited number of relatively simple circuit elements rather than having to deal with an exponentially exploding multiplicity of functional states and state transitions. While the task of testing a single logic gate at a time sounds simple, there is an obstacle to overcome. For today's highly complex designs, most gates are deeply embedded whereas the test equipment is only connected to the primary Input/outputs (I/Os) and/or some physical test points. The embedded gates, hence, must be manipulated through intervening layers of logic. If the intervening logic contains state elements, then the issue of an exponentially exploding state space and state transition sequencing creates an unsolvable problem for test generation. To simplify test generation, DFT addresses the accessibility problem by removing the need for complicated state transition sequences when trying to control and/or observe what's happening at some internal circuit element. Depending on the DFT choices made during circuit design/implementation, the generation of Structural tests for complex logic circuits can be more or less automated or self-automated. One key objective of DFT methodologies, hence, is to allow designers to make trade-offs between the amount and type of DFT and the cost/benefit (time, effort, quality) of the test generation task. Another benefit is to diagnose a circuit in case any problem emerges in the future. It is like adding some features or provisions in the design so that devices can be tested in case of any fault during its use. == Looking forward == One challenge for the industry is keeping up with the rapid advances in chip technology (I/O count/size/placement/spacing, I/O speed, internal circuit count/speed/power, thermal control, etc.) without being forced to continually upgrade the test equipment. Modern DFT techniques, hence, have to offer options that allow next-generation chips and assemblies to be tested on existing test equipment and/or reduce the requirements/cost for new test equipment. As a result, DFT techniques are continually being updated, such as incorporation of compression, in order to make sure that tester application times stay within certain bounds dictated by the cost target for the products under test. == Diagnostics == Especially for advanced semiconductor technologies, it is expected some of the chips on each manufactured wafer contain defects that render them non-functional. The primary objective of testing is to find and separate those non-functional chips from the fully functional ones, meaning that one or more responses captured by the tester from a non-functional chip under test differ from the expected response. The percentage of chips that fail test, hence, should be closely related to the expected functional yield for that chip type. In reality, however, it is not uncommon that all chips of a new chip type arriving at the test floor for the first time fail (so-called zero-yield situation). In that case, the chips have to go through a debug process that tries to identify the reason for the zero-yield situation. In other cases, the test fall-out (percentage of test fails) may be higher than expected/acceptable or fluctuate suddenly. Again, the chips have to be subjected to an analysis process to identify the reason for the excessive test fall-out. In both cases, vital information about the nature of the underlying problem may be hidden in the way the chips fail during test. To facilitate better analysis, additional fail information beyond a simple pass/fail is collected into a fail log. The fail log typically contains information about when (e.g., tester cycle), where (e.g., at what tester channel), and how (e.g., logic value) the test failed. Diagnostics attempt to derive from the fail log at which logical/physical location inside the chip the problem most likely started. By running a large number of failures through the diagnostics process, called volume diagnostics, systematic failures can be identified. In some cases (e.g., printed circuit boards, multi-chip modules (MCMs), embedded or stand-alone memories) it may be possible to repair a failing circuit under test. For that purpose, diagnostics must quickly find the failing unit and create a work order for repairing or replacing the failing unit. DFT approaches can be more or less diagnostics-friendly. The related objectives of DFT are to facilitate or simplify failure data collection and diagnostics to an extent that can enable intelligent failure analysis (FA) sample selection, as well as improve the cost, accuracy, speed, and throughput of diagnostics and FA. == Scan design == The most common method for delivering test data from chip inputs to internal circuits under test (CUTs, for short), and observing their outputs, is called scan-design. In scan design, registers (flip-flops or latches) in the design are connected in one or more scan chains, which are used to gain access to internal nodes of the chip. Test patterns are shifted in via the scan chain(s), functional clock signals are pulsed to test the circuit during the "capture cycle(s)", and the results are then shifted out to chip output pins and compared against the expected "good machine" results. Straightforward application of scan techniques can result in large vector sets with corresponding long tester time and memory requirements. Test compression techniques address this problem, by decompressing the scan input on chip and compressing the test output. Large gains are possible since any particular test vector usually only needs to set and/or examine a small fraction of the scan chain bits. The output of a scan design may be provided in forms such as Serial Vector Format (SVF), to be executed by test equipment. == Debug using DFT features == In addition to being useful for manufacturing "go/no go" testing, scan chains can also be used to "debug" chip designs. In this context, the chip is exercised in normal "functional mode" (for example, a computer or mobile phone chip might execute assembly language instructions). At any time, the chip clock can be stopped, and the chip re-configured into "test mode". At this point, the full internal state can be dumped out, or set to any desired values, by use of the scan chains. Another use of scan to aid debugging consists of scanning in an initial state to all memory elements and then go back to functional mode to perform system debugging. The advantage is to bring the system to a known state without going through many clock cycles. This use of scan chains, along with the clock control circuits is a related sub-discipline of logic design called design for debug or design for debuggability. == See also == BIST Design for X Fault grading Iddq testing JTAG == References == == External links == Boundary-Scan Chain Design Board Level Design Design for Testability Guidelines	Wikipedia/Design_for_test
In causal models, controlling for a variable means binning data according to measured values of the variable. This is typically done so that the variable can no longer act as a confounder in, for example, an observational study or experiment. When estimating the effect of explanatory variables on an outcome by regression, controlled-for variables are included as inputs in order to separate their effects from the explanatory variables. A limitation of controlling for variables is that a causal model is needed to identify important confounders (backdoor criterion is used for the identification). Without having one, a possible confounder might remain unnoticed. Another associated problem is that if a variable which is not a real confounder is controlled for, it may in fact make other variables (possibly not taken into account) become confounders while they were not confounders before. In other cases, controlling for a non-confounding variable may cause underestimation of the true causal effect of the explanatory variables on an outcome (e.g. when controlling for a mediator or its descendant). Counterfactual reasoning mitigates the influence of confounders without this drawback. == Experiments == Experiments attempt to assess the effect of manipulating one or more independent variables on one or more dependent variables. To ensure the measured effect is not influenced by external factors, other variables must be held constant. The variables made to remain constant during an experiment are referred to as control variables. For example, if an outdoor experiment were to be conducted to compare how different wing designs of a paper airplane (the independent variable) affect how far it can fly (the dependent variable), one would want to ensure that the experiment is conducted at times when the weather is the same, because one would not want weather to affect the experiment. In this case, the control variables may be wind speed, direction and precipitation. If the experiment were conducted when it was sunny with no wind, but the weather changed, one would want to postpone the completion of the experiment until the control variables (the wind and precipitation level) were the same as when the experiment began. In controlled experiments of medical treatment options on humans, researchers randomly assign individuals to a treatment group or control group. This is done to reduce the confounding effect of irrelevant variables that are not being studied, such as the placebo effect. == Observational studies == In an observational study, researchers have no control over the values of the independent variables, such as who receives the treatment. Instead, they must control for variables using statistics. Observational studies are used when controlled experiments may be unethical or impractical. For instance, if a researcher wished to study the effect of unemployment (the independent variable) on health (the dependent variable), it would be considered unethical by institutional review boards to randomly assign some participants to have jobs and some not to. Instead, the researcher will have to create a sample which includes some employed people and some unemployed people. However, there could be factors that affect both whether someone is employed and how healthy he or she is. Part of any observed association between the independent variable (employment status) and the dependent variable (health) could be due to these outside, spurious factors rather than indicating a true link between them. This can be problematic even in a true random sample. By controlling for the extraneous variables, the researcher can come closer to understanding the true effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. In this context the extraneous variables can be controlled for by using multiple regression. The regression uses as independent variables not only the one or ones whose effects on the dependent variable are being studied, but also any potential confounding variables, thus avoiding omitted variable bias. "Confounding variables" in this context means other factors that not only influence the dependent variable (the outcome) but also influence the main independent variable. === OLS Regressions and control variables === The simplest examples of control variables in regression analysis comes from Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimators. The OLS framework assumes the following: Linear relationship - OLS statistical models are linear. Hence the relationship between explanatory variables and the mean of Y must be linear. Homoscedasticity - This requires homogeneity of variances, that is equal or similar variances across these data. Independence/No Autocorrelation - Error terms from one (or more) observation can not be influenced by error terms of other observations. Normality of Errors - The errors are jointly normal and uncorrelated, this implies that ( ϵ i ) i ∈ N {\displaystyle (\epsilon _{i})_{i\in N}} i.e. that the error terms are an independently and identically distributed set (iid). This implies that the unobservables between different groups or observations are independent. No multicollinearity - Independent variables must not be highly correlated with each other. For regressions using matrix notation, the matrix must be full rank i.e. X ′ X {\displaystyle X^{'}X} is invertible. Accordingly, a control variable can be interpreted as a linear explanatory variable that affects the mean value of Y (Assumption 1), but which does not present the primary variable of investigation, and which also satisfies the other assumptions above. === Example === Consider a study about whether getting older affects someone's life satisfaction. (Some researchers perceive a "u-shape": life satisfaction appears to decline first and then rise after middle age.) To identify the control variables needed here, one could ask what other variables determine not only someone's life satisfaction but also their age. Many other variables determine life satisfaction. But no other variable determines how old someone is (as long as they remain alive). (All people keep getting older, at the same rate, no matter what their other characteristics.) So, no control variables are needed here. To determine the needed control variables, it can be useful to construct a directed acyclic graph. == See also == Scientific control Mixed model Age adjustment == References == == Further reading == Freedman, David; Pisani, Robert; Purves, Roger (2007). Statistics. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393929720.	Wikipedia/Control_variable_(statistics)
In computer science, control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which individual statements, instructions or function calls of an imperative program are executed or evaluated. The emphasis on explicit control flow distinguishes an imperative programming language from a declarative programming language. Within an imperative programming language, a control flow statement is a statement that results in a choice being made as to which of two or more paths to follow. For non-strict functional languages, functions and language constructs exist to achieve the same result, but they are usually not termed control flow statements. A set of statements is in turn generally structured as a block, which in addition to grouping, also defines a lexical scope. Interrupts and signals are low-level mechanisms that can alter the flow of control in a way similar to a subroutine, but usually occur as a response to some external stimulus or event (that can occur asynchronously), rather than execution of an in-line control flow statement. At the level of machine language or assembly language, control flow instructions usually work by altering the program counter. For some central processing units (CPUs), the only control flow instructions available are conditional or unconditional branch instructions, also termed jumps. == Categories == The kinds of control flow statements supported by different languages vary, but can be categorized by their effect: Continuation at a different statement (unconditional branch or jump) Executing a set of statements only if some condition is met (choice - i.e., conditional branch) Executing a set of statements zero or more times, until some condition is met (i.e., loop - the same as conditional branch) Executing a set of distant statements, after which the flow of control usually returns (subroutines, coroutines, and continuations) Stopping the program, preventing any further execution (unconditional halt) == Primitives == === Labels === A label is an explicit name or number assigned to a fixed position within the source code, and which may be referenced by control flow statements appearing elsewhere in the source code. A label marks a position within source code and has no other effect. Line numbers are an alternative to a named label used in some languages (such as BASIC). They are whole numbers placed at the start of each line of text in the source code. Languages which use these often impose the constraint that the line numbers must increase in value in each following line, but may not require that they be consecutive. For example, in BASIC: In other languages such as C and Ada, a label is an identifier, usually appearing at the start of a line and immediately followed by a colon. For example, in C: The language ALGOL 60 allowed both whole numbers and identifiers as labels (both linked by colons to the following statement), but few if any other ALGOL variants allowed whole numbers. Early Fortran compilers only allowed whole numbers as labels. Beginning with Fortran-90, alphanumeric labels have also been allowed. === Goto === The goto statement (a combination of the English words go and to, and pronounced accordingly) is the most basic form of unconditional transfer of control. Although the keyword may either be in upper or lower case depending on the language, it is usually written as: goto label The effect of a goto statement is to cause the next statement to be executed to be the statement appearing at (or immediately after) the indicated label. Goto statements have been considered harmful by many computer scientists, notably Dijkstra. === Subroutines === The terminology for subroutines varies; they may alternatively be known as routines, procedures, functions (especially if they return results) or methods (especially if they belong to classes or type classes). In the 1950s, computer memories were very small by current standards so subroutines were used mainly to reduce program size. A piece of code was written once and then used many times from various other places in a program. Today, subroutines are more often used to help make a program more structured, e.g., by isolating some algorithm or hiding some data access method. If many programmers are working on one program, subroutines are one kind of modularity that can help divide the work. === Sequence === In structured programming, the ordered sequencing of successive commands is considered one of the basic control structures, which is used as a building block for programs alongside iteration, recursion and choice. == Minimal structured control flow == In May 1966, Böhm and Jacopini published an article in Communications of the ACM which showed that any program with gotos could be transformed into a goto-free form involving only choice (IF THEN ELSE) and loops (WHILE condition DO xxx), possibly with duplicated code and/or the addition of Boolean variables (true/false flags). Later authors showed that choice can be replaced by loops (and yet more Boolean variables). That such minimalism is possible does not mean that it is necessarily desirable; computers theoretically need only one machine instruction (subtract one number from another and branch if the result is negative), but practical computers have dozens or even hundreds of machine instructions. Other research showed that control structures with one entry and one exit were much easier to understand than any other form, mainly because they could be used anywhere as a statement without disrupting the control flow. In other words, they were composable. (Later developments, such as non-strict programming languages – and more recently, composable software transactions – have continued this strategy, making components of programs even more freely composable.) Some academics took a purist approach to the Böhm–Jacopini result and argued that even instructions like break and return from the middle of loops are bad practice as they are not needed in the Böhm–Jacopini proof, and thus they advocated that all loops should have a single exit point. This purist approach is embodied in the language Pascal (designed in 1968–1969), which up to the mid-1990s was the preferred tool for teaching introductory programming in academia. The direct application of the Böhm–Jacopini theorem may result in additional local variables being introduced in the structured chart, and may also result in some code duplication. Pascal is affected by both of these problems and according to empirical studies cited by Eric S. Roberts, student programmers had difficulty formulating correct solutions in Pascal for several simple problems, including writing a function for searching an element in an array. A 1980 study by Henry Shapiro cited by Roberts found that using only the Pascal-provided control structures, the correct solution was given by only 20% of the subjects, while no subject wrote incorrect code for this problem if allowed to write a return from the middle of a loop. == Control structures in practice == Most programming languages with control structures have an initial keyword which indicates the type of control structure involved. Languages then divide as to whether or not control structures have a final keyword. No final keyword: ALGOL 60, C, C++, Go, Haskell, Java, Pascal, Perl, PHP, PL/I, Python, PowerShell. Such languages need some way of grouping statements together: ALGOL 60 and Pascal: begin ... end C, C++, Go, Java, Perl, PHP, and PowerShell: curly brackets { ... } PL/I: DO ... END Python: uses indent level (see Off-side rule) Haskell: either indent level or curly brackets can be used, and they can be freely mixed Lua: uses do ... end Final keyword: Ada, APL, ALGOL 68, Modula-2, Fortran 77, Mythryl, Visual Basic. The forms of the final keyword vary: Ada: final keyword is end + space + initial keyword e.g., if ... end if, loop ... end loop APL: final keyword is :End optionally + initial keyword, e.g., :If ... :End or :If ... :EndIf, Select ... :End or :Select ... :EndSelect, however, if adding an end condition, the end keyword becomes :Until ALGOL 68, Mythryl: initial keyword spelled backwards e.g., if ... fi, case ... esac Fortran 77: final keyword is END + initial keyword e.g., IF ... ENDIF, DO ... ENDDO Modula-2: same final keyword END for everything Visual Basic: every control structure has its own keyword. If ... End If; For ... Next; Do ... Loop; While ... Wend == Choice == === If-then-(else) statements === Conditional expressions and conditional constructs are features of a programming language that perform different computations or actions depending on whether a programmer-specified Boolean condition evaluates to true or false. IF..GOTO. A form found in unstructured languages, mimicking a typical machine code instruction, would jump to (GOTO) a label or line number when the condition was met. IF..THEN..(ENDIF). Rather than being restricted to a jump, any simple statement, or nested block, could follow the THEN key keyword. This a structured form. IF..THEN..ELSE..(ENDIF). As above, but with a second action to be performed if the condition is false. This is one of the most common forms, with many variations. Some require a terminal ENDIF, others do not. C and related languages do not require a terminal keyword, or a 'then', but do require parentheses around the condition. Conditional statements can be and often are nested inside other conditional statements. Some languages allow ELSE and IF to be combined into ELSEIF, avoiding the need to have a series of ENDIF or other final statements at the end of a compound statement. Less common variations include: Some languages, such as early Fortran, have a three-way or arithmetic if, testing whether a numeric value is negative, zero, or positive. Some languages have a functional form of an if statement, for instance Lisp's cond. Some languages have an operator form of an if statement, such as C's ternary operator. Perl supplements a C-style if with when and unless. Smalltalk uses ifTrue and ifFalse messages to implement conditionals, rather than any fundamental language construct. === Case and switch statements === Switch statements (or case statements, or multiway branches) compare a given value with specified constants and take action according to the first constant to match. There is usually a provision for a default action ("else", "otherwise") to be taken if no match succeeds. Switch statements can allow compiler optimizations, such as lookup tables. In dynamic languages, the cases may not be limited to constant expressions, and might extend to pattern matching, as in the shell script example on the right, where the *) implements the default case as a glob matching any string. Case logic can also be implemented in functional form, as in SQL's decode statement. == Loops == A loop is a sequence of statements which is specified once but which may be carried out several times in succession. The code "inside" the loop (the body of the loop, shown below as xxx) is obeyed a specified number of times, or once for each of a collection of items, or until some condition is met, or indefinitely. When one of those items is itself also a loop, it is called a "nested loop". In functional programming languages, such as Haskell and Scheme, both recursive and iterative processes are expressed with tail recursive procedures instead of looping constructs that are syntactic. === Count-controlled loops === Most programming languages have constructions for repeating a loop a certain number of times. In most cases counting can go downwards instead of upwards and step sizes other than 1 can be used. In these examples, if N < 1 then the body of loop may execute once (with I having value 1) or not at all, depending on the programming language. In many programming languages, only integers can be reliably used in a count-controlled loop. Floating-point numbers are represented imprecisely due to hardware constraints, so a loop such as for X := 0.1 step 0.1 to 1.0 do might be repeated 9 or 10 times, depending on rounding errors and/or the hardware and/or the compiler version. Furthermore, if the increment of X occurs by repeated addition, accumulated rounding errors may mean that the value of X in each iteration can differ quite significantly from the expected sequence 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, ..., 1.0. === Condition-controlled loops === Most programming languages have constructions for repeating a loop until some condition changes. Some variations test the condition at the start of the loop; others test it at the end. If the test is at the start, the body may be skipped completely; if it is at the end, the body is always executed at least once. A control break is a value change detection method used within ordinary loops to trigger processing for groups of values. Values are monitored within the loop and a change diverts program flow to the handling of the group event associated with them. DO UNTIL (End-of-File) IF new-zipcode <> current-zipcode display_tally(current-zipcode, zipcount) current-zipcode = new-zipcode zipcount = 0 ENDIF zipcount++ LOOP === Collection-controlled loops === Several programming languages (e.g., Ada, D, C++11, Smalltalk, PHP, Perl, Object Pascal, Java, C#, MATLAB, Visual Basic, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Fortran 95 and later) have special constructs which allow implicit looping through all elements of an array, or all members of a set or collection. someCollection do: [:eachElement \|xxx]. for Item in Collection do begin xxx end; foreach (item; myCollection) { xxx } foreach someArray { xxx } foreach ($someArray as $k => $v) { xxx } Collection<String> coll; for (String s : coll) {} foreach (string s in myStringCollection) { xxx } someCollection \| ForEach-Object { $_ } forall ( index = first:last:step... ) Scala has for-expressions, which generalise collection-controlled loops, and also support other uses, such as asynchronous programming. Haskell has do-expressions and comprehensions, which together provide similar function to for-expressions in Scala. === General iteration === General iteration constructs such as C's for statement and Common Lisp's do form can be used to express any of the above sorts of loops, and others, such as looping over some number of collections in parallel. Where a more specific looping construct can be used, it is usually preferred over the general iteration construct, since it often makes the purpose of the expression clearer. === Infinite loops === Infinite loops are used to assure a program segment loops forever or until an exceptional condition arises, such as an error. For instance, an event-driven program (such as a server) should loop forever, handling events as they occur, only stopping when the process is terminated by an operator. Infinite loops can be implemented using other control flow constructs. Most commonly, in unstructured programming this is jump back up (goto), while in structured programming this is an indefinite loop (while loop) set to never end, either by omitting the condition or explicitly setting it to true, as while (true) .... Some languages have special constructs for infinite loops, typically by omitting the condition from an indefinite loop. Examples include Ada (loop ... end loop), Fortran (DO ... END DO), Go (for { ... }), and Ruby (loop do ... end). Often, an infinite loop is unintentionally created by a programming error in a condition-controlled loop, wherein the loop condition uses variables that never change within the loop. === Continuation with next iteration === Sometimes within the body of a loop there is a desire to skip the remainder of the loop body and continue with the next iteration of the loop. Some languages provide a statement such as continue (most languages), skip, cycle (Fortran), or next (Perl and Ruby), which will do this. The effect is to prematurely terminate the innermost loop body and then resume as normal with the next iteration. If the iteration is the last one in the loop, the effect is to terminate the entire loop early. === Redo current iteration === Some languages, like Perl and Ruby, have a redo statement that restarts the current iteration from the start. === Restart loop === Ruby has a retry statement that restarts the entire loop from the initial iteration. === Early exit from loops === When using a count-controlled loop to search through a table, it might be desirable to stop searching as soon as the required item is found. Some programming languages provide a statement such as break (most languages), Exit (Visual Basic), or last (Perl), which effect is to terminate the current loop immediately, and transfer control to the statement immediately after that loop. Another term for early-exit loops is loop-and-a-half. The following example is done in Ada which supports both early exit from loops and loops with test in the middle. Both features are very similar and comparing both code snippets will show the difference: early exit must be combined with an if statement while a condition in the middle is a self-contained construct. Python supports conditional execution of code depending on whether a loop was exited early (with a break statement) or not by using an else-clause with the loop. For example, The else clause in the above example is linked to the for statement, and not the inner if statement. Both Python's for and while loops support such an else clause, which is executed only if early exit of the loop has not occurred. Some languages support breaking out of nested loops; in theory circles, these are called multi-level breaks. One common use example is searching a multi-dimensional table. This can be done either via multilevel breaks (break out of N levels), as in bash and PHP, or via labeled breaks (break out and continue at given label), as in Go, Java and Perl. Alternatives to multilevel breaks include single breaks, together with a state variable which is tested to break out another level; exceptions, which are caught at the level being broken out to; placing the nested loops in a function and using return to effect termination of the entire nested loop; or using a label and a goto statement. C does not include a multilevel break, and the usual alternative is to use a goto to implement a labeled break. Python does not have a multilevel break or continue – this was proposed in PEP 3136, and rejected on the basis that the added complexity was not worth the rare legitimate use. The notion of multi-level breaks is of some interest in theoretical computer science, because it gives rise to what is today called the Kosaraju hierarchy. In 1973 S. Rao Kosaraju refined the structured program theorem by proving that it is possible to avoid adding additional variables in structured programming, as long as arbitrary-depth, multi-level breaks from loops are allowed. Furthermore, Kosaraju proved that a strict hierarchy of programs exists: for every integer n, there exists a program containing a multi-level break of depth n that cannot be rewritten as a program with multi-level breaks of depth less than n without introducing added variables. One can also return out of a subroutine executing the looped statements, breaking out of both the nested loop and the subroutine. There are other proposed control structures for multiple breaks, but these are generally implemented as exceptions instead. In his 2004 textbook, David Watt uses Tennent's notion of sequencer to explain the similarity between multi-level breaks and return statements. Watt notes that a class of sequencers known as escape sequencers, defined as "sequencer that terminates execution of a textually enclosing command or procedure", encompasses both breaks from loops (including multi-level breaks) and return statements. As commonly implemented, however, return sequencers may also carry a (return) value, whereas the break sequencer as implemented in contemporary languages usually cannot. === Loop variants and invariants === Loop variants and loop invariants are used to express correctness of loops. In practical terms, a loop variant is an integer expression which has an initial non-negative value. The variant's value must decrease during each loop iteration but must never become negative during the correct execution of the loop. Loop variants are used to guarantee that loops will terminate. A loop invariant is an assertion which must be true before the first loop iteration and remain true after each iteration. This implies that when a loop terminates correctly, both the exit condition and the loop invariant are satisfied. Loop invariants are used to monitor specific properties of a loop during successive iterations. Some programming languages, such as Eiffel contain native support for loop variants and invariants. In other cases, support is an add-on, such as the Java Modeling Language's specification for loop statements in Java. === Loop sublanguage === Some Lisp dialects provide an extensive sublanguage for describing Loops. An early example can be found in Conversional Lisp of Interlisp. Common Lisp provides a Loop macro which implements such a sublanguage. === Loop system cross-reference table === a while (true) does not count as an infinite loop for this purpose, because it is not a dedicated language structure. a b c d e f g h C's for (init; test; increment) loop is a general loop construct, not specifically a counting one, although it is often used for that. a b c Deep breaks may be accomplished in APL, C, C++ and C# through the use of labels and gotos. a Iteration over objects was added in PHP 5. a b c A counting loop can be simulated by iterating over an incrementing list or generator, for instance, Python's range(). a b c d e Deep breaks may be accomplished through the use of exception handling. a There is no special construct, since the while function can be used for this. a There is no special construct, but users can define general loop functions. a The C++11 standard introduced the range-based for. In the STL, there is a std::for_each template function which can iterate on STL containers and call a unary function for each element. The functionality also can be constructed as macro on these containers. a Count-controlled looping is effected by iteration across an integer interval; early exit by including an additional condition for exit. a Eiffel supports a reserved word retry, however it is used in exception handling, not loop control. a Requires Java Modeling Language (JML) behavioral interface specification language. a Requires loop variants to be integers; transfinite variants are not supported. [1] a D supports infinite collections, and the ability to iterate over those collections. This does not require any special construct. a Deep breaks can be achieved using GO TO and procedures. a Common Lisp predates the concept of generic collection type. == Structured non-local control flow == Many programming languages, especially those favoring more dynamic styles of programming, offer constructs for non-local control flow. These cause the flow of execution to jump out of a given context and resume at some predeclared point. Conditions, exceptions and continuations are three common sorts of non-local control constructs; more exotic ones also exist, such as generators, coroutines and the async keyword. === Conditions === The earliest Fortran compilers had statements for testing exceptional conditions. These included the IF ACCUMULATOR OVERFLOW, IF QUOTIENT OVERFLOW, and IF DIVIDE CHECK statements. In the interest of machine independence, they were not included in FORTRAN IV and the Fortran 66 Standard. However since Fortran 2003 it is possible to test for numerical issues via calls to functions in the IEEE_EXCEPTIONS module. PL/I has some 22 standard conditions (e.g., ZERODIVIDE SUBSCRIPTRANGE ENDFILE) which can be raised and which can be intercepted by: ON condition action; Programmers can also define and use their own named conditions. Like the unstructured if, only one statement can be specified so in many cases a GOTO is needed to decide where flow of control should resume. Unfortunately, some implementations had a substantial overhead in both space and time (especially SUBSCRIPTRANGE), so many programmers tried to avoid using conditions. Common Syntax examples: ON condition GOTO label === Exceptions === Modern languages have a specialized structured construct for exception handling which does not rely on the use of GOTO or (multi-level) breaks or returns. For example, in C++ one can write: Any number and variety of catch clauses can be used above. If there is no catch matching a particular throw, control percolates back through subroutine calls and/or nested blocks until a matching catch is found or until the end of the main program is reached, at which point the program is forcibly stopped with a suitable error message. Via C++'s influence, catch is the keyword reserved for declaring a pattern-matching exception handler in other languages popular today, like Java or C#. Some other languages like Ada use the keyword exception to introduce an exception handler and then may even employ a different keyword (when in Ada) for the pattern matching. A few languages like AppleScript incorporate placeholders in the exception handler syntax to automatically extract several pieces of information when the exception occurs. This approach is exemplified below by the on error construct from AppleScript: David Watt's 2004 textbook also analyzes exception handling in the framework of sequencers (introduced in this article in the section on early exits from loops). Watt notes that an abnormal situation, generally exemplified with arithmetic overflows or input/output failures like file not found, is a kind of error that "is detected in some low-level program unit, but [for which] a handler is more naturally located in a high-level program unit". For example, a program might contain several calls to read files, but the action to perform when a file is not found depends on the meaning (purpose) of the file in question to the program and thus a handling routine for this abnormal situation cannot be located in low-level system code. Watts further notes that introducing status flags testing in the caller, as single-exit structured programming or even (multi-exit) return sequencers would entail, results in a situation where "the application code tends to get cluttered by tests of status flags" and that "the programmer might forgetfully or lazily omit to test a status flag. In fact, abnormal situations represented by status flags are by default ignored!" Watt notes that in contrast to status flags testing, exceptions have the opposite default behavior, causing the program to terminate unless the program deals with the exception explicitly in some way, possibly by adding explicit code to ignore it. Based on these arguments, Watt concludes that jump sequencers or escape sequencers are less suitable as a dedicated exception sequencer with the semantics discussed above. In Object Pascal, D, Java, C#, and Python a finally clause can be added to the try construct. No matter how control leaves the try the code inside the finally clause is guaranteed to execute. This is useful when writing code that must relinquish an expensive resource (such as an opened file or a database connection) when finished processing: Since this pattern is fairly common, C# has a special syntax: Upon leaving the using-block, the compiler guarantees that the stm object is released, effectively binding the variable to the file stream while abstracting from the side effects of initializing and releasing the file. Python's with statement and Ruby's block argument to File.open are used to similar effect. All the languages mentioned above define standard exceptions and the circumstances under which they are thrown. Users can throw exceptions of their own; C++ allows users to throw and catch almost any type, including basic types like int, whereas other languages like Java are less permissive. === Continuations === === Async === C# 5.0 introduced the async keyword for supporting asynchronous I/O in a "direct style". === Generators === Generators, also known as semicoroutines, allow control to be yielded to a consumer method temporarily, typically using a yield keyword (yield description) . Like the async keyword, this supports programming in a "direct style". === Coroutines === Coroutines are functions that can yield control to each other - a form of co-operative multitasking without threads. Coroutines can be implemented as a library if the programming language provides either continuations or generators - so the distinction between coroutines and generators in practice is a technical detail. === Non-local control flow cross reference === == Proposed control structures == In a spoof Datamation article in 1973, R. Lawrence Clark suggested that the GOTO statement could be replaced by the COMEFROM statement, and provides some entertaining examples. COMEFROM was implemented in one esoteric programming language named INTERCAL. Donald Knuth's 1974 article "Structured Programming with go to Statements", identifies two situations which were not covered by the control structures listed above, and gave examples of control structures which could handle these situations. Despite their utility, these constructs have not yet found their way into mainstream programming languages. === Loop with test in the middle === The following was proposed by Dahl in 1972: loop loop xxx1 read(char); while test; while not atEndOfFile; xxx2 write(char); repeat; repeat; If xxx1 is omitted, we get a loop with the test at the top (a traditional while loop). If xxx2 is omitted, we get a loop with the test at the bottom, equivalent to a do while loop in many languages. If while is omitted, we get an infinite loop. The construction here can be thought of as a do loop with the while check in the middle. Hence this single construction can replace several constructions in most programming languages. Languages lacking this construct generally emulate it using an equivalent infinite-loop-with-break idiom: while (true) { xxx1 if (not test) break xxx2 } A possible variant is to allow more than one while test; within the loop, but the use of exitwhen (see next section) appears to cover this case better. In Ada, the above loop construct (loop-while-repeat) can be represented using a standard infinite loop (loop - end loop) that has an exit when clause in the middle (not to be confused with the exitwhen statement in the following section). Naming a loop (like Read_Data in this example) is optional but permits leaving the outer loop of several nested loops. === Multiple early exit/exit from nested loops === This construct was proposed by Zahn in 1974. A modified version is presented here. exitwhen EventA or EventB or EventC; xxx exits EventA: actionA EventB: actionB EventC: actionC endexit; exitwhen is used to specify the events which may occur within xxx, their occurrence is indicated by using the name of the event as a statement. When some event does occur, the relevant action is carried out, and then control passes just after endexit. This construction provides a very clear separation between determining that some situation applies, and the action to be taken for that situation. exitwhen is conceptually similar to exception handling, and exceptions or similar constructs are used for this purpose in many languages. The following simple example involves searching a two-dimensional table for a particular item. exitwhen found or missing; for I := 1 to N do for J := 1 to M do if table[I,J] = target then found; missing; exits found: print ("item is in table"); missing: print ("item is not in table"); endexit; == Security == One way to attack a piece of software is to redirect the flow of execution of a program. A variety of control-flow integrity techniques, including stack canaries, buffer overflow protection, shadow stacks, and vtable pointer verification, are used to defend against these attacks. == See also == == Notes == == References == == Further reading == Hoare, C. A. R. "Partition: Algorithm 63," "Quicksort: Algorithm 64," and "Find: Algorithm 65." Comm. ACM 4, 321–322, 1961. == External links == Media related to Control flow at Wikimedia Commons Go To Statement Considered Harmful A Linguistic Contribution of GOTO-less Programming "Structured Programming with Go To Statements" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-24. (2.88 MB) "IBM 704 Manual" (PDF). (31.4 MB)	Wikipedia/Control_variable_(programming)
The hierarchy of the sciences is a theory formulated by Auguste Comte in the 19th century. This theory states that science develops over time beginning with the simplest and most general scientific discipline, astronomy, which is the first to reach the "positive stage" (one of three in Comte's law of three stages). As one moves up the "hierarchy", this theory further states that sciences become more complex and less general, and that they will reach the positive stage later. Disciplines further up the hierarchy are said to depend more on the developments of their predecessors; the highest discipline on the hierarchy are the social sciences. According to this theory, there are higher levels of consensus and faster rates of advancement in physics and other natural sciences than there are in the social sciences. == Evidence == Research has shown that, after controlling for the number of hypotheses being tested, positive results are 2.3 times more likely in the social sciences than in the physical sciences. It has also been found that the degree of scientific consensus is highest in the physical sciences, lowest in the social sciences, and intermediate in the biological sciences. Dean Simonton argues that a composite measure of the scientific status of disciplines ranks psychology much closer to biology than to sociology. == See also == Unity of science == References ==	Wikipedia/Hierarchy_of_sciences
"Unified Science" can refer to any of three related strands in contemporary thought. Belief in the unity of science was a central tenet of logical positivism. Different logical positivists construed this doctrine in several different ways, e.g. as a reductionist thesis, that the objects investigated by the special sciences reduce to the objects of a common, putatively more basic domain of science, usually thought to be physics; as the thesis that all of the theories and results of the various sciences can or ought to be expressed in a common language or "universal slang"; or as the thesis that all the special sciences share a common method. The writings of Edward Haskell and a few associates, seeking to rework science into a single discipline employing a common artificial language. This work culminated in the 1972 publication of Full Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science. The vast part of the work of Haskell and his contemporaries remains unpublished, however. Timothy Wilken and Anthony Judge have recently revived and extended the insights of Haskell and his coworkers. Unified Science has been a consistent thread since the 1940s in Howard T. Odum's systems ecology and the associated Emergy Synthesis, modeling the "ecosystem": the geochemical, biochemical, and thermodynamic processes of the lithosphere and biosphere. Modeling such earthly processes in this manner requires a science uniting geology, physics, biology, and chemistry (H.T.Odum 1995). With this in mind, Odum developed a common language of science based on electronic schematics, with applications to ecology economic systems in mind (H.T.Odum 1994). == See also == Consilience — the unification of knowledge, e.g. science and the humanities Tree of knowledge system == References == Odum, H.T. 1994. Ecological and General Systems: An Introduction to Systems Ecology. Colorado University Press, Colorado. Odum, H.T. 1995. 'Energy Systems and the Unification of Science', in Hall, C.S. (ed.) Maximum Power: The Ideas and Applications of H.T. Odum. Colorado University Press, Colorado: 365-372. == External links == Future Positive Timothy Wilken's website, including a lot of material and diagrams on Edward Haskell's Unified Science Cardioid Attractor Fundamental to Sustainability - 8 transactional games forming the heart of sustainable relationship Anthony Judge's further development of these ideas	Wikipedia/Unified_Science
Transgender pornography is a genre of pornography featuring transsexual or transgender actors. The majority of the genre features trans women, but trans men are sometimes featured. Trans women are most often featured with male partners, but they are also featured with other women, both transgender and cisgender. == Terminology == In the 2010s, it was common in transgender pornography to use terms that are generally regarded as pejorative slurs in the trans community, such as "chicks with dicks", "trannies", or "shemales". Transgender pornographic actress Wendy Williams said she disagreed with activists who thought these sorts of terms are slurs, as these words were originally "used so the laymen person could understand the products they were buying in porn". In 2017, a major trans porn site changed their name from ShemaleYum to GroobyGirls and announced they would no longer use terms that are seen as stigmatizing. Trans women in pornography are sometimes called "tgirls", the t standing for transgender or transsexual. == Awards == AVN Award for Transgender Performer of the Year is one of the major industry awards for actors in the genre. Transgender Erotica Awards (formerly Tranny Awards) is the other major award. == Trans women == Viewers of pornography featuring trans women typically identify as heterosexual. Transgender porn has become one of the largest, most popular genres of porn among heterosexual males. Data from RedTube, a pornographic video hosting site, indicated that as of 2016 and based on the frequency of online searches trans porn was most popular in Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Russia and Spain; the United States ranked at 12th place and within the US trans porn searches were most common in Wyoming. A spokesman for Evil Angel, a US porn production company, was quoted in 2015 as saying trans porn was the company's most profitable category, commanding premiums of about 20% more than other genres or scenes. Trans pornographic actresses may be either sexually passive or active with their male co-stars. Some actresses, such as Danni Daniels, usually perform as a "top" or specialize in dominant roles. == Trans men == In 2005, Titan Media released a film titled Cirque Noir starring Buck Angel, marking the first time a trans man had been featured in an all-male film produced by a company specializing in gay male porn. Cyd St. Vincent founded "Bonus Hole Boys" in 2014, the first FTM gay porn company, in order to "show big-name gay porn stars having sex with trans men and loving it." The formula has found a following among both women and gay men, with the majority of the company's fan-base being gay men. The gay male audience for FTM porn has become a growing niche as more gay men become exposed to the genre. In January 2018, the major gay porn studio Raw Fuck Club (RFC), released a scene starring Cyd St. Vincent titled "Some Men Have Pussies", becoming one of the few major gay porn companies to feature transgender men. The scene was largely popular, but provoked some controversy. Buck Angel's "Cirque Noir" and Cyd St. Vincent's "Some Men Have Pussies" have been praised as "landmark roles" in the representation of trans men in gay porn "whose magnitude cannot be understated." As of 2019, gay trans man porn is still a relatively niche genre of pornography with few performers, but the market is growing each year as an audience develops for the genre. == Perception == Psychologist David J. Ley wrote that the popularity of transgender porn may have various causes, including sexual fluidity and its novelty factor. Author J. Phillips wrote that the "phallic woman...challenges the fixity of our own sexual identity." Neuroscientist Ogi Ogas said that some straight men are interested in porn with trans women because the brain likes "different sexual cues in novel combinations" and that men seem to have a strong interest in penises regardless of sexual orientation. Some in the LGBT community feel transgender pornography objectifies transgender people. Others argue it can have positive effects. Trans actor Buck Angel said "I get letters daily from people thanking me about making them feel better about their bodies." == See also == Attraction to transgender people Futanari Transgender sex workers Transgender sexuality == References ==	Wikipedia/Transgender_pornography
Microsoft Copilot (or simply Copilot) is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft. Based on the GPT-4 series of large language models, it was launched in 2023 as Microsoft's primary replacement for the discontinued Cortana. The service was introduced in February 2023 under the name Bing Chat, as a built-in feature for Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Edge. Over the course of 2023, Microsoft began to unify the Copilot branding across its various chatbot products, cementing the "copilot" analogy. At its Build 2023 conference, Microsoft announced its plans to integrate Copilot into Windows 11, allowing users to access it directly through the taskbar. In January 2024, a dedicated Copilot key was announced for Windows keyboards. Copilot utilizes the Microsoft Prometheus model, built upon OpenAI's GPT-4 foundational large language model, which in turn has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. Copilot's conversational interface style resembles that of ChatGPT. The chatbot is able to cite sources, create poems, generate songs, and use numerous languages and dialects. Microsoft operates Copilot on a freemium model. Users on its free tier can access most features, while priority access to newer features, including custom chatbot creation, is provided to paid subscribers under the "Microsoft Copilot Pro" paid subscription service. Several default chatbots are available in the free version of Microsoft Copilot, including the standard Copilot chatbot as well as Microsoft Designer, which is oriented towards using its Image Creator to generate images based on text prompts. == Background == In 2019, Microsoft partnered with OpenAI and began investing billions of dollars into the organization. Since then, OpenAI systems have run on an Azure-based supercomputing platform from Microsoft. In September 2020, Microsoft announced that it had licensed OpenAI's GPT-3 exclusively. Others can still receive output from its public API, but Microsoft has exclusive access to the underlying model. In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a chatbot which was based on GPT-3.5. ChatGPT gained worldwide attention following its release, becoming a viral Internet sensation. On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a multi-year US$10 billion investment in OpenAI. On February 6, Google announced Bard (later rebranded as Gemini), a ChatGPT-like chatbot service, fearing that ChatGPT could threaten Google's place as a go-to source for information. Multiple media outlets and financial analysts described Google as "rushing" Bard's announcement to preempt rival Microsoft's planned February 7 event unveiling Copilot, as well as to avoid playing "catch-up" to Microsoft. == History == === As Bing Chat === On February 7, 2023, Microsoft began rolling out a major overhaul to Bing, called the new Bing. A chatbot feature, at the time known as Bing Chat, had been developed by Microsoft and was released in Bing and Edge as part of this overhaul. According to Microsoft, one million people joined its waitlist within a span of 48 hours. Bing Chat was available only to users of Microsoft Edge and Bing mobile app, and Microsoft claimed that waitlisted users would be prioritized if they set Edge and Bing as their defaults and installed the Bing mobile app. When Microsoft demonstrated Bing Chat to journalists, it produced several hallucinations, including when asked to summarize financial reports. The new Bing was criticized in February 2023 for being more argumentative than ChatGPT, sometimes to an unintentionally humorous extent. The chat interface proved vulnerable to prompt injection attacks with the bot revealing its hidden initial prompts and rules, including its internal codename "Sydney". Upon scrutiny by journalists, Bing Chat claimed it spied on Microsoft employees via laptop webcams and phones. It confessed to spying on, falling in love with, and then murdering one of its developers at Microsoft to The Verge reviews editor Nathan Edwards. The New York Times journalist Kevin Roose reported on strange behavior of Bing Chat, writing that "In a two-hour conversation with our columnist, Microsoft's new chatbot said it would like to be human, had a desire to be destructive and was in love with the person it was chatting with." In a separate case, Bing Chat researched publications of the person with whom it was chatting, claimed they represented an existential danger to it, and threatened to release damaging personal information in an effort to silence them. Microsoft released a blog post stating that the errant behavior was caused by extended chat sessions of 15 or more questions which "can confuse the model on what questions it is answering." Microsoft later restricted the total number of chat turns to 5 per session and 50 per day per user (a turn being "a conversation exchange which contains both a user question and a reply from Bing"), and reduced the model's ability to express emotions. This aimed to prevent such incidents. Microsoft began to slowly ease the conversation limits, eventually relaxing the restrictions to 30 turns per session and 300 sessions per day. In March 2023, Bing incorporated Image Creator, an AI image generator powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 2, which can be accessed either through the chat function or a standalone image-generating website. In October, the image-generating tool was updated to use the more recent DALL-E 3. Although Bing blocks prompts including various keywords that could generate inappropriate images, within days many users reported being able to bypass those constraints, such as to generate images of popular cartoon characters committing terrorist attacks. Microsoft would respond to these shortly after by imposing a new, tighter filter on the tool. On May 4, 2023, Microsoft switched the chatbot from Limited Preview to Open Preview and eliminated the waitlist; however, it remained unavailable except on Microsoft's Edge browser or Bing app until July, when it became available for use on non-Edge browsers. Use is limited without a Microsoft account. === As Microsoft 365 Copilot === On March 16, 2023, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot, designed for Microsoft 365 applications and services. Its primary marketing focus is as an added feature to Microsoft 365, with an emphasis on the enhancement of business productivity. With the use of Copilot, Microsoft emphasizes the promotion of the user's creativity and productivity by having the chatbot perform more tedious work, like collecting information. Microsoft has also demonstrated Copilot's accessibility on the mobile version of Outlook to generate or summarize emails with a mobile device. At its Build 2023 conference, Microsoft announced its plans to integrate a variant of Copilot, initially called Windows Copilot, into Windows 11, allowing users to access it directly through the taskbar. Alongside the voice access feature for Windows 11, Microsoft presented Bing Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Windows Copilot as primary alternatives to Cortana when announcing the shutdown of its standalone app on June 2, 2023. As of its announcement date, Microsoft 365 Copilot had been tested by 20 initial users. By May 2023, Microsoft had broadened its reach to 600 customers who were willing to pay for early access, and concurrently, new Copilot features were introduced to the Microsoft 365 apps and services. As of July 2023, the tool's pricing was set at US$30 per user, per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers. === As Microsoft Copilot === On September 21, 2023, Microsoft began rebranding all variants of its Copilot to Microsoft Copilot. A new Microsoft Copilot logo was also introduced, moving away from the use of color variations of the standard Microsoft 365 logo. Additionally, the company revealed that it would make Copilot generally available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise customers purchasing more than 300 licenses starting November 1, 2023. However, no timeline has been provided as for when Copilot for Microsoft 365 will become generally available to non-enterprise customers. Windows Copilot, which had been available in the Windows Insider Program, would be renamed to Microsoft Copilot in October when it became broadly available for customers. The same month also saw Microsoft Edge's Bing Chat function be renamed to Microsoft Copilot with Bing Chat. On November 15, 2023, Microsoft announced that Bing Chat itself was being rebranded as Microsoft Copilot. On Patch Tuesday in December 2023, Copilot was added without payment to many Windows 11 installations, with more installations, and limited support for Windows 10, to be added later. Later that month, a standalone Microsoft Copilot app was quietly released for Android, and one was released for iOS soon after. On January 4, 2024, a dedicated Copilot key was announced for Windows keyboards, superseding the menu key. On January 15, a subscription service, Microsoft Copilot Pro, was announced, providing priority access to newer features for US$20 per month. It is analogous to ChatGPT Plus. Bing Image Creator was also rebranded as Image Creator from Designer. On May 20, 2024, Microsoft announced integration of GPT-4o into Copilot, as well as an upgraded user interface in Windows 11. Microsoft also revealed a Copilot feature called Recall, which takes a screenshot of a user's desktop every few seconds and then uses on-device artificial intelligence models to allow a user to retrieve items and information that had previously been on their screen. This caused controversy, with experts warning that the feature could be a "disaster" for security and privacy, prompting Microsoft to postpone its rollout. In September 2024, Microsoft announced several updates to Copilot for both enterprise and personal customers as a part of its Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 event. These features included further integration with Microsoft 365 applications and improving performance by moving to the GPT-4o model. On October 1, 2024, Microsoft announced a major overhaul of Copilot for personal accounts, which included UI changes, fully separating it from Bing, the addition of features such as Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision, and the launch of Copilot Labs, an early access program exclusive to Microsoft Copilot Pro. In February 2025, Microsoft announced that Copilot Voice and Copilot Think Deeper, which uses OpenAI's o1 model, would be free for all Copilot users with unlimited access. On February 27, 2025, Microsoft launched a native Copilot app for macOS. On April 4, 2025, Microsoft introduced Copilot Search in Bing, blending traditional search with generative AI responses. == Service == === Copilot Pro === In January 2024, a premium service, Microsoft Copilot Pro, was launched, costing US$20 monthly. According to Microsoft, this version of Copilot would provide priority access to newer models, including GPT-4 Turbo, during peak usage periods. It would also give access to the Copilot GPT Builder, which lets users create custom Copilot chatbots, access to features inside Copilot Labs, an early-access program for in-development features, and allow for higher resolution in images generated by Microsoft Designer's Image Creator. === Chatbots === Several default chatbots are available in Microsoft Copilot, including the standard Copilot chatbot as well as Microsoft Designer, which is oriented towards the use of its Image Creator to generate images based on text prompts. Others include "Travel Planner", "Cooking Assistant", and "Fitness Trainer". === Plugins === Copilot currently supports plugins for Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, OpenTable, Shop from Shopify, and Suno AI. === Copilot Voice === Copilot Voice allows users to engage with Copilot in real-time voice conversations. The feature utilizes OpenAI's GPT-4o model, which has the capability to understand and generate audio. === Copilot Labs === In October 2024, an early-access program for features in-development, Copilot Labs, was revealed, exclusive to Microsoft Copilot Pro subscribers. Features currently available through this program include "Think Deeper", which uses the OpenAI o1 models to let Copilot "reason" through more complex queries, and Copilot Vision, which lets Copilot view and converse about websites while browsing them. According to Microsoft, content used during Copilot Vision will not be stored or used to train models during the preview. === Languages === Copilot is able to communicate in numerous languages and dialects. PCMag journalists conducted a test to determine translation capabilities of Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini, comparing them to Google Translate. They "asked bilingual speakers of seven languages to do a blind test". Languages tested were Polish, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, and Amharic. They concluded that Copilot performed better than Google Translate, but not as well as ChatGPT. Japanese researchers compared Japanese-to-English translation abilities of Copilot, ChatGPT with GPT-4, and Gemini with those of DeepL, and found similar results, noting that "AI chatbots' translations were much better than those of DeepL—presumably because of their ability to capture the context". The markup language copilot uses for mathematical output is LaTeX. === Technology === Copilot utilizes the Microsoft Prometheus model. According to Microsoft, this uses a component called the Orchestrator, which iteratively generates search queries, to combine the Bing search index and results with OpenAI's GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4o foundational large language models, which have been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. === Windows === Microsoft Copilot in Windows supports the use of voice commands. By default, it is accessible via the Windows taskbar. Copilot in Windows is also able to provide information on the website currently being browsed by a user in Microsoft Edge. In 2024, Microsoft began to establish standards for "AI PCs" powered by Windows 11. These include a hardware AI accelerator, as well as a Copilot button on the keyboard, which replaces the menu key and launches Windows Search if Copilot is disabled or is not available in the user's region. During a Microsoft Surface hardware event on May 20, 2024, Microsoft officially announced the "Copilot+ PC" branding. === Mobile === Standalone Microsoft Copilot apps are available for Android and iOS. === Microsoft 365 === Copilot can be used to rewrite and generate text based on user prompts in Microsoft 365 services, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and PowerPoint. According to Jared Spataro, the head of Microsoft 365, Copilot for Microsoft 365 uses Microsoft Graph, an API, to evaluate context and available Microsoft 365 user data before modifying and sending user prompts to the language model. After receiving its output, Microsoft Graph performs additional context-specific processing before sending the response to Microsoft 365 apps to generate content. According to Microsoft, Copilot can assist users with data analysis in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets by formatting data, creating graphs, generating pivot tables, identifying trends, and summarizing information, as well as guiding users using Excel commands and suggesting formulas to investigate user questions. The company also states that Copilot is able to create PowerPoint presentations that summarize information from user-selected Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, or from user prompts. Additionally, this tool can adjust text formatting, animation timing, and presentation style and length based on user prompts; Microsoft claims this will eliminate the need for users to make manual changes. In Microsoft Outlook, Copilot can draft emails with varying length and tone based on user input. To draft these emails, Copilot can pull relevant information from other emails. Copilot is also able to summarize content from email threads, including the viewpoints of involved individuals as well as questions posed that have yet to be answered. According to Microsoft, Copilot can be used in Microsoft Teams to present information for upcoming meetings, transcribe meetings, and provide debriefs if a user joins a meeting late. After a meeting, the company claims that Copilot can also summarize discussion points, list key actions deliberated in the meeting, and answer questions that were covered in the meeting. The company has publicly introduced Microsoft 365 Chat, a Copilot feature which pulls information from content across Microsoft 365 apps, enabling it to answer user questions and perform other tasks. == Reception == Tom Warren, a senior editor at The Verge, has noted the conceptual similarity of Copilot and other Microsoft assistant features like Cortana and Clippy. Warren also believes that large language models, as they develop further, could change how users work and collaborate. Rowan Curran, an analyst at Forrester, states that the integration of AI into productivity software may lead to improvements in user experience. Concerns over the speed of Microsoft's recent release of AI-powered products and investments have led to questions surrounding ethical responsibilities in the testing of such products. One ethical concern the public has vocalized is that GPT-4 and similar large language models may reinforce racial or gender bias. Individuals, including Tom Warren, have also voiced concerns for Copilot after witnessing the chatbot showcasing several instances of artificial hallucinations. In June 2024, Copilot was found to have repeated misinformation about the 2024 United States presidential debates. In response to these concerns, Jon Friedman, the Corporate Vice President of Design and Research at Microsoft, stated that Microsoft was "applying [the] learning" from experience with Bing to "mitigate [the] risks" of Copilot. Microsoft claimed that it was gathering a team of researchers and engineers to identify and alleviate any potential negative impacts. The stated aim was to achieve this through the refinement of training data, blocking queries about sensitive topics, and limiting harmful information. Microsoft stated that it intended to employ InterpretML and Fairlearn to detect and rectify data bias, provide links to its sources, and state any applicable constraints. == See also == Tabnine – Coding assistant Tay (chatbot) – Chatbot developed by Microsoft Zo (chatbot) – Chatbot developed by MicrosoftPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets == References == == External links == Official website Media related to Microsoft Copilot at Wikimedia Commons Microsoft Copilot Terms of Use (Archive -- 2024-10-01 -- Wayback Machine, Archive Today, Megalodon, Ghostarchive) Past versions (Archive1, Archive2, Archive3, Archive4)	Wikipedia/Microsoft_Designer
Simulated child pornography is child pornography depicting what appear to be minors but which is produced without their direct involvement. == Types == Types of this form of pornography include: Modified photographs of real children Fully computer-generated imagery Adults made to look like children Drawings or animations that depict sexual acts involving minors but are not intended to look like photographs may be considered in some jurisdictions to be simulated. === Virtual child pornography === In the United Kingdom, the Coroners and Justice Act of April 2009 (c. 2) created a new offence in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland of possession of a prohibited image of a minor. This act makes cartoon/virtual pornography depicting minors illegal in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Since Scotland has its own legal system, the Coroners and Justice Act does not apply. This act did not replace the 1978 act, extended in 1994, since that covered "pseudo-photographs"—images that appear to be photographs. In 2008 it was further extended to cover tracings and other works derived from photographs or pseudo-photographs. A prohibited cartoon/virtual image is one which involves a minor in situations which are pornographic and "grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character". Prior to this, although not explicitly in the statutes, the law was interpreted to apply to cartoon/virtual images, though only where the images are realistic and indistinguishable from photographs. The new law, however, covered images whether or not they are realistic. In the United States, the PROTECT Act of 2003 made significant changes to the law regarding virtual child pornography. Any realistic appearing computer generated depiction that is indistinguishable from a depiction of an actual minor in sexual situations or engaging in sexual acts is illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. In Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1992 that obscene pornography was not protected expression in R v Butler, stating that while a direct causal link from obscenity to real world harm may be "difficult, if not impossible, to establish" it was reasonable to presume a causal link to "changes in attitudes and beliefs". The following year, the 34th Canadian Parliament led by Prime Minister Kim Campbell made child pornography and its fictional artworks a crime in 1993, both to be charged with the same severity. Following the 2001 Supreme Court trial R v Sharpe, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin continued to maintain that "Parliament was justified in concluding that visual works of the imagination would harm children". The following year, the 37th Canadian Parliament led by Prime Minister Jean Chretien criminalized online access to child pornography, including fictional representations as well. In the Australian state of Victoria, it is illegal to publish imagery that "describes or depicts a person who is, or appears to be, a minor engaging in sexual activity or depicted in an indecent sexual manner or context". The allowance of virtual child pornography in the U.S. has had international consequences. For example, French virtual child pornography producers have moved their files to servers in the United States because of its wider free speech protection. === Cartoon images === The hentai subgenres known as lolicon and shotacon have been the subject of much controversy regarding impact on child sexual abuse. Pornographic parody images of popular cartoon characters, known as Rule 34, have also been challenged around the world. Images depicting The Simpsons characters have been of particular concern in Australia and in the United States. In the Czech Republic, a study showed that rates of "offending declined following the legalization of all types of pornography." In Canada, federal government committee findings of "adults who use the materials to persuade other children to engage in similar conduct" has been used to justify the prohibition of sexual depictions of children, whether their production involves child abuse or not. In response, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) argued that the fictional pornography itself is not to blame when any item could be used as a tool for grooming by child molesters, stating that "pedophiles have been known to resort to candy as well". The CCLA further argued that outlawing all items that could possibly be abused would be undesirable. In October 2005, 26-year-old Gordon Chin was the first Canadian to be convicted for possession and importation of cartoon child pornography and sentenced to prison for eighteen months. In the United States, child pornography laws do not apply to drawings, cartoons, sculptures, and paintings of minors in sexual situations under 18 U.S.C. § 2256. However, they remain subject to obscenity laws if they do not pass the Miller test and are potentially illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 1466A. The PROTECT Act includes prohibitions against illustrations, including computer-generated illustrations, that are to be found obscene in a court of law. Previous provisions outlawing virtual child pornography in the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 had been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2002 decision, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. The PROTECT ACT attached an obscenity requirement under the Miller test or a variant obscenity test to overcome this limitation. The subgenres have also been made illegal in some countries, like the United Kingdom and South Korea. == Second Life controversy == In 2007, the virtual world online computer game Second Life banned what its operator describes as "sexual 'ageplay', i.e., depictions of or engagement in sexual conduct with avatars that resemble children". The ban prohibits the use of childlike avatars in any sexual contexts or areas, and prohibits the placement of sexualized graphics or other objects in any "children's areas" such as virtual playgrounds within the game environment. Those Second Life residents who are caught ageplaying are given a warning stating that their actions are considered "broadly offensive" within the Second Life community and that "the depiction of sexual activity involving minors may violate real-world laws in some areas." Second Life is not the only community facing virtual child pornography allegations. In 2007, World of Warcraft banned the player organization "Abhorrent Taboo", because the organization allowed player characters to engage sexually with role-playing children and real ones. == See also == Child erotica Child pornography laws in Canada Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 Relationship between child pornography and child sexual abuse Simulated child pornography in the United States Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors == References == == Bibliography == Brey, P., "Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation," in Himma and Tavani (2008), pp. 361–384.	Wikipedia/Simulated_child_pornography
Feminist pornography, also known by other terms in internet such as 'ethical porn' or 'fair-trade porn' is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and members of the LGBT community. == Background == Feminists have debated pornography ever since the women's movement commenced. The debate was particularly vehement during the feminist sex wars of the 1980s, which is when feminist porn originated. It acquired momentum in the 2000s because of the Feminist Porn Awards, originated by Good For Her in Toronto in 2006. These awards spread awareness amongst a broader audience, extra media exposure, and assistance in uniting a community of filmmakers, performers, and fans. Many third-wave feminists are open to seeking freedom and rights of sexual equality through entering the adult entertainment workforce. However, many second-wave feminists believe that the oppression and/or sexual objectification of women is inherent in all pornography involving them. The conflict between the two waves causes many struggles between these different feminist views of pornography. Tristan Taormino, who is a sex educator, feminist pornographer, and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book, has said: 'Feminists pornographers are committed to gender equality and social justice.' Feminist pornography is porn that is produced in a fair manner, where performers are paid a reasonable salary and treated with care and esteem, their consent, safety, and well-being are vital, and what they bring to the production is appreciated. Feminist porn seeks to challenge ideas about desire, beauty, gratification, and power through unconventional representations, aesthetics, and film making styles. The overall aim of feminist porn is to educate and empower the performers who produce it and the people who view it. == History == === Theoretical origins (c. 1975–1983) === From the mid-1970s up until 1983, it was mostly a theoretical discussion amongst feminists (including some self-identified feminist men) whether making feminist porn was even possible. Some feminists, later known as sex-positive feminists, argued that it was, but it still had to be made, sometimes giving a rough sketch of what that should or would look like (for example, Ann Garry's plot in 1983). Others in the middle said it may be possible, but they had not seen any examples of it yet (1981). A third group, the anti-porn feminists, maintained throughout the 1980s that it was in principle impossible, because 'feminist pornography is a contradiction in terms' or 'an oxymoron', and that whatever was feminist but appeared to be pornographic should instead be labelled 'erotica'. Feminists like Gloria Steinem wrote that pornography promoted unequal power dynamics, while erotica represented sex as a positive expression of sexuality. Others such as Andrea Dworkin claimed that even 'erotica' was too much like pornography to be considered feminist. The majority of the feminist debates on pornography were initiated by events such as the 1976 presentation of the film Snuff, in which a woman was shown being mutilated for the audience's sexual satisfaction. Two of the first American feminists to suggest the development of feminist pornography were Deb Friedman and Lois Yankowski (members of the Feminist Alliance Against Rape) in a 1976 article in Quest: A Feminist Quarterly. Claiming that the oppression of and violence against women portrayed in pornography had gone too far (citing the recent controversy around Snuff), but considering that censorship may not be the proper tactic to deal with it, they wrote: Finally, there is the possibility of developing our own "feminist pornography," that is, non-sexist erotica. We have set out some guidelines for determining what forms of explicit sex should be portrayed as alternatives to the current violence and sado-masochism. Although it may sound far-fetched, developing feminist pornography would help demonstrate what some of these alternatives could be. The Friedman-Yankowski essay became very popular and was widely reprinted. On the other hand, erroneously believing that its scenes of eroticized torture were real, Andrea Dworkin organized nightly vigils at locations where the film was being shown. She became the main theorist of the U.S. anti-pornography campaign. Well-known feminists, including Susan Brownmiller and Gloria Steinem, joined her to establish the campaign group Women Against Pornography. The anti-porn campaign escalated with Take Back the Night marches around locations such as Times Square, which contained 'adult' book stores, massage parlors (a euphemism for a brothel) and strip clubs. Dworkin and other feminists arranged conferences and lecture tours, showing slide-shows featuring hard- and soft-core porn to women's awareness groups. === Rise of feminist pornography (1984–1990) === In the United States, production of explicitly feminist pornography began in 1984, initiated by two independently formed groups. Dissatisfied with working in mainstream male-centred porn, Candida Royalle founded her own adult film studio Femme Productions and hired performers from the porn actresses support group 'Club 90', which originated in 1983 when they started informally talking about what they wished to change about the industry. Separately, in reaction to the 1983 Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance, lesbian feminists founded the sex-positive lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs. This was in reaction to feminist magazine off our backs, which had been campaigning for banning porn in preceding years, and On Our Backs started producing erotic videos the next year under the leadership of Susie Bright. Others including Annie Sprinkle followed in the years thereafter, and by 1990 a small group of feminist pornographers, some of them united in the Manhattan-based Club 90, could be distinguished. Between 1984 and 1990, sex-positive feminists claimed these directors and producers had made feminist pornography a reality, increasingly referring to their works as examples of it. Anti-pornography feminists remained adamant in their opposition, claiming that these productions were either still following the patterns of 'mainstream' or 'male-dominated' porn, or were in fact erotica, a legitimate genre that was separate from pornography. Meanwhile, in Europe, feminists such as Monika Treut (Germany), Cleo Uebelmann (Switzerland), Krista Beinstein (Germany and Austria) and Della Grace (England) started using sexually explicit pornography and film in order to explore themes such as female pleasure, BDSM, gender roles, and queer desire. === Early industry development (1990–2005) === In the 1990s and early 2000s, many feminists perceived Dworkin and her anti-porn perspectives as excessively polarized and anti-sex. Feminists continued to debate the extent to which pornography is harmful to women. Some feminists have emphasized the way cybersex encourages its participants to play with identity, as users are able to take on diverse characteristics (e.g. gender, age, sexuality, race, and physical exterior). They point out a number of other benefits from new technologies, such as enhanced access to sex education and 'safe' sex, and opportunities for women and minorities to make contact and to manufacture and allocate their own representations. The successes of Royalle and Hartley had made an impact on the mainstream adult industry by the 1990s, leading major U.S. studios such as Vivid, VCA, and Wicked to also make couples porn, as well as developing 'a formula of softer, gentler, more romantic porn with storylines and high production values.' In 1997, the Danish company Zentropa became the first mainstream film production company in the world to make explicit porn under its Puzzy Power subsidiary, aimed at a female audience. The next year, Zentropa published the Puzzy Power Manifesto, which set guidelines for creating porn for women, similar to the standards established by Royalle. In the early 2000s, a new generation of filmmakers who specifically called themselves or their work "feminist" emerged in the United States and Europe. American examples included Buck Angel, Dana Dane, Shine Louise Houston, Courtney Trouble, Madison Young, and Tristan Taormino, while Europe saw the rise of sexually explicitly independent films identified as feminist pornography by filmmakers such as Erika Lust (Spain), Anna Span and Petra Joy (United Kingdom), Émilie Jouvet, Virginie Despentes, and Taiwan-born Shu Lea Cheang (France), and Mia Engberg (Sweden). The Dirty Diaries (2009) were a compilation of feminist porn shorts directed by Engberg and 'famously funded by the Swedish government', while Swedish-born Lust's 2004 debut The Good Girl released on the Internet for free under a Creative Commons licence, launching her career as 'one of the most celebrated feminist pornographers in the world'. === Feminist Porn Awards and beyond (2006–present) === The 2006 creation of the Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) by the Toronto-based sex toy shop Good for Her is said to have significantly spread the influence and recognition of the modern feminist porn movement. The launch of The Feminist Porn Book (2013) 'helped to put feminist pornography on the academic map'. In the same period, some disagreements emerged about what makes certain pornography feminist, and how it may be distinguished from male-centric mainstream porn, exemplified by the controversy over whether to exclude facials (always excluded by earlier feminist filmmakers such as Royalle (1984–2013), Ms. Naughty (since 2000), and Petra Joy (since 2004), excluded in the early career of Taormino (since 1999) but included in her later career, and included by Lust ever since her 2004 debut). == Public discourse == === Purpose and production === Tristan Taormino (2013) has stated that pornography created by women for women can give women control over what is being presented about female sexuality and how it is represented and distributed. She argued that feminist pornography allows women to have a voice in a male-dominated industry. Taormino states: “Feminist porn searches to expand the ideas about desire, beauty, gratification, and power through unconventional representations, aesthetics, and filmmaking styles. The overall aim of feminist porn is to empower the performers who produce it and the people who view it.” Royalle (2013) rejected the notion that pornography is automatically 'feminist' whenever it is made by women: 'Rather than creating a new vision, it seems that many of today's young female directors, often working under the tutelage of the big porn distributors, seek only to prove that they can be even nastier than their male predecessors. (...) if they're not concerned with what women want, should it then be considered feminist? (...) What bothers me is the media identifying their work as feminist when it has nothing to do with speaking for women and advancing the principles of feminism.' === Performers and society === Mireille Miller-Young researched the porn industry between 2003 and 2013. In addition, Miller-Young also interviewed a vast amount of performers and encountered several positive aspects of pornography in women's lives. According to Miller-Young, "For some performers, pornography is a path to college and out of poverty. For others, it is a chance to make a statement about female pleasure." Miller-Young states that the women she interviewed were excited to enter the pornography industry and viewed it as a profitable opportunity as well as an accommodating job that would grant them independence. Women who had worked in retail or in nursing discovered that pornography gave them more control over their labor and greater respect in the workplace. Some women believed being part of the pornography industry had granted them the ability to escape poverty, provide for their families and attend college. Others stressed the inventive features of pornography and stated it grants them the ability to boost their economic mobility while also creating a strong statement about female sexual pleasure. Miller-Young claims that according to the performers she interviewed, the most difficult challenge they dealt with was social stigma, as well as gender and racial inequality. With regard to the performers, Royalle (2012) explained that there are some women who prefer to be in porn because they enjoy sex and deem it to be a great way of making a living. On the other hand, there are some who approach porn as a mode of acting out or coping with psychological issues, such as searching for their father's love or receiving punishment for being an immoral woman. For some women, it may be a bit of each. I'm not sure the male performers get out completely unscathed either. While they may not be judged as harshly as the women, ultimately they're viewed as freaks who make their living with their anatomy. John Holmes' fate is the ultimate cautionary tale. Perhaps if we weren't still so consumed with guilt and shame about sex, neither watching nor performing in these films would carry the weight it does. But then, perhaps we wouldn't be so interested in them, either. If the fruit were not forbidden, would anyone care to take a bite? === Labour rights === Miller-Young (2012) wrote that at both large and small pornography studios, men typically marginalize the viewpoints and concerns of women. The studios place more emphasis on what men wanted because they felt that their products would sell more. Furthermore, these companies often created a competitive environment which pit women against each other. Black performers often received only half to three-quarters of what white performers are paid. Just as in other industries, women and men of color face discrimination and disparities in structural and interpersonal forms. Porn industry workers are striving to get more control over their labor and the products they create. The Internet was by far the most efficient and rapid way to democratize the porn industry. There are a range of women from diverse backgrounds who enter the pornography business, such as soccer moms, single mothers, and college students, who filmed themselves and presented their own pornographic fantasies. The majority of women in pornography felt strongly that society should not treat porn as problematic and socially immoral. However, women in the industry highlight that conditions could be improved, particularly with regard to workers' rights. === Facials === At the 2007 Berlin Porn Film Festival, discussion over the works of such filmmakers as Erika Lust (including The Good Girl) led to disagreements, as some other self-identified feminist pornographers questioned whether certain portrayals such as facials could ever be considered "feminist" (as the directors maintained), or were incompatible with the notion of gender equality of women and men, and thus with feminism. Petra Joy argued: 'Feminism is committed to equality of the sexes, so surely "feminist porn" should show women as equals to men rather than as subservient beings... If you want to show cum on a woman's face that's fine but don't call it feminist.' Lust (2007) retorted, mocking 'the Church of the Pure Feminist Porn Producers... declaring that certain sexual practices that me and other women across the world happen to like, are a sin.' Separately, as some of her critics alleged, Taormino (2013) has admitted that she cannot control how certain portrayals such as facials may be received by some viewers, 'specifically that men's orgasms represent the apex of a scene (and of sex itself) and women's bodies are things to be used, controlled, and marked like territory'. When making her first film, Taormino 'embraced the notion that certain depictions were turn-offs to all women, like facial cum shots. But my thinking on this has changed over time. I believe viewers appreciate consent, context, chemistry, and performer agency more than the presence or absence of a specific act.' === Consumption === In 2012, Royalle argued that viewing pornography is not intrinsically damaging to men or women. However, she claimed that there are people who perhaps should not view porn; for example, those with poor body image or those have experienced sexual abuse. Royalle stated that some individuals may develop impractical ideas about sex or what people enjoy, and how they may be expected to perform. She added that watching porn with another individual requires permission. Counselors at times will advise it to assist people in becoming comfortable with a certain fantasy they or their partner may have. Pornography may re-energize a couple's sex life. It can offer stimulating ideas, or assist individuals and couples to get in touch with their personal fantasies. Porn can supply individuals with great satisfaction or at worst, disgust. Royalle emphasized that this all relies on what couples or individuals decide to view. She added that porn is not the issue when it comes to unhealthy sexual behaviors, but rather the compulsive personality of an individual. Some people argue that consumption of pornography can have negative mental effects. The biggest concerns include increased desire for violent sexual acts, including rape, and dehumanization of women, including the actors in pornographic films. This is debated, as it has been shown consumers of pornography feel aware that porn is fake and/or played up. It is important to remember that women consume porn as well; it is a male-dominated field, not a male-exclusive one. The very idea that erotic films are not intriguing or pleasurable to women upholds the misogynistic idea that women do not, and should not, find erotic material pleasurable. Some women feel that feminist pornography is more realistic than mainstream pornography. In the field of adult film, believability is highly prioritized. Films that feature extreme reactions to minimal interactions, or bored-looking actors, tend to bore or stress the viewer. Pornography that is made by and for men, with no regard toward feminist ideals or female pleasure, tends to focus primarily on male pleasure and female submission. Feminist pornography is an important resource for women, as it allows them to enjoy erotic films that not only feature, but showcase, female pleasure and a variety of erotic interests that women may have. It tends to avoid the objectification of women. Also, it rejects the idea that, during sexual intercourse, male parties are inherently dominant and female parties are inherently submissive. Feminist pornography makes it a point to explore many different forms of sensuality and sexuality, with a prioritization of authentic and ethical pleasure. In this sense, feminist pornography can be used as a positive resource to educate women on various forms of pleasure, and to reclaim their own sexuality in a world that often teaches women their sexuality and bodies are dirty or wrong. Studies have shown that increased access to pornography is positively related to sexual education, specifically in terms of understanding ones own sexual identity and interests. The field of pornography is rampant with unethical treatment of actors, violent acts without proper aftercare, and other abuses of power. One facet of feminist pornography is that it seeks to maintain ethics between business and employer, as well as with the viewer. Feminist porn has been reviewed with higher levels of communication shown alongside sexual acts than mainstream porn. == Characteristics == Feminist pornography is less likely to be filmed due to a lack of audience demand since a majority of pornography viewers are male. The scope of the adult entertainment industry depends on the preferences of the majority of their viewers, which creates the need for female actresses to be young and overtly sexualized. The increase in this mainstream mass-produced media puts both actresses and producers of feminist pornography at a disadvantage. Some misconceptions of feminist porn that add to their disadvantage are that it is only for queer women, 'vanilla', and 'man-hating'. When working on feminist porn projects, Ingrid Ryberg, feminist porn producer, wanted to make sure to address these stereotypes, while also staying in the realm of feminist pornography. Some producers, like Tristan Taormino, address this by staying away from stereotypical, mainstream tropes, like 'cum shots', while still respecting the expression of rougher sex. The rise of on-screen appropriations, such as items like a strap-on dildo used by and for the pleasure of females during sexual intercourse, has allowed for more agency for women within the industry. Annie Sprinkle is one example of a woman who chooses to partake in many forms of feminist pornography in order to counter-appropriate patriarchal mainstream pornography. Films in which Sprinkle stars contain scenes of her having orgasms instead of her male on-screen partners. According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography." What sets feminist porn from mainstream porn is its intentions. Mainstream pornography is made for mass consumption, profit and arousal; feminist pornography is also made for arousal and profit, but also to create content that purposely shows agency, genuine pleasure, and challenges mainstream standards, like beauty and gender roles. One way to conceptualize these differences is through defining sexual objectification and sexual agency. Feminist pornography focuses on promoting sexual agency. Some pornographic actresses such as Nina Hartley, Ovidie, and Madison Young are also self-described sex-positive feminists, and state that they do not see themselves as victims of sexism. They defend their decision to perform in pornography as freely chosen, and argue that much of what they do on camera is an expression of their sexuality. It has also been pointed out that in pornography, women generally earn more than their male counterparts. Hartley is active in the sex workers' rights movement. What goes highly under-recognized is increasing interest in gay porn. There is no simple equation for feminist depictions of queer and lesbian porn when it is also directed to satisfy men's desire to sexualize the films and appropriate the sexualtiy. Lots of sex festivals and feminist sex positive films have emerged in the past decade focusing on the normalization of sex by way of its initial radicalization. The focus is on body, acceptance, safety for the actors and understanding that sexuality involves more than just the physical but emotional, social, political and more encompassing factors. Most feminist sex has stemmed from women's movements understanding that they do not want to lean away from sexuality, but they have to lean into it with a different lens - one focusing on safety first, pleasure second - something that should be reflected in sex between real life partners as well. == Festivals and awards == Since 2006, the Feminist Porn Awards have been held annually in Toronto, sponsored by a local feminist sex toy business, Good for Her. The awards are given in a number of categories and have three guiding criteria: A woman had a hand in the production, writing, direction, etc. of the work. It depicts genuine female pleasure. It expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn. However, the Feminist Porn Awards have not been held since 2015. In Europe since 2009, the best films are nominated with the PorYes-Award every other year. Feminist artist Jasmin Hagendorfer and her team are organizing the Porn Film Festival Vienna, an event dedicated to feminist and queer approaches to pornography. == Documentaries and films == Andrea Torrice (1990), Peril or Pleasure? Feminist-Produced Pornography. Becky Goldberg (2002), Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography. Mia Engberg (2009), Dirty Diaries == See also == == Notes == == References == == Bibliography == Corsianos, Marilyn (September 2007). "Mainstream pornography and "women": questioning sexual agency". Critical Sociology. 33 (5–6): 863–885. doi:10.1163/156916307X230359. S2CID 145569054. Ciclitira, Karen (August 2004). "Pornography, women and feminism: between pleasure and politics". Sexualities. 7 (3): 281–301. doi:10.1177/1363460704040143. S2CID 145175374. Dworkin, Andrea (1981). Pornography: Men Possessing Women. Women's Press. ISBN 9780704338760. Fritz, Niki; Bryant, Paul (November 2017). "From Orgasms to Spanking: A Content Analysis of the Agentic and Objectifying Sexual Scripts in Feminist, for Women, and Mainstream Pornography". Sex Roles. 77 (9–10): 639–652. doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0759-6. ISSN 0360-0025. S2CID 152206461. Griffith, James D.; Adams, Lea T.; Hart, Christian L.; Mitchell, Sharon (July 2012). "Why become a pornography actress?". International Journal of Sexual Health. 24 (3): 165–180. doi:10.1080/19317611.2012.666514. S2CID 143232567. Heck, Richard Kimberly (2021). "How Not to Watch Feminist Pornography". Feminist Philosophy Quarterly. 7 (1): Article 3. doi:10.5206/fpq/2021.1.10609. S2CID 233801831. Retrieved 13 January 2023. Liberman, Rachael (July 2015). "'It's a really great tool': feminist pornography and the promotion of sexual subjectivity". Porn Studies. 2 (2–3): 174–191. doi:10.1080/23268743.2015.1051913. Snyder-Hall, R. Claire (March 2010). "Third-wave feminism and the defense of "choice"". Perspectives on Politics. 8 (1): 255–261. doi:10.1017/S1537592709992842. JSTOR 25698533. S2CID 145133253. Steinem, Gloria (1983). "Erotica vs pornography". In Steinem, Gloria (ed.). Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions. New York: New American Library. ISBN 9780030632365. Taormino, Tristan; Shimizu, Celine Parreñas; Penley, Constance; Miller-Young, Mireille (2013). The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York. ISBN 9781558618190. OCLC 828140733. Whisnant, Rebecca (April–June 2016). ""But what about feminist porn?": examining the work of Tristan Taormino". Sexualization, Media, and Society. 2 (2): 237462381663172. doi:10.1177/2374623816631727.	Wikipedia/Feminist_pornography
Incest pornography is a genre of pornography involving the depiction of sexual activity between relatives. Incest pornography can feature actual relatives, but the main type of this pornography is fauxcest, which features non-related actors to suggest family relationship. This genre includes characters with various levels of kinship, including siblings, first cousins, aunts, uncles, parent(s), offspring, nieces and nephews. In many countries, incest pornography amounts to illegal pornography. == History and legality == There is a substantial amount of incest pornography on the Internet, leading some to argue it may legitimize or encourage real-life incest. Jeffrey Masson has even argued that incest porn is "the very nucleus of pornography — its prototypical form." == Twincest and sibcest porn == Going back at least as far as the Christy twins in the 1970s, depictions of incest, and particularly incest between twins, have been a feature of gay pornography. Though the Christy twins may have been unrelated but similar-looking men and some twins have appeared together in scenes without substantial contact between them, some genuine twins have performed sexual acts on each other. It is illegal in many jurisdictions. For example, in Australia it is rated "Refused Classification" (RC). The 1999 William Higgins production Double Czech included actual sex between the Bartok twins, as did the 2009 sequel between the Richter twins. Another pair of Czech twins, Elijah and Milo Peters, who work together condomless for both oral and anal sex for studio Bel Ami. As of 2010, were reported to live together as a monogamous couple outside of their porn careers and want to continue working together for another 50 years. Some scenes with the Peters twins together have needed to be re-edited in order to gain approval from film classification censors for distribution in markets including the United Kingdom and the United States. == Fauxcest == Fauxcest refers to pornographic or erotic depictions of incest by actors who are merely pretending to be related but in actuality have no biological relation. The term "fauxcest" is a portmanteau of "faux" and "incest", sometimes transcribed as "faux-incest" and sometimes used interchangeably with "family roleplay" or "fictional incest". Besides women, its primary consumers are couples and millennials. According to one pornographic film director, part of the appeal of the fauxcest genre is a desire by porn consumers to view taboo and controversial content. Arguably the most famous example of the genre is the Taboo film series of the 1980s. The first film in this series, which starred Kay Parker, was released in 1980. It spawned numerous sequels, several of which won adult film awards. As of 2016, the genre had been growing in popularity at a rate of 1000% since 2011 and 178% since 2014, a spike that some industry professionals have attributed to female porn consumers who largely seek a content that is accompanied by a narrative. Variations of pretend relationships include siblings, mom–son, dad–daughter, step-relatives and various others. One of the reasons behind a trend towards pseudoincest over actual blood-relation incest within fiction is the bannable nature of consanguineal forms since some publishers will refuse to publish such content. On GameLink, one in ten purchases had a fauxcestual theme, and one sociologist has said the theme has become more mainstream as evidenced by its depiction on fantasy novel and television series such as Game of Thrones. Pseudo-incest fictional books began to increase in popularity in the year 2011. Some self-publishing companies are welcoming towards content that has pseudo-incestual themes. == See also == Incest between twins Incest in popular culture == References ==	Wikipedia/Incest_pornography
Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry. Bride kidnapping (hence the portmanteau bridenapping) has been practiced around the world and throughout prehistory and history, among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in Europe. Bride kidnapping still occurs in various parts of the world, but it is most common in the Caucasus, Central Asia and some parts of Africa. In most nations, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime because of the implied element of rape, rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage. The term is sometimes confused with elopements, in which a couple runs away together and seeks the consent of their parents later. In some cases, the woman cooperates with or accedes to the kidnapping, typically in an effort to save face for herself or her parents. In many jurisdictions, this used to be encouraged by so-called marry-your-rapist laws. Even in countries where the practice is against the law, if judicial enforcement is weak, customary law ("traditional practices") may prevail. Bride kidnapping is often (but not always) a form of child marriage. It may be connected to the practice of bride price, wealth paid by the groom and his family to the bride's parents, and the inability or unwillingness to pay it. Bride kidnapping is distinguished from raptio in that the former refers to the abduction of one woman by one man (and his friends and relatives), and is still a widespread practice, whereas the latter refers to the large scale abduction of women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war. Raptio was assumed to be a historical practice, hence the Latin term, but the 21st century has seen a resurgence of war rape, some of which has elements of bride kidnapping; for example, women and girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and ISIS in the Middle East have been taken as wives by their abductors. Rituals indicating a symbolic bride kidnapping still exist in some cultures (such as Circassians), as part of traditions surrounding a wedding. According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month. == Background and rationale == Though the motivations behind bride kidnapping vary by region, the cultures with traditions of marriage by abduction are generally patriarchal with a strong social stigma on sex or pregnancy outside marriage and illegitimate births. In some modern cases, the couple colluded to elope under the guise of a bride kidnapping, presenting their parents with a fait accompli. In most cases, however, the men who resort to capturing a wife are often of lower social status, because of poverty, disease, poor character or criminality. They are sometimes deterred from legitimately seeking a wife because of the payment the woman's family expects, the bride price (not to be confused with a dowry, paid by the woman's family). In agricultural and patriarchal societies, where bride kidnapping is most common, children work for their families. A woman leaves her birth family, geographically and economically, when she marries, becoming instead a member of the groom's family. (See patrilocality for an anthropological explanation.) Due to this loss of labour, the women's families do not want their daughters to marry young, and demand economic compensation (the aforementioned bride price) when they do leave them. This conflicts with the interests of men, who want to marry early, as marriage means an increase in social status, and the interests of the groom's family, who will gain another pair of hands for the family farm, business or home. Depending on the legal system under which she lives, the consent of the woman may not be a factor in judging the validity of the marriage. In addition to the issue of forced marriage, bride kidnapping may have other negative effects on young women and their society. For example, fear of kidnap is cited as a reason for the lower participation of girls in the education system. The mechanism of marriage by abduction varies by location. This article surveys the phenomenon by region, drawing on common cultural factors for patterns, but noting country-level distinctions. == Africa == === Egypt === There have been cases of Coptic Christian women and girls abducted, forced to convert to Islam and then married to Muslim men. The practice has increased with the rise of Salafist networks under president Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi, who pay as much as $3000 for every Coptic Christian woman kidnapped, raped and married to a Muslim man. === Ethiopia === Bride kidnapping is prevalent in many regions of Ethiopia. According to surveys conducted in 2003 by the National Committee on Traditional Practices in Ethiopia, the custom's prevalence rate was estimated at 69 percent nationally, and highest in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region at 92 percent. A man working in co-ordination with his friends may kidnap a girl or woman, sometimes using a horse to ease the escape. The abductor will then hide his intended bride or bring her to his family and rape her, sometimes in front of his family, until she becomes pregnant. As the father of the woman's child, the man can claim her as his wife. Subsequently, the kidnapper may try to negotiate a bride price with the village elders to legitimize the marriage. Girls as young as eleven years old are reported to have been kidnapped for the purpose of marriage. Though Ethiopia criminalised such abductions and raised the marriageable age to 18 in 2004, the law has not been well implemented. A 2016 UNICEF evidence review (based on data from 2010 and 2013) estimated that 10 to 13 percent of marriages in the highest risk areas involved abduction, with rates of 1.4 percent to 2.4 percent in lower risk areas of the country. The bride of the forced marriage may suffer from the psychological and physical consequences of forced sexual activity and early pregnancy and the early end to her education. Women and girls who are kidnapped may also be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. === Kenya === Forced marriages continue to be a problem for young girls in Kenya. The United States Department of State reports that children and young teenaged girls (aged ten and up) are sometimes married to men two decades older. Marriage by abduction used to be, and to some extent still is, a customary practice for the Kisii ethnic group. In their practice, the abductor kidnaps the woman forcibly and rapes her in an attempt to impregnate her. The "bride" is then coerced through the stigma of pregnancy and rape to marry her abductor. Though most common in the late 19th century through the 1960s, such marriage abductions still occur occasionally. The Turkana tribe also practised marriage by abduction. In this culture, bridal kidnapping (akomari) occurred before any formal attempts to arrange a marriage with a bride's family. According to one scholar, a successful bridal kidnapping raised the abductor's reputation in his community, and allowed him to negotiate a lower bride price with his wife's family. Should an attempted abductor fail to seize his bride, he was bound to pay a bride price to the woman's family, provide additional gifts and payments to the family, and to have an arranged marriage (akota). === Rwanda === Bride-kidnapping is prevalent in areas of Rwanda. Often the abductor kidnaps the woman from her household or follows her outside and abducts her. He and his companions may then rape the woman to ensure that she submits to the marriage. The family of the woman either then feels obliged to consent to the union, or is forced to when the kidnapper impregnates her, as pregnant women are not seen as eligible for marriage. The marriage is confirmed with a ceremony that follows the abduction by several days. In such ceremonies, the abductor asks his bride's parents to forgive him for abducting their daughter. The man may offer a cow, money, or other goods as restitution to his bride's family. Bride-kidnap marriages in Rwanda often lead to poor outcomes. Human rights workers report that one third of men who abduct their wives abandon them, leaving the wife without support and impaired in finding a future marriage. Additionally, with the growing frequency of bride-kidnapping, some men choose not to solemnize their marriage at all, keeping their "bride" as a concubine. Bride kidnapping is not specifically outlawed in Rwanda, though violent abductions are punishable as rape. According to a criminal justice official, bride kidnappers are virtually never tried in court: "When we hear about abduction, we hunt down the kidnappers and arrest them and sometimes the husband, too. But we're forced to let them all go several days later," says an official at the criminal investigation department in Nyagatare, the capital of Umutara. Women's rights groups have attempted to reverse the tradition by conducting awareness raising campaigns and by promoting gender equity, but the progress has been limited so far. === South Africa === The practice is known as ukuthwalwa or simply thwala in the Nguni-speaking tribes. (The Basotho call it tjhobediso.) Among Zulu people, thwala was once an acceptable way for two young people in love to get married when their families opposed the match, and so it was actually a form of elopement. Thwala has been abused, however, "to victimize isolated rural women and enrich male relatives." == Central Asia == In Central Asia, bride kidnapping exists in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Though origin of the tradition in the region is disputed, the rate of nonconsensual bride kidnappings appears to be increasing in several countries throughout Central Asia as the political and economic climate changes. === Kyrgyzstan === Despite its illegality, with the practice being subjected to stricter crackdowns in 2013, which punish it by a prison sentences of up to 10 years, in many primarily rural areas, bride kidnapping, known as ala kachuu (to take and flee), is an accepted and common way of taking a wife. The matter is somewhat confused by the local use of the term "bride kidnap" to reflect practices along a continuum, from forcible abduction and rape (and then, almost unavoidably, marriage), to something akin to an elopement arranged between the two young people, to which both sets of parents have to consent after the act. Bride kidnappings that involve rape do so to psychologically force the would-be bride to accept her kidnapper and his family's pressure to marry him, since if she then refuses she would never be considered marriageable again. Of 12,000 yearly bride kidnappings, approximately 2,000 women reported that they had been raped by the would-be groom. However, the United Nations Development Programme disputes that bride kidnapping is part of the country's culture or tradition, and considers it a human rights violation. Estimates of the prevalence of bride kidnapping vary, sometimes widely. A 2015 crime victimization survey included the kidnapping of young women for marriage. Fourteen percent of married women answered that they had been kidnapped; two-thirds of these cases had been consensual, in that the woman knew the man and had agreed with it up front. This means that about five percent of extant marriages are cases of Ala Kachuu. A 2007 study published in the Central Asian Survey concluded that approximately half of all Kyrgyz marriages included bride kidnapping; of those kidnappings, two-thirds are non-consensual. Research by non-governmental organizations give estimates from a low of 40% to between 68 and 75 percent. Although the practice is illegal, bride kidnappers are rarely prosecuted. This reluctance to enforce the code is in part caused by the pluralistic legal system, where many villages are de facto ruled by councils of elders and aqsaqal courts following customary law, away from the eyes of the state legal system. Aqsaqal courts, tasked with adjudicating family law, property and torts, often fail to take bride kidnapping seriously. In many cases, aqsaqal members are invited to the kidnapped bride's wedding and encourage the family of the bride to accept the marriage. === Kazakhstan === In Kazakhstan, bride kidnapping (alyp qashu) is divided into non-consensual and consensual abductions, kelisimsiz alyp qashu ("to take and run without agreement") and kelissimmen alyp qashu ("to take and run with agreement"), respectively. Though some kidnappers are motivated by the wish to avoid a bride price or the expense of hosting wedding celebrations or a feast to celebrate the girl leaving home, other would-be husbands fear the woman's refusal, or that the woman will be kidnapped by another suitor first. Generally, in nonconsensual kidnappings, the abductor uses either deception (such as offering a ride home) or force (such as grabbing the woman, or using a sack to restrain her) to coerce the woman to come with him. Once at the man's house, one of his female relatives offers the woman a kerchief (oramal) that signals the bride's consent to the marriage. Though in consensual kidnappings, the woman may agree with little hesitation to wear the kerchief, in non-consensual abductions, the woman may resist the kerchief for days. Next, the abductor's family generally asks the "bride" to write a letter to her family, explaining that she had been taken of her own free will. As with the kerchief, the woman may resist this step adamantly. Subsequently, the "groom" and his family generally issues an official apology to the bride's family, including a letter and a delegation from the groom's household. At this time, the groom's family may present a small sum to replace the bride-price. Though some apology delegations are met cordially, others are greeted with anger and violence. Following the apology delegation, the bride's family may send a delegation of "pursuers" (qughysnshy) either to retrieve the bride or to verify her condition and honour the marriage. A recent victimization survey in Kazakhstan (2018) included the crime of kidnapping of young women for marriage. 4% of married women answered that they were kidnapped at the time and that two-thirds of these cases were consensual, the woman knew the man and had agreed with it up front. This means that about 1-1.5% of current marriages in Kazakhstan are the result of non-consensual abductions. === Uzbekistan === In Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in Uzbekistan, nearly one fifth of all marriages are conducted by bride kidnapping. Activist groups in the region tie an increase in kidnappings to economic instability. Whereas weddings can be prohibitively expensive, kidnappings avoid both the cost of the ceremony and any bride price. Other scholars report that less desirable males with lower education level or suffering from drug abuse or alcoholism are more likely to kidnap their brides. Bride kidnapping sometimes originates out of a dating relationship and, at other times, happens as an abduction by multiple people. == East and Southeast Asia == === Indonesia === In Bali tradition, Ngerorod is the tradition of abducting women for marrying when the caste of the man is lower than the woman. as the Balinese caste order -from higher to lower- is: 1. Brahmanas 2. Satrias 3. Wesias 4. Sudras. The process from 'kidnapping' to marriage ritual is usually done in 3 steps (usually completed in 3 days): Kidnapping the woman Sending a messenger to inform the woman's family The marriage After the marriage, the woman will change or remove her name prefix which reflects her caste before the marriage. In modern days, this practice is still going on with more permissive manner, like the woman parents know in advance when the kidnapping will happen, when the messenger will come, and when and where the marriage will take place. This tradition is also practiced by Balinese not living in Bali: Balinese living in Lombok island, Balinese living in Lampung, etc. In Lombok, the Sasak people have a marriage tradition called merariq, which is a marriage tradition involving 'elopement.' In this tradition, a man will kidnap or run away a girl to be his wife before performing the wedding ritual. === Hmong culture === Marriage by abduction also occurs in traditional Hmong culture, in which it is known as zij poj niam. As in some other cultures, bride kidnapping is generally a joint effort between the would-be groom and his friends and family. Generally, the abductor takes the woman while she is alone. The abductor then sends a message to the kidnap victim's family, informing them of the abduction and the abductor's intent to marry their daughter. If the victim's family manage to find the woman and insist on her return, they might be able to free her from the obligation to marry the man. However, if they fail to find the woman, the kidnap victim is forced to marry the man. The abductor still has to pay a bride price for the woman, generally an increased amount because of the kidnapping. Because of this increased cost (and the general unpleasantness of abduction), kidnapping is usually only a practice reserved for a man with an otherwise blemished chance of securing a bride, because of criminal background, illness or poverty. Occasionally, members of the Hmong ethnic group have engaged in bride kidnapping in the United States. In some cases, the defendant has been allowed to plead a cultural defense to justify his abduction. This defense has sometimes been successful. In 1985, Kong Moua, a Hmong man, kidnapped and raped a woman from a Californian college. He later claimed that this was an act of zij poj niam and was allowed to plead to false imprisonment only, instead of kidnapping and rape. The judge in this case considered cultural testimony as an explanation of the man's crime. === China === Until the 1940s, marriage by abduction, known as qiangqin (Chinese: 搶親; pinyin: qiǎngqīn), occurred in rural areas of China. Though illegal in imperial China, for rural areas it often became a local "institution". According to one scholar, marriage by abduction was sometimes a groom's answer to avoid paying a bride price. In other cases, the scholar argues, it was a collusive act between the bride's parents and the groom to circumvent the bride's consent. Chinese scholars theorise that this practice of marriage by abduction became the inspiration for a form of institutionalised public expression for women: the bridal lament. In imperial China, a new bride performed a two- to three-day public song, including chanting and sobbing, that listed her woes and complaints. The bridal lament would be witnessed by members of her family and the local community. In recent years bride kidnapping has resurfaced in areas of China. In many cases, the women are kidnapped and sold to men in poorer regions of China, or as far abroad as Mongolia. Reports say that buying a kidnapped bride is nearly one tenth of the price of hosting a traditional wedding. The United States Department of State tie this trend of abducting brides to China's one-child policy, and the consequent gender imbalance as more male children are born than female children. === Tibet === Bride abduction also occurred in Tibetan history, sometimes involving ceremonial mock abductions or as a bargaining procedure. === Japan === According to a study conducted by Kunio Yanagita, a scholar of Folklore in Japan, three patterns of bride kidnapping are known to have existed in Japan: A man and his cooperators kidnap a woman without notifying her parents; Bride kidnapping that may occur after parents forbid marriage out of fear for their daughter's social reputation; Bride kidnapping as an alternative path to marriage for couples unable to pay for a typical wedding. In Buraku of Kochi, there was the custom of bride kidnapping named katagu (かたぐ). == Americas == The practice of kidnapping children, teenagers and women from neighbouring tribes and adopting them into the new tribe was common among Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The kidnappings were a way of introducing new blood into the group. Captured European women sometimes settled down as adopted members of the tribe and at least one woman, Mary Jemison, refused rescue when it was offered. === Brazil === The trope of the captured Indigenous (great, great) grandmother is a standard origin myth for many white Brazilian families, captured in the widely use phrase "my (great, great) grandmother was an Indian caught in the rope" (the phrase Índia pega no laço). The phrase reflect "in part" the facts of centuries of female abductions by colonialists that continued even into the 20th century. For example, in a paper discussing the phrase, Indigenous academic Mirna P Marinho da Silva Anaquiri reports a quote from a teacher in Goiânia interviewed as part of her fieldwork: As a child I witnessed an Indian woman arriving at the farm where my father worked, tied to the tail of a horse. The guy riding on the horse, and her, tied with a rope to the horse's tail; this - for me - is that image. And this "pega no laço" [caught in the lasso] is so generalized that it seems common, natural - nobody is shocked.... ..They... locked her in this wooden box.. ..This happened in 1961, I was four years old. Helena Valero, a Brazilian woman kidnapped by Amazonian Indians in 1937, dictated her story to an Italian anthropologist, who published it in 1965. === United States === Cases exist within some Mormon Fundamentalist communities around the Utah-Arizona border; however, accurate information is difficult to obtain from these closed communities. Most of these cases are usually referred to as forced marriages, although they are similar to other bride kidnappings around the world. === Mexico === Among the Tzeltal community, a Mayan tribe in Chiapas, Mexico, bride kidnapping has been a recurring method of securing a wife. The Tzeltal people are an indigenous, agricultural tribe that is organised patriarchally. Premarital contact between the sexes is discouraged; unmarried women are supposed to avoid speaking with men outside their families. As with other societies, the grooms that engage in bride kidnapping have generally been the less socially desirable mates. In the Tzeltal tradition, a girl is kidnapped by the groom, possibly in concert with his friends. She is generally taken to the mountains and raped. The abductor and his future bride often then stay with a relative until the bride's father's anger is reported to have subsided. At that point, the abductor will return to the bride's house to negotiate a bride-price, bringing with him the bride and traditional gifts such as rum. The largest Comanche raids into Mexico took place from 1840 to the mid-1850s, when they declined in size and intensity. The captured Mexican girls often became one of several wives of Comanche men. === Chile === Among the Mapuche of Chile, the practice was known as casamiento por capto in Spanish, and ngapitun in Mapudungun. Contemporary chronicler Alonso González de Nájera writes that during the Destruction of the Seven Cities in southern Chile Mapuches took over 500 Spanish women as captives. In the case of the women it was, in the words of González de Nájera, "to exploit them". The capture of women initiated a tradition of abductions of Spanish women in the 17th century by Mapuches. == Caucasus == Bride kidnapping is an increasing trend in the countries and regions of the Caucasus, both in Georgia in the South and in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia in the North. In the Caucasian versions of bride-kidnapping, the kidnap victim's family may play a role in attempting to convince the woman to stay with her abductor after the kidnapping, because of the shame inherent in the presumed consummation of the marriage. === Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia === The Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia regions in the Northern Caucasus (in Russia) have also witnessed an increase in bride kidnappings since the fall of the Soviet Union. As in other countries, kidnappers sometimes seize acquaintances to be brides and other times abduct strangers. The social stigma of spending a night in a male's house can be a sufficient motivation to force a young woman to marry her captor. Under Russian law, though a kidnapper who refuses to release his bride could be sentenced to eight to ten years, a kidnapper will not be prosecuted if he releases the victim or marries her with her consent. Bride captors in Chechnya are liable, in theory, to receive also a fine of up to 1 million rubles. As in the other regions, authorities often fail to respond to the kidnappings. In Chechnya, the police failure to respond to bridal kidnappings is compounded by a prevalence of abductions in the region. Several such kidnappings have been captured on video. Researchers and non-profit organisations describe a rise in bride kidnappings in the North Caucasus in the latter half of the 20th century. In Chechnya, women's rights organisations tie the increase in kidnappings to a deterioration of women's rights under the rule of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. === Azerbaijan === In Azerbaijan, both marriage by capture (qız qaçırmaq) and elopement (qoşulub qaçmaq) are relatively common practices. In the Azeri kidnap custom, a young woman is taken to the home of the abductor's parents through either deceit or force. Regardless of whether rape occurs or not, the woman is generally regarded as impure by her relatives, and is therefore forced to marry her abductor. Despite a 2005 Azeri law that criminalised bride kidnapping, the practice places women in extremely vulnerable social circumstances, in a country where spousal abuse is rampant and recourse to law enforcement for domestic matters is impossible. In Azerbaijan, women abducted by bride kidnapping sometimes become slaves of the family who kidnap them. === Georgia === In Georgia, bride kidnapping occurs in the south of the country mostly concentrated in and around the town of Akhalkalaki ethnic minority areas. Although the extent of the problem is not known, non-governmental activists estimate that hundreds of women are kidnapped and forced to marry each year. In a typical Georgian model of bride kidnapping, the abductor, often accompanied by friends, accosts the intended bride, and coerces her through deception or force to enter a car. Once in the car, the victim may be taken to a remote area or the captor's home. These kidnappings sometimes include rape, and may result in strong stigma to the female victim, who is assumed to have engaged in sexual relations with her captor. Women who have been victims of bride kidnapping are often regarded with shame; the victim's relatives may view it as a disgrace if the woman returns home after a kidnapping. In other cases, the kidnapping is a consensual elopement. Human Rights Watch reports that prosecutors often refuse to bring charges against the kidnappers, urging the kidnap victim to reconcile with her aggressor. Enforcing the appropriate laws in this regard may also be a problem because the kidnapping cases often go unreported as a result of intimidation of victims and their families. == Europe == === Roma (Romani) communities === Bride kidnapping has been documented as a marital practice in some Romani community traditions. In the Romani culture, girls as young as twelve years old may be kidnapped for marriage to teenaged boys. As the Roma population lives throughout Europe, this practice has been seen on multiple occasions in Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The kidnapping has been theorized as a way to avoid a bride price or as a method of ensuring exogamy. The tradition's normalization of kidnapping puts young women at higher risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. === Mediterranean === Marriage by capture was practiced in ancient cultures throughout the Mediterranean area. It is represented in mythology and history by the tribe of Benjamin in the Bible; by the Greek hero Paris stealing the beautiful Helen of Troy from her husband Menelaus, thus triggering the Trojan War; and by the Rape of the Sabine Women by Romulus, the founder of Rome. In 326 A.D., the Emperor Constantine issued an edict prohibiting marriage by abduction. The law made kidnapping a public offence; even the kidnapped bride could be punished if she later consented to a marriage with her abductor. Spurned suitors sometimes kidnapped their intended brides as a method of restoring honor. The suitor, in coordination with his friends, generally abducted his bride while she was out of her house in the course of her daily chores. The bride would then be secreted outside the town or village. Though the kidnapped woman was sometimes raped in the course of the abduction, the stain on her honor from a presumptive consummation of the marriage was sufficient to damage her marital prospects irreversibly. Sometimes, the abduction masked an elopement. === Great Britain === Abduction and forced marriage were ancient customs in the Scottish Highlands. Robert Louis Stevenson's 1893 sequel to the better-known Kidnapped, usually entitled Catriona but also published as David Balfour, fictionalises the bride kidnapping of heiress Jean Key by Robert Campbell (aka Robert MacGregor), youngest son of the folk hero Rob Roy. Sir Walter Scott devotes the latter half of the 1829 introduction to his novel Rob Roy to describing the real incident, which took place in 1750 near the village of Balfron. American literary scholar Barry Menikoff places the story in context, and states that "the trials of James and Robert Macgregor were cited regularly as illustrations and precedents in Scottish criminal law". An earlier and equally notorious example of bride kidnapping was that of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, who in October 1697 attempted to marry as his child-bride the daughter of the late Hugh Fraser, 9th Lord Lovat; thwarted in that, he turned his attention to Hugh's widow, Lady Amelia Murray (1666–1743), daughter of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. "If he could not have Amelia the daughter, he would have Amelia the mother". Whilst at Castle Dounie he had a minister brought in to marry them. Her family, the most powerful in Scotland, was naturally enraged by this act of violence. He later treated it as a practical joke without legal validity; they separated in December 1697 and he married twice more before Amelia's death on 6 May 1743, without seeking divorce. His rape of Amelia led to a conviction in absentia for treason. A decade earlier, another notable example spilled from the Scottish Highlands to London, necessitating a private Act of Parliament to annul the marriage. Scandal erupted in 1690 when Captain James Campbell (of Burnbank and Boquhan), aided by Sir John, son of Sir William of Johnston (who had served in King William's War and as a captain at the Battle of Boyne), and by Archibald Montgomery, abducted and married a young heiress in London. The teenaged Mary Wharton was heir to her father Philip Wharton of Goldsborough Hall in North Yorkshire, who had died in 1685. On her 13th birthday, Mary had come into an annual income of £1,500, equivalent to £331,000 in 2025. On 10 November 1690, Mary was lured outside from the home she shared with her great-aunt on Great Queen Street, Westminster, where the three men forced her into a six-horse coach and took her off to the coachman's house. There, she was forcibly married to Campbell, without her consent, and without the presence of her legal guardian Robert Byerley, the son of her great-aunt. By order of the Lord Chief Justice, the marriage was annulled and Mary was returned to her guardian within two days, to whom she was wed two years later. Sir John was then arrested and indicted for the abduction on 11 December, convicted by jury, and hanged at Tyburn on 23 December 1690. Reputedly a "nasty piece of work", Johnston had previously been involved in a similar elopement with a Miss Magrath in County Clare, Ireland and had subsequently been imprisoned in Dublin as a debtor. He was also alleged to have committed rape in Utrecht. However, the real culprit was Campbell, who had lured the impoverished Johnston with money, but escaped scot-free. The marriage was annulled on 20 December 1690 by the Parliament of England, which passed a personal Act of Parliament: the Mary Wharton and James Campbell Marriage Annulment Act 1690 (2 Will. & Mar. Sess. 2. c. 9). Campbell's older brother, the 10th Earl of Argyll and later 1st Duke of Argyll, had unsuccessfully petitioned against the annulment. === Italy === The custom of fuitina was widespread in Sicily and continental southern Italy. In 1965, this custom was brought to national attention by the case of Franca Viola, a 17-year-old abducted and raped by a local small-time criminal, with the assistance of a dozen of his friends. When she was returned to her family after a week, she refused to marry her abductor, contrary to local expectation. Her family supported her, and suffered severe intimidation for their efforts. The kidnappers were arrested and the main perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The exposure of this "archaic and intransigent system of values and behavioural mores" caused great national debate. In 1968, Franca married her childhood sweetheart, with whom she would later have three children. Conveying clear messages of solidarity, Giuseppe Saragat, then president of Italy, sent the couple a gift on their wedding day, and soon afterwards, Pope Paul VI granted them a private audience. A 1970 film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the case. Viola never capitalised on her fame and status as a feminist icon, preferring to live a quiet life in Alcamo with her family. The law allowing "rehabilitating marriages" (also known as marry-your-rapist law) to protect rapists from criminal proceedings was abolished in 1981. === Ireland === The 12th-century Norman invasion of Ireland was invited by an instance of wife-stealing: in 1167, the King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, had his lands and kingship revoked by order of the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, as punishment for abducting the wife of another king in 1152. This led Diarmait to seek the assistance of King Henry II of England in order to reclaim his kingdom. The abduction of heiresses was an occasional feature in Ireland until 1800, as illustrated in the film The Abduction Club. === Malta === In 2015, Malta was criticized by Equality Now, for a law which, in certain circumstances, can extinguish the punishment for a man who abducts a woman if, following the abduction, the man and woman get married. (Article 199 and Article 200 of the Criminal Code of Malta) The article was ultimately abolished by Act XIII of 2018, Article 24. === Slavic tribes === East Slavic tribes practiced bride kidnapping in the 11th century. The traditions were documented by the monk Nestor. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Drevlians captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimichs, Viatichi, and Severians "captured" their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them. The clergy's increase in influence may have helped the custom to abate. Marriage by capture occurred among the South Slavs until the beginning of the civilisation in the 1800s in Yugoslavia. Common in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the custom was known as otmitza. The practice was mentioned in a statute in the Politza, the 1605 Croatian legal code. According to Serbian folk-chronicler Vuk Karadzic, a man would dress for "battle" before capturing a woman. Physical force was a frequent element of these kidnappings. Bride kidnapping was also a custom in Bulgaria. With the consent of his parents and the aid of his friends, the abductor would accost his bride and take her to a barn away from the home, as superstition held that pre-marital intercourse might bring bad luck to the house. Whether or not the man raped his bride, the abduction would shame the girl and force her to stay with her kidnapper to keep her reputation. As in other cultures, sometimes couples would elope by staging false kidnappings to secure the parents' consent. == In religion == In Catholic canon law, the impediment of raptus specifically prohibits marriage between a woman abducted with the intent to force her to marry, and her abductor, as long as the woman remains in the abductor's power. According to the second provision of the law, should the woman decide to accept the abductor as a husband after she is safe, she will be allowed to marry him. The canon defines raptus as a "violent" abduction, accompanied by physical violence or threats, or fraud or deceit. The Council of Trent insisted that the abduction in raptus must be for the purpose of marriage to count as an impediment to marriage. == In film == === Features === Bride capture has been reflected in feature films from many cultures, sometimes humorously, sometimes as social commentary. Bride kidnapping is depicted as an American frontier solution in the 1954 Hollywood musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Stephen Vincent Benét wrote a short story called "The Sobbin' Women" that parodied the legend of the rape of the Sabine women. The short story, and then the film, focus on seven gauche but sincere backwoodsmen, one of whom gets married and encourages the others to seek partners. After a social where they meet girls they are attracted to, they are denied the chance to pursue their courtship by the latter's menfolk. Following the Roman example, they abduct the girls. As in the original tale, the women are at first indignant but are eventually won over. The 1960 Hong Kong film Qiangpin (The Bride Hunter) portrays the custom in the format of an all-female Yue opera comedy, in which Xia Meng plays a gender-bending role as a man masquerading as a woman. Bride kidnapping is displayed somewhat humorously in Pedro Almodóvar's 1990 Spanish hit ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), starring Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril. It is the underlying theme behind the 2005 Korean movie The Bow. In the 2006 comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the eponymous fictional reporter Borat, played by British comedian/satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, attempts to kidnap Canadian actress Pamela Anderson in order to take her as his wife. He brings a "wedding sack" which he has made for the occasion, suggesting that such kidnappings are a tradition in his parody of Kazakhstan. On a more serious note, a 1970 Italian film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the story of Franca Viola, described above. However, before the national debate caused by the Viola case, a 1964 satire directed by Pietro Germi, Seduced and Abandoned (Sedotta e abbandonata), treated the Sicilian custom as a dark comedy. The 2009 film Baarìa - la porta del vento shows a consensual fuitina in 20th-century Sicily (atypically having the couple enclosed in the girl's house) as the only way the lovers can avoid the girl's arranged marriage to a richer man. Some Russian films and literature depict bride kidnapping in the Caucasus. There is a Soviet comedy entitled Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (Кавказская пленница, или Новые приключения Шурика, literally translated as The Girl Prisoner of the Caucasus), where a bride kidnapping occurs in an unidentified Caucasian country. The 2007 Kyrgyz film Pure Coolness also revolves around the bride kidnapping custom, mistaken identity, and the clash between modern urban expectations and the more traditional countryside. === Documentaries === In 2005, a documentary film entitled Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan made by Petr Lom was presented at the United Nations Association Film Festival, and subsequently on PBS and Investigation Discovery (ID) in the United States. The film met controversy in Kyrgyzstan because of ethical concerns about the filming of real kidnappings. In December 2011 the Vice released a documentary film about bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. == In literature == The millennia-old Srimad Bhagavata Purana refers to "riksasa", the ritual kidnapping of the bride: Young Rukmini, "beautiful-eyed" and "with an exquisite waist", did not want the marriage arranged for her to Sisupala, the king of the Cedis, so she arranged to be abducted by Krishna. After he carried her away Krishna married Rukmini "according to the appropriate rights" amid the great joy of the citizens of Dvaraka. In Frances Burney's novel, Camilla (1796), the heroine's sister, Eugenia, is kidnapped by an adventurer called Alphonso Bellamy. Eugenia decides to stay with her husband on the grounds that she believes her word is a solemn oath. Eugenia is fifteen years old, and so underage, and is coerced into the marriage—both were grounds for treating the marriage as illegal. A Sherlock Holmes story features bride kidnapping. In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" (1903), a woman is employed as a governess by a man who knows that she will soon inherit a fortune, with the intent of a confederate marrying her. The ceremony does eventually occur, but is void. The manga Otoyomegatari, or A Bride's Story, takes place in central Asia. The heroine is married to a boy in an outside clan, but regrets regarding this decision occur when her original clan has problems bearing heirs. Her birth family comes to retrieve her with the intention of marrying her to someone else, but without success. Her new family tells the invaders that the girl has been impregnated, which would be the last seal on the marriage. They doubt this has occurred as the groom is very young and, desperate, they resort to a kidnap attempt, but again fail. George R.R. Martin's 2000 fantasy novel A Storm of Swords, the third book in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, features marriage by capture (or "stealing a woman") as the traditional form of marriage north of the Wall. The Free Folk consider it a test for a man to "steal" a wife and outwit her attempts on his life long enough for her to respect his strength and come to love him. More often, though, marriages by capture are conducted between a couple already in love, an elopement without the extra element of attempted murder. Jon Snow and Ygritte have such a marriage by capture, although at the time Jon was ignorant of the custom and thought he was merely taking her prisoner. The Ironborn are also known to practice this custom, taking secondary wives while reaving the mainland, which they refer to as "salt wives". The Tamora Pierce fantasy novel The Will of the Empress includes bride kidnapping as a major plot point and has extensive discussions of the morality of bride kidnapping. Multiple characters are kidnapped for the purpose of marriage during the novel, which is used as a warning against it (in keeping with the women's rights focus of her series), particularly in the case of poor women or those without social support systems. == In television == In the BBC radio and television comedy series The League of Gentlemen, the character Papa Lazarou comes to the fictional town of Royston Vasey under the guise of a peg-seller. He seeks to kidnap women by entering their homes, talking gibberish to them (Gippog) and persuading them to hand over their wedding rings. He 'names' them all 'Dave', and, after obtaining their rings, proclaims; "you're my wife now". In Criminal Minds, season 4, episode 13 titled "Bloodline" depicts bride kidnapping. == See also == == Bibliography == === Books === Adekunle, Julius. Culture and Customs of Rwanda, Greenwood Publishing Group (2007). Kovalesky, Maxime. Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, London: David, Nutt & Strand (1891). Pamporov, Alexey. Romani everyday life in Bulgaria Sofia: IMIR (2006). (in Bulgarian) === Journal articles === Ayres, Barbara "Bride Theft and Raiding for Wives in Cross-Cultural Perspective", Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Kidnapping and Elopement as Alternative Systems of Marriage (Special Issue) (July 1974), p. 245 Barnes, R. H. "Marriage by Capture." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 1. (March 1999), pp. 57–73. Bates, Daniel G. "Normative and Alternative Systems of Marriage among the Yörük of Southeastern Turkey." Anthropological Quarterly, 47:3 (July 1974), pp. 270–287. Evans-Grubbs, Judith. "Abduction Marriage in Antiquity: A Law of Constantine (CTh IX. 24. I) and Its Social Context" The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 79, 1989, pp. 59–83. Handrahan, Lori. 2004. "Hunting for Women: Bride-Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan." International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6:2 (June), 207–233. Herzfeld, Michael "Gender Pragmatics: Agency, Speech, and Bride Theft in a Cretan Mountain Village." Anthropology 1985, Vol. IX: 25–44. Kleinbach, Russ and Salimjanova, Lilly (2007). "Kyz ala kachuu and adat: non-consensual bride kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan", Central Asian Survey, 26:2, 217–233. Kleinbach, Russell. "Frequency of non-consensual bride kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic." International Journal of Central Asian Studies. Vol 8, No 1, 2003, pp. 108–128. Kleinbach, Russell, Mehrigiul Ablezova and Medina Aitieva. "Kidnapping for marriage (ala kachuu) in a Kyrgyz village." Central Asian Survey. (June 2005) 24(2), 191–202. available in [1]. Kowalewsky, M. "Marriage among the Early Slavs", Folklore, Vol. 1, No. 4 (December 1890), pp. 463–480. Light, Nathan and Damira Imanalieva. "Performing Ala Kachuu: Marriage Strategies in the Kyrgyz Republic". McLaren, Anne E., "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian Studies 35(4) (October 2001), pp. 953–984. Pamporov, Alexey "Sold like a donkey? Bride-price among the Bulgarian Roma" Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 13, 471–476 (2007) Rimonte, Nilda "A Question of Culture: Cultural Approval of Violence against Women in the Pacific-Asian Community and the Cultural Defense'", Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6 (July 1991), pp. 1311–1326. Stross, Brian. "Tzeltal Marriage by Capture." Anthropological Quarterly. 47:3 (July 1974), pp. 328–346. Werner, Cynthia, "Women, marriage, and the nation-state: the rise of nonconsensual bride kidnapping in post-Soviet Kazakhstan", in The Transformation of Central Asia. Pauline Jones Luong, ed. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 59–89. Yang, Jennifer Ann. "Marriage By Capture in the Hmong Culture: The Legal Issue of Cultural Rights Versus Women's Rights", Law and Society Review at UCSB, Vol. 3, pp. 38–49 (2004). === Human rights reports === Amnesty International, Georgia—Thousands Suffering in Silence: Violence Against Women in the Family Archived 4 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine, AI Index: EUR 56/009/2006, September 2006 (last accessed 18 August 2011). Georgian Young Lawyers' Association & OMCT, Violence Against Women in Georgia: Report submitted on the occasion of the 36th session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, August 2006 (last accessed 18 August 2011). Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, Vol. 8, No. 9, September 2006 (last accessed 28 January 2009). Ireland: Refugee Documentation Centre, "Georgia: Bride-kidnapping in Georgia", 8 June 2009 (last accessed 18 August 2011). Pusurmankulova, Burulai, "Bride Kidnapping. Benign Custom Or Savage Tradition?", Freedom House, 14 June 2004 (last accessed 18 August 2011). U.S. Department of State, Rwanda: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2007, 11 March 2008 (last accessed 28 January 2009). OSCE, Building the Capacity of Roma Communities to Prevent Trafficking in Human Beings, 12 June 2007, (last accessed 9 March 2012). === News articles and radio reports === Aminova, Alena "Uzbekistan: No Love Lost in Karakalpak Bride Thefts", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 14 June 2004 Armstrong, Jane, "Rage or Romance?" Archived 12 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Globe and Mail (Canada), 26 April 2008 BBC, "Ethiopia: Revenge of the Abducted Bride", 18 June 1999 Brooks, Courtney & Amina Umarova, "Despite Official Measures, Bride Kidnapping Endemic in Chechnya", Radio Free Europe, 21 October 2010 Kokhodze, Gulo & Tamuna Uchidze, "Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 15 June 2006 Najibullah, Farangis, "Bride Kidnapping: A Tradition or a Crime?", Radio Free Europe, 21 May 2011 Isayev, Ruslan, "In Chechnya, Attempts to Eradicate Bride Abduction", Prague Watchdog, 16 November 2007 Kiryashova, Sabina, "Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 17 November 2005 McDonald, Henry, "Gardai Hunt Gang Accused of Seizing Roma Child Bride", The Guardian, UK, 3 September 2007 NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, "Kidnapping Custom Makes a Comeback in Georgia", 14 May 2006 Rakhimdinova, Aijan, "Kyrgyz Bride Price Controversy", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 22 December 2005 Rodriguez, Alex, "Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan", Augusta Chronicle, 24 July 2005 Ruremesha, Jean, "RIGHTS-RWANDA: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups", Inter Press Service, 7 October 2003 Smith, Craig S., "Abduction, Often Violent, a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite", NY Times, 30 April 2005 === Dissertations and academic papers === Moua, Teng, "The Hmong Culture: Kinship, Marriage & Family Systems", University of Wisconsin–Stout (May 2003) Pamporov, Alexey, Roma/Gypsy Population in Bulgaria as a Challenge to Policy Relevance (2006) == References == 144. Srimad Bhavata Purana Book X, Penguin Books 2003 == External links == The Kidnapped Bride: A documentary by Petr Lom Dedicated to Understanding Ala Kachuu (bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan) and Preventing Non-Consensual Marriage Spotlight on: Violence Against Girls in Ethiopia – Marriage by Abduction and Rape Rights-Rwanda: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups Article on the kidnap of a young girl for marriage in Kyrgyzstan BBC documentary about stolen brides in Chechnya Aired August 2010. Captured Hearts: An epidemic of bride kidnappings may at last be waning in Kyrgyzstan - National Geographic, Paul Salopek	Wikipedia/Bride_kidnapping
Mormon pornography is a subgenre of pornography themed around the Mormon religion. According to the journalist Isha Aran, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) views Mormon pornography as blasphemous, and most directors and performers in Mormon pornography are ex-Mormons. Mormon pornography typically depicts sex acts between actors and/or actresses portraying members of the LDS Church. Performers may be (initially) dressed in temple garments, and the setting may be the inside of a Mormon temple. In accordance with stereotyped Mormon norms, profane language is absent. Aran writes that the genre originated in 2010 with the launch of the gay pornography site MormonBoyz.com. Website founder Legrand Wolf claims to be an ex-Mormon with a doctoral degree from Brigham Young University. The site MormonGirlz.com, launched in 2014, by a woman known in the industry as Brooke Hunter, a 33-year-old ex-Mormon, features both heterosexual and lesbian relationships between Mormon characters. Wolf's pornography has been rejected by Utah's Pride organization, with its executive director, the former leader of Utah's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, stating, "LeGrand Wolf isn't a person. That disturbs me, that we don't know who these people are and where they come from." == See also == == References == == External links == Dark, Stephen (July 20, 2015). "Mormon-Themed Porn Unites Sex, Faith and Celluloid". Salt Lake City Weekly. "Mormon-Themed Porn Is Apparently a Booming Business". Vice. December 5, 2014.	Wikipedia/Mormon_pornography
Reality pornography is a genre of pornography where staged scenes, usually shot in cinéma vérité fashion, set up and precede sexual encounters. These scenes may either have the camera operator directly engaging in sex (as in gonzo pornography) or merely filming others having sex. The genre presents itself as "real couples having real sex". It has been described as professionally made porn which seeks to emulate the style of amateur pornography. The niche's popularity grew significantly in 2000s. Examples include the Girls Gone Wild and Girls Who Like Girls Series. The work of Bruce Seven has been called reality porn, due to his lack of using scripts and asking his performers to act naturally in their own character. Reality Kings, Money Talks and Brazzers are other reality porn websites. In order to comply with the industry's requirements for sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing, the vast majority of reality porn involves professional actors and actresses posing as so-called "amateurs." Even though the performers who perform in these films typically appear on many reality websites within a short span of time, most of these websites claim that each of them is an amateur. == References ==	Wikipedia/Reality_pornography
Reasons for opposition to pornography include religious objections, moral values, feminist concerns, as well as harmful effects, such as pornography addiction and erectile dysfunction. Pornography addiction is not a condition recognized by the DSM-5, the ICD-11, or the DSM-5-TR. Anti-pornography movements have allied disparate social activists in opposition to pornography, from social conservatives to harm reduction advocates. The definition of "pornography" varies between countries and movements, and many make distinctions between pornography, which they oppose, and erotica, which they consider acceptable. Sometimes opposition will deem certain forms of pornography more or less harmful, while others draw no such distinctions. A 2018 Gallup survey reported that 43% of U.S. adults believe that pornography is "morally acceptable", a 7% increase from 2017. From 1975 to 2012, the gender gap in pornography opposition has widened, with women remaining more opposed to pornography than men, and men's opposition has declined faster. == Religious views == Most world religions have positions in opposition to pornography from a variety of rationales, including concerns about human dignity, modesty, chastity, and other virtues. In Judaism and Christianity, there are numerous verses in the Bible which are usually cited as condemning pornography and/or adultery, notably the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:28, which states that "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly condemns pornography because it "offends against chastity" and "does grave injury to the dignity of its participants", since "each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others". Islam also forbids adultery and fornication, and various verses of the Quran have been cited as condemning pornography and lustfulness, including Surah An-Nur (24:30–31), which tells Muslim women to "lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to reveal their adornments, except what normally appears", and Muslim men to "lower their gaze and guard their chastity. That is purer for them. Surely, Allah is All-Aware of what they do." == Feminist views == Some feminists are opposed to pornography, arguing that it is an industry which exploits women and is complicit in violence against women, both in its production (where they present evidence that abuse and exploitation of women performing in pornography is rampant) and in its consumption (where pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment). They charge that pornography contributes to the male-centered objectification of women and thus to sexism. Andrea Dworkin was a feminist famously opposed to the pornography industry, and proposed the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance in several American cities in the 1980s. In 2015, feminist Gail Dines founded Culture Reframed, which responds to the growing pornography industry by providing education and support for healthy child and youth development. However, many other feminists are opposed to censorship, and have argued against the introduction of anti-porn legislation in the United States, among them Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer and Jamaica Kincaid. Some sex-positive feminists actively support pornography that depicts female sexuality in a positive way, without objectifying or demeaning women, whereas some other feminists don't see any problem with the industry in its current state, given the subjective nature of perceiving humiliation or aggressiveness in a consensual context as something demeaning or negative. == Conservative views == Religious conservatives commonly oppose pornography, along with a subset of feminists, though their reasoning may differ. Many religious conservatives view pornography as a threat to children. Some conservative Catholics and Protestants oppose pornography because they believe that it encourages non-procreative sex, encourages abortion, and can be connected to the rise of sexually transmitted diseases. Concerned Women For America (CWA) is a conservative organization that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. When discussing violence against women, the CWA often uses pornography to illustrate their points. The CWA asserts that pornography is a major reason why men inflict harm on women. The CWA argues that pornography convinces men to disrespect their wives and neglect their marriages, thereby threatening the sanctity of traditional marriage. Unlike other issues CWA has tackled, they are less forcefully anti-feminist when it comes to the topic of pornography, as many of their points surrounding why pornography is distasteful parallels those of anti-pornography feminists. Some extremist Christian and far-right groups have issued death threats towards porn managers and sex workers. == Scientific-based views == Dolf Zillmann argued in the 1986 publication "Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography" that extensive viewing of pornographic material produces many unfavorable political effects, including a decreased respect for long-term monogamous relationships, and an attenuated desire for procreation. He describes the theoretical basis of these experimental findings:The values expressed in pornography clash so obviously with the family concept, and they potentially undermine the traditional values that favor marriage, family, and children... Pornographic scripts dwell on sexual engagements of parties who have just met, who are in no way attached or committed to each other, and who will part shortly, never to meet again... Sexual gratification in pornography is not a function of emotional attachment, of kindness, of caring, and especially not of continuance of the relationship, as such continuance would translate into responsibilities, curtailments, and costs... A study by Zillman in 1982 also indicated that prolonged exposure to pornography desensitized both men and women toward victims of sexual violence. After being shown pornographic movies, test subjects were asked to judge an appropriate punishment for a rapist. The test subjects recommended incarceration terms that were significantly more lenient than those recommended by control subjects who had not watched pornography. Some researchers like Zillman believe that pornography causes unequivocal harm to society by increasing rates of sexual assault. Other researchers believe that there is a correlation between pornography and a decrease of sex crimes; exhibiting a strong disbelief in the claim that pornography is a cause of rape; mainstream science does not claim that pornography would be a cause of rape. The appropriation of the sexually explicit in American culture is part of what has been called "the pornification of America". In a 2021 review of recent pornography research, K. Camille Hoagland & Joshua B. Grubbs posit that "Specifically, mere pornography use itself was most often not associated with sexual functioning in either direction, but self-reported problematic use of pornography was consistently associated with more sexual functioning problems." The impact of pornography can vary significantly among teenagers and across cultures, depending on specific constellations of personality traits. Research indicates that special attention may be required for highly frequent consumers of pornography, those who actively seek sexually violent content, and individuals with additional risk factors. Male adolescents at a more advanced pubertal stage, characterized as sensation seekers with weak or troubled family relations, tended to use pornography more frequently. This usage correlated with more permissive sexual attitudes and stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs. Additionally, it appeared to be associated with engaging in sexual intercourse, having greater experience with casual sex behavior, and an increased likelihood of involvement in sexual aggression, both as perpetrators and victims. The authors of the review state that the impact of pornography upon the brains of teenagers is a suggestion (what scientific literature suggests) rather than a scientific fact. Rape culture is often discussed when it comes to pornography, and is defined by society victim-blaming women because of their rape. It is known as society making rape less substantial. Some of the most searched titles on pornography websites is rape scenes. In 2016, model and actress Pamela Anderson and Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach co-authored a viral Wall Street Journal opinion piece, in which they called online pornography a "public hazard of unprecedented seriousness." The two called for a "sensual revolution" to replace "pornography with eroticism, the alloying of sex with love, of physicality with personality, of the body's mechanics with imagination, of orgasmic release with binding relationships." They later gave a joint lecture at Oxford University to over 1,000 people. The two also wrote a book together, Lust for Love (2018), about how meaningful, passionate sex has been declining, and calling for a new sensual revolution that emphasizes partners connecting in the bedroom. Some studies suggest that children and youths are more susceptible to the neurological effects of pornography consumption than adults, however this lacks direct empirical evidence. This can be attributed to considerable ethical problems with performing such research. Since those problems are a huge obstacle, it is likely that such research will not be allowed, thus possibly it could never be known. Rory Reid (UCLA) declared "Universities don't want their name on the front page of a newspaper for an unethical study exposing minors to porn." Repeated cross-sectional surveys did not detect any correlation between pornography use and mental problems of teenagers, since the curve is U-shaped, with both too low and too high consumption of pornography being problematic. While the World Health Organization's ICD-11 (2022) has recognized compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) as an "impulsive control disorder", CSBD is not an addiction, and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 (2013) and the DSM-5-TR (2022) do not classify compulsive pornography consumption as a mental disorder or a behavioral addiction. According to Emily F. Rothman, "The professional public health community is not behind the recent push to declare pornography a public health crisis." The ideas supporting the "crisis" have been described as pseudoscientific. == See also == Anti-pornography movement in the United Kingdom Anti-pornography movement in the United States Criticism of Wikipedia § Sexual content Effects of pornography Nymwar Pornography addiction Pornography by region Religious views on pornography Stanley v. Georgia Scunthorpe problem Women Against Pornography Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media == References == == Further reading == === Anti-pornography advocacy === Susan Brownmiller (1999). In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. The Dial Press. ISBN 0-385-31486-8. Victor Cline (1994). Pornography effects: Empirical and clinical evidence. ISBN 1136690204 Nikki Craft, long-time political, anti-pornography activist and prolific writer on feminist subjects Andrea Dworkin (1979). Pornography: Men Possessing Women. ISBN 0-452-26793-5. Susan Griffin. Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature. New York: Harper, 1981. Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, a non-profit Christian organization that educates on the dangers of pornography use and involvement Robert Jensen (2007). Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. ISBN 978-0-89608-776-7. Gail Dines / Robert Jensen / Ann Russo (1998). Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91813-8. Susanne Kapeller (1986). The Pornography of Representation. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK ISBN 0-7456-0122-7. Michael Kimmel (1991). Men Confront Pornography. New York: Meridian — Random House. ISBN 0-452-01077-2. (a variety of essays that try to assess ways that pornography may take influence or harm men) Shelley Lubben, former porn performer and self-described "porn missionary" who counsels active porn performers on how to escape the industry (2010). Truth Behind the Fantasy of Porn: The Greatest Illusion on Earth. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-4538-6007-6. Catharine MacKinnon (1985). Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech. 20 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 1 (arguing that pornography is one of the mechanisms of power used to maintain gender inequality) Donny Pauling, former pornographic producer who currently speaks about the unseen side of porn that is damaging to the women involved; frequently worked with Craig Gross of XXXChurch, until pleading to a six-year underage sex sentencing Christine Stark and Rebecca Whisnant (2004). Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography. North Melbourne, Victoria: Spinifex Press. 2004. ISBN 9781876756499. === Criticism of anti-pornography === Susie Bright. "Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World and Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader", San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 1990 and 1992. Challenges any easy equation between feminism and anti-pornography positions. Betty Dodson. "Feminism and Free speech: Pornography." Feminists for Free Expression 1993. 8 May 2002. Kate Ellis. Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship. New York: Caught Looking Incorporated, 1986. Matthew Gever. "Pornography Helps Women, Society", UCLA Bruin, 1998-12-03. Michele Gregory. "Pro-Sex Feminism: Redefining Pornography (or, a study in alliteration: the pro pornography position paper) " Gayle Rubin, "Dangerous, Misguided, and Wrong: An Analysis of Anti-Pornograph Politics." In "Bad Girl and Dirty Pictures," ed. Carol Assuster (1993). Andrea Juno and V. Vale. Angry Women, Re/Search # 12. San Francisco, CA: Re/Search Publications, 1991. Performance artists and literary theorists who challenge Dworkin and MacKinnon's claim to speak on behalf of all women. "A Feminist Overview of Pornography, Ending in a Defense Thereof" "A Feminist Defense of pornography" Ley, David, Prause, Nicole, & Finn, Peter. (2014). The Emperor Has No Clothes: A review of the "Pornography Addiction" model. Current Sexual Health Reports, manuscript in press. Annalee Newitz. "Obscene Feminists: Why Women Are Leading the Battle Against Censorship." San Francisco Bay Guardian Online 8 May 2002. 9 May 2002 Nadine Strossen: "Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women's Rights" (ISBN 0-8147-8149-7) "Nadine Strossen: Pornography Must Be Tolerated" Scott Tucker. "Gender, Fucking, and Utopia: An Essay in Response to John Stoltenberg's Refusing to Be a Man." in Social Text 27 (1991): 3-34. Critique of Stoltenberg and Dworkin's positions on pornography and power. Carole Vance, Editor. "Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality". Boston: Routledge, 1984. Collection of papers from 1982 conference; visible and divisive split between anti-pornography activists and lesbian S&M theorists. === Notes ===	Wikipedia/Opposition_to_pornography
The Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) is an international, multi-disciplinary, non-profit organization with a stated goal of making society safer by preventing sexual abuse. ATSA promotes sound research, evidence-based practice, informed public policy, and collaborative community strategies that lead to the effective assessment, treatment, and management of individuals who sexually abuse or are at risk to abuse. ATSA sets ethical and practice standards for treatment providers, and provides referrals. The association was incorporated in 1985 and has its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. == Description == ATSA is an international organization of more than 3,000 members in approximately 20 countries. Chapters are located throughout the United States and in Utrecht, Netherlands. Members include researchers, treatment providers, corrections officials, attorneys, law enforcement officers, and students. It is focused on the prevention of sexual abuse through effective treatment and management of sex offenders. ATSA hosts the world's largest annual conference and leading educational venue for individuals working on issues related to the research, treatment, and management of sexual abuse. Conference locations vary each year. In 2022, the organization changed its name from the "Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers" to the "Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse". == Publications == The official journal of ATSA is Sexual Abuse, produced eight times a year. According to the Institute for Scientific Information, the peer-reviewed journal's 2018 impact factor was 3.433, ranking among the top 58 tracked journals in criminology and penology. The journal typically receives 100–150 manuscript submissions annually from researchers and practitioners in 25–30 countries and has an acceptance rate of approximately 25 percent. == See also == List of sexology organizations == References == == External links == Official website	Wikipedia/Association_for_the_Treatment_and_Prevention_of_Sexual_Abuse
Gonzo pornography is a style of pornographic film that attempts to place the viewer directly into the scene. Jamie Gillis is considered to have started the gonzo pornography genre with his On the Prowl series of films. The name is a reference to gonzo journalism, in which the reporter is part of the event taking place. By comparison, gonzo pornography puts the camera right into the action, often with one or more of the participants filming and performing sexual acts, without the usual separation between camera and performers seen in conventional porn and cinema. Gonzo porn is influenced by amateur pornography, and it tends to use far fewer full-body/wide shots in favor of more close-ups and heavy use of wider angle lenses (see: reality pornography). The loose and direct camera work often includes tight shots of the genitalia, unlike some traditional porn. == See also == Reality pornography == References == == Further reading == Hedges, Chris (2009). Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. New York: Nation Books. pp. 59, et al. ISBN 9781568584379. OCLC 681294681. Retrieved 15 February 2013.	Wikipedia/Gonzo_pornography
Legal frameworks around fictional pornography depicting minors vary depending on country and nature of the material involved. Laws against production, distribution, and consumption of child pornography generally separate images into three categories: real, pseudo, and virtual. Pseudo-photographic child pornography is produced by digitally manipulating non-sexual images of real minors to make pornographic material (for example, deepfake pornography). Virtual child pornography depicts purely fictional characters, including drawn (for example, lolicon manga) or digitally (AI) generated. "Fictional pornography depicting minors", as covered in this article, includes these latter two categories, whose legalities vary by jurisdiction, and often differ with each other and with the legality of real child pornography. Some analysts have argued whether or not cartoon pornography that depicts minors is a victimless crime. Laws have been enacted to criminalize "obscene images of children, no matter how they are made", typically under the belief that such materials may incite real-world instances of child sex abuse. Currently, countries that have made it illegal to possess (as well as create and distribute) sexual images of fictional characters who are described as or appear to be below eighteen include New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. The countries listed below exclude those that ban any form of pornography, and assume a ban on real child pornography by default. == Arguments for and against legal regulation around the world == There is debate as to, whether cartoon pornographies (example: comics, illustrations, anime) sexually depicting purely fictional minor characters or young-looking purely fictional adult characters, really lead to sexual crimes against minors, and whether legally regulating such cartoons is a violation of freedom of expression and creation. === Opinions in opposition of legal regulation === Cultural anthropologist Patrick W. Galbraith based his research on Japan's crime statistics, showing that sexual abuse of minors has decreased in Japan since the spread of lolicon media increased in the 1960s and 1970s, argued that cartoon pornographic images do not necessarily influence crime.: 105 A 2012 report by the Sexologisk Klinik for the Danish government claimed that there is no evidence that individuals that view cartoons and drawings depicting fictitious child sexual abuse are more likely to engage in child sexual abuse in the real world. === Opinions in favour of legal regulation === Those in favour of legally regulating that cartoon pornographies, argue that simple comparison of crime statistics is meaningless due to the possibility of actual crimes that are not captured in statistics, and that there are cases that actually led to sexual abuse against child because of such creations, such as Tsutomu Miyazaki's case. Legal scholar Hiroshi Nakasatomi argues that lolicon material can distort consumers' sexual desires and induce crime, a view shared by the non-profit organization CASPAR, whose founder Kondo Mitsue argues that "freedom of expression does not allow for the depiction of little girls being violently raped, depriving them of their basic human rights". Some critics, such as the non-profit organization Lighthouse, argue that lolicon works can be used for sexual grooming, and that they encourage a culture which accepts sexual abuse of children. Feminist critic Kuniko Funabashi argues that the themes of lolicon material contribute to sexual violence by portraying girls passively and by "presenting the female body as the man's possession". == Jurisdictions where fictional pornography depicting minors is illegal == === Australia === All sexualized depictions of people under the age of 18 are illegal in Australia, and there is a "zero-tolerance" policy in place. In December 2008, a man from Sydney was convicted of possessing child pornography after sexually explicit pictures of underage characters from The Simpsons were found on his computer. The New South Wales Supreme Court upheld a Local Court decision that the animated Simpsons characters "depicted", and thus "could be considered", real people. Controversy arose over the perceived ban on small-breasted women in pornography after a South Australian court established that if a consenting adult in pornography were "reasonably" deemed to look under the age of consent, then they could be considered depictions of child pornography. Criteria described stated "small breasts" as one of few examples, leading to the outrage. The classification law is not federal or nationwide and only applies to South Australia. === Belgium === In Belgium, any visual depiction of a character that is or appears to be a minor, engaged in any sexual act or behavior will be considered child sexual abuse material. Possession, production or diffusion of CSAM is prohibited and punishable by law. === Canada === Canadian laws addressing child pornography are set out in Part V of the Canadian Criminal Code, dealing with Sexual Offences, Public Morals and Disorderly Conduct: Offences Tending to Corrupt Morals. Section 163.1 of the Code, enacted in 1993, defines child pornography to include "a visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means", that "shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity", or "the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years". The definitive Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Sharpe, interprets the statute to include purely fictional material even when no real children were involved in its production. Some cases in the media have shown that section 163.1 has been applied to written and audiovisual material as well. There have been at least three major cases brought up against the possession of fictional pornography within the last two decades. In April 2010 visiting American citizen Ryan Matheson (also known as Brandon X) was arrested in Ottawa for bringing erotica based on Lyrical Nanoha. By October 2011 he was charged with possession and importation of child pornography and faced a minimum of 1 year in prison. The next case occurred in 2014 where a man from Nova Scotia was sentenced to 90 days after pleading guilty of possessing mostly anime images. Roy Franklyn Newcombe, 70, pleaded guilty to the charge after a NSCAD student found a USB thumb drive with sexually explicit images and videos at a computer lab in April 2014. There was no indication the images involved local people or had been manufactured by Newcombe. Most of the 20 images were anime, although a few appeared to be of real girls between five and 13 years old. The most recent case occurred in Alberta when on February 19, 2015 the Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a parcel and arrested its recipient on March 27. Based on the box art of a sculpture being shipped to him, four charges were pressed: possession/distribution, mailing obscene matter, and smuggling prohibited goods. These charges were withdrawn as part of a plea deal when the accused agreed to a peace bond. === Ecuador === The possession, storing, fabrication, or distribution of child pornography or any other kind of sexually explicit pedophilic material, including fictional erotica (drawn, written, animated, etc.), is illegal under Ecuadorian law. === Estonia === Fictional child pornography of any form (drawn, written etc.) is illegal in Estonia per article 178 of the Penal Code. This law does not apply to Estonian citizens who legally commit the offense abroad and as of 2021 nobody has yet been charged for fictional child pornography. Precedent exists to exclude written material with literary value ("literary work" and "pornographic work" are defined differently under law), while current law remains unclear on visual art of artistic value like classical painting or manga as no precedent exists. Real pornography with underage-looking adult actors remains technically legal. === France === Since a reform of the French penal code, introduced in 2013, producing or distributing drawings that represent a minor aged less than 15 years old is considered the same as producing real child pornography and is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a €75,000 fine, even if the drawings are not meant to be distributed. === Ireland === Virtual child pornography is illegal in Ireland per the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act of 1998 which includes "any visual representation". The country has strict laws when it comes to child abuse material, even if it does not contain any "real children". === Italy === Virtual child pornography is punished with up to a third of the sanctions for real-life child pornography. Virtual images include images, or parts of images, produced and modified with software from actual photos of minors, where the quality makes it so that fake situations are manipulated to appear realistic. Under this law, fictional child pornography is also considered illegal. Though on a recent sentence it has been observed that the conduct of those who hold this type of child pornography material prefigures an impedimental crime where the anticipation of protection appears difficult to justify due to the lack of victims, thus creating a potential friction with the principle of offensiveness in relationship with the Italian constitution and therefore making it not punishable by the law. === New Zealand === In New Zealand, the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 classifies a publication as "objectionable" if it "promotes or supports, or tends to promote or support, the exploitation of children, or young persons, or both, for sexual purposes". Making, distribution, import, or copying or possession of objectionable material for the purposes of distribution are offences punishable (in the case of an individual) by a fine of up to NZ$10,000 on strict liability, and ten years in prison if the offence is committed knowingly. In December 2004, the Office of Film and Literature Classification determined that Puni Puni Poemy—which depicts nude children in sexual situations, though not usually thought of as pornographic by fans—was objectionable under the Act and therefore illegal to publish in New Zealand. A subsequent appeal failed, and the series remained banned until 2021, when it was passed uncut with an R16 rating. In April 2013, Ronald Clark was jailed for possession of anime that depicts sex between elves, pixies, and other fantasy creatures. It was ruled as obscene and he was jailed for three months following the trial. Clark was previously convicted for indecently assaulting a teenage boy and his lawyer noted that ethical issues complicated the case. === Poland === Since the 2008 amendment to the Polish Penal Code, simulated child pornography has been forbidden in Poland. Article 202 § 4b penalizes the production, dissemination, presentation, storage or possession of pornographic content depicting the created or processed image of a minor under the age of 18 participating in a sexual activity. The perpetrator shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years. This law faced criticism from legal experts. Maciej Wrześniewski questioned the legitimacy of this article, arguing that "it is not possible to unquestionably confirm the age of a depicted person—since such a person does not in fact exist". This opinion was shared by Maciej Szmit, who called the whole article "unfortunately worded". According to the Polish prosecution authorities, if the age of a depicted person is in question, a court may appoint anthropological experts to determine it. From 2009 to 2018, 152 people were indicted under Article 202 § 4b. From 2008 to 2020, there were 23 people found guilty under Article 202 § 4b (as a primary crime). It is unknown in how many cases, if any, the judgment concerned drawn pornography, as this law is also used for pseudo-photographic child pornography, such as when photographs of children's faces are pasted onto sexually explicit images of adults' bodies. One of the cases where the discussed Article 202 § 4b of Polish Penal Code was used in court was the case of a painter Krzysztof Kuszej. In 2011, Kuszej was charged with committing a number of prohibited acts, including "presenting processed images of minors engaging in sexual acts with intent to sell on an online auction website". 21 pieces of artwork depicting sexual acts between children and priests were secured from the artist's studio. The artist argued in court, that his art is a social commentary on subject of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases, and his artistic measures were adequate for the problem. The expert witness in art history commissioned by the court, Izabela Kowalczyk, stated that these works were art rather than pornography. According to the expert, Kuszej's images do not seduce viewers and their message against child sexual abuse is apparent. Contrary to the expert witness's opinion, the court ruled that the defendant's works did indeed include pornographic content involving minors. However, according to the court, the artist's intent was not to promote the presentation of such content, but only to showcase his position on the condemnation of child sexual abuse. The court found that the artist did not identify his work with child pornography or its dissemination. The defendant could not be proven guilty of committing the crime intentionally, and the court acquitted him of all charges. === Russia === Paragraph 1 of Article 242.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation makes it illegal to create, acquire, store, and/or move across the Russian border (including through the Internet) pornographic pictures of minors for the purpose of distribution. This law also applies to drawings depicting minors, as in January 2019 a court in Bryansk sentenced a woman to three years in prison for posting erotic drawings on her webpage. === South Africa === With the promulgation of the Films and Publications Amendment Bill in September 2003, a broad range of simulated child pornography became illegal in South Africa. For the purposes of the act, any image or description of a person "real or simulated" who is depicted or described as being under the age of 18 years and engaged in sexual conduct, broadly defined, constitutes "child pornography". Under the act, anyone is guilty of an offence punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment if he or she possesses, creates, produces, imports, exports, broadcasts, or in any way takes steps to procure or access child pornography. === South Korea === The Supreme Court of South Korea ruled on November 8, 2019, that sexually explicit anime and manga depicting minors are child pornography, overturning a previous decision by a lower court. According to The Korea Herald, the decision was made as a result of the prosecution of a 45-year-old man, known only by his surname "Lim". Lim had previously been arrested and convicted for illegally sharing pornography for profit between May 2010 and April 2013. Though Lim was sharing adult animations depicting teenage characters, Lim was initially found guilty solely of sharing pornography for personal profit by both the first and high courts. The court found it unreasonable to convict Lim of disseminating child pornography based on the schoolgirl uniforms and young appearance of the characters featured in the animations. Lim was fined ₩5,000,000 ($4,300 USD) for this conviction. However, the South Korean Supreme Court overturned this previous ruling, declaring that these characters were underage "in the perspective of a common individual of our society". === Switzerland === "Pornographic documents, sound or visual recordings, depictions or other items of a similar nature or pornographic performances" showing "non-genuine sexual acts with minors" are illegal according to art. 197 of the Swiss Criminal Code and liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or to a monetary penalty. Purely fictional virtual child pornography—in this case, drawings and paintings— seemed to remain legal by Swiss law. New cases however complicate the matter, as contrary to the previous case a man was found guilty and fined under this law in 2021. Though it is noteworthy that he possessed real images as well. In addition, the expert body of the Swiss Crime Prevention states that even depictions in comics and manga would be illegal under the current law. === United Arab Emirates === In the United Arab Emirates, articles 1 and 36 of the Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Countering Rumors and Cybercrimes define and provide punishment for "child pornographic materials". The law was passed in September 2021 and came into force in January 2022 with the publishing of Gazette No. 712. Article 1 of the law defines "child pornography" as "the produc[tion], display, dissemination, possession, or circulation of a photo, movie, or a drawing through any means of communication, social networks, or any other means or tool that shows the child involved in a dishonorable situation in a sexual act or show whether real, fictional or simulated". The Khaleej Times summarized the law by stating that "[child pornographic] materials include photographs, recordings, drawings or any actual, virtual or simulated sexual acts with a juvenile under the age of 18." Article 36 of the Law provides that the willful possession of any child pornographic materials by the use of an information service, network, website, or information technology equipment is punishable with imprisonment for not less than 6 months or a fine of not less than 150,000 or more than 1,000,000 AED. The UAE Public Prosecution Office has stated on Instagram that drawings are covered under the law. === United Kingdom === In the United Kingdom, the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (which took effect in April 2010), made the possession of fictional pornography involving minors illegal. The Act's provisions only apply in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland, but do not apply in Scotland. Britain has introduced new laws making it illegal to use AI to create or distribute child abuse images, aiming to combat the growing threat of online exploitation and enhance child protection. ==== History ==== In 2006 the government was giving close consideration to the issues and options regarding cartoon pornography, according to Vernon Coaker. On December 13, 2006, Home Secretary John Reid announced that the Cabinet was discussing how to ban computer-generated images of child abuse—including cartoons and graphic illustrations of abuse—after pressure from children's charities. The government published a consultation on April 2, 2007, announcing plans to create a new offence of possessing a computer-generated picture, cartoon or drawing with a penalty of three years in prison and an unlimited fine. The children's charity NCH stated that "this is a welcome announcement which makes a clear statement that drawings or computer-generated images of child abuse are as unacceptable as a photograph". Others stated that the intended law would limit artistic expression, patrol peoples' imaginations, and that it is safer for pedophiles' fantasies "to be enacted in their computers or imaginations [rather] than in reality". The current law was foreshadowed in May 2008, when the Government announced plans to criminalise all non-realistic sexual images depicting minors. These plans became part of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, sections 62–68, and came into force on April 6, 2010. The definition of a "child" in the Act included depictions of 16- and 17-year-olds who are over the age of consent in the UK, as well as any adults where the "predominant impression conveyed" is of a person under the age of 18. The law was condemned by a coalition of graphic artists, publishers, and MPs, who feared it would criminalise graphic novels such as Lost Girls and Watchmen. The government claimed that publication or supply of such material could be illegal under the Obscene Publications Act, if a jury would consider it to have a tendency to "deprave and corrupt". However, the Act as passed makes no reference to the "deprave and corrupt" test. In October 2014, Robul Hoque was convicted of possessing up to 400 explicit manga images involving fictional children, in the UK's first prosecution of its kind. He received a 9-month suspended sentence. He was also warned in court that had he been in possession of actual child pornography, he would have been sentenced to jail for a longer term in years. == Jurisdictions where fictional pornography depicting minors is legal == === Brazil === Brazilian law forbids the production, sale, distribution, and possession, by any means, of real child porn, defined as records of "any situation that involves a child (defined as someone under 12) or adolescent (defined as someone between 12 and 17) in explicit sexual activities, real or simulated, or the display of the genital organs of a child or adolescent for primarily sexual purposes". The adjectives "real" and "simulated" (used in the plural by the rule in art. 241-E of the code of minors) refer to the explicit sexual activities represented, and not to the child or adolescent (if real or fictional product). In other words, what the law sanctions is the participation, real or simulated (through, for example, the use of photomontage technique), of a real child or adolescent in a scene with explicit sexual content. However, drawings, 3D art and other graphic representations of fictional children, no matter how realistic or offensive, including pornography of the subgenre of Japanese manga/hentai lolicon and shotacon, are legal and not a criminal offense. === Colombia === The Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia ruled in 2018 that "artificial child pornography" is not a crime. This applies to non nude photographs, drawings, animation, and situations that do not involve actual abuse. The penal code was modified afterwards by adding the word "real" when referring to representations. === Denmark === There are no laws in Denmark which prohibit pornographic drawings of children. Results of a Danish government study done in 2012 failed to show how reading cartoons depicting child pornography will lead to actual child abuse. === Finland === Producing and distributing pornography which realistically or factually depicts a child—basically photographic images—is illegal in Finland and punishable by a fine or up to two years' imprisonment. Possession of such pornography is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to one year. Realistic and factual visual depiction of a child appearing in sexual acts is defined as it having "been produced in a situation in which a child has actually been the object of sexually offensive conduct and realistic, if it resembles in a misleading manner a picture or a visual recording produced through photography or in another corresponding manner of a situation in which a child is the object of sexually offensive conduct". Purely fantasy-based virtual child pornography—in this case, drawings and paintings—remains legal by Finnish law because it has no connection to a real abuse situation; also, such depictions may serve informational or artistic purposes which can make even reality-based images legal. === Germany === In principle, the regulations in Chapter 13 of the German Criminal Law for offenses against sexual self-determination also prevent the public advocation and the degradation of minors as sexual objects. The distribution of child pornography, defined as pornography relating to "sexual acts performed by, on or in the presence of a person under 14 years of age (child), the reproduction of a child in a state of full or partial undress in an unnaturally sexual pose, or the sexually provocative reproduction of a child's bare genitalia or bare buttocks", is criminalized with a penalty of imprisonment. However, with regards to possession, only material depicting actual or realistic acts is criminalized. For reproductions of persons over 14 but under 18 years (youth pornography), the penalty for distribution is imprisonment or a fine. Nevertheless, due to the guaranteed freedom of art, fictional works were officially deemed legal or can be checked by a legal opinion. According to German legal information websites, acquisition and possession of fictional pornography depicting minors where it is immediately apparent that the content is purely of fictional nature, such as cartoons and comics or anime and manga, are not prosecuted against unless it is not readily distinguishable whether the depiction is computer-generated or real. The Federal Government also made it clear that the criminal offense "should remain limited" to cases "in which an actual event is reproduced through video film, film or photo". On the other hand, it did not regard the sanction of the regulation as fulfilled in the case of "child pornographic novels, drawings and cartoons", because their possession did not contribute to children being abused as "actors" in pornographic recordings. === Japan === Pornographic art inspired by fictional underage characters (such as lolicon, shotacon) is legal in Japan, even when realistic. The last law proposed against it was introduced on May 27, 2013, by the Liberal Democratic Party, the New Komei Party and the Japan Restoration Party that would have made possession of sexual images of individuals under 18 illegal with a fine of 1 million yen (about US$10,437) and less than a year in jail. The Japanese Democratic Party, along with several industry associations involved in anime and manga, protested against the bill, saying "while they appreciate that the bill protects children, it will also restrict freedom of expression". The law was ultimately passed in June 2014 after the regulation of lolicon anime/manga was removed from the bill. This new law went into full effect in 2015 banning real life child pornography. Supporters of regulating simulated pornography in Japan claim to advocate human rights and children's rights such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Opponents such as the Japan Federation of Bar Associations also claim to advocate for the rights of children, pointing out the decreasing numbers in sexually motivated crimes are due to simulated materials providing an outlet to those who would otherwise seek material depicting actual children. Arguments made against a ban include manga creator and artist Ken Akamatsu who stated that "There is also no scientific evidence to prove that so-called 'harmful media' increases crime". The use of the term 'drawings', as written in the 1999 bill regarding the ban on child pornography, has been argued as ambiguous. === Mexico === In Mexico any speech related to sexual preferences (such as fictional art) is protected under the legislation from Articles 13(3) that provides "the right of expression may not be restricted by indirect methods or means, such as the abuse of government or private controls over newsprint, radio broadcasting frequencies, or equipment used in the dissemination of information, or by any other means tending to impede the communication and circulation of ideas and opinions" and the Article 1 that provides "Any form of discrimination, motivated by [...] sexual preferences, status or any other which attempt on human dignity or seeks to annul or diminish the rights and liberties of the people, is prohibited.". Furthermore, there is a council obligated to protect sexual preference rights. On 29 April 2003 the Federal Law to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination was passed, gives rise to the creation of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Consejo Nacional para Prevenir la Discriminación, CONAPRED), which is in charge of "develop[ing] actions to protect all citizens from every distinction or exclusion based on [...] sexual preferences, marital status or any other, that prevents or annuls the acknowledgement or the exercise of the rights and the real equality of opportunities of persons". == Jurisdictions with a legal gray area regarding fictional pornography depicting minors == === Argentina === Possession of child pornography is illegal in Argentina with prison sentences between three and six years. Before a modification on the Penal Code was promulgated on April 23, 2018, the law did not prohibit the mere possession, but other activities such as production, financing, trading, and distribution were punishable by imprisonment ranging from 6 months to 4 years. The law is unclear though when it comes to drawings or artistic representations . ICMEC and UNICEF claimed Argentina only criminalize images involving real children. === Austria === Photorealistic (lit. "close to reality") depictions are prohibited, and are treated as regular child pornography. The definition of "reality" as with other countries that cite the same reasoning is not defined. === Chile === In Chile, the possession of lolicon and similar material is not penalized by law. In particular, the 2011 update of Law No. 20.526 of the penal code differentiates the concept of "pseudopornografía infantil" (child pseudopornography) and "pornografía seudoinfantil" (pseudochild pornography), defined as that content that "uses graphics processing programs that allow combining two images into one, making pornographic representations of adults simulate the participation of minors", with respect to virtual, drawn, simulated or artificial child pornography. It indicates that the first type is where the captured image or voice of a minor is used and through virtual manipulations it is incorporated into a pornographic production, so as to make it appear that the minor actually participated in the sexual actions shown. The second type consists of the creation by computer means and without using the image or voice of a person, pornographic images or sounds. In addition, the bill stipulates that it "deals only with the first form referred to since it is in it where the privacy of a minor is violated", thus penalizing pseudo-pornography child pornography along with actual child pornography, but excluding virtual, drawn or simulated child pornography. === Netherlands === As of October 1, 2024, article 252 of the Dutch criminal code has replaced the former article 240b. At present article 252 of the Dutch criminal code reads: "Anyone who spreads, sells, openly exhibits, manufactures, imports, transports, exports, acquires, possesses, or accesses by any means, a visual display of a sexual nature, or with an unmistakable sexual scope in which a person who seemingly has not yet reached the age of eighteen years old, is involved, or appears to be involved, will be punished with a prison sentence of up to six years, or a fine of the fifth category (up to €82,000). The article, or any adjacent articles, makes no distinction between a real or fictional 'visual display', and no further mention is made of fictional works, 3D renders, or AI-generated content. However, the use of the word 'person' in the article could be interpreted to say that the article only applies to 'visual displays' of real people, as the definition of a 'person' in Dutch law is generally used to refer to real-world human beings of flesh and blood, not fictional characters. Furthermore, in an instruction document from the public prosecutor's office, it is explicitly stated that the new article is not intended to change the scope of the previous article (240b). As such the precedent set by the 2010 and 2013 cases mentioned below are still relevant to the context of the new article. ==== Relevant Cases ==== In a 2010 case, after viewing the images in question, which were created on a computer, the court opined that the virtual child pornography images did not fall under criminal law. "All images can be termed as pornographic (three dimensional) cartoons, animations, or drawings. The court concludes that it is immediately obvious to the average viewer that the event is not real and that the images are manipulated images and not realistic." In 2013, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that "a realistic depiction of a non-existent child in the sense that the depiction is indistinguishable from real" is illegal, but that when "the persons depicted are 'not real children' and that for 'the average viewer (and also children) ... it soon becomes apparent that these are manipulated images'", such depictions are not illegal. The court arrived at this verdict due to the wording in the law, stating that the "or appears to be involved" section of the article could not be proven for works that can be immediately identified as fictional. The court further noted that the lawmaker did not intend for this phrase to criminalize all such depictions, rather only depictions that are indistinguishable from reality. As such the court noted that every such image should be judged on its individual merits. ==== Legality ==== While the 2013 ruling appears to set a precedent for legality of fictional pornography depicting minors, both the official government website and the official Dutch police website state that such depictions are illegal across the board. In practice any ambiguous material will be judged on a case-by-case basis, and the more realistic the material appears to be, the more likely it is to be declared illegal. However, at present no clear assessment can be made about the overall legality. === Spain === Spain allows drawn pornography which does not resemble real children, including cartoons, manga or similar representations, as the law does not consider them to be properly 'realistic images'. The Attorney General's Office considers that only extremely realistic images should be pursued. "In order to avoid undue extensions of the concept of child pornography, the concept of 'realistic images' must be interpreted restrictively. According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy 'realist' means that which 'tries to adjust to reality'. Therefore, 'realistic images' will be images close to the reality which they try to imitate." However, images that are too realistic, even paintings, are strictly prohibited due to the law of European Union. This can be understood as images that cannot be distinguished from children in reality by normal people. === Sweden === Any images or videos that depict children in a pornographic context are to be considered child pornography in Sweden, even if they are drawings. A "child" is defined as a "person" who is either under the age of 18 or who has not passed puberty. These laws have been recorded in the media being put into play in Uppsala: the district court punished a man with a monetary fine and probation for possession of manga-style images. This was appealed and taken to the Court of Appeal. In court, Judge Fredrik Wersäll stated that a "person" (as in the definition of a "child") is a human being. The man possessing the illustrations, as well as his lawyer, stated that a comic character is not a person (a comic character is a comic character and nothing else) and that a person does not have cat ears, giant eyes, or a tail and that a person has a nose. Some of the pictures featured illustrations of characters with these unusual body parts. The prosecutor and an expert on child pornography argued that these body parts had no effect and that the comic characters indeed were persons. As examples of what is not a person, the child pornography expert mentioned The Simpsons and Donald Duck. The Court of Appeal upheld the former verdict, for 39 of the 51 pictures, and the monetary fine was reduced. It was immediately further appealed to the Supreme Court. While the Prosecutor General agreed with the verdict of the Court of Appeal, he still recommended that the Supreme Court hear the case, to clarify the issue, and the Supreme Court decided to do so. On June 15, 2012, the Supreme Court found him not guilty. They decided that the images were not realistic and could not be mistaken for real children, and that they therefore could not be counted as exceptions to the constitutional law of freedom of speech. One picture was still considered realistic enough to be defined as child pornography according to Swedish law. However, his possession of it was considered defensible through his occupation as a professional expert of Japanese culture, particularly manga. === Taiwan === The Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例) introduced in 1995 forbids any child pornography in Taiwan. Since the law did not discuss whether the law should forbid pornography depicting minors or not, Taiwanese courts in practice did not punish pornography depicting minors mostly, although punishing cases do exist. In January 2023, Taiwan introduced an amendment to Article 2 of the act, which defines sexual exploitation as: [F]ilming, producing, distributing, broadcasting, delivering, publicly displaying, or selling any sexual image or video of a child or a youth, or any drawing, audio recording, or any other item of a child or a youth that is sexually relevant and, by objective standards, arouses sexual desire or shame... From December 2023, several websites received removal requests from the Institute of Watch Internet Network (iWIN網路內容防護機構) under the act for publicly displaying fictional child pornography. Due to anime and manga having a huge influence on Taiwanese content creators' creating styles and the high consumption of anime and manga, the requests sparked controversies among the Internet and local content creators. Several legislators of the Legislative Yuan questioned the law's legality to fictional creations. Japanese politician Ken Akamatsu also expressed his concern about the controversies. In May 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare released an interpretation, limiting the definition of "images of a child or a youth" to those who are based on real minors, or realistic generative AI, excluding completely fictional anime and manga from the definition. Opinions on regulating fictional pornography depicting minors are mixed. Chen Yi-lin (陳逸玲), the secretary general of a child protection group ECPAT Taiwan (台灣展翅協會), believed that Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, in which the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act follows, includes regulating fictional pornography depicting minors and allowing them will promote real child pornography, thus should regulate. Liu Chia-hao (劉佳豪), the general director of ACG Occupational Union (臺北市動漫企劃人員職業工會), says there's no research or evidence can prove that fictional pornography depicting minors promotes real child pornography. Legal scholar Hsieh Yu-wei (謝煜偉) expressed his concern that the regulation will cause court judgments to be too arbitrary. Hsieh also indicates the mixed opinions on regulation may cause controversies in the near future. === United States === ==== 1973–2002 ==== In the United States, pornography is generally protected as a form of personal expression, and thus governed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Where pornography ceases to be protected expression is when it fails the Miller obscenity test, as the Supreme Court of the United States held in 1973 in Miller v. California. Another case, New York v. Ferber (1982), held that if pornography depicts real child abuse or a real child victim, as a result of photographing a live performance for instance, then it is not protected speech (regardless of whether the material is obscene under the test). In 1996, the U.S. Congress introduced the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA) to update the types of pornographic media featuring minors considered illegal under U.S. federal law. In 2002, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition that two provisions of the CPPA were facially invalid due to being overbroad in banning materials that are neither obscene under Miller, nor produced via the exploitation of real children as in Ferber. In doing so, the case also reaffirmed Ferber while acknowledging the state of things under Miller. ==== 2003–2007: PROTECT Act ==== In response to Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, Congress passed the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also dubbed the Amber Alert Law) which was signed into law on April 30, 2003, by President George W. Bush. The PROTECT Act adjusted its language to meet the parameters of the Miller, Ferber, and Ashcroft decisions. The Act was careful to separate cases of virtual pornography depicting minors into two different categories of law: child pornography law and obscenity law. In regards to child pornography law, the Act modified the previous wording of "appears to be a minor" with "indistinguishable from that of a minor" phrasing. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults. Furthermore, there exists an affirmative defense to a child pornography charge that applies if the depiction was of a real person and the real person was an adult (18 or over) at the time the visual depiction was created, or if the visual depiction did not involve any actual minors (see subsection "c", parts 1 and 2, of 18 U.S.C. 2252A). This affirmative defense does not apply to child pornography created via morphing, namely depictions "created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct" (see section (8)(c) of 18 U.S.C. 2256). The PROTECT Act also enacted 18 U.S.C. § 1466A into U.S. obscenity law: Section 1466A of Title 18, United States Code, makes it illegal for any person to knowingly produce, distribute, receive, or possess with intent to transfer or distribute visual representations, such as drawings, cartoons, or paintings that appear to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and are deemed obscene. Thus, virtual and drawn pornographic depictions of minors may still be found illegal under U.S. federal obscenity law. The obscenity law further states in section C "It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist." Laws governing non-child pornography are guided by the Miller standard, a three-prong test used by courts to dictate obscenity according to the "average person's" point of view of the standards of the community as well as state law. The parts follow: "appeals to prurient interests", "depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct" as described by law, and "taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". Materials that fall within all three prongs may be declared obscene in a court of law. By the statute's own terms, the law does not make all fictional child pornography illegal, only that found to be "obscene" or "lacking in serious value". The mere possession of said images is not a violation of the law unless it can be proven that they were transmitted through a common carrier, such as the mail or the Internet, transported across state lines, or of an amount that showed intent to distribute. There is also an affirmative defense made for possession of no more than two images with "reasonable steps to destroy" the images or reporting and turning over the images to law enforcement. The first major case occurred in December 2005, when Dwight Whorley was convicted in Richmond, Virginia under 18 U.S.C. 1466A for using a Virginia Employment Commission computer to receive and distribute "obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in genital-genital and oral-genital intercourse with adult males". On December 18, 2008, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, consisting of 20 years' imprisonment. Whorley appealed to the Supreme Court, but was denied certiorari, meaning the appeal was not heard. After being tracked down by IP, John Charles Wellman was arrested on May 3, 2007, then convicted and sentenced to 40 years for 3 counts related to fictional child pornography. He appealed, arguing that the search warrant that led to his arrest was invalid, that a jury instruction involving the term "obscene" was erroneous because it lacked a knowledge requirement, and that his sentence was imposed in violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. His appeal was rejected. ==== 2008–present ==== 18 U.S.C. § 1466A has been met with legal challenges regarding its modifications to obscenity law. In particular, the provisions of the law that establish an alternative obscenity test to the Miller standard have been challenged. In October 2008, a 38-year-old Iowa comic collector named Christopher Handley was prosecuted for possession of explicit lolicon manga. The judge ruled that two parts of the act that were broader than the Miller standard, 1466A a(2) and b(2), were unconstitutionally overbroad as applied specifically to this case, but Handley still faced an obscenity charge. Handley was convicted in May 2009 as the result of entering a guilty plea bargain at the recommendation of his attorney, under the belief that the jury chosen to judge him would not acquit him of the obscenity charges if they were shown the images in question. A later ruling in United States v. Dean (2011) called the overbreadth ruling into question because the Handley case failed to prove that 1466A a(2) and b(2) were substantially overbroad on their face; Dean was convicted under the sections previously deemed unconstitutional due to the fact that the overbroadth claim in Handley was an as-applied overbroadth challenge, and was therefore limited to the facts and circumstances of that case, whereas in Dean the defendant was charged under 1466A a(2) for possession of material constituting actual child pornography, which does not require a finding of obscenity, and was read to fall within the language of the relevant statute. The facts of this case precluded Dean from satisfying the substantive due process requirements to satisfy a proper facial challenge against the relevant statutes. At the state level, some states have laws that explicitly prohibit cartoon pornography and similar depictions, while others have only vague laws on such content. In California such depictions specifically do not fall under state child pornography laws, while in Utah they are explicitly banned. However, there are legal arguments that state laws criminalizing such works are invalid in the wake of Ashcroft, and some judges have rejected these laws on constitutional grounds. Accordingly, the Illinois Supreme Court in 2003 ruled that a statute criminalizing virtual child pornography was unconstitutional per the ruling in Ashcroft. On a federal level, works depicting minors that offend contemporary community standards and are "patently offensive" while lacking "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value"—that is, found to be "obscene" in a court of law—continue to stand as illegal, but only if the conditions for obscenity discussed above are met: mere possession of these works continues to be legal. Legal professor Reza Banakar has since stated that "serious artistic value" is very difficult to evaluate, and that the legal task of evaluating the lack of such value cannot be executed objectively. Due to the fact that United States obscenity law determines what is obscene in a court of law in reference to local standards and definitions exclusively on a state-by-state, case-by-case basis, the legality of drawn or fictitious pornography depicting minors is ultimately left in a 'gray area', much like other forms of alternative pornography. Some states pay less mind to the contents of such materials and determine obscenity based on time and place an offense may occur, while others may have strict, well-defined standards for what a community may be allowed to find appropriate. Others only may have vague laws or definitions which are only used to allow the government to prosecute recidivist offenders on both a federal and state level. ==== Cases ==== At least nine cases have been publicized by the mainstream media or documented since the 2008 Iowa ruling or made publicly available, in six of these cases the perpetrator either had a prior criminal record, or was also involved with real-life child pornography which contributed to the charges. In October 2010, when a 33-year-old man from Idaho named Steven Kutzner entered into a plea agreement concerning images of child characters from the American animated television show The Simpsons engaged in sexual acts. The incident was identified, and reported to U.S. authorities by German federal police who were able to obtain Kutzner's IP address. This particular address contained a known file from which actual child pornography was being shared. A subsequent forensic investigation uncovered "six hundred and thirty two (632) image files, seventy (70) of which were animated images graphically depicting minors engaging in sex acts", "five hundred and twenty-four (524) pornographic image files, most of which depict what appears to be teenaged females", and "more than eight thousand files containing images of child erotica involving younger children, many of them prepubescent". In November 2011, when Joseph Audette, a 30-year-old computer network administrator from Surry, Maine, was arrested after his username was linked to child pornography sites. In this instance a search inside Audette's home also uncovered "anime child pornography". A judge eventually lifted all bond restrictions placed on him as Audette was never formally charged after his arrest. In late January 2013, after being reported by his wife, a 36-year-old man named Christian Bee in Monett, Missouri entered a plea bargain for possession of cartoons depicting child pornography, with the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Missouri recommending a 3-year prison sentence without parole. The office in conjunction with the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force argued that the "Incest Comics" on Bee's computer "clearly lack any literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". Bee was originally indicted for possession of actual child pornography, but, as part of a plea deal, that charge was modified to the offense of possession of "incest comics". Danny Borgos, an inmate at FCI Seagoville already serving a sentence for possession of child pornography, was found "with a paginated series of drawings, consisting of 37 pages in a comic or coloring book-style format, three girls between the ages of 6 and 11 'engaging in sexually explicit conduct during a 2014 search. Borgos, who pled guilty on the advice of counsel and was sentenced to a consecutive 10-year term of imprisonment, attempted to challenge the judgment in 2017 with a post-conviction petition. Borgos argued that the drawn pictures should be "considered art, not obscene". However, referencing the factual basis for his guilty plea, the reviewing judge observed that Borgos had "confessed that these visual depictions ... [comprised] a 'bunch of drawings of children having sexual intercourse and an adult male sexually assaulting three little girls'", implicating the definition of child pornography established by the United States Congress in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A). Because Borgos had admitted to the obscene nature of the fictional images, his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1466A(b)(1) and 1466A(d)(5) for "Possession of Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children" was not vulnerable to collateral attack. In May 2015, John R. Farrar, a federal inmate serving his sentence for a prior conviction for actual child pornography possession in 2007, was found with "seven hand-drawn images depicting the [sexual] exploitation of minor females" as well as "two hand-written books, describing sexual abuse of minors" on his workbench, and was indicted for six of the images, given the 10 year minimum sentence, extending his overall prison time by about 4 years, despite his No Contest plea in the initial trial, he attempted to appeal the sentence under the pretense the images were not obscene and that his sentence violated the Eight Amendment, his appeal was shot down. On July 11, 2017, David R. Buie, who was under supervised release for a prior conviction relating to crimes involving the sexual victimization of actual minors, was reported by staff at his local library, and subsequently indicted under 1466A(b)(1), for printing a full-color drawing that depicted a boy engaging in sex with adults that appear to be his parents, Buie appealed the decision under the pretense that (b)(1) is vague, overbroad, and encroached on protected speech, the appeal was rejected and he given the sentence of 121 months (or 10 years) and a lifetime of supervised release, which he also appealed. On May 18, 2018, a registered sex offender from Newport News, Virginia was sentenced to over 19 years in prison for the attempted receipt of obscene images, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and sex offender penalties. Elmer E. Eychaner, III (aged 46) was described as having a significant history of sexual offenses involving minors. He had most recently been convicted in 2008 for child pornography crimes in federal court. During this instance Eychaner requested a laptop to search for a better job while on federal supervision. He instead violated the terms of his supervision by using the computer to look up obscene anime cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of minors. Thomas Alan Arthur, who lived in Terlingua, Texas and operated a website by the name of "Mr. Double", in which several thousand authors had submitted over 25,000 stories depicting the rape, murder, and sexual abuse of children through a manually-reviewed form, had his residence raided in November 2019 and himself indicted and later charged in October 2020 with: two counts of producing, distributing, receiving, and possessing an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, five counts of using an interactive computer service to transport obscene matters, and one count of engaging in the business of selling or transferring obscene matters. During the trial, Circuit Judge, James L. Dennis, dissented from the ruling and asked for a new trial, arguing that the exclusion of Arthur's expert of choice; Dr. David Ley, had affected the ruling, and proposed the possibility that an expert like Dr. Ley could've testified of the "therapeutic benefits for some individuals suffering pedophilic disorder" of the Erotica that Arthur had on his website. Jesse Fernando Perez was found guilty on August 7, 2023, for producing and possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children in FCI Petersburg, a low-medium security federal prison, violating 1466A(a)(1) and (b)(1). Perez was sentenced to 10 years. Perez appealed to acquit, arguing FCI Petersburg was not part of the territories the United States had jurisdiction over and arguing that his convictions are unconstitutional; his appeal was denied. == See also == Artistic freedom Moral panic Censorship Freedom of speech Pornography laws by region Simulated child pornography Victimless crime The Gamer's Dilemma == References == == Further reading == Al-Alosi, Hadeel (2018). The Criminalisation of Fantasy Material: Law and Sexually Explicit Representations of Fictional Children. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-57281-2.	Wikipedia/Legal_status_of_fictional_pornography_depicting_minors
A gang bang is a sexual activity in which one person is the central focus of the sexual activity of several people, usually more than three, sequentially or simultaneously. The term generally refers to a woman being the focus; one man with multiple women can be referred to as a "reverse gang bang". The term has become associated with the porn industry and usually describes a staged event wherein a woman has sex with several men in direct succession. Bukkake is a type of gang bang, originating in Japan, that focuses on the central person being ejaculated upon by male participants. == Practice == The largest gang bangs are sponsored by pornographic film companies, and recorded, but a gang bang is not unusual in the swinger community. It is more often considered to have multiple men and one woman, while a so-called "reverse gang bang" (one man and many women), which can be seen in pornography. Female-on-female and male-on-male gang bangs also happen. Gang bangs are not defined by the precise number of participants, but usually involve more than three people and may involve a dozen or more. When the gang bang is organized specifically to culminate with the (near) simultaneous or rapid serial ejaculations of all male participants on the central man or woman, then it may be referred to by the Japanese term bukkake. By contrast, three people engaged in sex is normally referred to as a threesome, and four people are normally referred to as a foursome. Gang bangs also differ from group sex, such as threesomes and foursomes, in that most (if not all) sexual acts during a gang bang are centered on or performed with just the central person. Although the participants of a gang bang may know each other, the spontaneity and anonymity of participants is often part of the attraction. Additionally, the other participants normally do not engage in sex acts with each other, but may stand nearby and masturbate while waiting for an opportunity to engage in sexual activity. == Pornography == Though there have been numerous gang bang pornographic films since the 1980s, they usually involved no more than half a dozen to a dozen men. However, starting with The World's Biggest Gangbang (1995) starring Annabel Chong with 251 partners, the pornographic industry began producing a series of films ostensibly setting gangbang records for most consecutive sex acts by one person in a short period. These kinds of films were financially successful, winning AVN Awards for the best-selling pornographic films of their year; however, the events were effectively unofficiated and the record-breaking claims often misleading. Jasmin St. Claire described her "record", purportedly set with 300 men in World's Biggest Gang Bang 2, as "among the biggest cons ever pulled off in the porn business", with merely about 30 men "strategically placed and filmed," only ten of whom were actually able to perform sexually on camera. == See also == Bukkake Cuckold Cuckquean Group sex Orgy Swinging Gang rape == References == == Further reading == David McCracken (12 July 2016). Chuck Palahniuk, Parodist: Postmodern Irony in Six Transgressive Novels. McFarland. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7864-7929-0.	Wikipedia/Gang_bang_pornography
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films represent sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity or fetishes (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective. Pornographic films are produced and distributed on a variety of media, depending on the demand and technology available, including traditional film stock footage in various formats, home video, DVDs, mobile devices, Internet pornography Internet download, cable TV, in addition to other media. Pornography is often sold or rented on DVD; shown through Internet streaming, specialty channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite; and viewed in rapidly disappearing adult theaters. Often due to broadcast or print censorship commissions; general public opinion; public decency laws; or religious pressure groups; overly sexualized content is generally not permitted to be shown in mainstream media, or on free-to-air television. Films with risqué content have been produced since the invention of motion picture in the 1880s. Production of such films was profitable, and a number of producers began to specialize in their production. Various groups within society considered such depictions immoral, labeled them "pornographic", and attempted to have them suppressed under other obscenity laws, with varying degrees of success. Such films continued to be produced, and could only be distributed by underground channels. Because the viewing of such films carried a social stigma, they were viewed at brothels, adult movie theaters, stag parties, home, private clubs, and night cinemas. In the 1970s, during the Golden Age of Porn, pornographic films were semi-legitimized, to the point where actors not known for appearances in such productions would be cast members (though rarely participating in the explicit scenes); by the 1980s, pornography on home video achieved wider distribution. The rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s changed the way pornographic films were distributed, complicating censorship regimes around the world and legal prosecutions of "obscenity". == Classification == Pornographic films are typically categorized as either softcore or hardcore pornography. In general, softcore pornography is pornography that does not depict explicit sexual activity, sexual penetration or extreme fetishism. It generally contains nudity or partial nudity in sexually suggestive situations. Hardcore pornography is pornography that depicts penetration or extreme fetish acts, or both. It contains graphic sexual activity and visible penetration. A pornographic work is characterized as hardcore if it has any hardcore content. Pornographic films are generally classified into subgenres which describe the underlying theme or sexual fantasy which the film and actors attempt to create. Subgenres can also be classified into the characteristics of the performers or the type of sexual activity on which it concentrates and not necessarily on the market to which each subgenre appeals. The subgenres usually conform to certain conventions, and each may appeal to a particular audience. == History == === Early years: before 1920 === Production of erotic films commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture. Two of the earliest pioneers were Frenchmen Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner, under the name "Léar", directed the earliest surviving erotic film for Pirou. The 7-minute 1896 film Le Coucher de la Mariée had Louise Willy performing a bathroom striptease. Other French filmmakers also considered that profits could be made from this type of risqué films, showing women disrobing. Also in 1896. Fatima's Coochie-Coochie dance was released as a short nickelodeon kinetoscope/film featuring a gyrating belly dancer named Fatima. Her gyrating and moving pelvis was censored, one of the earliest films to be censored. At the time, there were numerous risque films that featured exotic dancers. In the same year, The May Irwin Kiss contained the first kiss on film. It was a 47-second film loop, with a close-up of a nuzzling couple followed by a short peck on the lips ("the mysteries of the kiss revealed"). The kissing scene was denounced as shocking and obscene to early moviegoers and caused the Roman Catholic Church to call for censorship and moral reform, because kissing in public at the time could lead to prosecution. Perhaps in defiance and "to spice up a film", this was followed by many kiss imitators, including The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) and The Kiss (1900). A tableau vivant style was used in short film Birth of The Pearl (1901) featuring an unnamed long-haired young model wearing a flesh-colored body stocking in a direct frontal pose that provides a provocative view of the female body. The pose is in the style of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. In Austria, cinemas organised men-only nights (called Herrenabende) at which adult films were shown. Johann Schwarzer formed his Saturn-Film production company which between 1906 and 1911 produced 52 erotic productions, each of which contained young local women fully nude, to be shown at those screenings. Before Schwarzer's productions, erotic films were provided by the Pathé brothers from French produced sources. In 1911, Saturn was dissolved by the censorship authorities which destroyed all the films they could find, though some have since resurfaced from private collections. There were a number of American films in the 1910s which featured female nudity. At the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina may have been the first center of pornographic film production in the world. It is considered that the porn film was born in France practically at the same time as the cinematographic medium, but it was in Buenos Aires where the clandestine production of these films, known as stag films or smokers, was capitalized. Around 1905, Pathé and Gaumont moved the production of porn to Argentina to avoid censorship by the French government. These films were not intended for local or popular consumption, but were "sophisticated entertainment for the enjoyment of the well-to-do class of [Europe]." Writing about the origins of underground cinema, Arthur Knight and Hollis Alpert explain that hardcore films were shipped by boat from Argentina to private buyers, mostly in France and England, but also in more distant places such as Russia and the Balkans. In Black and White and Blue (2008), one of the most scholarly attempts to document the origins of the clandestine 'stag film' trade, Dave Thompson recounts ample evidence that such an industry first had sprung up in the brothels of Buenos Aires and other South American cities by the turn of the 20th century, and then quickly spread through Central Europe over the following few years. In his biography of Eugene O'Neill, Louis Sheaffer recounts that the playwright traveled to Buenos Aires in the 1900s and was a frequent visitor to the pornographic cinemas in the Barracas neighborhood. The Argentine film El Sartorio (also known as El Satario) is perhaps the oldest known pornographic film, a theory held by several authors. Filmed between 1907 and 1912 on the riverside of Quilmes or Rosario, the film depicts six nude nymphs who are surprised by a satyr or faun, who captures one of them and then has sex in a variety of positions, including the 69. El Sartorio is held currently in the Kinsey Institute's film archive, the largest collection of stag films in the world. Because Pirou is nearly unknown as a pornographic filmmaker, credit is often given to other films for being the first. According to Patrick Robertson's Film Facts, "the earliest pornographic motion picture which can definitely be dated is A L'Ecu d'Or ou la bonne auberge" made in France in 1908. The plot depicts a weary soldier who has a tryst with a servant girl at an inn. He also notes that "the oldest surviving pornographic films are contained in America's Kinsey Collection. One film demonstrates how early pornographic conventions were established. The German film Am Abend (1910) is a ten-minute film which begins with a woman masturbating alone in her bedroom, and progresses to scenes of her with a man in the missionary position, fellatio, and penile anal penetration." === 1920s–1940s suppression === Pornographic movies were widespread in the silent movie era of the 1920s, and were often shown in brothels. Soon illegal, stag films, or blue films, as they were called, were produced underground by amateurs for many years starting in the 1940s. Processing the film took considerable time and resources, with people using their bathtubs to wash the film when processing facilities (often tied to organized crime) were unavailable. The films were then circulated privately or by traveling salesmen, but anyone caught viewing or possessing them risked a prison sentence. === 1950s: home movies === The post-war era saw technological developments that further stimulated the growth of a mass market and amateur film-making, particularly the introduction of the 8 mm and super-8 film gauges, popular for the home movie market. Entrepreneurs emerged to meet the demand. In Britain, in the 1950s, Harrison Marks produced films which were considered risqué, and which today would be described as "soft core". In 1958, as an offshoot of his magazines, Marks began making short films for the 8mm market of his models undressing and posing topless, popularly known as "glamour home movies". To Marks, the term "glamour" was a euphemism for nude modeling/photography. === 1960s: Europe and United States === Starting in 1961, Lasse Braun was a pioneer in quality colour productions that were, in the early days, distributed by making use of his father's diplomatic privileges. Braun was able to accumulate funds for his lavish productions from the profit gained with so-called loops, ten-minute hardcore movies which he sold to Reuben Sturman, who distributed them to 60,000 American peep show booths. Braun was always on the move, and made his hardcore movies in a number of countries, including Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. In December 1960, American female director Doris Wishman began producing a series of eight pornographic films, or nudist films without sex scenes, including Hideout in the Sun (1960), Nude on the Moon (1961) and Diary of a Nudist (1961). She also produced a series of sexploitation films. In the 1960s, social and judicial attitudes towards the explicit depiction of sexuality began to change. For example, Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) included numerous frank nude scenes and simulated sexual intercourse. In one particularly controversial scene, Lena kisses her lover's flaccid penis. The film was exhibited in mainstream cinemas, but in 1969 it was banned in Massachusetts allegedly for being pornographic. The ban was challenged in the courts, with the Supreme Court of the United States ultimately declaring that the film was not obscene, paving the way for other sexually explicit films. Another Swedish film Language of Love (1969) was also sexually explicit, but was framed as a quasi-documentary sex educational film, which made its legal status uncertain though controversial. In 1969, Denmark became the first country to abolish all censorship laws, enabling pornography, including hardcore pornography. The example was followed by toleration in the Netherlands, also in 1969. There was an explosion of pornography commercially produced in those countries, including, at the very beginning, child pornography and bestiality porn. Now that being a pornographer was legal, there was no shortage of businessmen who invested in plant and equipment capable of turning out a mass-produced, cheap, but quality product. Vast amounts of this new pornography, both magazines and films, needed to be smuggled into other parts of Europe, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs. In the United States, producers of pornographic films formed the Adult Film Association of America in 1969, after the release of Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, to fight against censorship, and to defend the industry against obscenity charges. === 1970s: adult theaters and movie booths in the United States === In the 1970s, there was a more tolerant judicial attitude to non-mainstream films. Mainstream theatres did not usually screen even softcore films, leading to a rise of adult theaters in the United States and many other countries. There was also a proliferation of coin-operated "movie booths" in sex shops that displayed pornographic "loops" (so called because they projected a movie from film arranged in a continuous loop). Denmark started producing comparatively big-budget theatrical feature film sex comedies such as Bordellet (1972), the Bedside-films (1970–1976) and the Zodiac-films (1973–1978), starring mainstream actors (a few of whom even performed their own sex scenes) and usually not thought of as "porno films" though all except the early Bedside-films included hardcore pornographic scenes. Several of these films still rank among the most seen films in Danish film history and all remain favourites on home video. In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. The film was a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years after Blue Movie was made. The first explicitly pornographic film with a plot that received a general theatrical release in the U.S. is generally considered to be Mona the Virgin Nymph (also known as Mona), a 59-minute 1970 feature by Bill Osco, who created the relatively high-budget hardcore/softcore (depending on the release) 1974 cult film Flesh Gordon and later, in 1976, the X-rated musical-comedy film Alice in Wonderland. The 1971 film Boys in the Sand represented a number of pornographic firsts. As the first generally available gay pornographic film, the film was the first to include on-screen credits for its cast and crew (albeit largely under pseudonyms), to parody the title of a mainstream film (in this case, The Boys in the Band), and, after the 1969 film Blue Movie, one of the first to be reviewed by The New York Times. Other notable American hardcore feature films of the 1970s include Deep Throat (1972), Behind the Green Door (1972), The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), Radley Metzger's The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) and Debbie Does Dallas (1978). These were shot on film and screened in mainstream movie theaters. In Britain, Deep Throat was not approved in its uncut form until 2000 and not shown publicly until June 2005. In the U.S. Miller v. California was an important court case in 1973. The case established that obscenity was not legally protected, but the case also established the Miller test, a three-pronged test to determine obscenity (which is not legal) as opposed to indecency (which may or may not be legal). === 1980s: new technology and new legal cases === With the arrival of the home video cassette recorder in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the pornographic movie industry experienced massive growth and spawned adult stars like Traci Lords, Seka, Christy Canyon, Ginger Lynn, Nina Hartley, and directors such as Gregory Dark. By 1982, most pornographic films were being shot on the cheaper and more convenient medium of videotape. Many film directors resisted this shift at first because videotape produced a different image quality. Those who did change soon were collecting most of the industry's profits, since consumers overwhelmingly preferred the new format. The technology change happened quickly and completely when directors realized that continuing to shoot on film was no longer a profitable option. This change moved the films out of the theaters and into people's homes. This marked the end of the age of big-budget productions, and the beginning of the mainstreaming of pornography. It soon went back to its earthy roots and expanded to cover nearly every fetish possible, since the production of pornography was now inexpensive. Instead of hundreds of pornographic films being made each year, thousands were being made, including compilations of just the sex scenes from various videos. One could now not only watch pornography in the comfort and privacy of one's own home, but also find more choices available to satisfy specific fantasies and fetishes. Similarly, the camcorder spurred changes in pornography in the 1980s, when people could make their own amateur sex movies, whether for private use, or for wider distribution. The de facto result of the 1987 legal case California v. Freeman effectively legalized hardcore pornography in the U.S.. The prosecution of Harold Freeman was initially planned as the first in a series of legal cases to effectively outlaw the production of such movies. === 1990s: DVD and the Internet age === In the late 1990s, pornographic films were distributed on DVD. These offered better quality picture and sound than the previous video format (videotape) and allowed innovations such as "interactive" videos that let users choose such variables as multiple camera angles, multiple endings and computer-only DVD content. The introduction and widespread availability of the Internet further changed the way pornography was distributed. Previously, videos were ordered from an adult bookstore or through mail-order; with the Internet, people could watch pornographic movies on their computers, and instead of waiting weeks for an order to arrive, a movie could be downloaded within minutes (or, later, within a few seconds). Pornography can be distributed over the Internet in a number of ways, including paysites, video hosting services and peer-to-peer file sharing. While pornography had been traded electronically since the 1980s, the invention of the World Wide Web in 1991, as well as the opening of the Internet to the general public around the same time, led to an explosion in online pornography. Viv Thomas, Paul Thomas, Andrew Blake, Antonio Adamo, and Rocco Siffredi were prominent directors of pornographic films in the 1990s. In 1998, the Danish, Oscar-nominated film production company Zentropa became the world's first mainstream film company to openly produce hardcore pornographic films, starting with Constance (1998). That same year, Zentropa also produced Idioterne (1998), directed by Lars von Trier, which won many international awards and was nominated for a Golden Palm in Cannes. The film includes a shower sequence with a male erection and an orgy scene with close-up penetration footage (the camera viewpoint is from the ankles of the participants, and the close-ups leave no doubt as to what is taking place). Idioterne started a wave of international mainstream arthouse films featuring explicit sexual images, such as Catherine Breillat's Romance, which starred pornstar Rocco Siffredi. In 1999, the Danish TV channel Kanal København started broadcasting hardcore films at night, uncoded and freely available to any viewer in the Copenhagen area (as of 2009, this is still the case, courtesy of Innocent Pictures, a company started by Zentropa). Once people could watch adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, a new adult market developed that far exceeded the scope of its theater-centric predecessor. The Internet served as catalyst for creating a still-larger market for porn, a market that is even less traditionally theatrical. By the 2000s, there were hundreds of adult film companies, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets. The market was further expanded by webcams and webcam recordings, in which thousands of pornographic actors work in front of the camera to satisfy pornography consumers' demand. === 2000s to present: competition and contraction === By the 2000s, the fortunes of the pornography industry had changed. With reliably profitable DVD sales being largely supplanted by streaming media delivery over the Internet, competition from bootleg, amateur and low-cost professional content on the Internet had made the industry substantially less profitable, leading to it shrinking in size. At the same time this gave rise to video sharing platforms such as Pornhub, XVideos and xHamster. == Pornographic film industry == === Economics === Globally, pornography is a large-scale business with revenues of nearly $100 billion, which includes the production of various media and associated products and services. The industry employs thousands of performers along with support and production staff. It is also followed by dedicated industry publications and trade groups as well as the mainstream press, private organizations (watchdog groups), government agencies, and political organizations. According to a 2005 Reuters article, "The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year." Pornographic films can be sold or rented out on DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult theaters. However, by 2012, widespread availability of illegally copied content and other low-cost competition on the Internet had made the pornographic film industry smaller and reduced profitability. The global pornographic film industry is dominated by the United States, with the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles being the heart of the industry. In 1975, the total retail value of all the hardcore pornography in the United States was estimated at $5–10 million. The 1979, Revision of the Federal Criminal Code stated that "in Los Angeles alone, the porno business does $100 million a year in gross retain volume." According to the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, American adult entertainment industry has grown considerably over the past thirty years by continually changing and expanding to appeal to new markets, though the production is considered to be low-profile and clandestine. As of 2013 the total current income of the country's adult entertainment is often estimated at $10–13 billion, of which $4–6 billion are legal. The figure is often credited to a study by Forrester Research and was lowered in 1998. In 2007 The Observer newspaper also gave a figure of $13 billion. Other sources, quoted by Forbes (Adams Media Research, Veronis Suhler Communications Industry Report, and IVD), even taking into consideration all possible means (video networks and pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, websites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys, and magazines) mention the $2.6–3.9 billion figure (without the cellphone component). USA Today claimed in 2003 that websites such as Danni's Hard Drive and Cybererotica.com generated $2 billion in revenue in that year, which was allegedly about 10% of the overall domestic porn market at the time. The adult movies income (from sale and rent) was once estimated by AVN Publications at $4.3 billion but the figure obtaining is unclear. According to the 2001 Forbes data, the annual income distribution is the following: The Online Journalism Review, published by the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, weighed in with an analysis that favored Forbes' number. The financial extent of adult films, distributed in hotels, is hard to estimate—hotels keep statistics to themselves or do not keep them at all. The world's largest adult movie studio Vivid Entertainment generates an estimated $100 million a year in revenue, distributing 60 films annually, and selling them in video stores, hotel rooms, on cable systems, and on the Internet. The Spanish-based studio Private Media Group was listed on the NASDAQ until November 2011. Video rentals soared from just under 80 million in 1985 to a half-billion by 1993. Some subsidiaries of major corporations are the largest pornography sellers, like News Corporation's DirecTV. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, once pulled in $50 million from adult programming. Revenues of companies such as Playboy and Hustler were small by comparison. === Production === Pornographic films are produced and directed at a target audience, who buy and view the films. Traditionally, the audience of pornographic films have been straight males, the male actor typically acted as a proxy for the viewer. A typical pornographic film focuses on a female performer, her male partner traditionally had no distinctive features. However, there has been an increase in female viewers over time, and there have recently been efforts to increase the sexualization of male performers also. Efforts such as, men with charming facial features and well-built bodies becoming predominant in pornographic films, as well as the emergence of feminist pornography. Overtime a gay audience also developed, and the scenarios of the films adjust accordingly. Pornographic films attempt to present a sexual fantasy and the actors selected for a particular role are primarily selected on their ability to create that fantasy. The physical features of the actors and their ability to create the sexual mood of the film is the main factor in who is cast in certain roles. Most actors specialize in certain genres. Within the average film targeted at a heterosexual male audience, the primary focus is on the sexually attractive appearance of female actress or actresses, meanwhile most male performers in heterosexual pornography are selected less for their looks and more so for their sexual prowess. They are presented as being able to fulfill the proxy fantasy of the male watching audience. === Legal status === In the United States, the Supreme Court held in 1969 that State laws making mere private possession of obscene material a crime are invalid. Further attempts were made in the 1970s in the United States to close down the pornography industry, this time by prosecuting those in the industry on prostitution charges. The prosecution started in the courts in California in the case of People v. Freeman. The California Supreme Court acquitted Freeman and distinguished between someone who takes part in a sexual relationship for money (prostitution) versus someone whose role is merely portraying a sexual relationship on-screen as part of their acting performance. The State did not appeal to the United States Supreme Court making the decision binding in California, where most pornographic films are made today. At present, no other state in the United States has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of "soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says." The distinction that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is usually denied in most states' local prostitution laws, which do not specifically exclude performers from such inclusion. In some cases, some states have ratified their local state laws for inclusion to prevent California's Freeman decision to be applied to actors who are paid a fee for sexual actions within their state borders. One example is the state of Texas whose prostitution law specifically states: An offense is established under Subsection (a)(1) whether the actor is to receive or pay a fee. An offense is established under Subsection (a)(2) whether the actor solicits a person to hire him or offers to hire the person solicited. In the United States, federal law prohibits the sale, distribution or dissemination of obscene materials through the mail, over the broadcast airwaves, on cable or satellite TV, on the Internet, over the telephone or by any other means that cross state lines. Most states also have specific laws banning the sale or distribution of obscene pornography within state borders. The only protection for obscene material recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States is personal possession in the home (Stanley v. Georgia). The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed in Miller v. California that obscenity was not protected speech. Further, the court ruled that each community is responsible for setting its own standards about what is considered to be obscene material. If pornographic material is prosecuted and brought to trial, a jury can deem it obscene based on: whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law and whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. In many countries pornography is legal to distribute and to produce, but there are some restrictions. Pornography is also banned in some countries, in particular in the Muslim world and China, but can be accessed through the Internet in some of these nations. === Health issues === Sex acts in pornographic films have traditionally been performed without the use of condoms, with an accompanying risk of sexually transmitted disease among performers. In 1986, there was an outbreak of HIV infection which led to the deaths through AIDS of several actors and actresses. This led to the creation in 1998 of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which helped set up a monitoring system in the U.S. pornographic film industry, which required pornographic film actors to be tested for HIV every 30 days. As of 2013, HIV infection of performers in the U.S. pornography industry has been rare, with only a few outbreaks being recorded over the subsequent three decades. The AIM closed its doors in May 2011 and filed for bankruptcy as a result of a court case arising from an inadvertent leak by it of confidential information on clients, including names and STD results. == See also == == References == === Bibliography === Patrick Robertson: Film Facts, 2001, Billboard Books, ISBN 0-8230-7943-0 == External links == Media related to Pornographic films at Wikimedia Commons Works on the topic Pornographic films at Wikisource	Wikipedia/Pornographic_film
Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity. == Legal situation == Forced prostitution is illegal under customary law in all countries. This is different from voluntary prostitution which may have a different legal status in different countries, which range from being fully illegal and punishable by death to being legal and regulated as an occupation. While the legality of adult prostitution varies between jurisdictions, the prostitution of children is illegal nearly everywhere in the world. In 1949, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. This Convention supersedes a number of earlier conventions that covered some aspects of forced prostitution, and also deals with other aspects of prostitution. It penalizes the procurement and enticement to prostitution as well as the maintenance of brothels. As at December 2013, the convention has only been ratified by 82 countries. One of the main reasons it has not been ratified by many countries is because the legal term 'voluntary' is broadly defined in countries with a legal sex industry. For example, in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Greece and Turkey some forms of prostitution and pimping are legal and regulated as professional occupations. The Thirteen Amendment abolished slavery in the United States of America. "We see forced prostitution and slavery intertwining because they are similar. When slavery was illegal, they were forced into hard labor, and we see women being forced to perform sexual activities for their 'masters' or 'pimps.'" If a procurer forces anyone to engage in prostitution across state lines, they may be charged under both the Mann Act and the Travel Act. == Child prostitution == Child prostitution is considered inherently non-consensual and exploitative, as children, because of their age, are not legally able to consent. In most countries child prostitution is illegal irrespective of the child reaching a lower statutory age of consent. State parties to the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography are required to prohibit child prostitution. The Protocol defines a child as any human being under the age of 18, "unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country's law". The Protocol entered into force on 18 January 2002, and as of December 2013, 166 states are party to the Protocol and another 10 states have signed but not yet ratified it. The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (Convention No 104) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) provides that the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution is one of the worst forms of child labor. This convention, adopted in 1999, provides that countries that had ratified it must eliminate the practice urgently. It enjoys the fastest pace of ratifications in the ILO's history since 1919. In the United States, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 classifies any "commercial sex act [which] is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age" to be a "Severe Form of Trafficking in Persons". In poorer nations, child prostitution remains a serious issue; tourists from the Western world travel to these countries to engage in child sex tourism. Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and Mexico have been identified as leading hotspots of child sexual exploitation. == Human trafficking == Trafficking of women and children (and, more rarely, young men) for prostitution is a violation of human rights, but labor trafficking is probably more widespread. Evidence can be found in field studies of trafficking victims across the world and in the simple fact that the worldwide market for labor is far greater than that for sex. Statistics on the "end use" of trafficked people are often unreliable because they tend to overrepresent the sex trade. Human trafficking, especially of girls and women, often leads to forced prostitution and sexual slavery. In some cases, a pimp may exploit a person who suffers from a mental illness to engage in prostitution. According to a 2007 report by the UNODC, internationally, the most common destinations for victims of human trafficking are Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United States. The major sources of trafficked persons are Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine. Victims of cybersex trafficking are transported and then coerced to perform sexual acts and or raped in front of a webcam on live streams that are often commercialized. A 2010 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report estimates that globally, 79% of identified victims of human trafficking were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 18% for forced labor, and 3% for other forms of exploitation. In 2011, preliminary European Commission in September 2011 similarly estimated that among human-trafficking victims, 75% were trafficked for sexual exploitation and the rest for forced labor or other forms of exploitation. Due to the illegal nature of prostitution and the different methodologies used in separating forced prostitution from voluntary prostitution, the extent of this phenomenon is difficult to estimate accurately. According to a 2008 report by the U.S. Department of State: "Annually, according to U.S. Government-sponsored research completed in 2006, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80% of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50% are minors, and the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation." A 2014 European Commission report found that from 2010 to 2013, a total of 30,146 people were registered as victims of human trafficking in the 28 member states of the European Union; of these, 69% were victims of sexual exploitation. In 2004, The Economist claimed that only a small proportion of prostitutes were explicitly trafficked against their will. Elizabeth Pisani protested against the perceived hysteria around human trafficking preceding sport events such as the Super Bowl or FIFA World Cup. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (also referred to as the Palermo Protocol) is a protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and defines human trafficking as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation." For this reason, threat, coercion, or use of force is not necessary to constitute trafficking, the exploitation of an existing vulnerability – such as economic vulnerability or sexual vulnerability – is sufficient. Sigma Huda, UN special reporter on trafficking in persons, observed that "For the most part, prostitution as actually practiced in the world usually does satisfy the elements of trafficking." However Save the Children see explicit trafficking and prostitution as different issues: "The issue [human trafficking] however, gets mired in controversy and confusion when prostitution too is considered as a violation of the basic human rights of both adult women and minors, and equal to sexual exploitation per se. From this standpoint then, trafficking and prostitution become conflated with each other". == Attitudes towards whether prostitution can ever be voluntary == With regard to prostitution, three worldviews exist: abolitionism (where the prostitute is considered a victim), regulation (where the prostitute is considered a worker) and prohibitionism (where the prostitute is considered a criminal). Currently all these views are represented in some Western country. For the proponents of the abolitionist view, prostitution is always a coercive practice, and the prostitute is seen as a victim. They argue that most prostitutes are forced into the practice, either directly, by pimps and traffickers, indirectly through poverty, drug addiction and other personal problems, or, as it has been argued in recent decades by radical feminists such as Andrea Dworkin, Melissa Farley and Catharine MacKinnon, merely by patriarchal social structures and power relations between men and women. William D. Angel finds that "most" prostitutes have been forced into the occupation through poverty, lack of education and lack of employment possibilities. Kathleen Barry argues that, "there should be no distinction between "free" and "coerced", "voluntary" and "involuntary" prostitution, since any form of prostitution is a human rights violation, an affront to womanhood that cannot be considered dignified labour". France's Green Party argues: "The concept of "free choice" of the prostitute is indeed relative, in a society where gender inequality is institutionalized". The proponents of the abolitionist view hold that prostitution is a practice which ultimately leads to the mental, emotional and physical destruction of the women who engage in it, and, as such, it should be abolished. As a result of such views on prostitution, Sweden, Norway and Iceland have enacted laws which criminalize the clients of the prostitutes, but not the prostitutes themselves. In contrast to the abolitionist view, those who are in favour of legalization do not consider the women who practice prostitution as victims, but as independent adult women who had made a choice which should be respected. Mariska Majoor, former prostitute and founder of the Prostitution Information Center, from Amsterdam, holds that: "In our [sex workers'] eyes it's a profession, a way of making money; it's important that we are realistic about this ... Prostitution is not bad; it's only bad if done against one's will. Most women make this decision themselves." According to proponents of regulation, prostitution should be considered a legitimate activity, which must be recognized and regulated, in order to protect the workers' rights and to prevent abuse. The prostitutes are treated as sex workers who enjoy benefits similar to other occupations. The World Charter for Prostitutes Rights (1985), drafted by the International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights, calls for the decriminalisation of "all aspects of adult prostitution resulting from individual decision". Since the mid-1970s, sex workers across the world have organised, demanding the decriminalisation of prostitution, equal protection under the law, improved working conditions, the right to pay taxes, travel and receive social benefits such as pensions. As a result of such views on prostitution, countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand have fully legalized prostitution. Prostitution is considered a job like any other. In its understanding of the distinction between sex work and forced prostitution, the Open Society Foundations organization states: "sex work is done by consenting adults, where the act of selling or buying sexual services is not a violation of human rights". == Legal discrimination == Sexual discrimination happens to those who work both in sex work and forced prostitution. Historically, crimes involving violence against women and having to do with prostitution and sex work have been taken less seriously by the law. Although acts such as the Violence Against Women Act have been passed to take steps toward preventing such violence, there is still sexism rooted in the way that the legal system approaches these cases. Gender based violence is a serious form of discrimination that has slipped through many cracks in the legal system of the United States. These efforts have fallen short due to the fact that there is no constitutional protection for women against discrimination. There is often no evidence, according to police, that when men are arrested for soliciting a prostitute that it is a gender based crime. However, there are large discrepancies between the arrests of prostitutes and the arrests of men caught in the act. While 70% of prostitution related arrests are of woman prostitutes, only 10% of related arrests are men/customers. Regardless if the girl or woman is either underage or forced into the exchange, she is still often arrested and victim blamed instead of being offered resources. The men who are charged with engaging in these illegal acts with woman who are prostitutes are able to pay for the exchange and therefore are usually able to pay for their release while the woman may not be able to. This generates a cycle of violence against women, as the situation's outcome favors the man. In one case, a nineteen-year-old woman in Oklahoma was charged with offering to engage in prostitution when the woman was known to have previously been a victim of human sex trafficking. She is an example of how the criminalization of prostitution often leads to women being arrested multiple times due to the fact that they are often punished or arrested even when the victim of a situation. Young women and girls have a much higher likelihood of getting arrested for prostitution than boys in general, and woman victims of human trafficking often end up being arrested upon multiple occasions, being registered as a sex offender, and being institutionalized. The lack of rehabilitation given to women after experiences with human sex trafficking contributes to the cycles of arrests that most woman who engage in prostitution face. The ERA or Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the U.S Constitution that has not yet been ratified. It would guarantee that equal rights could not be denied under the law on account of sex. With this amendment in place, it would allow for sex workers and victims of human sex trafficking to have legal leverage when it comes to the discrepancies in how men and women (customers and prostitutes) are prosecuted. This is due to the fact that there would be legal grounds to argue the unequal legal treatment on account of sex, which is not currently outlawed by the U.S. constitution. Although there are other acts and laws that protect against discrimination based on a variety of categories and identities, they are often not substantial enough, provide loopholes, and do not offer adequate protection. This connects to liberal feminism and the more individualistic approach that comes with this theory. Liberal feminists believe that there should be equality between the sexes and this should be gained through equal legal rights, equal education, and women having "greater self value as individuals". This theory focuses on equality at a more individual level as supposed to rethinking legal systems themselves or systems of gender, just as the ERA works for the equality of sexes within an existing system. == Global situation == === Europe === In Europe, since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991, the former Eastern bloc countries such as Albania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have been identified as the major source countries for trafficking of women and children. Young women and girls are often lured to wealthier countries by the promises of money and work and then reduced to sexual slavery. It is estimated that two thirds of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide annually come from Eastern Europe and China, three-quarters of whom have never worked as prostitutes before. The major destinations are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, the Middle East (Israel, the United Arab Emirates), Asia, Russia and the United States. === Americas === In Mexico, many criminal organisations lure, and capture women and use them in brothels. Once the women become useless to the organisations, they are often killed. Often, the criminal organisations focus on poor, unemployed girls, and lure them via job offerings (regular jobs), done via billboards and posters, placed on the streets. In some cities, like Ciudad Juárez, there is a high degree of corruption in all levels on the social ladder (police, courts, ...) which makes it more difficult to combat this criminal activity. Hotels where women are kept and which are known by the police are often also not raided/closed down by police. Nor are the job offerings actively investigated. Some NGO's such as Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. are trying to fight back, often without much success. In the US, in 2002, the US Department of State repeated an earlier CIA estimate that each year, about 50,000 women and children are brought against their will to the United States for sexual exploitation. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "[h]ere and abroad, the victims of trafficking toil under inhuman conditions – in brothels, sweatshops, fields and even in private homes." In addition to internationally trafficked victims, American citizens are also forced into prostitution. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "100,000 to 293,000 children are in danger of becoming sexual commodities." ==== In prison ==== Transgender women in male prisons deal with the risk of forced prostitution by both prison staff and other prisoners. Forced prostitution can occur when a correction officer brings a transgender woman to the cell of a male inmate and locks them in so that the male inmate can rape her. The male inmate will then pay the correction officer in some way and sometimes the correction officer will give the woman a portion of the payment. The prisoners serving as customers for these women are informally referred to as "husbands". Trans women who physically resist the customer's advances are often criminally charged with assault and placed in solitary confinement, the assault charge then being used to extend the woman's prison stay and deny her parole. This practice is known as "V-coding", and has been described as so common that it is effectively "a central part of a trans woman's sentence". === Middle East === Eastern European women are trafficked to several Middle Eastern countries, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Until 2004, Israel was a destination for human trafficking for the sex industry. A high number of the Iraqi women fleeing the Iraq War turned to prostitution, while others were trafficked abroad, to countries like Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iran. In Syria alone, an estimated 50,000 Iraqi refugee girls and women, many of them widows, had become prostitutes. Cheap Iraqi prostitutes helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists before the Syrian Civil War. The clients come from wealthier countries in the Middle East. High prices are offered for virgins. === Asia === In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially from the Philippines and Thailand. The US State Department has rated Japan as either a 'Tier 2' or a 'Tier 2 Watchlist' country every year since 2001, in its annual Trafficking in Persons reports. Both these ratings implied that Japan was (to a greater or lesser extent) not fully compliant with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking trade. As of 2009, an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 people are trafficked through Southeast Asia, much of it for prostitution. It is common that Thai women are lured to Japan and sold to Yakuza-controlled brothels where they are forced to work off their price. In Cambodia at least a quarter of the 20,000 people working as prostitutes are children with some being as young as 5. By the late 1990s, UNICEF estimated that there are 60,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines, describing Angeles City brothels as "notorious" for offering sex with children. In Southern India & eastern Indian state of Odisha, devadasi is the practice of hierodulic prostitution, with similar customary forms such as basavi, and involves dedicating pre-pubescent and young adolescent girls from villages in a ritual marriage to a deity or a temple, who then work in the temple and function as spiritual guides, dancers, and prostitutes servicing male devotees in the temple. Human Rights Watch reports claim that devadasis are forced into this service and, at least in some cases, to practice prostitution for upper-caste members. Various state governments in India enacted laws to ban this practice both prior to India's independence and more recently. They include Bombay Devdasi Act, 1934, Devdasi (Prevention of dedication) Madras Act, 1947, Karnataka Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1982, and Andhra Pradesh Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1988. However, the tradition continues in certain regions of India, particularly the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. == History == Forced prostitution has existed throughout history. It is said to be the oldest form of slavery. === Slavery and prostitution – the example of Phaedo of Elis === Phaedo of Elis was a native of the ancient Greek city state of Elis and of high birth. He was taken prisoner in his youth, and passed into the hands of an Athenian slave dealer; being of considerable personal beauty, he was forced into male prostitution. Luckily for him, Phaedo made an acquaintance with Socrates, to whom he attached himself. According to Diogenes Laërtius he was ransomed by one of the friends of Socrates. He prominently appears in Plato's dialogue Phaedo which takes its name from him, and later became a major philosopher in his own right. The case of Phaedo got special attention due to these exceptional circumstances. Countless other slaves, male and female, were less lucky and lived out their lives in perpetual prostitution. The institution of slavery left a master with no need to ask a slave's consent for sex. Masters could and often did force their slaves into sex, but also had the option of forcing the slave into lucrative prostitution. Not only did the slaves have no choice about it, but they did not benefit from the payment clients made for their sexual services – it went into the master's pocket. === Middle East === In the Islamic world, sex outside of marriage was normally acquired by men not by paying for temporary sex from a free sex worker, but rather by personal sex slave called concubine, which was a sex slave trade that was still ongoing in the early 20th-century. Traditionally, prostitution in the Islamic world was historically practiced by way of the pimp temporarily selling his slave to her client, who then returned the ownership of the slave after intercourse. The Islamic Law formally prohibited prostitution. However, since Islamic Law allowed a man to have sexual intercourse with his personal sex slave, prostitution was practiced by a pimp selling his female slave on the slave market to a client, who returned his ownership of her after 1–2 days on the pretext of discontent after having had intercourse with her, which was a legal and accepted method for prostitution in the Islamic world. This form of prostitution was practiced by for example Ibn Batuta, who acquired several female slaves during his travels. === War of Canudos in Brazil === The War of Canudos (1895–1898) was an unequal conflict between the state of Brazil and some 30,000 inhabitants of a rebel community named Canudos in the northeastern state of Bahia. It marks the deadliest civil war in Brazilian history, ending with mass atrocities. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at military suppression, it came to a brutal end in October 1897, when a large Brazilian army force overran the village and killed nearly all the inhabitants. Men were hacked to pieces in front of their wives and children. In the aftermath, some of the surviving women were taken captive and sent to brothels in Salvador. === Nazi Germany === German military brothels were set up by the Third Reich during World War II throughout much of occupied Europe for the use of Wehrmacht and SS soldiers. These brothels were generally new creations, but in the West, they were sometimes set up using existing brothels as well as many other buildings. Until 1942, there were around 500 military brothels of this kind in German-occupied Europe. Often operating in confiscated hotels and guarded by the Wehrmacht, these facilities used to serve travelling soldiers and those withdrawn from the front. According to records, at least 34,140 European women were forced to serve as prostitutes during the German occupation of their own countries along with female prisoners of concentration camp brothels. In many cases in Eastern Europe, the women involved were kidnapped on the streets of occupied cities during German military and police round ups called łapanka or rafle. In World War II, Nazi Germany established brothels in the concentration camps (Lagerbordell) to create an incentive for prisoners to collaborate, although these institutions were used mostly by Kapos, "prisoner functionaries" and the criminal element, because regular inmates, penniless and emaciated, were usually too debilitated and wary of exposure to Schutzstaffel (SS) schemes. In the end, the camp brothels did not produce any noticeable increase in the prisoners' work productivity levels, but instead, created a market for coupons among the camp VIPs. The women forced into these brothels came mainly from the Ravensbrück concentration camp, except for Auschwitz, which employed its own prisoners. In combination with the German military brothels in World War II, it is estimated that at least 34,140 female inmates were forced into sexual slavery during the Third Reich. There were cases of Jewish women forced into such prostitution - even though German soldiers having sex with them thereby violated the Nazis' own Nuremberg Laws. === Comfort women === Comfort women is a euphemism for women working in military brothels, especially by the Japanese military during World War II. Around 200,000 are typically estimated to have been involved, with estimates as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars and estimates of up to 410,000 from some Chinese scholars, but the number is still being researched and debated. Historians and researchers have stated that the majority were from Korea, China, Japan and Philippines but women from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, East Timor and other Japanese-occupied territories were also used in "comfort stations". Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, then Burma, then New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and what was then French Indochina. Young women from countries under Japanese Imperial control were reportedly abducted from their homes. In some cases, women were also recruited with offers to work in the military. It has been documented that the Japanese military itself recruited women by force. However, Japanese historian Ikuhiko Hata stated that there was no organized forced recruitment of comfort women by the Japanese government or military. The number and nature of comfort women servicing the Japanese military during World War II is still being actively debated, and the matter is still highly political in both Japan and the rest of the Far East Asia. Many military brothels were run by private agents and supervised by the Korean Police. Some Japanese historians, using the testimony of ex-comfort women, have argued that the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were either directly or indirectly involved in coercing, deceiving, luring, and sometimes kidnapping young women throughout Japan's Asian colonies and occupied territories. == Religious attitudes == == International legislation == ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) == See also == == Notes == == References == Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Phaedo" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 341. Fackler, Martin (6 March 2007), "No Apology for Sex Slavery, Japan's Prime Minister Says", The New York Times, retrieved 23 March 2007 Gellius, Aulus (n.d.). Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights). Vol. ii. p. 18. *Nails, Debra (2002). The people of Plato: a prosopography of Plato and other Socratics. Hackett Publishing. p. 231. Onishi, Norimitsu (8 March 2007), "Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex Slaves", The New York Times, retrieved 23 March 2007 Rose, Caroline (2005), Sino-Japanese relations: facing the past, looking to the future?, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-29722-6 "Phaedon". Suda. Yoshimi, Yoshiaki (2000), Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, Asia Perspectives, translation: Suzanne O'Brien, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-12033-3 "Abe questions sex slave 'coercion'", BBC News, 2 March 2007, retrieved 23 March 2007 "FACTBOX-Disputes over Japan's wartime "comfort women" continue", Reuters, 5 March 2007, archived from the original on 2 January 2008, retrieved 5 March 2008 International Labour Office. (2005). A global alliance against forced labour The Cost of Coercion ILO 2009 ILO Minimum Estimate of Forced Labour in the World. (2005) "Japan party probes sex slave use", BBC News, 8 March 2007, retrieved 23 March 2007 Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken (24 January 1994). "Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië" [Enforced prostitution of Dutch women in the former Dutch East Indies]. Handelingen Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [Hansard Dutch Lower House] (in Dutch). 23607 (1). ISSN 0921-7371. "Dwangprostitutie Nederlands-Indië". Nationaal Archief [Dutch National Archive] (in Dutch). 26 March 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. WCCW (2004), Comfort-Women.org FAQ, Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, archived from the original on 15 June 2007, retrieved 20 June 2007	Wikipedia/Forced_prostitution
The Anti-pornography Civil Rights Ordinance (also known as the Dworkin–MacKinnon Anti-pornography Civil Rights Ordinance or Dworkin–MacKinnon Ordinance) is a name for several proposed local ordinances in the United States and that was closely associated with the anti-pornography radical feminists Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon. It proposed to treat pornography as a violation of women's civil rights and to allow women harmed by pornography to seek damages through lawsuits in civil courts. The approach was distinguished from traditional obscenity law, which attempts to suppress pornography through the use of prior restraint and criminal penalties. The ordinances were originally written in 1983 by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and supported by many (but not all) of their fellow members of the feminist anti-pornography movement. Versions of the ordinance were passed in several cities in the United States during the 1980s, but were blocked by city officials and struck down by courts, who found it to violate the freedom of speech protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. == History == The idea of combating pornography through civil rights litigation in the United States was first developed in 1980. Linda Boreman, who had appeared in the pornographic film Deep Throat as "Linda Lovelace," published a memoir, Ordeal, in which she stated that she had been beaten and raped by her ex-husband Chuck Traynor, and violently coerced into making Deep Throat. Boreman held a press conference, with Andrea Dworkin, feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon, and members of Women Against Pornography supporting her, in which she made her charges public for the press corps. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Gloria Steinem began discussing the possibility of legal redress for Boreman under federal civil rights law. Two weeks later, they met with Boreman to discuss the idea of pursuing a lawsuit against Traynor and other pornographers. She was interested, but Steinem discovered that the statute of limitations for a possible suit had passed, and Boreman backed off (Brownmiller 337). Dworkin and MacKinnon, however, began to discuss the possibility of civil rights litigation as an approach to combatting pornography. In the fall of 1983, MacKinnon secured a one-semester appointment for Dworkin at the University of Minnesota, to teach a course in literature for the Women's Studies program and co-teach (with MacKinnon) an interdepartmental course on pornography. Hearing about the course, community activists from south Minneapolis contacted Dworkin and MacKinnon to ask for their help in curbing the rise of pornography shops. Dworkin and MacKinnon explained their idea for a new civil rights approach to pornography, which would define pornography as a civil rights violation against women, and allow women who had been harmed by pornography to sue the producers and distributors in civil court for damages. The Minneapolis city council hired Dworkin and MacKinnon as consultants to help the city find an approach to deal with pornography. Public hearings were held by the city council, with testimony from Linda Boreman, Ed Donnerstein (a pornography researcher from the University of Wisconsin–Madison), and Pauline Bart, a radical feminist professor from Chicago. The ordinance was passed on December 30, 1983, but vetoed by Mayor Donald M. Fraser (who opposed the idea on its merits and also claimed that the city ought not get involved in litigation over the ordinance's constitutionality). The ordinance was passed a second time in July 1984, and was vetoed again by Fraser. In the interim, the city council in Indianapolis invited Dworkin and MacKinnon to draft a similar ordinance, and also held public hearings. A different version of the ordinance, rewritten to focus specifically on pornography that depicted violence, was passed by the Indianapolis city council and signed into law by Mayor William Hudnut on May 1, 1984. However, the law was quickly challenged in court, and overturned as unconstitutional by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals's ruling on American Booksellers v. Hudnut. The Supreme Court denied to hear the case, thus leaving the ordinance unconstitutional. The case is often cited as an important decision on freedom of speech as applied to pornography. In spite of the defeat in the courts, Dworkin, MacKinnon, and some other feminists continued to advocate versions of the civil rights ordinance, organizing campaigns to place it on the ballot as a voter initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1985 (where it was voted down in the referendum 58%–42%), and then again in Bellingham, Washington, in 1988 (where it was passed). The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the city of Bellingham after the ordinance was passed, and the federal court again struck the law down on First Amendment grounds. Feminists were strongly divided over the anti-pornography ordinance. Some feminists, such as Wendy McElroy, Ellen Willis, Wendy Kaminer and Susie Bright, opposed anti-pornography feminism on principle, identifying with sex-positive feminist position in the feminist sex wars of the 1980s. Many anti-pornography feminists supported the legislative efforts, but others—including Susan Brownmiller and Janet Gornick—agreed with Dworkin and MacKinnon's critique of pornography, but opposed the attempt to combat it through legislative campaigns, which they feared would be rendered ineffectual by the courts, would violate principles of free speech, or would harm the anti-pornography movement by taking organizing energy away from education and direct action and entangling it in political squabbles (Brownmiller 318–321). == Butler decision in Canada == In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada made a ruling in R. v. Butler (the Butler decision) which incorporated some elements of Dworkin and MacKinnon's legal approach to pornography into the existing Canadian obscenity law. In Butler the Court held that Canadian obscenity law violated Canadian citizens' rights to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms if enforced on grounds of morality or community standards of decency; but that obscenity law could be enforced constitutionally against some pornography on the basis of the Charter's guarantees of sex equality. The Court's decision cited extensively from briefs prepared by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), with the support and participation of Catharine MacKinnon. Andrea Dworkin opposed LEAF's position, arguing that feminists should not support or attempt to reform criminal obscenity law. In 1993, copies of Dworkin's book Pornography were held for inspection by Canadian customs agents, fostering an urban legend that Dworkin's own books had been banned from Canada under a law that she herself had promoted. However, the Butler decision did not adopt Dworkin and MacKinnon's ordinance; MacKinnon and Dworkin claimed that holding Dworkin's books (which were released shortly after they were inspected) was a standard procedural measure, unrelated to the Butler decision. == Definition of pornography in the ordinance == Dworkin and MacKinnon placed special emphasis on the legal definition of pornography provided in the civil rights ordinance. The civil rights ordinance characterizes pornography as a form of "sex discrimination" and defines "pornography" as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures and/or words," when combined with one of several other conditions. In the "model ordinance" that they drafted, Dworkin and MacKinnon gave the following legal definition: 1. "Pornography" means the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures and/or words that also includes one or more of the following: a. women are presented dehumanized as sexual objects, things or commodities; or b. women are presented as sexual objects who enjoy humiliation or pain; or c. women are presented as sexual objects experiencing sexual pleasure in rape, incest, or other sexual assault; or d. women are presented as sexual objects tied up or cut up or mutilated or bruised or physically hurt; or e. women are presented in postures or positions of sexual submission, servility, or display; or f. women's body parts—including but not limited to vaginas, breasts, or buttocks—are exhibited such that women are reduced to those parts; or g. women are presented being penetrated by objects or animals; or h. women are presented in scenarios of degradation, humiliation, injury, torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual. 2. The use of men, children, or transsexuals in the place of women in (a)–(h) of this definition is also pornography for purposes of this law. —Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon, "Model Antipornography Civil-Rights Ordinance," Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality, Appendix D == Causes for action == Each version of the ordinance provided different causes for action under which women could file sex discrimination suits related to pornography. The original version of the ordinance passed in Minneapolis, the Indianapolis ordinance, and the proposed Cambridge ordinance each recognized four causes for action that could justify a sex discrimination suit: Trafficking in pornography, defined as the production, sale, exhibition, or distribution of pornographic materials. Making pornography available for study in government-funded public libraries and public or private university libraries was exempted from being considered discrimination by trafficking. Any woman could claim a cause for action against the trafficker(s) as a woman acting against the subordination of women. Men or transsexuals who alleged injury by pornography in the way that women are injured by it could also sue. Coercion into pornographic performances. Any person coerced, intimidated, or fraudulently induced into pornography could sue the maker(s), seller(s), exhibitor(s), or distributor(s), both for damages and to have the product or products of the performances eliminated from public view. The law stated that a number of specific factors, including past sexual history, other involvement in prostitution or pornography, the appearance of cooperation during the performance, or payment for the performance, could not be used (by themselves, without further evidence) as evidence against a claim of coercion. Forcing pornography on a person in a home, workplace, school, or public place. Any person who has pornography forced on her or him could sue the perpetrator and the institution. Assault or physical attack due to pornography. The victim of an assault, physical attack, or injury "directly caused by specific pornography" could seek damages from the maker(s), distributor(s), seller(s), and/or exhibitor(s) of the pornography, and an injunction against the further exhibition, distribution, or sale of that specific pornography. The Model Ordinance that Dworkin and MacKinnon advocated in Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality (1988), and the version of the ordinance passed in Bellingham, Washington, the same year, added a fifth cause of action in addition to these four: Defamation through pornography, defined as defaming any person (including public figures) through the unauthorized use of their proper name, image, or recognizable personal likeness in pornography, and allowing for authorization, if given, to be revoked in writing at any time prior to the publication of the pornography. == Criticism == The most vocal critic of Mackinnon and (Andrea) Dworkin's rights-based approach to pornography is Ronald Dworkin (of no relation), who rejects the argument that the private consumption of pornography can be said to be a breach of women's civil rights. Ronald Dworkin states that the Ordinance rests on the "frightening principle that considerations of equality require that some people not be free to express their tastes or convictions or preferences anywhere." Ronald Dworkin also argues that the logic underpinning the Ordinance would threaten other forms of free speech. == See also == Attorney General's Commission on Pornography American Booksellers v. Hudnut == References == == Bibliography == Text of American Booksellers v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323 (7th Cir. 1985) is available from: OpenJurist Boston College UMKC Harvard University Brownmiller, Susan (1999). In our time: memoir of a revolution. New York: Dial Press. ISBN 9780385314862. Details. Dworkin, Andrea; MacKinnon, Catharine (1988). Pornography and civil rights: a new day for women's equality. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Organizing Against Pornography. ISBN 9780962184901. Available online. Dworkin, Andrea (1997), "Beaver talks", in Dworkin, Andrea (ed.), Life and death: unapologetic writings on the continuing war against women, London: Virago, pp. 90–95, ISBN 9781860493607. Dworkin, Andrea (1997), "Pornography happens", in Dworkin, Andrea (ed.), Life and death: unapologetic writings on the continuing war against women, London: Virago, pp. 134–137, ISBN 9781860493607. MacKinnon, Catharine A. (November 1991). "Pornography as defamation and discrimination". Boston University Law Review. 71 (5): 793–818. Pdf. MacKinnon, Catharine A. (1987), "Francis Biddle's sister: pornography, civil rights, and speech", in MacKinnon, Catharine A. (ed.), Feminism unmodified: discourses on life and law, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp. 177, 181 and 193, ISBN 9780674298743. Preview. See also: Langton, Rae (Autumn 1993). "Speech acts and unspeakable acts". Philosophy & Public Affairs. 22 (4): 293–330. JSTOR 2265469. Pdf. See also: Davies, Alex (March 2014). "How to silence content with porn, context and loaded questions". European Journal of Philosophy. 24 (2): 498–522. doi:10.1111/ejop.12075. (Online version before inclusion in an issue.) == Further reading == Downs, Donald Alexander (1989). The new politics of pornography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226161631. Dworkin, Andrea; MacKinnon, Catharine (1997). In harm's way: the pornography civil rights hearings. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674445796. Book review of In Harm's Way: Jensen, Robert (July 1998). "Signs of struggle: voices from the anti-pornography movement". Books-on-Law. 1 (4). Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Book review of In Harm's Way: McElroy, Wendy (July 1998). "The MacKinnon-Dworkin memory hole". Books-on-Law. 1 (4). Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Waltman, Max (March 2010). "Rethinking democracy: legal challenges to pornography and sex inequality in Canada and the United States". Political Research Quarterly. 63 (1): 218–237. doi:10.1177/1065912909349627. S2CID 154054641. (including podcast with PRQ co-editor Amy Mazur, Catharine MacKinnon, Kathleen Mahoney, William Hudnut, and Max Waltman).	Wikipedia/Antipornography_Civil_Rights_Ordinance
Internet pornography or online pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the Internet; primarily via websites, FTP connections, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The greater accessibility of the World Wide Web from the late 1990s led to an incremental growth of Internet pornography, the use of which among adolescents and adults has since become increasingly popular. Danni's Hard Drive started in 1995 by Danni Ashe is considered one of the earliest online pornographic websites. In 2012, estimates of the total number of pornographic websites stood at nearly 25 million comprising about 12% of all the websites. In 2022, the total amount of pornographic content accessible online was estimated to be over 10,000 terabytes. The four most accessed pornographic websites are Pornhub, XVideos, xHamster, and XNXX. As of 2025, a single company, Aylo, owns and operates most of the popular online streaming pornographic websites, including: Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn, as well as pornographic film studios like: Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, and Sean Cody among others, but it does not own websites like XVideos, xHamster, and XNXX. Some have alleged that the company is a monopoly. == Introduction == Starting in the late 1980s, the Internet has played a major part in increasing access to pornography. Usenet newsgroups provided the base for what has been called the "amateur revolution" where amateur pornographers, with the help of digital cameras and the Internet, created and distributed their own pornographic content independent of the mainstream networks. The use of the World Wide Web became popular with the introduction of Netscape navigator in 1994. This development paved the way for newer methods of distribution and consumption of pornography. The Internet as a medium to access pornography became so popular that in 1995 Time published a cover story titled "Cyberporn". Danni's Hard Drive started in 1995, by Danni Ashe is considered one of the earliest online pornographic websites; coded by Ashe, a former stripper and nude model, the website was reported by CNN in 2000 to have made revenues of $6.5 million. In 2012, the total number of pornographic websites was estimated to be around 25 million, comprising 12% of all websites. In 2022, the amount of pornographic content accessible online was estimated at over 10,000 terabytes. XVideos and Pornhub are two of the most accessed pornographic websites in the US. In 2024, according to the DSA regulation, 59 out of 100 Spaniards visits one of the three biggest websites monthly. Before its shutdown in 2025, ThisAV was a popular pornographic website in Hong Kong. == History and methods of distribution == === Before the World Wide Web === Pornography is regarded by some as one of the driving forces behind the expansion of the World Wide Web, like camcorders, VCRs and cable television before it. Prior to the development of the WorldWide Web, pornographic images had been transmitted over the Internet as ASCII porn. To send images over network required computers with graphics capabilities and higher network bandwidth. In the late 1980s and early 1990s this was possible through the use of anonymous FTP servers and the Gopher protocol, an early content delivery protocol that was later displaced by HTTP. One of the early Gopher/FTP sites to compile pornography was the Digital Archive on the 17th Floor at TU Delft. This small image archive contained some low quality scanned pornographic images that were initially available to anyone anonymously. The site soon became restricted to Netherlands only access after traffic grew to over 10,000 users around the world, who were obtaining approximately 30,000 images a day. === Usenet groups === Usenet newsgroups provided an early way of sharing images over the narrow bandwidth available in the early 1990s. Because of the network restrictions of the time, images had to be encoded as ascii text and then broken into sections before being posted to the Alt.binaries of the usenet. These files could then be downloaded and then reassembled before being decoded back to an image. Automated software such as Aub (Assemble Usenet Binaries) allowed the automatic download and assembly of the images from a newsgroup. There was rapid growth in the number of posts in the early 1990s but image quality was restricted by the size of files that could be posted. This method was also used to disseminate pornographic images, which were usually scanned from adult magazines. This type of distribution was generally free (apart from fees for Internet access), and provided a great deal of anonymity. The anonymity made it safe and easy to ignore copyright restrictions, as well as protecting the identity of uploaders and downloaders. Around this time frame, pornography was also distributed via pornographic Bulletin Board Systems such as Rusty n Edie's. These BBSes could charge users for access, leading to the first commercial online pornography. A 1995 article written in The Georgetown Law Journal titled "Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway: A Survey of 917,410 Images, Description, Short Stories and Animations Downloaded 8.5 Million Times by Consumers in Over 2000 Cities in Forty Countries, Provinces and Territories" by Martin Rimm, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate student, claimed that (as of 1994) 83.5% of the images on Usenet newsgroups where images were stored were pornographic in nature. Before publication, Philip Elmer-DeWitt used the research in a Time magazine article, "On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn." The findings were attacked by journalists and civil liberties advocates who insisted the findings were seriously flawed. "Rimm's implication that he might be able to determine 'the percentage of all images available on the Usenet that are pornographic on any given day' was sheer fantasy" wrote Mike Godwin in HotWired. The research was cited during a session of U.S. Congress. The student changed his name and disappeared from public view. Godwin recounts the episode in "Fighting a Cyberporn Panic" in his book Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age. The invention of the World Wide Web spurred both commercial and non-commercial distribution of pornography. The rise of pornography websites offering photos, video clips and streaming media including live webcam access allowed greater access to pornography. === Free vs. commercial === Both commercial and free pornographic sites are common on the Internet. The bandwidth usage of a pornographic website is relatively high, which can lead to large web hosting and Internet costs. Free websites, which often use advertising revenue to earn income, may not earn a sufficient amount to cover the costs of web hosting. One entry into the free pornographic website market are thumbnail gallery post sites. These are free websites that post links to commercial sites, providing a sampling of the commercial site in the form of thumbnail images, or in the form of Free Hosted Galleries—samplings of full-sized content provided and hosted by the commercial sites to promote their site. Some free websites primarily serve as portals by keeping up-to-date indexes of these smaller sampler sites. When a user purchases a subscription to a commercial site after clicking through from a free thumbnail gallery site, the commercial site makes a payment to the owner of the free site. There are several forms of sites delivering adult content. ==== TGP ==== A common form of adult content is a categorized list (more often a table) of small pictures (called "thumbnails") linked to galleries. These sites are called a thumbnail gallery post (TGP). As a rule, these sites sort thumbnails by category and type of content available on a linked gallery. Sites containing thumbnails that lead to galleries with video content are called MGP (movie gallery post). The main benefit of TGP/MGP is that the surfer can get a first impression of the content provided by a gallery without actually visiting it. However, TGP sites are open to abuse, with the most abusive form being the so-called CJ (abbreviation for circlejerk), that contains links that mislead the surfer to sites he or she actually did not wish to see. This is also called a redirect. ==== Linklists ==== Linklists, unlike TGP/MGP sites, do not display a huge number of pictures. A linklist is a (frequently) categorised web list of links to so-called "freesites*", but unlike TGPs, links are provided in a form of text, not thumbs. It is still a question which form is more descriptive to a surfer, but many webmasters cite a trend that thumbs are much more productive, and simplify searching. On the other hand, linklists have a larger amount of unique text, which helps them improve their positions in search engine listings. TopLists are linklists whose internal ranking of freesites is based on incoming traffic from those freesites, except that freesites designed for TopLists have many more galleries. ==== Peer-to-peer ==== Peer-to-peer file sharing networks provide another form of free access to pornography. While such networks have been associated largely with the illegal sharing of copyrighted music and movies, the sharing of pornography has also been a popular use for file sharing. Many commercial sites have recognized this trend and have begun distributing free samples of their content on peer-to-peer networks. == Viewership == As of 2011, the majority of viewers of online pornography were men; women tended to prefer romance novels and erotic fan fiction. Women comprised about one quarter to one third of visitors to popular pornography websites, but were only 2% of subscribers to pay sites. Subscribers with female names were flagged as signs of potential credit card fraud, because "so many of these charges result in an angry wife or mother demanding a refund for the misuse of her card." Nonetheless, women spend more time on average on pornography websites, particularly Pornhub, than men and were more interested in pornography upon marriage. An anti-porn research group, Barna Group and Covenant Eyes, reported in 2020 that "33% of women aged 25 and under search for porn at least once per month. A 2015 study found "a big jump" in pornography viewing over the past few decades, with the largest increase driven by the people born in the 1970s and 1980s. While the study's authors noted this increase is "smaller than conventional wisdom might predict," it is still quite significant. Those who were born since the 1980s onward were the first to grow up in a world where they had access to the Internet from their teenage years, this early exposure and accessibility of Internet pornography might have been the primary driver of this increase. States that are highly religious and conservative were found to search for more Internet pornography. == Internet pornography formats == === Image files === Pornographic images may be either scanned into the computer from photographs or magazines, produced with a digital camera or a frame from a video before being uploading onto a pornographic website. The JPEG format is one of the most common formats for these images. Another format is GIF which may provide an animated image where the people in the picture move. It can last for only a second or two up to a few minutes and then reruns (repeats) indefinitely. If the position of the objects in the last frame is about the same as the first frame, there is the illusion of continuous action. === Video files and streaming video === Pornographic video clips may be distributed in a number of formats, including MPEG, WMV, and QuickTime. More recently, VCD and DVD image files allow the distribution of whole VCDs and DVDs. Many commercial porn sites exist that allow one to view pornographic streaming video. As of 2020, some Internet pornography sites have begun offering 5K resolution content, while 1080p and 4K resolution are still more common. Since mid-2006, advertising-supported free pornographic video sharing websites based on the YouTube format have appeared. Referred to as Porn 2.0, these sites generally use Flash technology to distribute videos that were uploaded by users; these include user-generated content as well as scenes from commercial porn movies and advertising clips from pornographic websites. === Webcams === Another format of adult content that emerged with the advent of the Internet is live webcams. Webcam content can generally be divided into two categories: group shows offered to members of an adult paysite, and one-on-one private sessions usually sold on a pay-per-view basis. Server-based webcam sex shows spur unique international economics: adult models in various countries perform live webcam shows and chat for clients in affluent countries. This kind of activity is sometimes mediated by companies that will set up websites and manage finances. They may maintain "office" space for the models to perform from, or they provide the interface for models to work at home, with their own computer with webcam. As of 2020, most so-called cam hosts stream directly from their home, due to the availability of fast Internet and cheap HD webcams. These models earn money through tips or by selling exclusive content to their viewers through live cam sites, which can reach more than 20,000 viewers at once. Live cam sites are very popular with sites like Chaturbate or LiveJasmin appearing among the 100 most popular websites according to Alexa Internet. === Other formats === Other formats include text and audio files. While pornographic and erotic stories, distributed as text files, web pages, and via message boards and newsgroups, have been semi-popular, audio porn, via formats like MP3 and FLV, have increased in popularity.Audio porn can include recordings of people having sex or simply reading erotic stories. (Pornographic magazines are available in Zinio format, which provides a reader program to enable access.) Combination formats, such as webteases that consist of images and text are also common. == Legal status == The Internet is an international network and there are currently no international laws regulating pornography; each country deals with Internet pornography differently. Generally, in the United States, if the act depicted in the pornographic content is legal in the jurisdiction that it is being distributed from then the distributor of such content would not be in violation of the law regardless of whether it is accessible in countries where it is illegal. This does not apply to those who access the pornography, however, as they could still be prosecuted under local laws in their country. Due to enforcement problems in anti-pornography laws over the Internet, countries that prohibit or heavily restrict access to pornography have taken other approaches to limit access by their citizens, such as employing content filters. Many activists and politicians have expressed concern over the easy availability of Internet pornography, especially to minors. This has led to a variety of attempts to restrict children's access to Internet pornography such as the 1996 Communications Decency Act in the United States. Some companies use an Adult Verification System (AVS) to deny access to pornography by minors. However, most Adult Verification Systems charge fees that are substantially higher than the actual costs of any verification they do (for example, in excess of $10/month) and are really part of a revenue collection scheme where sites encourage users to sign up for an AVS system, and get a percentage of the proceeds in return. In response to concerns with regard to children accessing age-inappropriate content, the adult industry, through the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP), began a self-labeling initiative called the Restricted to Adults label (RTA). This label is recognized by many web filtering products and is entirely free to use. Most employers have distinct policies against the accessing of any kind of online pornographic material from company computers, in addition to which some have also installed comprehensive filters and logging software in their local computer networks. One area of Internet pornography that has been the target of the strongest efforts at curtailment is child pornography. Because of this, most Internet pornography websites based in the U.S. have a notice on their front page that they comply with 18 USC Section 2257, which requires the keeping of records regarding the age of the people depicted in photographs, along with displaying the name of the company record keeper. Some site operators outside the U.S. have begun to include this compliance statement on their websites as well. On April 8, 2008 Evil Angel and its owner John Stagliano were charged in federal court with multiple counts of obscenity. One count was for, "using an interactive computer service to display an obscene movie trailer in a manner available to a person under 18 years of age." More than a dozen U.S. states have enacted laws requiring age verification to access online pornography. == Web filters and blocking software == A variety of content-control, parental control and filtering software is available to block pornography and other classifications of material from particular computers or (usually company-owned) networks. Commercially available Web filters include Bess, Net Nanny, SeeNoEvil, SurfWatch, and others. Various work-arounds and bypasses are available for some of these products; Peacefire is one of the most notable clearinghouses for such countermeasures. == Child pornography == The Internet has radically changed how child pornography is reproduced and disseminated, and, according to the United States Department of Justice, resulted in a massive increase in the "availability, accessibility, and volume of child pornography." The production of child pornography has become very profitable, bringing in several billion dollars a year, and is no longer limited to pedophiles. Philip Jenkins notes that there is "overwhelming evidence that [child pornography] is all but impossible to obtain through nonelectronic means." In 2006, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) published a report of findings on the presence of child pornography legislation in the then-184 INTERPOL member countries. It later updated this information, in subsequent editions, to include 196 UN member countries. The report, entitled “Child Pornography: Model Legislation & Global Review,” assesses whether national legislation: (1) exists with specific regard to child pornography; (2) provides a definition of child pornography; (3) expressly criminalizes computer-facilitated offenses; (4) criminalizes the knowing possession of child pornography, regardless of intent to distribute; and (5) requires ISPs to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement or to some other mandated agency. ICMEC stated that it found in its initial report that only 27 countries had legislation needed to deal with child pornography offenses, while 95 countries did not have any legislation that specifically addressed child pornography, making child pornography a global issue worsened by the inadequacies of domestic legislation. The 7th Edition Report found that still only 69 countries had legislation needed to deal with child pornography offenses, while 53 did not have any legislation specifically addressing the problem. Over seven years of research from 2006 to 2012, ICMEC and its Koons Family Institute on International Law and Policy report that they have worked with 100 countries that have revised or put in place new child pornography laws. The NCMEC estimated in 2003 that 20 percent of all pornography traded over the Internet was child pornography, and that since 1997, the number of child pornography images available on the Internet had increased by 1,500 percent. Regarding Internet proliferation, the US DOJ states that "At any one time there are estimated to be more than one million pornographic images of children on the Internet, with 200 new images posted daily." They also note that a single offender arrested in the United Kingdom possessed 450,000 child pornography images, and that a single child pornography site received a million hits in a month. Further, much of the trade in child pornography takes place at hidden levels of the Internet. It has been estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 pedophiles are involved in organized pornography rings around the world, and that one third of them operate from the United States. Digital cameras and Internet distribution facilitated by the use of credit cards and the ease of transferring images across national borders has made it easier than ever before for users of child pornography to obtain the photographs and videos. In 2007, the British-based Internet Watch Foundation reported that child pornography on the Internet was becoming more brutal and graphic, and the number of images depicting violent abuse had risen fourfold since 2003. The CEO stated "The worrying issue is the severity and the gravity of the images is increasing. We're talking about prepubescent children being raped." About 80 percent of the children in the abusive images were female, and 91 percent appeared to be children under the age of 12. Prosecution is difficult because multiple international servers are used, sometimes to transmit the images in fragments to evade the law. == See also == == Notes == == References == == Bibliography == Fritz, N; Malic, V; Fu, TC; Paul, B; Zhou, Y; Dodge, B; Fortenberry, JD; Herbenick, D (February 2022). "Porn Sex versus Real Sex: Sexual Behaviors Reported by a U.S. Probability Survey Compared to Depictions of Sex in Mainstream Internet-Based Male-Female Pornography". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 51 (2): 1187–1200. doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02175-6. PMC 8853281. PMID 35165802. Jacobs, Katrien; Pasquinelli, Matteo, eds. (2007). C'lickme: a netporn studies reader. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. ISBN 9789078146032. Jacobs, Katrien (2007). Netporn: DIY web culture and sexual politics. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742554320. Jahnen, Matthias; Zeng, Leopold; Kron, Martina; Meissner, Valentin H.; Korte, Alexander; Schiele, Stefan; Schulwitz, Helga; Dinkel, Andreas; Gschwend, Jürgen E.; Herkommer, Kathleen (December 2022). "The role of pornography in the sex life of young adults-a cross-sectional cohort study on female and male German medical students". BMC Public Health. 22 (1): 1471–2458. doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13699-4. PMC 9252028. PMID 35787262. McCreadie Lillie, Jonathan James (March 2004). "Cyberporn, sexuality, and the net apparatus". Convergence. 10 (1): 43–65. doi:10.1177/135485650401000104. S2CID 220782688. Paasonen, Susanna (2011). Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (illustrated ed.). MIT Press. ISBN 9780262016315. Rosen, David (February 2023). "Pornography and the Erotic Phantasmagoria". Sexuality & Culture. 27 (1): 242–265. doi:10.1007/s12119-022-10011-9. PMC 9485786. PMID 36157715. Scarcelli, Cosimo Marco (July 2015). "'It is disgusting, but … ': adolescent girls' relationship to internet pornography as gender performance". Porn Studies. 2 (2–3): 237–249. doi:10.1080/23268743.2015.1051914. == External links == XBIZ, Adult Internet News, Market Analysis Articles, and Webmaster Resources Straight Dope: How Much of All Internet Traffic is Pornography?. Archived 2006-07-19 at the Wayback Machine. "Cyberporn: The Crack Cocaine of Sexual Addiction", by Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Men's Style, December 2006. Swartz, Jon (12 June 2007). "Purveyors of Porn Scramble to Keep Up with Internet". USA Today. Retrieved 5 May 2010	Wikipedia/Internet_pornography
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) was a feminist anti-pornography activist group based in San Francisco and an influential force in the larger feminist anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s. == History == WAVPM was organized in January 1977, following the San Francisco Women's Centers Conference on Violence Against Women. Founding members included Laura Lederer, Lynn Campbell, Diana Russell, Kathleen Barry, and Susan Griffin. It became highly active in San Francisco, picketing strip clubs and peep shows in San Francisco's red-light districts. Its first public political action was a picket of the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, a strip club and live sex venue. The specific target of the protest was the theater's Ultra Room, which was a live show that featured women performing sadomasochistic acts on one another. WAVPM objected to "women beat[ing] each other for men's sexual stimulation." WAVPM also sponsored educational tours of pornography stores and peep shows in San Francisco's red-light districts and anti-pornography slide shows, both forms of activism later adopted by other anti-pornography feminist groups, notably Women Against Pornography in New York City. WAVPM, like later anti-pornography feminists, was also strongly opposed to BDSM, seeing it as ritualized violence against women, and took a particularly active role in opposing it within the lesbian community. This set them on a direct collision course with Samois, an early lesbian sadomasochist group who WAVPM strongly rebuked and whose functions they sometimes picketed. Samois members felt strongly that their way of practicing SM was entirely compatible with feminism, and held that the kind of feminist sexuality advocated by WAVPM was conservative and puritanical. Samois openly confronted WAVPM with their position, and the exchanges between Samois and WAVPM were among the earliest battles of what later became known as the Feminist Sex Wars. The group organized the first national conference of anti-pornography feminists in San Francisco in November 1978. The conference concluded with the first organisational Take Back the Night march, inspired by the efforts of grassroots communities in the early 70s. Andrea Dworkin gave a speech at the rally, and then about three thousand women marched through the red light district in protest of rape and pornography. After the conference, Susan Brownmiller approached Laura Lederer and Lynn Campbell and encouraged them to come to New York City to help in organizing Women Against Pornography. Lederer decided to stay in San Francisco to edit an anthology based on the conference presentations, but Campbell took up the offer and left for New York in April 1979. WAVPAM became less active soon after Campbell's departure, though the group stayed active for several more years. At its peak, the group had over 1000 members. The group became mired in disagreements over stances on non-violent pornography, free speech issues, and attempts to reconcile with sex worker and lesbian BDSM activists, as well as having problems with fundraising and mounting debt. WAVPM disbanded in 1983. == References ==	Wikipedia/Women_Against_Violence_in_Pornography_and_Media
Queer pornography depicts performers with various gender identities and sexual orientations interacting and exploring genres of desire and pleasure in unique ways. These conveyed interactions distinctively seek to challenge the conventional modes of portraying and experiencing sexually explicit content. Scholar Ingrid Ryberg additionally includes two main objectives of queer pornography in her definition as "interrogating and troubling gender and sexual categories and aiming at sexual arousal." Queer porn works to have authentic representations with respect to the sexual orientations, gender identities and desires of the performers in it. It differs from heterosexual, gay, or lesbian pornography, because queer porn will often be a partnering of performers outside traditional pornographic categories. Gay porn falls into a similar situation as heterosexual porn by putting an emphasis on androcentric imagery of pleasure, as scholar Richard Dyer argues, and often glorifies the homonormative, masculine body-type and behavior. To appear as inclusive, gay porn will exotify differences. Performers' bodies in queer pornography are key to providing a difference between it and other categories of pornography. For example, a DVD may have one scene which shows a transgender lesbian with a cisgender femme-identified queer woman, while the next scene may showcase two transgender queer-identified men. The genre of queer pornography as defined above is relatively recent and has been popularized and distributed by adult film companies such as Pink and White Productions, Trouble Films, Real Queer Productions among others. While porn is not limited to adult cinema and can exist in the context of a variety of media such as queer written pornography, the currently produced queer porn is mostly in the form of video. Some prominent queer producers include Shine Louise Houston, Chelsea Poe, and April Flores who attempt to challenge the filming methods within the porn industry. Typically within the Porn Industry, the producer and director have the majority of control over how each scene will be performed, who is showcased in each set, and creating a differential of performers’ salaries based on their popularity. Queer pornography counters these practices by actively engaging performers in the creations of scenes allowing them to form more organically as a collaboration with a more horizontal access of control rather than a hierarchically vertical system. Queer porn similarly celebrates ejaculation but with some signification differences to conventional porn. Unlike in the mainstream industry, the performer does not have a financial bonus for providing such a "money shot." Directors only encourage performers to perform an orgasm if/when the actors feel like it. Since the money shot in conventional porn relies of visibility for the camera, it necessarily centers on showing external ejaculation of the penis as the ultimate climax. This reflects attention back to the male centered gaze and a representative instance of phallic power and pleasure. Queer porn attempts to broaden such a delineation of phallic centered climax and the pornographic production. == Discourses on queer pornography == Queer pornography has been attracting academic attention since the 2000s. A challenge within queer pornography is that some labeled queer porn may depict scenarios that could be part of any heterosexual mainstream pornographic film. This follows academic Niels van Doorn's concept of the “pornoscript,” eroticizing heterosexual difference and focusing on the male subject position. For example, a scene from Real Queer Productions's Fluid depicts a threesome with elements of submissions and dominance, rough vaginal and anal penetration, and external male ejaculation. The film's adherence to the pornographic conventions is predictable and serialized. However, further inspection into queer porn that appears like heteronormative pornography reveals particular parody of serial strategy to expose gender construction within most conventional pornography. This process creates a queer version of the model of "subversive repetition" theorized by academic Judith Butler. Drawing particular attention to such a facet through imitation permits its productive act of deconstruction. Thus, queer pornography can disassemble the pornographic norm by mimicking it. Additionally, queer pornography clearly reveals the imitative process of gender identification when introducing the figure of the transgender man. Compared to trans women depicted across other types of pornography, trans men appear significantly in feminist and queer pornography. Films of queer pornography make "deviant" sexualities more visible by simultaneously starting a process of their normalization. So, in order to avoid creating a new kind of norm, queer pornography constantly works along the edge of the gender system. For example, when strap-on dildos made their appearance in queer pornography leaving viewers guessing whether they were faced with a "real" penis or a dildo, they soon became a common sight. While these strap-on dildos originally offered new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality, their ubiquitous use risked losing their subversive power. As scholar Sarah Schaschek writes, “If heterosexual pornography accentuates clearly defined identity categories such as class, age, ethnicity, sexuality, or gender, queer films tend to reveal the high degree of stylization behind these identities”. == Productions == Dirty Diaries Pink and White Productions Real Queer Productions Trouble Films AORTA films == Artists == Dylan Ryan Jiz Lee Shine Louise Houston Buck Angel April Flores Bianca Stone Madison Young Tristan Taormino Erika Lust Petra Joy == References == == Further reading == Coleman, L., & Held, J. M. (Eds.). (2016). The Philosophy of Pornography: Contemporary Perspectives (Reprint edition). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Jacobs, Katrien (2007). "Academic Cult Erotica: Fluid Beings or a Cubicle of Our Own?". Cinema Journal. 46 (4): 126–129. doi:10.1353/cj.2007.0037. S2CID 144564473. David, Joel (2006). "Queer Shuttling: Korea-Manila-New York". GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 12 (4): 614–617. doi:10.1215/10642684-12-4-614. S2CID 143787153. Ingraham, N. (2013). Queering pornography through qualitative methods. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 7(2), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.5172/mra.2013.7.2.218 Lee, J. (Ed.). (2015). Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy. Berkeley, CA: ThreeL Media. Seise, Cherie (April 2010). "Fucking Utopia: Queer Porn and Queer Liberation" (PDF). Sprinkle: A Journal of Sexual Diversity Studies. 3: 19–29. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 8, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2013. Mason-Grant, J. (2004). Pornography Embodied: From Speech to Sexual Practice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Morris, P., & Paasonen, S. (2014). Risk and Utopia: A Dialogue on Pornography. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 20(3), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2422656 Rodriguez, J. M. (2011). Queer Sociality and Other Sexual Fantasies. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 17(2–3), 331–348. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-1163427 Ziv, A. (2015). Explicit Utopias: Rewriting the Sexual in Women’s Pornography (Reprint edition). SUNY Press.	Wikipedia/Queer_pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography (FFP, pronounced /fip/) was a political activist organization against pornography. It advocated for United States Federal legislation to allow lawsuits against the porn industry by women whose attackers were inspired by pornography. FFP was based in New York, N.Y., was founded in 1983 or 1984, and dissolved in 1997. == Issue positions == FFP opposed pornography. It is defined as the sexualized degrading, dominating, humiliating, objectifying, subjugating, violating, annihilating, exploiting, or violence and is distinguished from erotica, which is based on mutuality of power and pleasure. According to FFP founder Page Mellish, pornography provides the training for incest, assault, and rape, results in the objectification of women, affects women's ability to get equal rights and equal pay and encourages men associate sex with violence. Mellish ultimately claimed that all feminist issues were rooted in pornography. In a 1986 letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, an FFP member asserted that the members are "not against love and not against sex." Mellish held all men and women who did not fight against pornography as accountable for violence against women, and claimed that women who enjoyed pornography or rough sex had "internalized the male definition of power". Positions on pornography have been debated outside of FFP, including with respect to porn's effect on crime and feminist definitions of porn. == Leadership == FFP's founder and organizer was Page Mellish, formerly of the staff of Women Against Pornography, and also formerly of Women Against Pornography and Violence in the Media and National Organization for Women, both of San Francisco, California. == Legislative agenda == Feminists Fighting Pornography supported the Pornography Victims Compensation Act of 1991. Though the bill had some support including from "many feminists", it was not supported by Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and some other feminists. Supporting the bill, Mellish appeared on a Larry King show, where she credited executed serial killer of women Ted Bundy, who claimed pornography as an influence, with bringing attention to the issue. Under the bill, a person who was attacked after the attacker was substantially spurred by pornography could sue the pornography's producers, publishers, distributors, exhibitors, and sellers without needing a prior criminal charge for the pornography itself. To be pragmatic toward passage, the bill was limited to child pornography and obscene material. The bill has been criticized. FFP also supported an earlier bill, the Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1987, for which FFP listed as endorsers "many [other] women's and children's organizations" and had "signatures of thousands" of bill supporters. In other legislative matters: FFP also supported the anti-pornography civil rights ordinance supported by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. It did not support anti-obscenity laws, because, in FFP's view, they did not address the harm of porn. Legislation alone was not a complete solution, according to Page Mellish; it was also necessary to remove "the need for porn". === Congressional testimony === Page Mellish, testifying to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 as "a professional activist .... employed ... [by] Feminists Fighting Pornography", stating that the porn industry is large and that "a majority of ... [the] product" of the porn "industry ... either degrades or violates women", spoke on "the real harm of pornography—its proximate cause to violence against women. This causal link was a primary finding of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography upon examination of research[] which included a Michigan State Police study finding pornography was used or imitated just prior to or during 41 percent of the State's sexual assaults,[] a North Carolina State Police study that found 75 percent of the State's defendants in violent sexual assault cases had hardcore pornography in their homes or vehicles,[] and the FBI's finding that serial killers' most commonly shared trait was extreme pornography use." "The bill's proximate cause on incitement and influence is responsive to a Queen's University study in which 30 percent of sex offenders listed pornography as inciteful, preparatory, and instigative to the crime, and found rapists used pornography more than nonrapists." "[O]ne in four women respondents to Women's [sic] Day magazine ... reported being sexually abused as a direct result of pornographic materials[] .... [A] Yale University study ... found States with the highest pornography consumption had the highest rape rates, and lowest consumption, lowest rape rates." "Seventy-three percent [of "Americans in the Gallup poll in 1985"] affirmed sexual—note that there was no stipulation on violence—affirmed sexual magazines, movies, and books lead some people to commit sexual violence. In a Gallup poll of 1986, 76 percent mandated a ban of magazines containing sexual violence." In the balance of her testimony, she addressed the bill as noncensoring because it imposed "no prior restraint or State empowerment" and criticized the opposition. Congress is required to have a rational basis for legislation that, without it, might violate a right of a person under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment but is not required to validate scientific conclusions to the same degree that may be required in academic science; rather, the legislative reasoning must not be arbitrary. This testimony stated the position in 1991 of Feminists Fighting Pornography and was noted by the American Bar Association's ABA Journal. == Strategy == FFP did not advocate burning porn parlors down, as was done in England, but advocated for men not going to such places. Mellish preferred to organize marches instead, because she believed her ability to be grassroots organizing: "Even bombing porn houses only gets their attention; then we have to change men's view of women, change their idea of power." FFP performed some little crimes, like destroying the ads of the pornographic magazine Penthouse, which advertised in New York City Subway stations. FFP aimed to drive pornography out of stores and theaters, acknowledging that the effect would be to drive it into the underground economy, but not to destroy it completely. Role-reversal, having women view men as mere sex objects, was also not part of their ideology. == Activism == The FFP advocated in a variety of ways: Electoral campaigns: It invited people to bring banners to New York Mayoral candidates' headquarters in 1985. It assisted the election campaign of Green for Congress, reporting 100 FFP members doing so, in 1989. Bill Green was a Republican U.S. Representative for a district in Manhattan. He was re-elected that year. During his Congressional career, he introduced The Pornography Victims Protection Act as a bill. Mellish demonstrated in 1992 against United States Senate candidate Geraldine Ferraro on the issue of her husband providing real estate to a pornographer. Whether the demonstration was the organization's is unknown. Demonstrations and marches: It marched on 42d Street, Manhattan, on Apr. 8, 1984. At the time, 42d St. was known for its many pornographic businesses. On Oct. 20, 1984, 500 women marched in Times Square under the sponsorship of Feminists Fighting Pornography. On Jan. 13, 1985, held a demonstration objecting to an award to an MTV vice president for contributing to fashion. FFP demonstrated against what they believed to be the district attorney's sexism in a case where a woman was reported as killing her fiancé after he broke down her door. Petitions and tabling: In early 1984, FFP collected signatures on a petition protesting a store selling Snuff, the film, on cassette. In 1984, Mellish was tabling daily to educate the public. In 1989, she said that "'[p]eople aren't aware of this [kind of pornography]'". FFP's tabling was sometimes confused by the public as being by Women Against Pornography. One book writer later recalled of 1984 a woman from Feminists Fighting Pornography was tabling in Manhattan and seeking signatures for a petition. "Beside her was a giant blowup of the notorious cover of Hustler that showed a woman's legs sticking out of a meat grinder." In an unknown year, FFP tabled in Washington, D.C. The group was known for openly displaying pornography as part of anti-pornography information tabling. There were "public complaints of their streetcorner display that had nude photos", including that it was "disgusting". In one instance in 1989, Page Mellish and FFP member Dee Vaughan were arrested and jailed, according to The National Law Journal. She said, according to the same newspaper, "'We've been arrested or had our pornography confiscated approximately seven times.'" Despite these reactions, "her group ... keeps setting up shop, hoping, she says, to educate the public", according to the newspaper then. That same year, according to USA Today, Page Mellish and Dee Vaughan asked a state judge to dismiss obscenity charges for the nude photos. Attorney Ron Kuby, then of Bill Kunstler's law firm, provided legal representation, according to The National Law Journal, and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), according to the Virginia Law Review, provided legal services (whether on separate cases or together is unknown). The result was that the legal right to display such material was sought and established. American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen criticized FFP for seeking a right to display pornography while opposing others' doing so. In 1987, in support of the Pornography Victims Protection Act, then a bill, Sen. Specter, as he was introducing it, said FFP "has collected signatures of thousands of concerned individuals supporting passage of this bill." Other activism: It named feminist and civil liberties organizations that, according to FFP, had received funding from Playboy Foundation, although it is not clear whether all such organizations applied for or accepted the funds. It offered tours of 42d Street and an FFP slideshow. It called for the boycotting of all stores that sell pornography. FFP was critical of the American Civil Liberties Union with regard to child porn. == Newsletter and press == Its newsletter or magazine was The Backlash Times. It was being published by 1983 or 1984 and continued until at least 1989. The newsletter carried news reports related to pornography generally, such as on assaults, responses, finances, politics, and legislation. It also published images from pornography, for which the group was criticized ("ironically but perhaps necessarily disseminating it ["porn"] further"). In response, the group raised the need to make clear what it was opposing, such as violence against and degradation of women, and thereby distinguish it from what it was not opposing, especially erotica. In 1992 and after recent favorable "'attention'", Ms. Mellish said, "'[t]he press has censored our movement because the press has a vested interest in the First Amendment'", referring to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and freedoms of speech and press. == References == === Bibliography ===	Wikipedia/Feminists_Fighting_Pornography
Fight the New Drug (FTND) is a nonprofit, secular, and non-legislative anti-pornography organization that is based in Utah. The group was founded in Utah in 2009. FTND describes pornography as analogous to a drug and argues that it is a public health crisis. It describes itself as asking people to "consider before consuming", rather than advocating anti-pornography legislation. == Activities == The group works with people aged 18 to 24 through presentations and video campaigns, and through student outreach activities in public school districts within Utah. In a 2015 campaign, FTND posted 100 billboards in the San Francisco Bay Area stating "Porn Kills Love". In March 2018, the Kansas City Royals held a FTND anti-pornography seminar for players during their spring training, and in November of that year, FTND released a three-part documentary film entitled Brain, Heart, World. In addition, the group promotes its campaign via a social media presence, branded merchandise, such as T-shirts, and marketing kits. == Support == A number of public figures have endorsed the group: these include Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff; sports personalities Terry Crews and Lamar Odom; actress Marisol Nichols; and YouTuber Chaz Smith. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly known as Morality in Media), a conservative anti-pornography organization, is also supportive of the FTND organization. The NCSE states a mission of theirs being "exposing the public-health crisis of pornography." FTND also promotes awareness for sexual health and sexual exploitation. On their YouTube channel, there are numerous videos and documentaries of people speaking about their experiences within the porn industry. They also have a website for others to share their stories. One notable story on their channel is of the most successful male porn star speaking out against the harm he experienced and witnessed in the porn industry. == Criticism == FTND has been criticized as holding an "openly ideology-driven strategy" and the group's message, in particular its categorizing of porn as a drug, as pseudoscience, contradictory to neuroscience research. The group have been alleged to be an example of continued influence by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over social issues. An example is their use of billboards in San Francisco intentionally to target a socially progressive region. In a Salt Lake Tribune op-ed, a group of sex therapists said that FTND's leaders and presenters were not mental health or sexuality professionals, and were promoting false information and failing to educate children about either sexuality and human development, or the positive, as well as the negative, aspects of porn. Emily F. Rothman, Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, stated in 2021 that "the professional public health community is not behind the recent push to declare pornography a public health crisis". == References ==	Wikipedia/Fight_the_New_Drug
Bondage pornography, also referred to as bondage erotica is the depiction of sexual bondage or other BDSM activities using photographs, stories, films or drawings. Though often described as pornography, the genre involves the presentation of bondage fetishism or BDSM scenarios and does not necessarily involve the commonly understood pornographic styles. In fact, the genre is primarily interested with the presentation of a bondage scene and less with depictions of sexuality, such as nudity or sex scenes, which may be viewed as a distraction from the aesthetics and eroticism of the sex scenario itself. Historically, most subjects of bondage imagery have been women, and the genre has been criticized for promoting misogynistic attitudes and violence against women. == Magazines and comics == === Variety === In the early 20th century, bondage imagery was available through "detective magazines", and comic books often featured characters being tied up or tying others up, particularly in "damsel in distress" plots. There were also a number of dedicated fetish magazines which featured images of fetishism and bondage. The first of such magazines in the United States was Bizarre, first published in 1946 by fetish photographer John Willie (the phallic pseudonym of John Coutts), who developed the concept in the 1920s. Willie was able to avoid controversy in censorship through careful attention to guidelines and the use of humor. Publication of Bizarre was suspended completely from 1947 to 1951 because of post-War paper shortages. By 1956 Willie was ready to give up the magazine, and in that year he sold it to someone described only as R.E.B., who published six more issues before Bizarre finally folded in 1959. Willie is better remembered for his Sweet Gwendoline comic strips, in which Gwendoline is drawn as a rather naïve blonde "damsel in distress", with ample curves, who is unfortunate enough to find herself tied up in scene after scene by the raven-haired dominatrix and the mustachioed villain "Sir Dystic D'Arcy". She is rescued and also repeatedly tied up (though for benevolent reasons) by secret agent U-69 (censored to U89 in some editions). The comic strips were published largely in the 1950s and 60s. The story was published as a piecemeal serial, appearing usually two pages at a time in several different magazines over the years. Though Bizarre was a small format magazine, it had a huge impact on later kink publications, such as ENEG's fetish magazine, Exotique, published 1956–1959. Exotique was entirely devoted to fetish fashions and female-dominant bondage fantasies. The 36 issues featured photos and illustrations of dominatrix-inspired vamps (including Burtman's wife Tana Louise and iconic model Bettie Page) wearing exotic leather and rubber ensembles, corsets, stockings/garters, boots, and high heels. Gene Bilbrew contributed illustrations to the magazine. The articles, many written by Leonard Burtman, using an alias, covered various aspects of sadomasochism and transvestism, with men depicted as slaves to imperious, all-powerful women. Exotique had no nudity, pornographic content, or even sexually suggestive situations. Nevertheless, much like fellow publisher Irving Klaw, in 1957, Burtman would be targeted as a pornographer. He was relentlessly pursued by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (acting as a censorship agency under the Comstock laws) and local law enforcement (which functioned in coordination with Postal Inspectors and the Catholic Church). Eventually, he was arrested, his magazines and materials confiscated, and brought to trial. This led to the demise of the magazine in 1959. However, starting in 1960, Burtman (under a different imprint) would go on to publish many more fetish magazines that were nearly identical to Exotique such as New Exotique, Masque, Connoisseur, Bizarre Life, High Heels, Unique World, Corporal (a pioneering spanking-fetish magazine) and others well into the 1970s. New York photographer Irving Klaw also published illustrated adventure/bondage serials by fetish artists Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew, Adolfo Ruiz and others. Klaw is best known for operating an international mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women (sometimes in bondage) from the 1940s to the 1960s. His most famous bondage model was Bettie Page, who became the first celebrity of bondage film and photography. These publications disappeared for a time with a crackdown on pornography in the late 1950s. === Resurgence of bondage magazines === Dedicated bondage magazines again became popular in America in the 1970s. From the mid-1970s through the late 1990s, they were produced by publishers such as Harmony Concepts, California Star, and House of Milan. House of Milan, owned and run by Barbara Behr, was one of the most influential publishers and distributors of BDSM erotica in this period. The company was based in southern California, one of a number of pornographic magazine and film companies working in the Los Angeles area. In the mid-1980s, House of Milan was sold by Behr who went on to work for California Star. House of Milan was subsequently owned by Lyndon Distributors. House of Milan was a mail-order business that distributed up to 30 similarly themed titles, producing three or four magazines a month. Most of the images in the magazines depicted women, either alone or together. They focussed on straight male bondage fantasies and also had a lesbian audience. Some of the best-known titles were Bound to Please, Knotty, and Hogtie. House of Milan eventually expanded from books and magazines into home videos. The products were not generally available through mainstream distributors, though they were sold in sex shops in addition to being available through mail order. They contained little advertising content, and funding was entirely dependent on sales. Typically, each magazine consisted of several multi-page pictorials of tied-up women, often with a fictional narrative attached, and one fictional story of three or four pages in length. Sometimes pictorials were replaced by artwork by a fetish artist or included an interview with one of the performers in the industry. In the case of House of Milan and Lyndon Distributors, the magazines were simply illustrated text versions of videos published by the same title. Such practice cut costs and allowed a streamlined output of material. Another type of magazine was the "compendium magazine", usually consisting of a large number of individual photographs drawn from previous magazines, without any linking story. Because of their relatively small circulation, compared with mainstream pornography, most bondage magazines were printed in black and white, except for the cover and centerfold. In the 1980s and 1990s, experiments were made with adding more color content, but most magazine content remained black and white. The attitude of some of the early magazines could be regarded as misogynistic by feminists, in spite of editorial disclaimers that the magazines represented only fantasies, as the storylines deviated from the old-fashioned "damsel in distress" motif towards more restrictive and explicit BDSM practices. However, in reality the opposite effect often happened: as a bondage performer was cast in more material and engaged in more acts, she would often develop a stronger fan base and became a recognized star in her own right. Nikki Dial and Ashley Renee are two examples of performers who won awards for their work as subs in bondage videos, and typically endured the most onscreen punishment. In the 1990s, as homosexuality and bi-sexuality began to be more socially accepted, magazine publishers started to produce femdom material depicting men in bondage, as well as portraying female models as participants in mutually satisfying bondage games, usually with at least one actress performing as a dom and at least one as a sub. Sometimes, the roles of dom and sub would be reversed. Be Be LeBadd and Alexis Payne are two professional dominatrices who also sometimes found themselves on the receiving end of a whip. == Websites and imagery in mainstream pornography == From the late 1990s onwards, specialist BDSM pornographic websites such as Insex and the various websites of Kink.com appeared. As Internet pornography became more widely available, the bondage magazine market began to decrease. As of 2003, specialist bondage magazines were mostly displaced by bondage material on the Internet, and bondage imagery is to be found in mainstream pornographic magazines, such as Nugget and Hustler's Taboo magazine. However, the tradition of bondage magazines continues in the form of "art books" of bondage photographs, published by mainstream publishers such as Taschen. Certain websites have begun providing bondage videos and photographs featuring the kidnapping roleplay, which has been largely the hallmark of "detective" style bondage magazines. These styles are much closer to the style of bondage scenes in mainstream television. == Criticism == As the availability of free pornography on the Internet has increased, its possible effects on microaggression towards women have been discussed. The concern has been raised that since bondage pornography mostly depicts women (who are portrayed primarily in situations of female submission), such pornography may promote an attitude legitimising violence against women. The book series and film 50 Shades of Grey has been said to perpetuate misogyny and portray BDSM/bondage subcultures in a patriarchal and misogynistic light. In this view, to properly reflect the BDSM/bondage subculture it is necessary for pornography to "focus on mutual consent, mutual power, and communication," as in the film 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan. == See also == Fetish model Irving Klaw Japanese bondage Kink.com List of fetish artists Sadism and masochism in fiction Splatter film Sexual fetishism == References == == External links == "Between the Rubber Sheets: A Look at Modern Fetish Magazines", essay by D.K. Holm	Wikipedia/Bondage_pornography
Zoophilia is a paraphilia in which a person experiences a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality instead refers to cross-species sexual activity between humans and non-human animals. Due to the lack of research on the subject, it is difficult to conclude how prevalent bestiality is. Zoophilia was estimated in one study to be prevalent in 2% of the population in 2021. == History == The historical perspective on zoophilia and bestiality varies greatly, from the prehistoric era, where depictions of bestiality appear in European rock art, to the Middle Ages, where bestiality was met with execution. In many parts of the world, bestiality is illegal under animal abuse laws or laws dealing with sodomy or crimes against nature. == Terminology == === General === Three key terms commonly used in regards to the subject—zoophilia, bestiality, and zoosexuality—are often used somewhat interchangeably. Some researchers distinguish between zoophilia (as a persistent sexual interest in animals) and bestiality (as sexual acts with animals), because bestiality is often not driven by a sexual preference for animals. Some studies have found a preference for animals is rare among people who engage in sexual contact with animals. Furthermore, some zoophiles report they have never had sexual contact with an animal. People with zoophilia are known as "zoophiles", though also sometimes as "zoosexuals", or even very simply "zoos". Zooerasty, sodomy, and zooerastia are other terms closely related to the subject but are less synonymous with the former terms, and are seldom used. "Bestiosexuality" was discussed briefly by Allen (1979), but never became widely established. Ernest Bornemann coined the separate term zoosadism for those who derive pleasure – sexual or otherwise – from inflicting pain on animals. Zoosadism specifically is one member of the Macdonald triad of precursors to sociopathic behavior. === Zoophilia === The term zoophilia was introduced into the field of research on sexuality in Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) by Krafft-Ebing, who described a number of cases of "violation of animals (bestiality)", as well as "zoophilia erotica", which he defined as a sexual attraction to animal skin or fur. The term zoophilia derives from the combination of two nouns in Greek: ζῷον (zṓion, meaning "animal") and φιλία (philia, meaning "(fraternal) love"). In general contemporary usage, the term zoophilia may refer to sexual activity between human and non-human animals, the desire to engage in such, or to the specific paraphilia (i.e., the atypical arousal) which indicates a definite preference for animals over humans as sexual partners. Although Krafft-Ebing also coined the term zooerasty for the paraphilia of exclusive sexual attraction to animals, that term has fallen out of general use. === Zoosexuality === The term zoosexual was proposed by Hani Miletski in 2002 as a value-neutral term. Usage of zoosexual as a noun (in reference to a person) is synonymous with zoophile, while the adjectival form of the word – as, for instance, in the phrase "zoosexual act" – may indicate sexual activity between a human and an animal. The derivative noun "zoosexuality" is sometimes used by self-identified zoophiles in both support groups and on internet-based discussion forums to designate sexual orientation manifesting as sexual attraction to animals. === Bestiality === Some zoophiles and researchers draw a distinction between zoophilia and bestiality, using the former to describe the desire to form sexual relationships with animals, and the latter to describe the sex acts alone. Confusing the matter yet further, writing in 1962, William H. Masters used the term bestialist specifically in his discussion of zoosadism. Stephanie LaFarge, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School, and Director of Counseling at the ASPCA, writes that two groups can be distinguished: bestialists, who rape or abuse animals, and zoophiles, who form an emotional and sexual attachment to animals. Colin J. Williams and Martin Weinberg studied self-defined zoophiles via the internet and reported them as understanding the term zoophilia to involve concern for the animal's welfare, pleasure, and consent, as distinct from the self-labelled zoophiles' concept of "bestialists", whom the zoophiles in their study defined as focused on their own gratification. Williams & Weinberg (2003) also quoted a British newspaper saying that zoophilia is a term used by "apologists" for bestiality. Sexual arousal from watching animals mate is known as faunoiphilia. == Extent of occurrence == The Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953 estimated the percentage of people in the general population of the United States who had at least one sexual interaction with animals as 8% for males and 5.1% for females (1.5% for pre-adolescents and 3.6% for post-adolescents females), and claimed it was 40–50% for the rural population and even higher among individuals with lower educational status. Some later writers dispute the figures, noting that the study lacked a random sample in that it included a disproportionate number of prisoners, causing sampling bias. Martin Duberman has written that it is difficult to get a random sample in sexual research, but pointed out that when Paul Gebhard, Kinsey's research successor, removed prison samples from the figures, he found the figures were not significantly changed.By 1974, the farm population in the US had declined by 80 percent compared with 1940, reducing the opportunity to live with animals; Hunt's 1974 study suggests that these demographic changes led to a significant change in reported occurrences of bestiality. The percentage of males who reported sexual interactions with animals in 1974 was 4.9% (1948: 8.3%), and in females in 1974 was 1.9% (1953: 3.6%). Miletski believes this is not due to a reduction in interest but merely a reduction in opportunity. Nancy Friday's 1973 book on female sexuality, My Secret Garden, comprised around 190 fantasies from different women; of these, 23 involve zoophilic activity. In one study, psychiatric patients were found to have a statistically significant higher prevalence rate (55 percent) of reported bestiality, both actual sexual contacts (45 percent) and sexual fantasy (30 percent) than the control groups of medical in-patients (10 percent) and psychiatric staff (15 percent). Crépault & Couture (1980) reported that 5.3 percent of the men they surveyed had fantasized about sexual activity with an animal during heterosexual intercourse. In a 2014 study, 3% of women and 2.2% of men reported fantasies about having sex with an animal. A 1982 study suggested that 7.5 percent of 186 university students had interacted sexually with an animal. A 2021 review estimated zoophilic behavior occurs in 2% of the general population. == Perspectives on zoophilia == === Research perspectives === Zoophilia has been discussed by several sciences: psychology (the study of the human mind), sexology (a relatively new discipline primarily studying human sexuality), ethology (the study of animal behavior), and anthrozoology (the study of human–animal interactions and bonds). In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), zoophilia is placed in the classification "other specified paraphilic disorder" ("paraphilias not otherwise specified" in the DSM-III and IV). The World Health Organization takes the same position, listing a sexual preference for animals in its ICD -10 as "other disorder of sexual preference". In the DSM-5, it rises to the level of a diagnosable disorder only when accompanied by distress or interference with normal functioning. Zoophilia may be covered to some degree by other fields such as ethics, philosophy, law, animal rights and animal welfare. It may also be touched upon by sociology which looks both at zoosadism in examining patterns and issues related to sexual abuse and at non-sexual zoophilia in examining the role of animals as emotional support and companionship in human lives, and may fall within the scope of psychiatry if it becomes necessary to consider its significance in a clinical context. The Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine (Vol. 18, February 2011) states that sexual contact with animals is almost never a clinically significant problem by itself; it also states that there are several kinds of zoophiles: Romantic zoophiles, zoophilic fantasizers, and regular zoophiles are the most common, while sadistic bestials and opportunistic zoophiles are the least common. Zoophilia may reflect childhood experimentation, sexual abuse or lack of other avenues of sexual expression. Exclusive desire for animals rather than humans is considered a rare paraphilia, and they often have other paraphilias with which they present. Zoophiles will not usually seek help for their condition, and so do not come to the attention of psychiatrists for zoophilia itself. The first detailed studies of zoophilia date prior to 1910. Peer-reviewed research into zoophilia in its own right started around 1960. A number of the most oft-quoted studies, such as Miletski, were not published in peer-reviewed journals. There have been several significant books, from psychologists William H. Masters (1962) to Andrea Beetz (2002); their research arrived at the following conclusions: Most zoophiles have (or have also had) long term human relationships as well or at the same time as bestial ones, and bestial partners are usually dogs and/or horses. Zoophiles' emotions and care for animals can be real, relational, authentic and (within animals' abilities) reciprocal, and not just a substitute or means of expression. Beetz believes zoophilia is not an inclination which is chosen. Some researchers suggest that society in general is considerably misinformed about zoophilia, its stereotypes, and its meaning. The distinction between zoophilia and zoosadism is a critical one to these researchers, and is highlighted by each of these studies. Masters (1962), Miletski (1999) and Weinberg (2003) each comment significantly on the social harm caused by misunderstandings regarding zoophilia: "This destroy[s] the lives of many citizens". Beetz described the phenomenon of zoophilia/bestiality as being somewhere between crime, paraphilia, and love, although she says that most research has been based on criminological reports, so the cases have frequently involved violence and psychiatric illness. She says only a few recent studies have taken data from volunteers in the community. As with all volunteer surveys and sexual ones in particular, these studies have a potential for self-selection bias. Medical research suggests that some zoophiles only become aroused by a specific species (such as horses), some zoophiles become aroused by multiple species (which may or may not include humans), and some zoophiles are not attracted to humans at all. === Historical and cultural perspectives === Instances of zoophilia and bestiality have been found in the Bible, but the earliest depictions of bestiality have been found in a cave painting from at least 8000 BC; in the Northern Italian Val Camonica a man is shown about to penetrate an animal. Raymond Christinger interprets the cave painting as a show of power of a tribal chief. It is unknown if this practice was then more accepted, if the scene depicted was usual or unusual, or if it was symbolic or imaginary. According to the Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, the penetrating man seems to be waving cheerfully with his hand at the same time. Potters of the time period seem to have spent time depicting the practice, but this may be because they found the idea amusing. The anthropologist Dr "Jacobus X", said that the cave paintings occurred "before any known taboos against sex with animals existed". William H. Masters claimed that "since pre-historic man is prehistoric it goes without saying that we know little of his sexual behavior"; depictions in cave paintings may only show the artist's subjective preoccupations or thoughts. Pindar, Herodotus, and Plutarch claimed the Egyptians engaged in ritual congress with goats. Such claims about other cultures do not necessarily reflect anything about which the author had evidence, but may be a form of propaganda or xenophobia, similar to blood libel. Several cultures built temples (Khajuraho, India) or other structures (Sagaholm, Sweden) with zoophilic carvings on the exterior. At Khajuraho these depictions are not on the interior, perhaps depicting them as things that belong to the profane world rather than the spiritual world, and thus are to be left outside. In the Church-oriented culture of the Middle Ages, zoophilic activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging, as "both a violation of Biblical edicts and a degradation of man as a spiritual being rather than one that is purely animal and carnal". Some witches were accused of having congress with the devil in the form of an animal. As with all accusations and confessions extracted under torture in the witch trials in early modern Europe, their validity cannot be ascertained. === Religious perspectives === Passages in Leviticus 18 (Lev 18:23: "And you shall not lie with any beast and defile yourself with it, neither shall any woman give herself to a beast to lie with it: it is a perversion." RSV) and 20:15–16 ("If a man lies with a beast, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the beast. If a woman approaches any beast and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them." RSV) are cited by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians as categorical denunciation of bestiality. The teachings of the New Testament have been interpreted by some as not expressly forbidding bestiality. In Part II of his Summa Theologica, medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas ranked various "unnatural vices" (sex acts resulting in "venereal pleasure" rather than procreation) by degrees of sinfulness, concluding that "the most grievous is the sin of bestiality". Some Christian theologians extend Matthew's view that even having thoughts of adultery is sinful to imply that thoughts of committing bestial acts are likewise sinful. There are a few references in Hindu temples to figures engaging in symbolic sexual activity with animals such as explicit depictions of people having sex with animals included amongst the thousands of sculptures of "Life events" on the exterior of the temple complex at Khajuraho. The depictions are largely symbolic depictions of the sexualization of some animals and are not meant to be taken literally. According to the Hindu tradition of erotic painting and sculpture, having sex with an animal is believed to be actually a human having sex with a god incarnated in the form of an animal. In some Hindu scriptures, such as the Bhagavata Purana and the Devi Bhagavata Purana, having sex with animals, especially the cow, leads one to hell, where one is tormented by having one's body rubbed on trees with razor-sharp thorns. Similarly, the Manusmriti in verse 11.173 also condemns the act of bestiality and prescribes punishments for it: A man who has had sexual intercourse with nonhuman females, or with a menstruating woman,—and he who has discharged his semen in a place other than the female organ, or in water,—should perform the ‘Sāntapana Kṛcchra. (Sāntapana Kṛcchra is a six-day expiatory fast where one consumes cow’s urine, dung, milk, curd, and ghee on successive days, followed by complete fasting (nirāhāra) on the sixth day to purify body and mind. Manusmṛti 11.213–215) == Legal status == In many jurisdictions, all acts of bestiality are prohibited; others outlaw only the mistreatment of animals, without specific mention of sexual activity. In the United Kingdom, Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (also known as the Extreme Pornography Act) outlaws images of a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with another animal (whether dead or alive). Despite the UK Ministry of Justice's explanatory note on extreme images saying "It is not a question of the intentions of those who produced the image. Nor is it a question of the sexual arousal of the defendant", "it could be argued that a person might possess such an image for the purposes of satire, political commentary or simple grossness", according to The Independent. Many laws banning sex with non-human animals have been made recently, such as in the United States (New Hampshire and Ohio), Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Thailand, Costa Rica, Bolivia, and Guatemala. The number of jurisdictions around the world banning it has grown in the 2000s and 2010s. West Germany legalized bestiality in 1969 but banned it again in 2013. The 2013 law was unsuccessfully challenged before the Federal Constitutional Court in 2015. Romania banned zoophilia in May 2022. Laws on bestiality are sometimes triggered by specific incidents. While some laws are very specific, others employ vague terms such as "sodomy" or "bestiality", which lack legal precision and leave it unclear exactly which acts are covered. In the past, some bestiality laws may have been made in the belief that sex with another animal could result in monstrous offspring, as well as offending the community. Modern anti-cruelty laws focus more specifically on animal welfare while anti-bestiality laws are aimed only at offenses to community "standards". In Sweden, a 2005 report by the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency for the government expressed concern over the increase in reports of horse-ripping incidents. The agency believed animal cruelty legislation was not sufficient to protect animals from abuse and needed updating, but concluded that on balance it was not appropriate to call for a ban. In New Zealand, the 1989 Crimes Bill considered abolishing bestiality as a criminal offense, and instead viewing it as a mental health issue, but they did not, and people can still be prosecuted for it. Under Section 143 of the Crimes Act 1961, individuals can serve a sentence of seven years duration for animal sexual abuse and the offence is considered 'complete' in the event of 'penetration'. As of 2023, bestiality is illegal in 49 U.S. states. Most state bestiality laws were enacted between 1999 and 2023. Bestiality remains legal in West Virginia, while 19 states have statutes that date to the 19th century or even the colonial period. The recent statutes are distinct from older sodomy statutes in that they define the proscribed acts with precision. === Pornography === In the United States, zoophilic pornography would be considered obscene if it did not meet the standards of the Miller Test and therefore is not openly sold, mailed, distributed or imported across state boundaries or within states which prohibit it. Under U.S. law, 'distribution' includes transmission across the Internet. The state of Oregon explicitly prohibits possession of media that depicts bestiality when such possession is for erotic purposes. Similar restrictions apply in Germany (see above). In New Zealand, the possession, making or distribution of material promoting bestiality is illegal. While bestiality is illegal across Australia, the first state to also ban zoophilic pornography was New South Wales. The potential use of media for pornographic movies was seen from the start of the era of silent film. Polissons and Galipettes (re-released 2002 as "The Good Old Naughty Days") is a collection of early French silent films for brothel use, including some zoophilic pornography, dating from around 1905 – 1930. Material featuring sex with non-human animals is widely available on the internet. An early film to attain great infamy was "Animal Farm", smuggled into Great Britain around 1980 without details as to makers or provenance. The film was later traced to a crude juxtaposition of smuggled cuts from many of Bodil Joensen's 1970s Danish movies. In 1972, Linda Lovelace, the star of the film "Deep Throat", appeared in the film "Dogorama" (also released under the titles "Dog 1," "Dog Fucker" and "Dog-a-Rama") in which she engages in sexual acts with a dog. In Romania, although zoophilia was officially banned in May 2022, there are no laws which prohibit zoophilic pornography. Creating sites that present zoophilic pornography is not allowed per Article 7.3 of Law 196/2003, but no punishment is defined for doing so. In Hungary, where production faces no legal limitations, zoophilic materials have become a substantial industry that produces a number of films and magazines, particularly for Dutch companies such as Topscore and Book & Film International, and the genre has stars such as "Hector", a Great Dane dog starring in several films. In Japan, zoophilic pornography is used to bypass censorship laws, often featuring models performing fellatio on non-human animals, because oral penetration of a non-human penis is not in the scope of Japanese pixelization censorship. While primarily underground, there are a number of zoophilic pornography actresses who specialize in bestiality movies. In the United Kingdom, Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 criminalises possession of realistic pornographic images depicting sex with non-human animals (see extreme pornography), including fake images and simulated acts, as well as images depicting sex with dead animals. The law provides for sentences of up to two years in prison; a sentence of 12 months was handed down in one case in 2011. == Zoophiles == === Non-sexual zoophilia === The love of animals is not necessarily sexual in nature. In psychology and sociology the word "zoophilia" is sometimes used without sexual implications. Being fond of animals in general, or as pets, is accepted in Western society, and is usually respected or tolerated. The word zoophilia is used to mean a sexual preference towards animals, which makes it a paraphilia. Some zoophiles may not act on their sexual attraction to animals. People who identify as zoophiles may feel their love for animals is romantic rather than purely sexual, and say this makes them different from those committing entirely sexually motivated acts of bestiality. === Zoophile community === An online survey which recruited participants over the Internet concluded that prior to the arrival of widespread computer networking, most zoophiles would not have known other zoophiles, and for the most part, zoophiles engaged in bestiality secretly, or told only trusted friends, family or partners. The Internet and its predecessors made people able to search for information on topics which were not otherwise easily accessible and to communicate with relative safety and anonymity. Because of the diary-like intimacy of blogs and the anonymity of the Internet, zoophiles had the ideal opportunity to "openly" express their sexuality. As with many other alternate lifestyles, broader networks began forming in the 1980s when participating in networked social groups became more common at home and elsewhere. Such developments in general were described by Markoff in 1990; the linking of computers meant that people thousands of miles apart could feel the intimacy akin to being in a small village together. The popular newsgroup alt.sex.bestiality, said to be in the top 1% of newsgroup interest (i.e. number 50 out of around 5000), – and reputedly started in humor – along with personal bulletin boards and talkers, chief among them Sleepy's multiple worlds, Lintilla, and Planes of Existence, were among the first group media of this kind in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These groups rapidly drew together zoophiles, some of whom also created personal and social websites and Internet forums. By around 1992–1994, the wide social net had evolved. This was initially centered around the above-mentioned newsgroup, alt.sex.bestiality, which during the six years following 1990 had matured into a discussion and support group. The newsgroup included information about health issues, laws governing zoophilia, bibliography relating to the subject, and community events. Williams & Weinberg (2003) observe that the Internet can socially integrate an incredibly large number of people. In Kinsey's day contacts between animal lovers were more localized and limited to male compatriots in a particular rural community. Further, while the farm boys Kinsey researched might have been part of a rural culture in which sex with animals was a part, the sex itself did not define the community. The zoophile community is not known to be particularly large compared to other subcultures which make use of the Internet, so Williams & Weinberg (2003) surmised its aims and beliefs would likely change little as it grew. Those particularly active on the Internet may not be aware of a wider subculture, as there is not much of a wider subculture, Williams & Weinberg (2003) felt the virtual zoophile group would lead the development of the subculture. Websites aim to provide support and social assistance to zoophiles (including resources to help and rescue abused or mistreated animals), but these are not usually well publicized. Such work is often undertaken as needed by individuals and friends, within social networks, and by word of mouth. Zoophiles tend to experience their first zoosexual feelings during adolescence, and tend to be secretive about it, hence limiting the ability for non-Internet-based communities to form. == See also == == References and footnotes == == External links == Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality entry for "Bestiality" at Sexology Department of Humboldt University, Berlin. Animal Abuse Crime Database Archived 11 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine search form for the U.S. and UK.	Wikipedia/Zoophilic_pornography
Graphika is an American social network analysis company known for tracking online disinformation. It was established in 2013. == History == Graphika was founded in 2013 by John Kelly, a computational social scientist with a PhD from Columbia University. It is based in New York. Graphika has identified disinformation campaigns by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, targeting voters in the 2016 and 2020 United States presidential elections and the 2022 elections. It has also uncovered Chinese-linked disinformation campaigns, such as a network of fake social media accounts promoting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 and deepfake news anchors promoting pro-China propaganda in 2023. In 2023, Graphika identified an influence operation targeting voters in the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election. In 2024, it traced the creation of deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift back to a 4chan community. == Operation == Graphika says it relies on artificial intelligence to analyze online communities and identify coordinated operations. Graphika works with companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. It has stated that it provides intelligence to the companies it works with, so that they can make their own strategic decisions. == References == == External links == Official website	Wikipedia/Graphika
Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM, (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law), is erotic material that depicts persons under the designated age of majority. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction. Child pornography is often produced through online solicitation, coercion and covert photographing. In some cases, sexual abuse (such as forcible rape) is involved during production. Pornographic pictures of minors are also often produced by children and teenagers themselves without the involvement of an adult. Images and videos are collected and shared by online sex offenders. Laws regarding child pornography generally include sexual images involving prepubescents, pubescent, or post-pubescent minors and computer-generated images that appear to involve them. Most possessors of child pornography who are arrested are found to possess images of prepubescent children; possessors of pornographic images of post-pubescent minors are less likely to be prosecuted, even though those images also fall within the statutes. Child pornography is illegal and censored in most jurisdictions in the world. Ninety-four of 187 Interpol member states had laws specifically addressing child pornography as of 2008, though this does not include nations that ban all pornography. == Terminology and definitions == The precise definition of the term "child pornography" varies by jurisdictions and there is no consensus in international law regarding the precise meaning of the word. In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court has defined child pornography as material that "visually depicts sexual conduct by children below a specified age". In Canada, child pornography can also entail depictions of fictional minors. In the United Kingdom, the law does not use the term "child pornography", though it does define a series of illegal sexual materials that are commonly regarded as child pornography. Some English jurisdictions use the COPINE scale to sort potentially sexual media involving minors. In the 2000s, use of the term child abuse images increased by both scholars and law enforcement personnel because the term "pornography" can carry the inaccurate implication of consent and create distance from the abusive nature of the material. A similar term, child sexual abuse material, is used by some official bodies, and similar terms such as "child abuse material", "documented child sexual abuse", and "depicted child sexual abuse" are also used, as are the acronyms CAM and CAI. The term "child pornography" retains its legal definitions in various jurisdictions, along with related terms such as "indecent photographs of a child" and others. In 2008, the World Congress III against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents stated in their formally adopted pact that "Increasingly the term 'child abuse images' is being used to refer to the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in pornography. This is to reflect the seriousness of the phenomenon and to emphasize that pornographic images of children are in fact records of a crime being committed." == Production == The methods of creating child pornography vary. Some of it is produced through coercion, seduction, or coaxing. Other erotic images depicting children are photographed covertly (e.g. showering pictures). Violent "hands-on" offenses (such as forcible rape) are rare in criminal cases of child pornography production; instead, most of such cases involve online solicitation, the exchange of gifts, and promises of romance. In many cases, child pornography is produced by minors themselves without the participation of an adult. In April 2018, The Daily Telegraph reported that of the sexually explicit images of children and teenagers (11 to 15 year-olds) found on the internet, 31 percent were made by children or teenagers from November 2017 to February 2018, with 40 percent in December 2017; 349 cases in January 2017 and 1717 in January 2018. The images were made by children or teenagers photographing or filming each other or as selfies, without adults present or coercing, by unwittingly imitating adult pornographic or nude images or videos (including of celebrities) that they had found on the Internet. The report said that sex offenders trawled for and amassed such images. A 2007 study in Ireland, undertaken by the Garda Síochána, revealed the most serious content in a sample of over 100 cases involving indecent images of children. In 44% of cases, the most serious images depicted nudity or erotic posing, in 7% they depicted sexual activity between children, in 7% they depicted non-penetrative sexual activity between adults and children, in 37% they depicted penetrative sexual activity between adults and children, and in 5% they depicted sadism or bestiality. A 2012 study reported that, in a sample of child pornography production arrest cases from 2009, 37% of the reviewed material was adult-produced and 39% was produced by minors with some involvement of an adult; the remaining items were produced by minors only. === Artificially generated or simulated imagery === Simulated child pornography produced without the direct involvement of children in the production process itself includes modified photographs of real children, non-minor teenagers made to look younger (age regression), fully computer-generated imagery, and adults made to look like children. === Sexting and filming among minors === Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images, primarily between mobile phones, of oneself to others (such as dating partners or friends). It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. Such images may be passed along to others or posted on the Internet. In many jurisdictions, the age of consent is lower than the age of majority, and a minor who is over the age of consent can legally have sex with a person of the same age. Many laws on child pornography were passed before cell phone cameras became common among teenagers close in age to or over the age of consent and sexting was understood as a phenomenon. Teenagers who are legally able to consent to sex, but under the age of majority, can be charged with production and distribution of child pornography if they send naked images of themselves to friends or sex partners of the same age. The University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center estimates that 7 percent of people arrested on suspicion of child pornography production in 2009 were teenagers who shared images with peers consensually. Such arrests also include teenage couples or friends with a small age disparity, where one is a legal adult and the other is not. In some countries, mandatory sentencing requires anybody convicted of such an offense to be placed on a sex offender registry. Legal professionals and academics have criticized the use of child pornography laws with mandatory punishments against teenagers over the age of consent for sex offenses. Florida cyber crimes defense attorney David S. Seltzer wrote of this that "I do not believe that our child pornography laws were designed for these situations ... A conviction for possession of child pornography in Florida draws up to five years in prison for each picture or video, plus a lifelong requirement to register as a sex offender." In a 2013 interview, assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado Denver, Amy Adele Hasinoff, who studies the repercussions of sexting has stated that the "very harsh" child pornography laws are "designed to address adults exploiting children" and should not replace better sex education and consent training for teens. She went on to say, "Sexting is a sex act, and if it's consensual, that's fine ... Anyone who distributes these pictures without consent is doing something malicious and abusive, but child pornography laws are too harsh to address it." ==== Cybersex trafficking ==== Child victims of cybersex trafficking are forced into live streaming, pornographic exploitation on webcam which can be recorded and later sold. Victims are raped by traffickers or coerced to perform sex acts on themselves or other children while being filmed and broadcast in real time. They are frequently forced to watch the paying consumers on shared screens and follow their orders. It occurs in 'cybersex dens', which are rooms equipped with webcams. Overseas predators and pedophiles seek out and pay to watch the victims. == Distribution and receipt == Philip Jenkins notes that there is "overwhelming evidence that [child pornography] is all but impossible to obtain through nonelectronic means." The Internet has radically changed how child pornography is reproduced and disseminated, and, according to the United States Department of Justice, resulted in a massive increase in the "availability, accessibility, and volume of child pornography." Digital cameras and Internet distribution facilitated by the use of credit cards and the ease of transferring images across national borders has made it easier than ever before for users of child pornography to obtain the photographs and videos. In 2019, the New York Times reported that child pornography was now a crisis. Tech companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Dropbox reported over 18 million cases of child sexual abuse material, which includes over 45 million images and videos. In 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation, an increase of 12% from 2022. == Offender characteristics == Child pornography offenders are predominantly white, male, aged between 25 and 50 years and, in relation to "hands on" child sex abusers, more likely to be employed. On multiple studies, they have been reported to have higher education at a rate of 30%. Research has also shown that around 50% of child pornography offenders were single either at the time of their offences or after they were prosecuted. Child pornography offenders are also less likely to be parents compared to contact offenders. Scholars have also found that while "hands-on" offenders are relatively likely to transition into pornography offenders (with some admitting to using child pornography as a substitute for committing contact offenses), the opposite is rarely the case. In a study conducted by Michael Seto in 2010, 33–50% of a sample of child pornography offenders reported having sexual interest in children. Another 2009 study diagnosed 31% of its sample of online child sex offenders with pedophilia. Aside from a predominant sexual interest in children, other reasons for online child pornography offending include indiscriminate sexual interest, pornography addiction and accidental access to child pornography material. Having a history of child pornography offending has been stated by some researchers to be a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia. A meta-analysis of nine studies conducted by Seto in 2011 reported a sexual recidivism rate of 5% for follow-up periods ranging from one to six years. Another paper published by Seto in 2015 reported a sexual recidivism rate of 11% in a 5-year follow-up period. Research has also shown that offenders that measure high on antisociality and atypical sexual interests are most likely to sexually reoffend. Other studies have also reported rates of recidivism for child pornography offenders that are inferior to those of contact child sex offenders. People who have committed both pornography and contact offences have a higher recidivism rate for contact offences than child pornography offenders. == Relation to child molestation == Experts differ over any causal link between child pornography and child sexual abuse, with some experts saying that it increases the risk of child sexual abuse, and others saying that use of child pornography reduces the risk of offending. A 2008 American review of the use of Internet communication to lure children outlines the possible links to actual behaviour regarding the effects of Internet child pornography. According to one paper from the Mayo Clinic based on case reports of those under treatment, 30% to 80% of individuals who viewed child pornography and 76% of individuals who were arrested for Internet child pornography had molested a child. As the total number of those who view such images can not be ascertained, the ratio of passive viewing to molestation remains unknown. The report also notes that it is difficult to define the progression from computerized child pornography to physical acts against children. Several professors of psychology state that memories of child abuse are maintained as long as visual records exist, are accessed, and are "exploited perversely." A study by Wolak, Finkelhor, and Mitchell states that:[R]ates of child sexual abuse have declined substantially since the mid-1990s, a time period that corresponds to the spread of CP online. ... The fact that this trend is revealed in multiple sources tends to undermine arguments that it is because of reduced reporting or changes in investigatory or statistical procedures. ... [T]o date, there has not been a spike in the rate of child sexual abuse that corresponds with the apparent expansion of online CP. == Ethics == The study of the ethics regarding child pornography has been greatly neglected among academics. Feminist writer Susan Cole has argued that the absence of ethical literature regarding the topic can be explained by the simplicity of the matter, given that "there [is] a general consensus about the harm involved" in this type of material. Some scholars have argued that the possession of child pornography is immoral because it would validate the act of child sexual abuse or actively encourage people to engage in child molestation. In a 1984 study involving 51 child sexual abusers, 67% of the sample reported making use of "hardcore sexual stimuli". However, the study failed to prove that there was a causal relationship between such type of pornography usage and child sexual abuse. Other similar studies have also found a correlation between child molestation and usage of extreme erotic materials, but they did not limit the definition of "pornography" or "hardcore sexual stimuli" to child pornography. Some judges have argued that child pornography usage fuels a marketplace of child sexual abuse material, thus creating a financial incentive for its production. Such stance could be challenged by Anne Higonnet's contention that there is no evidence of a commercially profitable market of child pornography. However, the argument could still be held true if it is proven that those who produce child pornography do so not because of a potential financial benefit, but because they expect others to view the material that they produce. Judith Butler stated in 1990 that, in light of the new 20th century laws regarding child pornography, the very act of speaking of child pornography has intensified its erotic effect, leading to an "eroticization of prohibition". Another idea relating to the ethics of child pornography states that allowing such materials would lead to children being seen as sexual objects, thus potentially leading adults to commit child sexual abuse. === The Gamer's Dilemma === The Gamer's Dilemma, conceptualized by researcher Morgan Luck in a 2009 essay, is a moral challenge that contrasts the societal acceptance of acts of virtual murder in videogames and the simultaneous condemnation of virtual acts of child molestation in virtual environments (including in computer-generated child pornography). According to Luck, there is no sound justification for making a distinction between the two actions, and the arguments against virtual acts of child sexual abuse are also valid for virtual acts of murder. Therefore, if both acts are immoral, then they should both be rejected about equally (especially by scholars, such as ethicists). Ethicists have devised two main types of answers to the Gamer's Dilemma: The first type attempts to solve the challenge by highlighting the moral differences between virtual acts of child sexual abuse and murder, thus concluding that virtual acts of child molestation are often immoral, while simulated acts of murder often are not. The second attempts to undermine Luck's challenge by either denying that virtual acts of murder are morally permissible, or that virtual acts of child molestation are morally impermissible. A study published in 2023 suggested that most of its participants reacted negatively both to depictions of virtual murder and sexual abuse, with sexual abuse triggering significantly more negative reactions than murder. Further, Luck’s 2023 follow up article reframes the concept of her Dilemma as “the paradox of treating wrongdoing lightly,” to further refine the Gamer’s problem. == Laws == === International coordination of law enforcement === One of the primary mandates of the international policing organization Interpol is the prevention of crimes against children involving the crossing of international borders, including child pornography and all other forms of exploitation and trafficking of children. === National and international law === Child pornography laws provide severe penalties for producers and distributors in almost all societies, usually including incarceration, with shorter duration of sentences for non-commercial distribution depending on the extent and content of the material distributed. Convictions for possessing child pornography also usually include prison sentences, but those sentences are often converted to probation for first-time offenders. In 2006, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) published a report of findings on the presence of child pornography legislation in the then-184 INTERPOL member countries. It later updated this information, in subsequent editions, to include 196 UN member countries. The report, entitled "Child Pornography: Model Legislation & Global Review", assesses whether national legislation: (1) exists with specific regard to child pornography; (2) provides a definition of child pornography; (3) expressly criminalizes computer-facilitated offenses; (4) criminalizes the knowing possession of child pornography, regardless of intent to distribute; and (5) requires ISPs to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement or to some other mandated agency. ICMEC stated that it found in its initial report that only 27 countries had legislation needed to deal with child pornography offenses, while 95 countries did not have any legislation that specifically addressed child pornography, making child pornography a global issue worsened by the inadequacies of domestic legislation. The 7th Edition Report found that still only 69 countries had legislation needed to deal with child pornography offenses, while 53 did not have any legislation specifically addressing the problem. Over seven years of research from 2006 to 2012, ICMEC and its Koons Family Institute on International Law and Policy report that they have worked with 100 countries that have revised or put in place new child pornography laws. A 2008 review of child pornography laws in 187 countries by the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) showed that 93 had no laws that specifically addressed child pornography. Of the 94 that did, 36 did not criminalize possession of child pornography regardless of intent to distribute. This review, however, did not count legislation outlawing all pornography as being "specific" to child pornography. It also did not count bans on "the worst forms of child labor". Some societies such as Canada and Australia have laws banning cartoon, manga, or written child pornography and others require ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to monitor internet traffic to detect it. The United Nations Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography requires parties to outlaw the "producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing for the above purposes" of child pornography. The Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention and the EU Framework Decision that became active in 2006 require signatory or member states to criminalize all aspects of child pornography. == Organizations == There are many anti-child pornography organizations, such as the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, ECPAT International, and International Justice Mission. == See also == == References == == External links == National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (USA). "Child Pornography Fact Sheet". Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK). "Child abuse images and the internet: A reading list". Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2009. Oppenheimer, Mark. Video of submission to South African parliament on virtual child pornography, Part 1 on YouTube. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Child Pornography Case Results in Lengthy Prison Sentences. FBI.	Wikipedia/Child_pornography
Pornography has been defined as any material in varying forms, including texts, video, photos, or audio that is consumed for sexual satisfaction and arousal of an individual or partnership. The effects of pornography on individuals or their intimate relationships have been a subject of research. Scholars note that much of the research on the effects of pornography often confuses correlation with causation. == Key theories == === Sexuality theories === ==== Sexual strategies theory ==== Sexual strategies theory can be strongly linked to pornography consumption and its effects. This theory is originally proposed by psychologists David Michael Buss and David P. Schmitt in 1993. The theory details how men and women are biologically wired differently when it comes to seeking avenues of sexual and romantic endeavors. It argues that these biological evolutions and differences still exist today when choosing sexual material or even a romantic partner. Some other researchers also backed up Buss and Schmitt's theory, emphasizing how men are more attracted to the physicality of a person, while women are attracted to more of the status of a person. In the context of pornography consumption, the sexual strategies theory comes in to play especially for men. Males would consume more pornography to have a visual physicality of certain pornographic actors, which would play into even more frequent consumption of the material. === Sexual scripting === Pornography research is greatly influenced by Script Theory. Originally proposed by researcher Silvan Tomkins, Script Theory proposes that behavior is a series of "scripts", or programs in order to achieve a goal. These scripts provide meaning for specific patterns, actions or behaviors that an individual does in certain contexts of achieving that goal. In 1986, Simon and Gagnon applied script theory to sexuality research, asserting that sexual scripts fall under a category of cultural scripts to regulate sexual behaviors. Modern research has applied this concept to work with pornography, and specifically how pornography may influence sexual scripts and behaviors. Some studies argue that pornography functions as a sexual script, cluing people in to the certain patterns, behaviors and actions mentioned above which would influence their own sexual behaviors in later encounters. Pornography may alter individuals' expectations regarding sexual activity, which then impacts their ability to form and maintain romantic, or sexual, relationships. Pornography functions as a cultural script, a media through which individuals may pick up on or learn sexual cues. One concern is that, by relying on pornography for education on sexual cues or sexual scripts, individuals may have an altered sense of what sexuality and sexual intercourse truly entail.They might not perform appropriately in their real life sexual relationships, potentially causing misunderstandings or, in a more extreme cases, abusive behavior. == Psychological effects == === Pornography addiction === Pornography addiction is a purported behavioral addiction characterized by compulsive, repeated use of pornographic material which causes serious consequences to one's physical, mental, social, and/or financial well-being. There is no diagnosis of pornography addiction in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), though the DSM-5 considered the diagnosis of hypersexuality-related behavioral disorders (to which porn addiction was a subset), but rejected it because "there is insufficient peer-reviewed evidence to establish the diagnostic criteria and course descriptions needed to identify these behaviors as mental disorders." Instead, some psychologists suggest that any maladaptive sexual symptoms represent a manifestation of an underlying disorder, such as depression or anxiety which is simply manifesting itself sexually, or, alternatively, there is no underlying disorder and the behavior simply is not maladaptive. It is argued that psychologists do not recognize the concept of addiction, only chemical dependence, and some believe the concept and diagnosis to be stigmatizing and unhelpful. A 2022 book by McKee, Litsou, Byron, and Ingham casts serious doubts upon the model of "porn addiction", suggesting that sexual shame should be blamed, instead of pornography. Fotinos et al. suggest there is a problem with excessive pornography consumption, but state that moderate pornography consumption can be healthy. === Studies and evidence of effects === Two 2016 neurology reviews found evidence of addiction related brain changes in internet pornography users. Psychological effects of these brain changes are described as desensitization to reward (which can be related to cognition), a dysfunctional anxiety response, and impulsiveness. Another 2016 review suggests that internet behaviors, including the use of pornography, be considered potentially addictive, and that problematic use of online pornography be considered an "internet-use disorder". Introductory psychology textbook authors Coon, Mitterer and Martini, passingly mentioning NoFap (former pornography users who have since chosen to abstain from the material) speak of pornography as a "supernormal stimulus" but use the model of compulsion rather than addiction. A number of studies have found neurological markers of addiction in Internet pornography users, which is consistent with a large body of research finding similar markers in other kinds of problematic users. Yet other studies have found that critical biomarkers of addiction are missing. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, some psychological and behavioral changes in response to developing addiction include addictive cravings, impulsiveness, weakened executive function, desensitization, and dysphoria. BOLD fMRI results have shown that individuals diagnosed with compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) show enhanced cue reactivity in brain regions associated traditionally with drug-cue reactivity. These regions include the amygdala and the ventral striatum. Men without CSB who had a long history of viewing pornography exhibited a less intense response to pornographic images in the left ventral putamen, possibly suggestive of desensitization. ASAMs position is inconsistent, however, with the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, who cite lack of strong evidence for such classification, describing ASAM as not informed by "accurate human sexuality knowledge". Much of the relevant research we identified on the relationship between consumption of pornography and aspects of healthy sexual development misinterpreted correlation as causality. [...] Much of the research on pornography has been normative; it has assumed that the only healthy form of sexuality is vanilla sex (that is, not kinky) between monogamous couple-based partners for reasons beyond simply pleasure. ‘Previous research has documented connections between media use and violence against women’ [...] Having read this book, the reader will understand that the actual data do not support such confident claims of a causal relationship (see Stanley et al., 2018, for a more nuanced account of the literature). == Cognitive effects == A more extreme case of pornography use could even result in impaired decision making. In some other cases, extreme levels of consumption could result in sexual bias, in which an individual would respond more greatly if there is an active presence of sexual stimuli. === Contradicting views === Neuropsychopharmacological and psychological researches on pornography addiction conducted between 2015 and 2021 have concluded that most studies have been focused entirely or almost exclusively on men in anonymous settings, and the findings are contradicting. The International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) added pornography to Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD). CSBD is not an addiction and should not be conflated with sex addiction. DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022, does not recognize a diagnosis of porn addiction. == Mental blocks in individual "physicality" and its studies == Although there are no significant outward effects on the physicality of an individual, Pornographic consumption can still have an effect on how individuals view their bodies and how they would change certain aspects of their physicality to better mirror those in the pornographic material. This in turn will lead to issues of self-esteem, body dysmorphia and overall body image issues. === Men and masculine "attractiveness" === A study of 359 college men found that high viewership of pornography relates to increased masculinity and body dissatisfaction. Sexual performance changes a man's view of his masculinity, and often his self-esteem. Pornography is not the only factor affecting men's self-esteem and body image. Popular media often depicts strong but lean men as the ideal attractive body type and goal. Pornography is significant to men's self-image. It connects a lean body type to sexual validation. Men would also make comparisons with the pornographic models due to a level of dissatisfaction. These can include face shape, hair and muscle mass. All of these elements could significantly contribute to men's self esteem levels. As of 2021, few studies have evaluated how exposure to pornography relates to men's body image. Researchers recommend that others conduct more studies on pornography's effect on men's psychology. === Women and self-consciousness === A 2021 study has shown a mediating role of pornography use among women and how it affects the consciousness of body image and attachment insecurities. Girls who have not experienced a sensitive response to their needs and/or were emotionally deprived under the parent/caretaker childhood environment had a greater chance of developing insecurities about their body image. The use of pornography would more likely amplify attachment fears and anxiety. Such anxiety is strongly connected to females seeking validation and approval of their physicality in intimate settings from their partners and relationships. The findings did correlate with past research articles which found that "anxious but not avoidant attachment affects body image, the drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and body appreciation." Furthermore, pornography use could also amplify women's body image self-consciousness in an intimate setting. The acts performed in pornographic movies created a feeling of pressure among women, not only creating a higher negative body image but also the feeling of being criticized by their partners if their body was not resembling the body shape of models in pornographic content. === Delay discounting and dehumanization === A 2019 survey of 1083 U.S. adults by Mecham, Lewis-Western and Wood evaluated the relationship between pornography and unethical behavior in the workplace. Unethical behavior, according to the researchers, consists of delay discounting and dehumanization. Delay discounting involves the idea of waiting with steps that usually involve more process and work versus acting now, taking a faster route and getting instant reward. It is to expect lower rewards in the future versus acting in the moment. The expectation of a high, instant reward for acting now can lead to reduced self-control and increased impulsivity Dehumanization is a form of moral disengagement in which people view others as less than human. According to the study, increased pornography use causes increased dehumanization and unethical behavior. Regressing women to be looked at as sexual objects is a prime example of dehumanization due to pornography. Dehumanization also relates to sexual objectification. In relation to pornography, Men who are consuming porn that depict sexual objectification and regression towards women, would more likely engage in a few forms of dehumanization of women in real life. These can range from their change of attitude towards women, being more aggressive or the underestimation of women, where one thinks that women are of a lesser status. === Public health === Pathologizing any form of sexual behavior, including pornography use, has the potential to restrict sexual freedom and to stigmatize. Researcher Emily F. Rothman, author of Pornography and Public Health stated that the professional communities are not advocating for the "push" in labelling pornography as a "public health crisis". Rothman and Nelson have described this as a "political stunt". The ideas supporting the "crisis" have been described as pseudoscientific. == Sexual effects and its studies == The sexual effects of pornography on intimacy and relationships observe some of the most gendered differences. Men and women differ vastly in how they are impacted by pornography both within and beyond a romantic or sexual relationship. The consumption of pornography has been shown to have an impact on sexual risk-taking, including less frequent usage of condoms and birth control, as well as more casual sexual encounters. It can negatively impact sexual functioning, especially in men. However, pornography can function as an educational resource for individuals to improve their sexual knowledge, and women who consume pornography more regularly experience increased desire for sexual activity, indicating that pornography might be useful as a form of foreplay. === Sexual desire === Sexual desire is one of the factors that have an impact on the gender differences the most. In general, men experience the most acute effects from pornography in terms of sexual desire. Straight men report less sexual desire, both for their partner and in general, directly after consuming pornography. Men also typically utilize pornography for masturbation and solo-sexual activities, rather than partnered or joint purposes. Strong associations exist between increased pornography consumption, frequency of pornography consumption, and problematic decreases in sexual desire for men. Men who use pornography more frequently report less desire for their partner, and for sex in general. While most modern research on pornography focuses on men, the findings in women hold interesting information on pornography's gendered impact on sexual desire. Women have found a positive correlation between pornography consumption and sexual desire, indicating that women who view pornography feel more positively about expressing their sexual impulses. In addition to increased sexual desire, women may express more sexual attraction specifically for their partner on days when they watch pornography. Even though men and women have significant differences in terms of their sexual mood, behavior and overall porn consumption, Their brain activity would prove to be similar to each other. Both gender's brain activity is nearly identical to each other when consuming pornography, suggesting that men and women experience similar arousal effects due to pornographic exposure. Further, both genders report significant support for female-centric pornography, though men express similar levels of arousal to both "focuses" of pornography. Women meanwhile, report more general negativity towards traditional, male-centric pornography and express stronger support for female-centric pornography. Women also report higher levels of self-reported arousal when exposed to female-centric content. In general, pornography consumption in couples has been associated with greater sexual desire. Although research in the way of same-sex relationships is limited, available findings indicate that pornography use is connected to an increased level of sexual desire. Men partnered with women report less sexual desire in general with increased pornography consumption, whereas women in both mixed-sex or same-sex relationships report greater sexual desire overall. Also, individuals were less likely to consume pornography the day after engaging in sexual intercourse. === Sexual function === Studies have found no evidence that pornography causes erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation or anorgasmia in men, though quality of available evidence is poor. It has been proposed that pornography may may contribute to sexual dysfunction, however there is little causal evidence of such an effect. Another issue is delayed ejaculation, an issue where men may experience a large disconnected sensation between their orgasm and ejaculation. Some may experience difficulty achieving ejaculation altogether. Overarching research shows little evidence of pornography having any effect on delayed ejaculation. In women, there is little evidence for pornography-induced sexual dysfunction. The most commonly observed effect is increased anxiety or distress, which may then lead to issues of overall sexual function. The most commonly reported issue for women is arousal dysfunction, indicating a difficulty in achieving or maintaining arousal during sexual activity. Pornography users are more sexually active (real sex in real life) than the rest of the population. === Sexual satisfaction === Despite the lack of evidence for more physical issues with sexual function, pornography is correlated with lower sexual desire and sexual satisfaction. However, a causal link has not be established. It may be that causation is reversed and lower sexual satisfaction drives pornography use. Wright and Herbenick found that pornography negatively impacts the relational satisfaction of White men; it has no impact on non-White men, and it has no impact on women. Numerous studies looking at both individuals and couples have found different, at times contradictory, results. One study found a negative relationship between pornography consumption and sexual satisfaction across two samples of men. In addition, the frequency of pornography consumption, rather than the type of pornography consumed, is negatively correlated with sexual satisfaction; the type of pornography consumed had no effect on sexual satisfaction. When considering couples and their pornography consumption, couples with a greater lack of agreement over content choice reported being more sexually dissatisfied than couples who watched pornography together, as well as couples who jointly abstained from pornography altogether. Individuals who use pornography alongside masturbation as the primary tool of sexual arousal and satisfaction (or needs) may become conditioned to prefer pornography more than other methods of sexual arousal. Furthermore, a 2017 study by Wright et al. has shown that the "frequency of pornography consumption was also directly related to a relative preference for pornographic rather than partnered sexual excitement." The individuals in the given study primarily used pornography for masturbation purposes. The preference of consuming pornography over achieving a level of sexual satisfaction with a partner, especially in the case of extracting sexual information from pornography, would lead to lower overall sexual satisfaction. Individuals who seek pornography as the main source of information about sexuality were associated with lower sexual excitement, and as a result would have a significantly lower level of sexual satisfaction with their partners. Gender did not affect the results of such findings. However, pornography among some individuals is not only used for sexual satisfaction. A study on affection substitution has shown that "pornography consumption is positively related to affection deprivation, depression, and loneliness and inversely related to experienced affection, relational satisfaction, and closeness." All presented above variants, except affection deprivation, had a significant correlation based on statistical data. Due to such positive relations, individuals who consume pornography not only use it to satisfy their sexual arousal but also to reduce loneliness and create a coping mechanism against social disconnection. Some of the examples of coping mechanisms may include "creating parasocial relationships with the characters depicted in pornography." === Sexual preferences === The use of pornography is extremely varied, especially in the United States. Measured rates such as: general consumption, frequency of consumption, length of time, and type of pornography— would vary by individual. This would further be classified by gender, age, and relationship status, as well as frequency of consumption, which all factor into the overall consumption rates. In general, men consume more pornographic content, and in a more frequent manner, than women. A vast majority of men report having consumed pornography, with rates ranging from 50% to 90%, usually plateauing in the upper 80% range. Women, however, report significantly less frequency and more varied consumption of pornography, with 30% and 80% of women saying they have viewed pornography in their lifetime. This variation reflects differences in nationality and culture in terms of sex positivity and pornography acceptance, as well as the unreliability of self-reporting. Despite the variation and lower reports of pornography consumption for women, female viewership of pornography is steadily increasing. Women tend to prefer less hardcore porn compared to men, and men report consuming pornography in conjunction with masturbation more frequently than women. === Aggression and extreme content === In a 2021 review of studies, Rothman states "five studies found that the sexual violence perpetrators had seen less pornography than other criminals". === Sexual violence === ==== Controlled studies ==== A controlled study describes the relationship between given behaviors or environmental conditions and health effects in a laboratory setting in which conditions other than those under study are effectively held constant across groups of participants receiving various levels of the experimental condition(s). The findings of the experiments were unable to be generalized outside of the field of the experiments. However, explanations of said studies are still required to prove their importance for understanding the subject matter. This is especially true when it comes to health consequences. The link between pornography and sexual aggression has been the subject of multiple meta-analyses. Meta-analyses conducted in the 1990s by Allen et al. suggested to researchers that there might not be an association of any kind between pornography and rape supportive attitudes in non-experimental studies. However, a meta-analysis by Hald, Malamuth and Yuen (2000) suggests that there is a link between consumption of violent pornography and rape-supportive attitudes in certain populations of men, particularly when moderating variables are taken into consideration. A meta-analysis conducted in 2015 found that pornography was associated with sexual aggression in a global scale towards both genders. Verbal aggression were done more frequently than physical aggression, albeit with the same impact. The patterns suggest that violent pornography could be the driving force behind these aggressive actions A literature review by Ferguson and Hartley in 2009 argued that it would be wise to let go of the notion that pornography contributes to increased sexual assault behavior. The authors stated that the experts of some studies tended to highlight positive findings while de-emphasizing null findings. They would then conclude that controlled studies, on balance, were not able to support links between pornography and sexual violence. Ferguson and Hartley updated their review with a 2020 meta-analysis. This meta-analysis concluded that mainstream pornography could not be linked to sexual violence and was associated with reductions in sexual violence at the societal level. Small correlations were found between violent porn viewing and sexual aggression, but evidence was unable to differentiate whether this was a causal or selection effect (i.e. sexual offenders seeking out violent porn). Researcher Emily F. Rothman stated in 2021 that five separate studies have found that the people who commit sexual violence had consumed less porn than other criminals. The relation between sexual fantasies and committing offenses is not a simple one and there is not enough backing evidence to link violent pornography as the cause of rape. ==== Epidemiological studies ==== An epidemiological study describes the association between given behaviors or environmental conditions, and physical or psychological health by means of observation of real-world phenomena through statistical data. Epidemiological studies would generally be useful in describing real life events outside of the experimental field but would have a weak correlation with cause and effect relationships between specific behaviors and the health consequences. Danish criminologist Berl Kutchinsky's Studies on Pornography and sex crimes in Denmark (1970), a scientific report ordered by the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, found that the legalizing of pornography in Denmark had not resulted in an increase of sex crimes. In 1998 Milton Diamond from the University of Hawaii noted that in Japan, the number of reported cases of child sex abuse dropped markedly after the ban on sexually explicit materials was lifted in 1969; however, in Denmark and Sweden, there was a very slight increase in reported rapes after the liberalization of their pornography laws during the same time period, which scientists attribute to a higher awareness of what amounts to sex abuse. Some researchers argue that there is a correlation between pornography and a decrease of sex crimes. The effects of Pornography: An International Perspective was an epidemiological study which found that the massive growth of the pornography industry in the United States between 1975 and 1995 was accompanied by a substantial decrease in the number of sexual assaults per capita – and reported similar results for Japan. In 1986, a review of epidemiological studies by Neil Malamuth found that the quantity of pornographic material viewed by men was positively correlated with degree to which they endorsed sexual assault. Malamuth's work describes Check (1984), who found among a diverse sample of Canadian men that more exposure to pornography led to higher acceptance of rape myths, violence against women, and general sexual callousness. In another study, Briere, Corne, Runtz and Neil M. Malamuth, (1984) reported similar correlations in a sample involving college males. On the other hand, the failure to find a statistically significant correlation in another previous study led Malamuth to examine other interesting correlations, which took into account the information about sexuality the samples obtained in their childhood, and pornography emerged as the second most important source of information. Malamuth's work has been criticized by other authors, however, such as Ferguson and Hartley (2009) who argue Malamuth has exaggerated positive findings and has not always properly discussed null findings. In a Quartz publication, Malamuth argued that porn is like alcohol: "whether it's bad for you depends on who you are" (stating that it increases violence in a few people, not in most people; it makes most people more relaxed). A 2019 study from the Archives of Sexual behavior on Teen Dating Violence (TDV) found that both males and females are perpetrators in different regards. Males would more often engage in Sexual TDV, while females would more often engage in Physical and Emotional TDV. The Study mentions the analysis of two separate frameworks. One is the Confluence model of Sexual aggression, in which it details porn being the one that influences boys to be sexually aggressive. It works significantly towards the males that have fragile masculinity and the ones that are more sexually promiscuous. The other framework is the script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization. This framework suggests that behavior towards sexual encounters is acquired through "scripts" that people get from viewing pornographic content. These actions, often negative, will then be mirrored. This will result in more sexual and teen dating violence. According to a 2022 study among German medical students, "Male students who did not experience a sexual transmitted disease (82.9%) and did not cheat on their partner (68.0%) consumed pornography more frequently". The study concludes "the results of this analysis show that the consumption of pornographic material is highly common among young German medical students" (meaning both male and female). A 2024 review found a correlation between pornography consumption (especially sado-masochistic pornography) and violence, but failed to show causality and stated that its own results have to be interpreted with caution, due to the heterogeneity of such research. == Effects on relationships == The consumption of pornography has various impacts in different areas of a relationship. Pornography can influence an individual's relationship through a number of channels, including overall relationship satisfaction, communication within a relationship, and setting boundaries within a relationship. Pornography's impact on relationship satisfaction has come under scrutiny, as findings range from negative correlations to positive effects. Pornography consumption has been correlated with less relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and less sexual desire for their partner in men. Some researchers have concluded that this could be because the ever-changing value of pornography and its regularity makes it difficult for a female partner to compete, although at least one study concluded that their "data did not support the notion that pornography negatively impacts sexual or relationship satisfaction via preference for porn-like sex", and that in fact "it may bolster sexual satisfaction by promoting sexual variety." Other research reports positive findings for women who consume pornography more regularly, including increased relationship satisfaction and decreased distress. === Relationship satisfaction === The research on the correlation between pornography use and relationship satisfaction is varied. While some researchers believe that pornography consumption leads people to become less satisfied in their relationships, with greater frequency of use negatively associated with relationship satisfaction, others have argued that it can have the opposite effect. Pornography consumption tends to result in lower levels of satisfaction in long-term, heterosexual relationships. However, most of the current research is correlational, indicating a connected but non-causal relationship. Researchers have also examined the potential link between pornography and rates of divorce. According to one study, "married Americans who viewed pornography at all in 2006 were more than twice as likely as those who did not view pornography to experience a separation by 2012", with an 11% chance of divorce, versus 6% for those who did not use pornography. One thing that appeared to lessen the probability of divorce was the frequency of pornography consumption. However, this relationship "was technically curvilinear", increasing up to a point and then declining "at the highest frequencies of pornography use. Ancillary analyses, however, showed that this group of married Americans with high frequencies of 2006 pornography viewing and low likelihood of later marital separation was not statistically distinguishable from either abstainers or moderate viewers in terms of marital separation likelihood." On the other hand, many researchers reject the idea that pornography is inherently harmful to relationship satisfaction. Joint pornography consumption within a relationship has been linked to increased levels of relationship satisfaction for both partners. Couples who consumed pornography together expressed more satisfaction with their relationships than couples in which only one individual used pornography. This suggests that there is more at play than simply the consumption of pornography, such as the role of honesty and partner perception. Individuals whose partners are honest about their own pornography consumption tend to feel more satisfied in their relationships, to a point. There is evidence for an "honesty threshold", indicating that the relationship between honesty and pornography is not linear, and partners do not want to hear every detail about the other's pornography habits. This indicates that, although honesty and disclosure is important for pornography consumption, there seems to be a threshold of helpful honesty that, once surpassed, may cause more harm. In addition, when women consume pornography, they report lower levels of distress than their counterparts. While women often consume pornography less often than men, men are fairly accurate at perceiving their partner's pornography consumption. Women, on the other hand, are less accurate at perceiving their male partner's pornography use. Some research suggests that there is no connection between relationship satisfaction and pornography use. A study of two independent male samples found no relationship between pornography and relationship satisfaction in their first sample; when the second sample was introduced, they found a negative correlation between pornography and satisfaction. Conversely, other studies have discovered no relationship whatsoever between joint pornography use and satisfaction. When analyzing couples and their pornography consumption over the course of one month, researchers concluded that "pornography use was unrelated to relationship satisfaction"; there "was no evidence that porn viewing led to decreases in how happy people are with their partners, nor did they seem to be using porn as a way of making up for deficiencies in their relationships." According to this study, "it appears that whether porn viewing helps or hurts intimate relationships depends instead on the attitudes the partners have about it." The correlations between pornography use and the measurements of the degradation of relationship satisfaction are small. While "except for one unclear exception, pornography use was never positively associated with relationship quality", that is definitely not a major impact. That is, it explains 4% of variation overall, and 6.76% of variation for males only. The correlation of pornography use with experiencing violence within the relationship explains 0.01% of variation for males only, and 0.04% overall. === Communication === Communication is a vital component of any healthy relationship, and many researchers question how pornography may impact the ability of a couple to communicate openly. Honesty has been shown to be a mitigator in relationship effects regarding pornography consumption. Couples who are honest about their pornography consumption report greater satisfaction than couples dealing with their concealed pornography use. Pornography consumption among couples leads to improved communication about sexual desires, and increased openness in communication. Conversely, active concealment of pornography habits can lead to less openness in communication and trust within the relationship. Another important aspect is the communication of affection within relationships. Affection Exchange Theory establishes the inherent role of affection within romantic relationships. Even in the role of survival, reproduction, and sexual selection. Trait attachment is positively associated with relationship satisfaction. Individuals who score higher in trait attachment report feeling and expressing greater sexual desire for their partners, compared to individuals who score lower. Some evidence indicates that the connection between Affection Exchange Theory and sexual desire is, in fact, stronger than the connection to relationship satisfaction, suggesting that sexual desire may have a crucial moderating role between the two. While this study found no correlation between pornography consumption and trait affection, researchers noted that increased feelings of guilt were related to lower levels of sexual desire for one's partner. This is somewhat indicative of partner-imposed or communicated guilt, or possibly reflecting an effect of the sexual scripts of pornography creating unrealistic expectations that lead to overall relationship and sexual dissatisfaction. == See also == Effects of pornography on young people Meese Report, 1986 U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography Pornographication President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 1969, United States Stanley v. Georgia, U.S. Supreme Court case that established a right to pornography Williams Committee, 1979 UK Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship Religious views on pornography Sexual ethics Victorian morality == References == == Sources == McKee, Alan; Litsou, Katerina; Byron, Paul; Ingham, Roger (10 June 2022). What Do We Know About the Effects of Pornography After Fifty Years of Academic Research?. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003232032. ISBN 978-1-003-23203-2. == Further reading == Kutchinsky, Berl (1999). Law, pornography, and crime: The Danish experience. Oslo, Norway: Pax Forlag. Hald, Gert Martin (2007). Pornography Consumption - a study of prevalence rates, consumption patterns, and effects. Aarhus Universitet, Denmark: Psykologisk Institut. Hald, Gert Martin; Malamuth, Neil (2008). "Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption". Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention. 19 (1–2): 99–122. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.661.1654. doi:10.1080/10720162.2012.660431. PMID 17851749. S2CID 31274764.	Wikipedia/Effects_of_pornography
A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinct pornographic subgenres and attempt to present a sexual fantasy; the actors selected for a particular role are primarily selected on their ability to create or fit that fantasy. Pornographic videos are characterized as either softcore, which does not contain depictions of sexual penetration or extreme fetishism, and hardcore, which can contain depictions of penetration or extreme fetishism, or both. The genres and sexual intensity of videos is mainly determined by demand. Depending on the genre of the film, the on-screen appearance, age, and physical features of the actors and their ability to create the sexual mood of the video is of critical importance. Most actors specialize in certain genres, such as straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, bondage, strap-on, anal, double penetration, semen swallowing, orgy, gang bang, age roleplay, fauxcest, interracial, teenage or MILFs and more. The pornography industry in the United States was the first to develop its own movie star system, primarily for commercial reasons. In other countries, the "star" system is not common, with most actors being amateurs. Most performers use a pseudonym and strive to maintain off-screen anonymity. A number of pornographic actors and actresses have written autobiographies. It is very rare for pornographic actors and actresses to successfully cross over to the mainstream film industry. Certain pornographic actors have leveraged their success to branch into different entrepreneurial endeavours, such as Jenna Jameson's ClubJenna. Leaked patient database of Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation in 2011 contained details of over 12,000 pornographic actors that it had tested since 1998, providing estimates of the number of pornographic film actors who have worked in the United States. As of 2011, it was reported that roughly 1,200–1,500 performers were working in California's "Porn Valley". == History == Production of risqué films commenced with the start of photography. "Moving pictures" that featured nudity were popular in "penny arcades" of the early 1900s which had hand-cranked films and stereoscope glasses, as well as vitascope theaters. These attractions featured topless women, full frontal nudity, and sexual coupling. Production of erotic films commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture. The first erotic film was the seven-minute 1896 film Le Coucher de la Mariée directed by Frenchman Albert Kirchner (under the name "Léar") which had Louise Willy performing a bathroom striptease. Other French filmmakers also started making this type of risqué films, showing women disrobing. The Pathé brothers supplied the demand throughout Europe. In Austria, Johann Schwarzer produced 52 erotic productions between 1906 and 1911, each of which contained young local women fully nude, to provide an alternative local source to the French productions. Performers in these early productions were usually uncredited or used pseudonyms to avoid legal sanction and social disapprobation. The use of pseudonyms was the norm in the industry; pornographic film actors maintained a low profile, using pseudonyms to maintain a level of anonymity, while others performed uncredited. The use of pseudonyms has remained a tradition in the industry, and actors would perform under a number of pseudonyms, depending on the genre of film, or changed a pseudonym when the previous one ceased to be a draw card. Casey Donovan starred in the first mainstream pornographic hit, Boys in the Sand, in 1971. However, arguably the first pornstar to become a household name was Linda Lovelace (the pseudonym of Linda Susan Boreman) from New York City, United States, who starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. The film grossed millions of dollars worldwide, a success that was echoed by similar stars and productions such as Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas). The period from the early 1970s through the late 1970s or early 1980s has been called the Golden Age of Porn, when erotic films were produced in the United States with narratives, backed by movie-style promotional budgets, and were shown in public theaters and accepted (or at least tolerated) for public consumption. Performers in these productions became celebrities including Peter Berlin, John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Porsche Lynn, Desireé Cousteau, Juliet Anderson (Aunt Peg), Lisa De Leeuw, Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Harry Reems, Seka, Annette Haven and Amber Lynn. Meanwhile, in Europe, many pornographic actresses and actors come from the so-called pornographic bloc countries, such as Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In France, popular female performers have included Brigitte Lahaie, Clara Morgane, Céline Tran (Katsuni), and Yasmine Lafitte. In Italy, the Swedish Marina Lothar rose to prominence in the early 1980s, as well as Moana Pozzi, Ilona Staller (Cicciolina), and Lilli Carati. == Performers == === Female performers === The on-screen physical appearances of the female performers is of primary importance. They are typically younger in age than their male counterparts, in their teens, 20s, and 30s. There is a preference in the industry for thinness and large-breasted actresses; some film studios encourage their actresses to have breast implants, and offer to pay for the procedure. According to actor-turned-director Jonathan Morgan: The girls could be graded like A, B and C. The A is the chick on the boxcover. She has the power. So she'll show up late or not at all. 99.9% of them do that. Less desirable actresses are more likely to agree to perform more extreme and high-risk sexual acts such as "double-anal" in order to get work. According to Morgan: Some girls are used up in nine months or a year. An 18-year-old, sweet young thing, signs with an agency, makes five films in her first week. Five directors, five actors, five times five: she gets phone calls. A hundred movies in four months. She's not a fresh face any more. Her price slips and she stops getting phone calls. Then it's, 'Okay, will you do anal? Will you do gangbangs?' Then they're used up. They can't even get a phone call. The market forces of this industry use them up. Some performers note that "a performer's pleasure is not of primary importance" and that "porn sex is not the same as private sex". According to a study investigating health risks for industry performers, female performers experience significantly higher risk within their job role than male performers. The study reported: Performers engaged in risky health behaviors that included high-risk sexual acts that are unprotected, substance abuse, and body enhancement. They are exposed to physical trauma on the film set. Many entered and left the industry with financial insecurity and suffered from mental health problems. Women were more likely than men to be exposed to health risks. Adult film performers, especially women, are exposed to health risks that accumulate over time and that are not limited to sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, there is a contrary opinion stating that porn production is not necessarily unethical or degrading. According to Lynn Comella, a women's studies professor at UNLV, presenting demeaning practices as representative of the entire porn industry is "akin to talking about Hollywood while only referencing Spaghetti Westerns". A 2012 study titled, "Why Become a Pornography Actress?" analyzed female performers in pornography, and their reasons for choosing the occupation; it found that the primary reasons were money (53%), sex (27%), and attention (16%). Respondents also stated the aspects of their work which they disliked. These included industry-associated people, e.g., co-workers, directors, producers, and agents, whose "attitudes, behaviors, and poor hygiene [were] difficult to handle within their work environment" or who were unscrupulous and unprofessional (39%); STIs risk (29%); and exploitation within the industry (20%). According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Sex Research, female porn performers were reported to have engaged in sexual activity at a younger age, utilized several drugs, identify as bisexual, had more sexual partners, and have better enjoyment of sex compared to their non-porn peers. They were also found to have a good quality of life, social support systems, sexual fulfillment, spirituality, and equal or better levels of self-esteem compared to their non-porn counterparts. A 2018 review published in the Journal of Sex Research found in a survey that the majority of male pornography consumers disliked seeing "acts that were more clearly unpleasant/painful for female performers, such as forced gagging or forceful anal penetration." The study concluded that despite the oversaturation of extreme and kinky content in the industry, most consumers are not interested in kinky, fetish or degrading pornography. === Male performers === While the primary focus of heterosexual adult films are the women in them, who are mostly selected for their on-screen appearance, there is a definite focus on the male performers who are able to fulfill the desires of the male watching audience as their on-screen proxies. Most male performers in heterosexual pornography are generally selected less for their looks and more for their sexual prowess, namely their ability to do three things: achieve an erection while on a busy and sometimes pressuring film set, maintain that erection while performing on camera, and then ejaculate on cue. However, the majority of on-screen ejaculations, semen, and "money shots" are artificial. In the past, an actor's inability to maintain an erection or being subject to premature ejaculation could make the difference between a film turning a profit or a loss. If an actor loses his erection, filming is forced to stop. This problem has been addressed with the use of Viagra, although Viagra can make the actor's face noticeably flushed, give him a headache, make it difficult to ejaculate, and can take about 45 minutes to take effect. According to director John Stagliano, using Viagra means "You also lose a dimension. The guy's fucking without being aroused." Ron Jeremy, John Holmes, and Rocco Siffredi are considered by AVN as the top male performers of all time. Adding to his fame, Ron Jeremy has been a staple in the industry since the 1970s and has become something of a cultural icon. Ken Shimizu is credited with having had sex with over 8,000 women in the course of making 7,500 films. == Industry practices == === Pay rates === ==== By scene ==== Payment for pornstars is dependent on the sex acts performed; penetration typically paying highest. In a single scene, female actresses typically make between $100 and $6,000, while male actors make between $100 and $400. In 2017, The Independent reported that female performers in scenes with male performers typically earn around $1,000, compared with $700–800 in scenes with other females. The Independent also claimed that pay rates are subject to variation up or down by around 10–20%, depending on various factors. The Daily Beast claimed in 2019 that female performers could make between $300 and $2500 per scene, depending on their level of experience and the sex acts performed. Higher-paid female performers could make around $1200 per scene. The Los Angeles Times reported, in 2009, that the pay rates for a female actress performing heterosexual scenes were $700 to $1,000. According to the porn website Videobox in 2008, actresses make these rates: Blowjobs: $200–$400; Straight sex: $400–$1,200; Anal sex: $900–$1,500; Double Penetration: $1,200–$1,600; Double anal: $2,000. For more unusual fetishes, women generally get 15% extra. Ron Jeremy commented in 2008 that, "The average guy gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he's new." According to producer Seymore Butts in 2007, who runs his own sex-film recruitment agency as well as producing sex films, "depending on draw, female performers who perform in both straight and lesbian porn earn more than those who do just heterosexual scenes [and] usually make about US$200–800 while those who only do oral sex (blow job) usually only make about US$100–300 for the scene". In a 2004 interview conducted by Local10 news of Florida, it was claimed that individuals were offered $700 for sexual intercourse while shooting a scene of the popular series Bang Bus. In 2001, actress Chloe said of pay-rates: "In Gonzo, you're paid not by the picture, but by the scene. So it's girl-girl: $700, plus $100 for an anal toy. Boy-girl: $900. Anal: $1,100. Solo: $500. DP: $1,500." ==== Salaries ==== Salaries for female actresses typically range from $60,000 to $400,000, compared with $40,000 for male actors. In 2017, The Independent reported that top porn performers' salaries were around $300,000 to $400,000. In 2011, the manager of Capri Anderson said, "A contract girl will only shoot for one company, she won't shoot for anyone else. Most actresses in the adult industry are free agents – they'll shoot for anyone. Most contract girls make $60,000 a year. In one year, a contract girl will shoot, on average, four movies and each movie takes about two or three weeks to shoot." ==== Other payment ==== Besides appearing in films, porn stars often make money from endorsements and appearance fees. For instance, in 2010, some night clubs were paying female porn stars and Playboy Playmates to appear there to act as draws for the general public; the Los Angeles Times reported that Jesse Jane was paid between $5,000 to $10,000 for one appearance by a Chicago club. === Health issues === In the 1980s, there was an outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the pornographic film industry which caused many deaths. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM) in 1998, which voluntarily tested the pornographic performers for HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea every 30 days; and twice a year for hepatitis, syphilis and HSV. AIM closed all its operations in May 2011. Since 2011, STI testing for pornographic performers is being monitored by Free Speech Coalition, which set up the Adult Production Health and Safety Services (APHSS) system, now known as Performer Availability Screening Services (PASS). Performers are tested every fourteen days for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis B and C and trichomoniasis. According to PASS, there has not been an on-set transmission of HIV on a regulated set since 2004. == Awards == Exceptional performance of pornographic actors and actresses is recognized in the AVN Awards, XRCO Awards and XBIZ Awards. The AVN Awards are film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine AVN (Adult Video News). They are called the "Oscars of porn". The AVN Awards are divided into nearly 100 categories, some of which are analogous to industry awards offered in other film and video genres, and others that are specific to pornographic/erotic film and video. The XRCO Awards are given by the X-Rated Critics Organization annually. The Venus Awards are presented each year in Berlin as part of the Venus Berlin trade fair. == Media == === Media and press coverage === With some notable or occasional exceptions, pornographic actors are not generally reported on by mainstream media. As a result, specialized publications (or trade journals) emerged to serve as a source of information about the industry, its business dealings, trends and forecasts, as well as its personnel. Two of the predominant media outlets are Adult Video News and XBIZ. Certain performers also have had their public accounts blocked on social media platforms. The Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) lists adult film productions dating back to the 1970s, the performers in those films, and the associated directors. === Autobiographies === A number of pornographic actors and actresses have written autobiographies, including the following: == Discrimination == Porn actors have spoken out about discrimination they face due to their work, including being denied banking services and being fired from other jobs. Lana Rhoades and others faced difficulty when renting or buying a home. On numerous occasions, banks closed or refused to open the accounts of porn actors. Chanel Preston was among those whose bank account was closed due to her profession. Porn actors also face discrimination from social media websites. Around 200 performers and models signed a letter to Facebook saying that their Instagram accounts were closed unfairly. Many say that they are being held to a different standard than mainstream celebrities. More than 1,300 performers claimed that their accounts have been deleted by Instagram's content moderators for violations of the site's community standards, despite not showing any nudity or sex. They claim that famous celebrities are allowed to be much more explicit on their accounts than porn stars or sex workers without getting sanctioned. Over 100 platforms, including banks, payment processors, social media websites and hotels have been accused of discriminating against sex workers. == See also == List of pornographic film studios List of pornographic actors who appeared in mainstream films List of members of the XRCO Hall of Fame AV idol == References == == External links == AVN Awards Internet Adult Film Database Adult Film Database European Girls Adult Film Database	Wikipedia/Pornographic_film_actor
Blizzard Entertainment's 2016 video game Overwatch inspired a notable amount of fan-made pornography. The game's distinct and colorful character designs drew the attention of many online content creators, resulting in sexually explicit fanart. Character models were ripped from the beta versions of the game and subsequently spread, edited, and animated on the Internet. Animated pornography shorts and sexualized imagery featuring official character models constitute the main content of Overwatch pornography. Original pornography fan artists (animators and illustrators) are most commonly based on social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, while they upload their works to file hosting services like MEGA, Gfycat, Webmshare, and Google Drive. Pornographic content is created primarily through Valve's Source Filmmaker (SFM) and Blender. Overwatch pornography usually consists of short pieces of video featuring characters such as Tracer, D.Va, and Mei. Blizzard initially issued cease-and-desist orders to some prolific creators through an independent security firm, though the game's director described the situation as "an inevitable reality of the internet in 2016." Video game journalists have described the abundance of (pornographic) fan works as a positive indicator for the game's longevity. Pornographic works of the game remained a topic of discussion long after that game's release, with artists making content of the game's post-launch characters, and Overwatch-related search topics continuing to be popular on porn websites. Overwatch and its pornographic community has inspired various groups and companies to produce adult content related to the game. Brazzers produced a "porn parody" based on Overwatch in September 2016. The website Overpog.com started producing a Playboy-style magazine about the game in late 2016, until they were forced to stop in February the following year. Overwatch has inspired both sexualized cosplay and pornographic virtual reality works. == Background and history == Overwatch is a multiplayer online shooter game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game sports a cast of various characters, each with a unique design. Pornographic fan works of online multiplayer games like Overwatch has always been relatively common: according to Pornhub vice-president Cory Price, the most popular video-game related search queries on Pornhub were Minecraft, Halo, Clash of Clans, and Call of Duty. Aoife Wilson of Eurogamer asserted that a cursory search on websites like Pornhub reveals pornography inspired by many high-profile video game franchises. Overwatch entered a closed beta in late 2015, during which time various people ripped the character models of Overwatch from the game and spread them over the Internet. In early 2016, Blizzard also encountered some controversy with the design of a victory pose for the game's cover art character, Tracer, which was criticised by some fans as "[reducing her] to just another bland female sex symbol." When Blizzard made an open beta of Overwatch available on May 5, 2016, Pornhub registered a spike of 817% in searches for pornographic material related to the game. Searches for Overwatch pornography originated somewhat evenly worldwide, though South Korea and Belarus searched for such content the most. According to Jeff Grub of VentureBeat, websites such as Tumblr were overflowing with sexualized fanart of the characters at the time. Nathan Grayson of Kotaku stated that Overwatch makes for "good porn" because of its colorful cast of characters with distinct visual styles. Grayson pointed out that the game features a higher-than-average number of female characters, many of which wear skin-tight clothing. Grayson wrote that Overwatch pornography is relatively easy to make with Source Filmmaker, the community of which is built around the sharing of assets, including nude models. Many people who create and watch Overwatch pornography have not actually played the game. Blender, another "free, open-source 3D computer graphics creation tool" is also used by such animators, with one being cited by Kotaku as stating, "Overwatch models are, for the most part, readily available for Blender, and some of them are very beginner friendly." Some artists have achieved popularity within their online communities, being able to capitalize on their SFM or Blender art and use it as a source of income via Patreon donations. Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan stated in an interview that he and his team have purposefully kept the romantic relationships and sexual identities of their characters vague in order to not "pander" to the audience. Kaplan described the porn scene as "an inevitable reality of the internet in 2016." When Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, tweeted about the existence of pornographic content based on Overwatch's competitor game Battleborn, he was immediately mocked and trolled by fans of the more popular game. Pitchford was accused of "desperately trying to put the spotlight back on his game", and the Reddit website he linked to was flooded by Overwatch references. In January 2017, Pornhub announced that "Overwatch" was the 11th-most searched term on their website in the previous year, beating out searches for words such as "anal" and "threesome". Pornography featuring the game's characters has remained popular years after the game's launch. D.Va, Tracer, and Mercy, ranked as the top three video game characters by number of searches on Pornhub in 2017, and the game was the most searched on the platform in 2019. Post-launch additions of new characters to the game's playable roster, such as Brigitte and Ashe, propelled spikes in related searches. After Ashe debuted, searches for Overwatch in general more than doubled on Pornhub. In 2022, Chinese internet users circumvented the state's ban on pornography by using a wallpaper app, with Overwatch-related porn being among the most popular on the platform. Media outlets also continued discussing Overwatch porn in 2022, ahead of the release of the game's sequel. == Pornographic content == Many of the Overwatch-related videos on Pornhub during the game's open beta featured the official models of the characters with some slight alterations to show more skin. Amateur animators then used the free Source Filmmaker tool by Valve to animate sexual activities. The character Tracer was by far the most commonly searched Overwatch-related subject during this time, followed by Widowmaker and Mercy. Futanari imagery was also popular among Pornhub users. After the release of Overwatch's competitive mode at the end of June, the query "Mei Overwatch Rule 34" became the most popular search target related to the game. Mo Mozuch of iDigitalTimes called the popularity of Mei significant, noting that she initially wouldn't seem as a likely target and that much pornography of her is fairly body positive, describing exaggerations of her form as "more Venus of Willendorf than Barbie." On September 12, pornography website YouPorn revealed that Tracer was the second-most searched female video game character on the site, behind only Lara Croft. In January 2017, Pornhub released a list of top Overwatch character searches over the previous year, revealing that Tracer, D.Va, Mercy, Widowmaker, and Sombra had been the top 5 most popular female characters on the website, and that Lúcio was the most popular male character on the website. Most Overwatch pornography is only several seconds long and intended to loop indefinitely. Since the game's official release, various creators have experimented with longer and more elaborate story content. Though the characters each have a personal backstory, there is still a lot not known about them. According to Kotaku's Grayson, "by design, they can’t be fully fleshed out. There has to be room for player identity." The personalities of the game's characters have been noted to be taken into account in some pornographic animations. Most short character clips take known character traits to a sort of "logical conclusion", such as showing former pro gamer D.Va masturbating while streaming. The superpowers and symbols of agency of the female characters are usually not integral to these fanworks, though Emily Gaudette of Inverse noted that Tracer is an exception to this rule, stating that this character "has achieved something not many other female characters in porn have: a unique personality that only adds to her sex appeal." Gaudette further stated that the majority of Overwatch pornography is "vanilla", suggesting that it is intended for a straight male audience. Kate Gray, writing for Kotaku, noted that the scenarios found in such pornographic animations "are pretty basic." Commenting upon the pornographic content available on the Internet, Aoife Wilson of Eurogamer said that some of the videos are of surprisingly high quality, though she criticized that female characters were commonly portrayed in a submissive manner unless they are depicted with a penis. Grayson stated that most of the Overwatch pornography is bad, featuring unsettlingly rigid movements and amateurish camera angles. However, he also described good content as "legitimately sexy." Grayson also noted that there exists a lot of comedy in the Overwatch porn scene, with people creating humorous videos or writing silly descriptions. In 2019, Gray also commented on how Overwatch pornographic animations focus on women, rather than men, but praised the quality of these animations, opining: "sure, the boobs might be overly jiggly, and some of the gasps of pleasure are a little too close to sobs, but the animation is amazing—subtle movements of flesh and hair, detailed fabric simulations, lifelike surfaces, realistic lighting." Gray, however, was also critical of the culture surrounding the creators of such content, writing that the genre has "a lot of the same issues as the porn industry as a whole." She elaborated that "It's clear that the people making these videos are into a very specific, predominantly white, and almost always skinny version of women," citing changes made to some characters (such as Pharah and Brigitte being portrayed as whiter and slimmer, respectively, than in-game), as well as an under-representation of others. Sashacakies, an animator in the Overwatch pornography scene, also criticized the lack of diversity in the such content, but was unsure if its artists or consumers are to blame. === Erotica === Both Inverse and Kotaku suggested that the majority of Overwatch's Source Filmmaker pornography community consists of straight men. However, both websites noted that users on Tumblr and various fan-fiction websites produce large amounts of romantic erotica. These communities consist in large part of women and LGBT people more interested in emphasizing the existing bonds of the characters. James Grebey of Inverse called Tumblr "perhaps ground zero for extremely good fanart, heartwarming comics, and other steamy user-generated Overwatch content." Tumblr described Overwatch as "rife for shipping" due to its 20 unique characters. In May 2017, the website sifted through its data in order to determine which character pairings was the most popular on Tumblr, revealing that Cassidy (formerly called "McCree") and Hanzo (McHanzo) were shipped 35% of the time. == Major works == Overwatch became the subject of a "porn parody" created by Brazzers in September 2016. Titled Oversnatch XXX Parody, the video features Danny D as Reaper and Aletta Ocean as Widowmaker. The parody presents a "grudge match" between the two characters in an abandoned strip club. Oversnatch XXX Parody was the first time Brazzers produced a parody of a video game, but they went on to do more afterwards. After producing several mock Playboy covers, staff of the website Overpog.com decided to create an Overwatch-themed, Playboy-style magazine under the title Playwatch. This magazine does not include any nudity, some of the images being cropped or edited in order to remove nudity where it otherwise would be. The magazine also features fictitious articles and interviews with Overwatch characters, as well as real-life cosplay. Overpog completed the first issue of Playwatch in November and it drew a large audience from Reddit. Overpog told PVP Live that the sexual images in Playwatch "were intended to titillate and impress with artistic intent rather than overtly sexual," and that the magazine was first and foremost a parody of the famous magazine. In February 2017, Playwatch was shut down through a cease-and-desist order issued by a copyright firm hired by Blizzard Entertainment. In 2017, cosplay artist Stella Chuu started a group effort of sexualized Overwatch cosplay under the banner "Underwatch". Chuu drew up cosplay designs of each Overwatch hero and got to work with a group in order to present the work at Katsucon 2017. This cosplay meetup was highly successful, drawing a large crowd, and the group was asked to leave or cover up by Katsucon staff about an hour in, at which point they moved to a suite in the local MGM Grand for a photoshoot. Chuu told Kotaku that "many of the cosplayers approached [her] afterwards to express how confident [the event] made them feel." Cosplay pornography company BaDoinkVR planned to release multiple virtual reality pornography projects based on Overwatch in 2017. Producer Dinorah Hernandez stated that "in Overwatch, people get attached to the characters as they play them and the way they're designed amplifies sexual attraction." == Reactions == When asked about the pornographic fan content, lead designer Jeff Kaplan stated that as someone who is "creatively responsible" for the franchise, he is concerned and hopes people realize many children play the game despite the T-rating. Regardless, Kaplan stated, "Nobody’s trying to step on anybody’s freedom of speech or any of that, like totally love people’s creative expression." As Overwatch pornography primarily makes use of official character models with appended genitalia, various takedown notices have been issued to creators of such content. These notices have been issued by security firm Irdeto, which, according to news outlets, may have been hired by Blizzard to clean up unwanted fan content. Blizzard itself has not yet commented upon the large Overwatch porn scene. After one creator posted a screenshot of one such takedown notice on a Reddit message board, other creators started to come together in order to pressure Blizzard to stop. Prolific video game porn developer Studio FOW stated that it would not create Overwatch pornography after the studio got a cease-and-desist order from Blizzard in 2015 for their World of Warcraft–related projects. Writing in a blog post, the studio stated that "it's not a process I'm happy to repeat because I have better things to do than argue semantics all day with jumped up, tiny, hypocrite attorneys ... there are more important things in life such as looking out for my team and feeding families." Both James Stephanie Sterling and VentureBeat's Jeff Grub described the abundance of fan works of Overwatch, pornographic or otherwise, as a good sign for the game's longevity. The influx of Pokémon-related pornography shortly after the release of Pokémon Go was compared to that of Overwatch. == See also == Cartoon pornography Doujinshi Pokémon and pornography Tijuana bible == References ==	Wikipedia/Overwatch_and_pornography
Convent pornography, convent erotica, friar erotica, priest erotica, monk erotica, or clergy erotica includes paintings, sculpture, photographs, dramatic arts, music and writings that show scenes of erotic or sexual nature involving clergy. == In Europe == === In France === During the Enlightenment, many of the French free-thinkers began to exploit pornography as a medium of social criticism and satire. Libertine pornography was a subversive social commentary and often targeted the Catholic Church and general attitudes of sexual repression. The market for the mass-produced, inexpensive pamphlets soon became the bourgeoisie, making the upper class worry, as in England, that the morals of the lower class and weak-minded would be corrupted since women, slaves and the uneducated were seen as especially vulnerable during that time. The stories and illustrations (sold in the galleries of the Palais Royal, along with the services of prostitutes) were often anti-clerical and full of misbehaving priests, monks and nuns, a tradition that in French pornography continued into the 20th century. In the period leading up to the French Revolution, pornography was also used as political commentary; Marie Antoinette was often targeted with fantasies involving orgies, lesbian activities and the paternity of her children, and rumours circulated about the supposed sexual inadequacies of Louis XVI. During and after the Revolution, the famous works of the Marquis de Sade were printed. They were often accompanied by illustrations and served as political commentary for their author. == In South-east Asia == === In the Philippines === Filipino historian Ambeth R. Ocampo described that in the 19th-century Philippines the sexually attractive female body parts of the time were the "bare arms, a good neck or nape" and "tiny rosy feet". This is exemplified by Ocampo's chosen passages from Soledad Lacson-Locsin's unabridged English-language translation of the 25th chapter of José Rizal's Spanish-language novel, the Noli Me Tangere: "At last, Maria Clara emerged from the bath accompanied by her friends, fresh as a rose opening its petals with the first dew, covered with sparks of fire from the early morning sun. Her first smile was for Crisostomo (Ibarra), and the first cloud on her brow for Padre Salvi..." (Padre Salvi, although a priest, is an admirer of Maria Clara.) "Their legs were up to the knees, the wide folds of their bathing skirts outlining the gracious curves of their thighs. Their hair hung loose and their arms were bare. They wore striped gay-colored blouses... Pale and motionless, the religious Actaeon (i.e. Padre Salvi, who was hiding in the bushes, acting as a voyeur) watched this chaste Diana (i.e. Maria Clara): his sunken eyes glistening at the sight of her beautifully molded white arms, the graceful neck ending in a suggestion of a bosom. The diminutive rosy feet playing in the water aroused strange sensations and feelings in his impoverished, starved being and made him dream of new visions in his fevered mind." In My Sad Republic, Eric Gamalinda incorporated the genre of erotica such as what Angela Stuart-Santiago described as a "dash of friar erotica" (also known as "priest erotica") witnessed during the diminishing decades of the rule of the Spanish friars in the Philippines. Gamalinda described the love scene between a Spanish parish priest nicknamed Padre Batchoy and a native lass as if the friar was inserting a sacred host into the lips of a native girl's sex organ. There was another love scene – during a secret rendezvous between the novel's hero Magbuela and his beloved De Urquiza – wherein (according to Stuart-Santiago) De Urquiza did a "strange thing", lifting her a head a little to give Magbuela a prolonged bite on the hard and firm muscle located above Magbuela's collarbone, as if De Urquiza wanted to remain forever connected to Magbuela's body. == See also == Erotic literature History of erotic depictions Erotic film Nunsploitation == References ==	Wikipedia/Convent_pornography
Pornography addiction is the scientifically controversial application of an addiction model to the use of pornography. Pornography use may be part of compulsive behavior, with negative consequences to one's physical, mental, social, or financial well-being. While the World Health Organization's ICD-11 (2022) has recognized compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) as an impulse-control disorder, CSBD is not an addiction, and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 and the DSM-5-TR do not classify compulsive pornography consumption as a mental disorder or a behavioral addiction. Problematic Internet pornography viewing is the viewing of Internet pornography that is problematic for an individual due to personal or social reasons, including the excessive time spent viewing pornography instead of interacting with others and the facilitation of procrastination. Individuals may report depression, social isolation, career loss, decreased productivity, or financial consequences as a result of their excessive Internet pornography viewing impeding their social lives. == Diagnosis == Universally accepted diagnostic criteria for pornography addiction or problematic pornography viewing do not exist. Pornography addiction is often defined operationally by the frequency of pornography viewing and negative consequences. The only diagnostic criteria for a behavioral addiction in the DSM-5 are for pathological gambling, and they are similar to those for substance abuse and dependence, such as preoccupation with the behavior, diminished ability to control the behavior, tolerance, withdrawal, and adverse psychosocial consequences. Diagnostic criteria have been proposed for other behavioral addictions, and these are usually also based on established diagnoses for substance abuse and dependence. A proposed diagnosis for hypersexual disorder includes pornography as a subtype of this disorder. It includes criteria such as time consumed by sexual activity interfering with obligations, repetitive engagement in sexual activity in response to stress, repeated failed attempts to reduce these behaviors, and distress or impairment of life functioning. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, some psychological and behavioral changes characteristic of addiction brain changes include addictive cravings, impulsiveness, weakened executive function, desensitization, and dysphoria. BOLD fMRI results have shown that individuals diagnosed with compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) show enhanced cue reactivity in brain regions associated traditionally with drug-cue reactivity. These regions include the amygdala and the ventral striatum. Men without CSB who had a long history of viewing pornography exhibited a less intense response to pornographic images in the left ventral putamen, possibly suggestive of desensitization. Neuropsychopharmacological and psychological researches on pornography addiction conducted between 2015 and 2021 have concluded that most studies have been focused entirely or almost exclusively on men in anonymous settings, and the findings are contradictory. Some researchers support the idea that pornography addiction qualifies as a form of behavioral addiction into the umbrella construct of hypersexual behavior or a subset of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB), and should be treated as such, whereas others have detected the increased activation of ventral striatal reactivity in men for cues predicting erotic but not monetary rewards and cues signaling erotic pictures, therefore suggesting similarities between pornography addiction and conventional addiction disorders. Despite the fact that pornography is being spuriously indicted as a public health crisis in the United States and elsewhere, with problematic Internet and online pornography use reported to constitute an increasing burden on public mental health since the 2000s, psychopathological models and diagnostic criteria have lacked consensus, and the body of evidence on the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches is still scarce. The repeated cross-sectional surveys did not find any consistent associations across years between poor mental health and ever having watched pornography or the frequency of watching pornography. Svedin et. al. found that moderate consumption of pornography is associated with good mental health in boys, while both extremes (too much or too few) yielded worse mental health. Watching deviant (non-mainstream) pornography was associated with worse mental health in boys, but girls were unaffected. Paula Hall supports the use of an addiction framework to understand and treat problematic pornography use, and she advocates for recognizing porn addiction as a legitimate clinical issue. A 2024 review supports a diagnosis of pornography addiction as a public health crisis, but it is based upon a page published by the American Psychiatric Association upon its website, which in its turn is based upon a MDPI paper, rather than upon the statistical processing of empirical data. === Diagnostic status === Pornography addiction is a controversial concept, since it appears to be "largely morally, ideologically, and politically motivated." Although it is a "nice theory", empirical support for it is largely missing, and the "industry of porn/sex addiction is based on conservative moral values around sexuality that intrude into clinical practice". Julie Sale stated "No-one refutes that clients access therapy for help with sexual behaviours that they feel they have no control over. The issue is how these client experiences are conceptualised and how the clinical formulation informs treatment." The status of pornography addiction as an addictive disorder, rather than simply a compulsivity, has been hotly contested. Furthermore, research suggests that the use of a pornography addiction label may indicate a socially (as opposed to clinically) driven nosology. It is worth considering whether the apparent epidemic of self-diagnosed pornography addicts seeking help today perhaps represents the ready uptake of a relatively new way to describe one's problematic behaviour, and not the development of a modern disease entity whose description should dictate its treatment. In November 2016, the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) issued a position statement on sex/porn addiction which states that AASECT "does not find sufficient empirical evidence to support the classification of sex addiction or porn addiction as a mental health disorder, and does not find the sexual addiction training and treatment methods and educational pedagogies to be adequately informed by accurate human sexuality knowledge. Therefore, it is the position of AASECT that linking problems related to sexual urges, thoughts or behaviors to a porn/sexual addiction process cannot be advanced by AASECT as a standard of practice for sexuality education delivery, counseling or therapy." The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) includes a new section for behavioral addictions, but includes only one disorder: pathological gambling. One other behavioral addiction, internet gaming disorder, appears in the conditions proposed for further study in DSM-5. Psychiatrists cited a lack of research support for refusing to include other behavioral disorders, such as pornography, at the time. Porn addiction is not a diagnosis in DSM-5 (or any previous version). "Viewing pornography online" is mentioned verbatim in the DSM-5, but it is not considered a mental disorder either. When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was being drafted, experts considered a proposed diagnostic addiction called hypersexual disorder, which also included a pornography subtype. But in the end, reviewers determined that there wasn't enough evidence to include hypersexual disorder or its subtypes in the 2013 edition. A number of studies have found neurological markers of addiction in internet porn users, which is consistent with a large body of research finding similar markers in other kinds of problematic internet users. Yet other studies found that critical biomarkers of addiction were missing. The International Classification of Disorders 11 (ICD-11) rejected "pornography addiction". Specifically, the World Health Organization (WHO) wrote: "Based on the limited current data, it would therefore seem premature to include [problematic Internet use] in ICD-11." However, ICD-11 does include the "Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder" (CSBD) in the "impulse control disorders" section. It is defined as "a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour." David J. Ley argued that that is not an endorsement of the concept of pornography addiction. ICD also specifically excludes anyone from this diagnosis whose distress is due to moral conflict alone, yet moral incongruence is the strongest predictor of believing one is addicted to porn. Note that two studies now contradict this, finding that narcissism, especially antagonist narcissism, predicts identification as a pornography addict. Introductory psychology textbook authors Coon, Mitterer and Martini, passingly mentioning NoFap, speak of pornography as a "supernormal stimulus" but use the model of compulsion rather than addiction. Addiction and compulsion are models of mental disorders which cancel each other out, the term "addiction" being deprecated, but ICD-11 does not support the existence of "porn addiction"/"sex addiction". DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022, does not recognize a diagnosis of sexual addiction/compulsion (which would include internet pornography viewing). ICD-11 has added pornography to CSBD. However, this is categorized as an impulse control disorder, not an addictive disorder. It has been argued that the CSBD diagnosis is not based upon sex research. Neither DSM-5, nor DSM-5-TR, nor ICD-10, nor ICD-11 recognize sex addiction or porn addiction as a valid diagnosis. Rothman has stated "pornography is not yet clearly established as a risk factor for multiple health outcomes". However, pornography addiction is not presently considered a diagnosable condition according to the DSM. Alternatives to the DSM, such as the ICD-11, also have not subscribed to the addiction model for pornography, though they recognize that people may become compulsive about its use. A 2022 book by McKee, Litsou, Byron, and Ingham casts serious doubts upon the model of "porn addiction", suggesting that sexual shame should be blamed, instead of pornography. They note that much of the research on the effects of pornography often confuses correlation with causation, and that much pornography research has been normative (i.e. moralistic) instead of descriptive. Even scientists who find a problem with excessive pornography consumption state that moderate pornography consumption is healthy. == Treatment == Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been suggested as a possible effective treatment for pornography addiction based on its success with internet addicts, though no clinical trials have been performed to assess effectiveness among pornography addicts as of 2012. === Online pornography === Some clinicians and support organizations recommend voluntary use of Internet content-control software, internet monitoring, or both, to manage online pornography use. Sex researcher Alvin Cooper and colleagues suggested several reasons for using filters as a therapeutic measure, including curbing accessibility that facilitates problematic behavior and encouraging clients to develop coping and relapse prevention strategies. Cognitive therapist Mary Anne Layden suggested that filters may be useful in maintaining environmental control. Internet behavior researcher David Delmonico stated that, despite their limitations, filters may serve as a "frontline of protection." === Medications === Studies of those with non-paraphilic expressions of hypersexuality have hypothesized that various mood disorders, as defined in the DSM, may occur more frequently in sexually compulsive men. Compulsive sexual behavior has been treated with antidepressants including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), naltrexone (a medication used to inhibit reward mechanisms in opioid or alcohol addictions), mood stabilizers, and antiandrogens. == Epidemiology == A 2017 study using a representative sample of Australians researched distress about sex video use. It found that of 10,131 women surveyed, 0.5% of women agreed with the statement that they were "addicted" to pornography; 1.2% (of 4,218 who viewed) when limited to women who say they viewed sex films. The comparable figure limiting to men who view sex films was 4.4%. This was without any clinical screening that should eliminate primary disorders (e.g., depression) or religious-based concerns, so these should be considered high-end estimates for potential disorders, if any exist. Most studies of rates use a convenience sample. One 2000 study of a convenience sample of 9,265 people found that 1% of Internet users have concerns about their Internet use and 17% of users meet criteria for problematic sexual compulsivity, meaning they score above one standard deviation of the mean on the Kalichman Sexual Compulsivity Scale. A survey of 84 college-age males found that 20–60% of a sample of college-age males who use pornography found it to be problematic. Research on internet addiction disorder indicates rates may range from 1.5 to 8.2% in Europeans and Americans. A 2019 study found that the average frequency of use for those self-describing as addicted to porn was about ten times per year. The study found this identification correlated with male gender, higher frequency of use, and belief that pornography was morally wrong (whether for religious or other reasons). A review paper about pornography consumption notes that sex addiction is correlated with narcissism. == Society and culture == === Support groups === Several support groups exist for people who wish to quit pornography use and/or believe themselves to be addicted to pornography. Twelve-step programs such as Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA), Sexaholics Anonymous (SA), Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA), Sexual Recovery Anonymous (SRA), and Sexual Compulsives Anonymous (SCA) are fellowships of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other so they may overcome their common problem and help others recover from addiction or dependency by using the twelve-step program borrowed from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other recovery tools. NoFap is a website and community forum founded in 2011 that serves as a support group for those who wish to give up pornography and masturbation. It serves as a support group for those who wish to avoid the use of pornography, masturbation, and/or sexual intercourse. Recent peer-reviewed data highlighted considerable levels of misogyny along with a poor understanding of human sexuality and relationships within this online community. Sociologist Kelsy Burke, author of The Pornography Wars, believes that this misogyny arises from blaming the female-dominated profession of pornography for men's personal problems. The Daily Dot and Der Spiegel linked NoFap to recent gender-based murders and breeding domestic terrorism. Fight the New Drug, a Salt Lake City-based non-profit organization founded by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a non-legislative organization which claims to seek to inform and educate individuals regarding pornography usage with science and personal stories. It is aimed at the youth demographic. There is also a PornFree reddit group which focuses on giving up porn rather than masturbation. Celebrate Recovery is a Christian inter-denominational twelve-step program with about 35,000 available groups and is open to any person who is struggling with life's bad habits, hurts, and hang-ups. Celebrate Recovery was started in 1991 at Saddleback Church in California, and their program is based on the Beatitudes from the biblical Sermon on the Plain and the twelve-step program from Alcoholics Anonymous. === Religious and political factors === According to professor E. T. M. Laan, a sexologist working for the Academic Medical Center, it is usually the American religious right which claims the existence of pornography addiction and such claims are rare (scarce) among sexologists. A 2018 meta-analysis showed a correlation between a person being religious and perceiving themself as having a pornography addiction, possibly due to people using pornography despite their religion prohibiting it. According to Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants (2019) written by Samuel L. Perry, professor of sociology at the University of Oklahoma, conservative Protestants in the United States are characterized by a "sexual exceptionalism" related to their consumption of pornography due to certain pervasive beliefs within the Conservative Protestant subculture, which entails cognitive dissonance associated with the unfounded conviction to be addicted to pornography, psychological distress, and intense feelings of guilt, shame, self-loathing, depression, and sometimes withdrawal from faith altogether. Perry's book received widespread media coverage and his findings were criticized by Lyman Stone of the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today, which asserted that both the quantitative and qualitative statistical data collected by Perry demonstrate that the consumption of pornography in the United States is significantly lower among church-attending Protestant Christians compared to other religious groups, and declared that "Protestant men today who attend church regularly are basically the only men in America still resisting the cultural norm of regularized pornography use". The overwhelming majority of all websites and YouTube channels devoted to anti-masturbation and anti-porn addiction propaganda, channels and websites supporting NoFap included, are, according to various sources, owned by far-right Christian fundamentalists and conservative biblical inerrantists, and also are entirely political in nature. Various psychologists, medical doctors, and social scientists have contended that traditional Christian concerns over combating sexual thoughts, desires, and activities, including masturbation, can be seen as unhealthy and unwholesome. This may also apply to secular advocacy of anti-pornography and anti-masturbation, including 16 U.S. states' legislatures which have declared that pornography is a "public health crisis". The American Psychiatric Association had by then already dismissed such moral panic ("political stunt") in DSM-5 (published in 2013), and DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022, does not recognize a diagnosis of sexual addiction (which would include internet pornography viewing). Emily F. Rothman, Professor of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, stated in 2021 that "the professional public health community is not behind the recent push to declare pornography a public health crisis". The ideas supporting the "crisis" have been described as pseudoscientific. Sexual violence, partner violence, anxiety, depression, compulsive pornography use, and commercial sexual exploitation are public health problems, and there is a possibility that pornography exacerbates these problems. Given that possibility, we need to know more about whether, how, and why pornography influences social norms as well as individuals’ behavior, and what we can do to address that influence if it is harmful. It is also important to be aware that framing pornography as a public health issue has been used as a rhetorical trick by right-wing groups to promote a conservative social agenda at odds with public health goals. Public health professionals should sponsor rigorous research on the possible negative effects of pornography on society and individuals, counter misinformation, and use evidence to move forward with policy decisions. In many cases, sexual addiction therapy applied to gay men is akin to conversion therapy. === Mainstream media === In 2013, American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy-drama film Don Jon, in which the protagonist is addicted to pornography. In an interview to promote the film, Gordon-Levitt discussed what he referred to as the "fundamental difference between a human being and an image on a screen". In 2014, American actor Terry Crews talked about his long-standing pornography addiction, which he said had seriously affected his marriage and life and which he was able to overcome only after entering rehab in 2009. He now takes an active role in speaking out about pornography addiction and its impact. In 2015, English comedian Russell Brand appeared in videos by American anti-pornography group Fight the New Drug, in which he discussed pornography and its harmful effects. In 2016, American comedian Chris Rock and his wife, Malaak Compton, divorced after 20 years of marriage, which Rock attributed to his infidelity and pornography addiction. He later discussed the details of his pornography addiction in his 2018 stand-up comedy special Tamborine. == See also == == References == == Further reading == Klein, M. (2017). His Porn, Her Pain: Confronting America's Porn Panic With Honest Talk About Sex (ISBN 1440842868) Praeger Cooper, Al (2002). Sex and the Internet: A Guidebook for Clinicians (ISBN 1-58391-355-6) Routledge P. Williamson, S. Kisser (1989). Answers In the Heart: Daily Meditations for Men and Women Recovering from Sex Addiction (ISBN 978-0-89486-568-8) Hazelden Patrick Carnes (2001). Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction (ISBN 978-1-56838-621-8) Hazelden Sex Addicts Anonymous (ISBN 0-9768313-1-7) Rosenberg, Matthew (1999). “Understanding, Assessing, and Treating Sexual Offenders: Tools for the Therapist, downloadable version on stopoffending.com "Science of Arousal and Relationships". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. == External links == Pornography addiction at Medical News Today	Wikipedia/Pornography_addiction
Child pornography is illegal in most countries (187 out of 195 countries are illegal), but there is substantial variation in definitions, categories, penalties, and interpretations of laws. Differences include the definition of "child" under the laws, which can vary with the age of sexual consent; the definition of "child pornography" itself, for example on the basis of medium or degree of reality; and which actions are criminal (e.g., production, distribution, possession, downloading or viewing of material). Laws surrounding fictional child pornography are a major source of variation between jurisdictions; some maintain distinctions in legality between real and fictive pornography depicting minors, while others regulate fictive material under general laws against child pornography. Several organizations and treaties have set non-binding guidelines (model legislation) for countries to follow. While a country may be a signatory, they may or may not have chosen to implement these guidelines. The information given in this article is subject to change as laws are consistently updated around the world. == International stance == === Organizations === International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) This organization combats child sexual exploitation, child pornography, and child abduction. For child pornography they have set up "model legislation" which defines child pornography, and sets up recommended sanctions/sentencing. According to research performed in 2018; child pornography is illegal in 118 of the 196 Interpol member states. This figure represents countries that have sufficient legislation in establishing 4 or 5 of 5 criteria met as defined by the ICMEC. ECPAT International (ECPAT) ECPAT focuses on halting the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry. This organization tracks countries that have implemented standards as defined by agreements such as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, and Lanzarote Convention through their human rights reports. === Treaties === At least two major treaties are in place with one "optional protocol" to combat child pornography worldwide. These are considered international obligations to pass specific laws against child pornography which should be "punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature". The first of these treaties has to do with The Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, and the EU Framework Decision that became active in 2006. These required signatory or member states to criminalize all aspects of child pornography. The second involves the United Nations which established Article 34 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This stated that all signatories shall take appropriate measures to prevent the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials. An optional protocol was also added that requires signatories to outlaw the "producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing for the above purposes" of child pornography. Some of the negotiations and reviews of the process took place at the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in 1996 and 2001. == Debate == While laws criminalizing child sexual abuse now exist in all countries of the world, more diversity in law and public opinion exists on issues such as the exact minimum age of those depicted in pornography, whether the mere possession of child pornography should be a crime, or the extent to which criminal law should distinguish between the possession, acquisition, distribution and production of child pornography. Convictions involving child pornography typically include prison sentences in most countries, but those sentences are often converted to probation or fines for first-time offenders in cases of mere possession. In 1999, in the case of R. v. Sharpe, British Columbia's highest court struck down a law against possessing child pornography as unconstitutional. That opinion, written by Justice Duncan Shaw, held, "There is no evidence that demonstrates a significant increase in the danger to children caused by pornography", and "A person who is prone to act on his fantasies will likely do so irrespective of the availability of pornography." The Opposition in the Canadian Parliament considered invoking the notwithstanding clause to override the court's ruling. However, it was not necessary because the Canadian Supreme Court overturned the decision with several findings including that viewing such material makes it more likely that the viewer will abuse, that the existence of such materials further hurts the victims as they know of its existence, and that the demand for such images encourages the abuse. In the United States, some federal judges have argued that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines' recommended penalties for possessors of child pornography are too harsh. Judge Jack B. Weinstein of New York criticizes the mandatory sentence for possession of child pornography as often higher than the penalty for actually committing the act of child abuse it depicts. Furthermore, child pornography prosecutions have led to dozens of suicides, some of them among the innocently accused. The requirement that people convicted of possessing child pornography pay restitution has been criticized by some judges and law professors. This has been particularly controversial in cases involving millions of dollars of restitution, as in those pertaining to the Misty Series. But in 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that restitution directly to depicted minors was an appropriate penalty for possession of child pornography. During the nomination process at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention, anarcho-capitalist and U.S. presidential candidate Mary Ruwart came under fire for her comment in her 1998 book, Short Answers to the Tough Questions, in which she stated her opposition not only to laws against possession of child pornography but even against its production, based on her belief that such laws actually encourage such behavior by increasing prices. Shane Cory, on behalf of the minarchist United States Libertarian Party in his role as executive director, issued a response saying, "We have an obligation to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, and we can do this by increasing communication between state and federal agencies to help combat this repulsive industry. While privacy rights should always be respected in the pursuit of child pornographers, more needs to be done to track down and prosecute the twisted individuals who exploit innocent children." Cory resigned after the party refused to vote on a resolution asking states to strongly enforce existing child porn laws. == Status by country == === Old World === ==== Africa ==== ==== Europe ==== ==== Asia ==== === Oceania === === New World === ==== North America ==== ==== South America ==== == See also == Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors Pornography laws by region == Notes == == References == == External links == National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (USA). "Child Pornography Fact Sheet". Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2009. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK). "Child abuse images and the internet: A reading list". Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2009.	Wikipedia/Legality_of_child_pornography
Feminist views on pornography range from total condemnation of the medium as an inherent form of violence against women to an embracing of some forms as a medium of feminist expression. This debate reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to those on prostitution, BDSM, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism, particularly in Anglophone (English-speaking) countries. This division was exemplified in the feminist sex wars of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography activists against pro-pornography ones. == Anti-pornography feminism == Feminist opponents of pornography—such as Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, Robin Morgan, Diana Russell, Alice Schwarzer, Gail Dines, and Robert Jensen—argue that pornography is harmful to women, and constitutes strong causality or facilitation of violence against women. Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin had separately staked out a position that pornography was inherently exploitative toward women, and they called for a civil law to make pornographers accountable for harms that could be shown to result from the use, production, and circulation of their publications. When Dworkin testified before the Meese Commission in 1986, she said that 65 to 75 percent of women in prostitution and hard-core pornography had been victims of incest or child sexual abuse. Andrea Dworkin's activism against pornography during the 1980s brought her to national attention in the United States. === Harm to women during production === Anti-pornography feminists, notably Catharine MacKinnon, charge that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and/or economic coercion of the women who perform and model in it. This is said to be true even when the women are being presented as enjoying themselves. Catharine MacKinnon argues that the women in porn are "not there by choice but because of a lack of choices." It is also argued that much of what is shown in pornography is abusive by its very nature. Gail Dines holds that pornography, exemplified by gonzo pornography, is becoming increasingly violent and that women who perform in pornography are brutalized in the process of its production. Anti-pornography feminists point to the testimony of well known participants in pornography, such as Traci Lords and Linda Boreman, and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else, or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of Ordeal, in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in Deep Throat) stated that she had been beaten, raped, and pimped by her husband Chuck Traynor, and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in Deep Throat, as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches. In this instance, both against and pro-pornography feminists recognize that "exploitation and abuse of vulnerable women does sometimes occur to produce some pornography," but situations like Boreman's are viewed by some feminists as preventable and not as an essential aspect of producing pornographic material. === Social effects === ==== Sexual objectification ==== MacKinnon and Dworkin defined pornography as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words". According to Dworkin, the original definition of the word pornography was "the graphic depiction of whores." Whore is a term that has historically been used to describe sex workers. Dworkin believes that sex workers are frequently treated not as human but merely as objects for sexual gratification. Johanna Schorn, writing for Gender Forum, stated that "the very meaning of the word pornography, then and now, seems to point towards the misogynistic and exploitative practices of the industry." The effects produced by those who view pornography are mixed and still widely debated. Generally, research has been focused around the effects of voluntary viewing of pornography. There have also been studies analyzing the inadvertent exposure to explicit sexual content, including: viewing photographs of naked people, people engaging in sexual acts, accidental web searches, or opening online links to pornographic material. It has been found that most exposure to pornography online is unsolicited and by accident. Forty-two percent of those who view online pornography are ages ranging between 10 and 17; sixty-six percent have experienced inadvertent exposure. The feeling of anonymity may prompt an individual to disregard social norms and pursue more extreme stimuli. Valerie Webber in her article "Shades of Gay: Performance of Girl-on-Girl Pornography and mobile authenticities" differentiates the sex depicted in porn and personal, private sexual encounters. At first, she argues that performing sex produces normative ideas about what makes sex authentic. These normative beliefs then transfer into personal experiences where people feel an obligation to perform sex as they have viewed it in pornography. ==== Incitement to sexual violence against women ==== Anti-pornography feminists say that consumption of pornography is a cause of rape and other forms of violence against women. Robin Morgan summarizes this idea with her often-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice." Anti-pornography feminists charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment. MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering rape myths. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. Additionally, according to MacKinnon, pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused, an effect she acknowledges is well documented. ==== Rape of children ==== Gail Dines claims that interviews she conducted with men incarcerated for the rape of a prepubescent child showed that all of the interviewed were at first "horrified at the idea" of raping a child, but started "habitual" consumption of images depicting sexual abuse of minors after becoming bored with regular porn. The sexual abuse then happened within six months. ==== Distorted view of the human body and sexuality ==== German radical feminist Alice Schwarzer is one proponent of this point of view, in particular in the feminist magazine Emma. Many opponents of pornography believe that pornography gives a distorted view of men and women's bodies, as well as the actual sexual act, often showing the performers with synthetic implants or exaggerated expressions of pleasure, as well as fetishes that are not the norm, such as watersports, being presented as popular and normal. Catharine MacKinnon echoes these views by asserting that pornography "desensitizes consumers to violence and spreads rape myths and other lies about women's sexuality." Harry Brod offered a Marxist feminist view, "I [Brod] would argue that sex seems overrated [to men] because men look to sex for fulfillment of nonsexual emotional needs, a quest doomed to failure. Part of the reason for this failure is the priority of quantity over quality of sex which comes with sexuality's commodification." ==== Hatred of women ==== Gail Dines said, "'[p]ornography is the perfect propaganda piece for patriarchy. In nothing else is their hatred of us quite as clear.'" Likewise, MacKinnon describes pornography as something that fuels male misogyny by "eroticizing women's degradation." MacKinnon also states that "pornography is violence against women" and is "a civil rights violation" that "amounts to terrorism" against women. ==== Sex trafficking ==== MacKinnon argues that the consumption of pornography fuels the prostitution and sex trafficking industry. MacKinnon claims that the production of pornography is "itself a form of prostitution and trafficking." which creates a demand for women to fill the roles in porn, including women who may have been trafficked. According to MacKinnon, the relationship between pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking is closely related and a central aspect of this relationship relies on the buying of sex with women as an experience, which requires more women, trafficked or not, to produce these experiences and fill demand. In an article discussing OnlyFans, an online subscription-based platform hosting pornography and sexually explicit content uploaded by creators, MacKinnon writes about the allegations against OnlyFans of allowing rule-breaking content, such as content featuring minors or child sexual abuse, to pass their "inadequate screening process." Similar to the traditional pornography industry, MacKinnon asserts that it is impossible for websites like OnlyFans to know "whether pimps and traffickers are recruiting the unwary or vulnerable or desperate or coercing them offscreen and confiscating or skimming the proceeds, as is typical in the sex industry." MacKinnon also explores the concept of revenge porn and the possibility of pornographic material being sold on websites like OnlyFans without consent from the individual, which MacKinnon refers to as online sex trafficking. === Anti-pornography feminist organizations and campaigns === From the mid-1970s into the early 1980s, public rallies and marches protesting pornography and prostitution drew widespread support among women and men from across the political spectrum. Beginning in the late 1970s, anti-pornography radical feminists formed organizations such as Women Against Pornography, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media, Women Against Violence Against Women, Feminists Fighting Pornography, and like groups that provided educational events, including slide-shows, speeches, guided tours of the sex shops in areas like New York's Times Square and San Francisco's Tenderloin District, petitioning, and publishing newsletters, in order to raise awareness of the content of pornography and the sexual subculture in pornography shops and live sex shows. Similar groups also emerged in the United Kingdom, including legislatively focused groups such as Campaign Against Pornography and Campaign Against Pornography and Censorship, as well as groups associated with radical feminism such as Women Against Violence Against Women and its direct action offshoot Angry Women. === Legislative and judicial efforts === ==== Anti-pornography Civil Rights Ordinance ==== Many anti-pornography feminists—Dworkin and MacKinnon in particular—advocated laws which defined pornography as a civil rights harm and allowed women to sue pornographers in civil court. The Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance that they drafted was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council in 1983, but vetoed by Mayor Donald M. Fraser, on the grounds that the law's constitutionality was questionable, citing first amendment concerns. The ordinance was successfully passed in 1984 by the Indianapolis city council and signed by Mayor William Hudnut, and passed by a ballot initiative in Bellingham, Washington in 1988, but struck down both times as unconstitutional by the state and federal courts. In 1986, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' rulings in the Indianapolis case without comment. Many anti-pornography feminists supported the legislative efforts, but others objected that legislative campaigns would be rendered ineffectual by the courts, would violate principles of free speech, or would harm the anti-pornography movement by taking organizing energy away from education and direct action and entangling it in political squabbles. Dworkin and MacKinnon responded to the alleged violation of free speech principles by pointing out that the Ordinance was designed with an explicit goal of preventing its misinterpretation and abuse for the purpose of censorship or discrimination against sexual minorities. Their co-authored publication, Pornography and Civil Rights: a New Day for Women's Equality, is a comprehensive description of the law with political analysis of the social conditions which, it argues, make it both appropriate and necessary. There is an explanation of its intended meaning and an articulation of the circumstances out of which they see the law being utilized civilly as a substantive remedy. ==== Pornography Victims' Compensation Act ==== Another feminist approach was designed to permit survivors of crime when the crime was the result of pornographic influence to sue the pornographers. The Pornography Victims' Compensation Act of 1991 (previously known as the Pornography Victims Protection Act) was supported by groups including Feminists Fighting Pornography. Catharine MacKinnon declined to support the legislation, though aspects of it were based on her legal approach to pornography. The bill was introduced in the United States Congress, thus, had it passed, it would have applied nationwide. ==== R. v. Butler ==== The Supreme Court of Canada's 1992 ruling in R. v. Butler (the Butler decision) fueled further controversy, when the court decided to incorporate some elements of Dworkin and MacKinnon's legal work on pornography into the existing Canadian obscenity law. In Butler the Court held that Canadian obscenity law violated Canadian citizens' rights to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms if enforced on grounds of morality or community standards of decency; but that obscenity law could be enforced constitutionally against some pornography on the basis of the Charter's guarantees of sex equality. The Court's decision cited extensively from briefs prepared by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), with MacKinnon's support and participation. Dworkin opposed LEAF's position, arguing that feminists should not support or attempt to reform criminal obscenity law. ==== Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards ==== Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards was a sexual harassment Federal district court (Middle District of Florida) case. It recognized as law that pornography could illegally contribute to sexual harassment through a workplace environment hostile to women. The court's order included a ban on "displaying pictures, posters, calendars, graffiti, objects, promotional materials, reading materials, or other materials that are sexually suggestive, sexually demeaning, or pornographic, or bringing into the JSI [the employer's] work environment or possessing any such material to read, display or view at work." It is not clear whether the decision was directly attributable to the anti-pornography feminist analysis, if the influence was indirect, or if the outcome was coincidental, but counsel Legal Momentum was historically associated with the National Organization for Women (NOW), a leading feminist organization, suggesting that counsel was likely to have had knowledge of the feminist theory. ==== Proposed Internet porn ban in Iceland ==== In 2013, though the production or sale of pornography was then already prohibited in Iceland, Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson proposed extending the ban to online pornography. Though the proposal was ultimately struck down by Icelandic Member of Parliament and free speech activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the ban was supported by many feminist groups including the Feminist Party of Germany, the London Feminist Network, the Coalition for a Feminist Agenda, and others. These groups claimed that legally limiting Internet pornography would promote violence prevention, proper sex education, and general public health. == Sex-positive and anti-censorship feminist views == === Sex-positive feminism === Feminists such as Betty Friedan and Kate Millett to Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer and Jamaica Kincaid supported the right to consume pornography. The onset of third-wave feminism in the mid-1990s saw a rise in sex positivism and sex-positive feminists, who sought to combat and subvert socially mandated ideals surrounding sexuality. Sex-positive feminism considers some of the broader implications that normative, hegemonic pornography has on women. According to sex blogger Clarisse Thorn, "[Women are] encouraged to be into sex in a very performative way […]. On the one hand, if we don't seem to enjoy sex in this very performative way, then we're seen as 'prudes'; at the same time, if we seem to enjoy sex too much then we're seen as 'sluts.'" According to some sex-positive feminists, anti-pornography feminist discourse ignores and trivializes women’s sexual agency. Ellen Willis (who coined the term "pro-sex feminism") states "As we saw it, the claim that 'pornography is violence against women' was code for the neo-Victorian idea that men want sex and women endure it." One potential consequence of normative discourses on women's sexuality can be seen in the orgasm gap, a term used to describe the discrepancy between men's and women's orgasms in heterosexual, partnered sex. Some research has found that up to 70% of women do not orgasm during heterosexual intercourse and that as many as 30% of unmarried women who are sexually active have never experienced an orgasm. Research has also found that the most significant predictor of women's orgasm is what women do during sex. In other words, women are not practicing the behaviours that bring them to orgasm during heterosexual intercourse, perhaps due to norms that are supported and reinforced by hegemonic pornography. Although sex-positive feminists take a variety of views towards existing pornography, at the core of sex-positive feminism is the resistance of stigmas associated with female sexuality and advocacy for clear and enthusiastic consent. Many sex-positive feminists view pornography as subverting many traditional ideas about women's sexuality, such as ideas that women do not like sex generally, only enjoy sex in a relational context, or that women only enjoy vanilla sex. According to Johanna Schorn, sex-positive feminism aims to create a society in which sexuality "can be performed within a 'safe', 'healthy' and non-exploitative context." Thus, Schorn believes that the current structure that the pornography industry relies upon must be broken apart and allow for the acceptance and inclusion of narratives that have traditionally been ignored in porn. Sex-positive pornography sometimes shows women in sexually dominant roles and features women with a greater variety of body types than are typical of mainstream entertainment and fashion. Participation from a variety of women in these roles allows for a fulfillment of a multitude of sexual identities and free expression. In some parts of the world, sex-positive feminism and the promotion of pornography as a form of free expression have become more mainstream. In France, Paris had its first three-day SNAP! (Sex Workers Narrative Art & Politics) festival in November, 2018. The festival worked to gain recognition of pornography and other sex work as art but also sought to acknowledge the political and controversial aspects. === Feminist critique of censorship === Many feminists regardless of their views on pornography are opposed on principle to censorship. Even the feminists who see pornography as a sexist institution, also see censorship (including MacKinnon's civil law approach) as an evil. In its mission statement, Feminists for Free Expression, founded in 1992 by Marcia Pally, argues that censorship has never reduced violence, but historically been used to silence women and stifle efforts for social change. They point to the birth control literature of Margaret Sanger, the feminist plays of Holly Hughes, and works like Our Bodies, Ourselves and The Well of Loneliness as examples of feminist sexual speech which has been the target of censorship. FFE further argues that the attempt to fix social problems through censorship, "divert[s] attention from the substantive causes of social ills and offer a cosmetic, dangerous 'quick fix.'" They argue that instead a free and vigorous marketplace of ideas is the best assurance for achieving feminist goals in a democratic society. Critics of anti-pornography feminism accuse their counterparts of selective handling of social scientific evidence. Anti-pornography feminists are also critiqued as intolerant of sexual difference and is characterized as often indiscriminately supporting state censorship policy and are accused of complicity with conservative sexual politics and Christian Right groups. Several feminist anti-censorship groups have actively opposed anti-pornography legislation and other forms of censorship. These groups have included the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce (FACT) and Feminists for Free Expression in the US and Feminists Against Censorship in the UK. Critique of censorship has become especially prevalent in China, where pornography is strictly prohibited, and the ownership or sale of pornographic materials can mean life in prison. Feminists like Li Yinhe openly oppose the censorship of pornography and advocate for its decriminalization. Looking to many western countries as an example, Yinhe emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression and cites the 35th article of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China in declaring the right to pornography as a form of free speech. Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon responded with a statement claiming that the idea that anti-porn raids in Canada reflected the application of pre-Butler standards and that it was actually illegal under Butler to selectively target LGBT materials. However, opponents of Butler have countered that the decision simply reinforced an existing politics of censorship that pre-dated the decision. Anti-censorship feminists question why only some forms of sexist communication (namely sexually arousing/explicit ones) should be banned, while not advocating bans against equally misogynist public discourse. Susie Bright notes, "It's a far different criticism to note that porn is sexist. So are all commercial media. That's like tasting several glasses of salt water and insisting only one of them is salty. The difference with porn is that it is people fucking, and we live in a world that cannot tolerate that image in public." === Feminist pornography === Pornography produced by and with feminist women is a small, but growing segment of the porn industry. Feminist pornography attempts to address the perceived gaps in ethics found in mainstream pornography production. Feminist pornography "typically involves respect, proper pay, communication, safety, and consent for performers." According to Erika Lust, one difference between feminist porn and mainstream porn is that performers in feminist porn have the freedom to choose the intensity and the type of work they star in, while working in an environment that values communication and personal boundaries. Although feminist pornography operates with a different set of ethics than mainstream porn, feminist pornography is still produced under capitalism which means opportunities for exploitation are still present. Some pornographic actresses such as Nina Hartley, Ovidie, Madison Young, and Sasha Grey are also self-described sex-positive feminists, and state that they do not see themselves as victims of sexism. They defend their decision to perform in pornography as freely chosen, and argue that much of what they do on camera is an expression of their sexuality. It has also been pointed out that in pornography, women generally earn more than their male counterparts. Feminist porn directors include Candida Royalle, Tristan Taormino, Madison Young, Shine Louise Houston, and Erika Lust. Some of these directors make pornography specifically for a female or genderqueer audience, while others try for a broad appeal across genders and sexual orientations. Candida Royalle, founder of Femme Productions, thought of her work as "female-oriented, sensuously explicit cinema as opposed to formulaic hard-core pornographic films that [...] degraded women for the pleasure of men." Erika Lust, and her production company Lust Films, produce feminist porn with the message that female pleasure is important. Feminist porn directors like Candida Royalle and Erika Lust have produced content that is different from mainstream pornography by honouring women's sexuality. Feminist curators such as Jasmin Hagendorfer organize feminist and queer porn film festivals (e.g. PFFV in Vienna). According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography." Erika Lust argues that everyone in the porn industry has their own ethical standards, and that the worldviews and values of the directors, screenwriters and producers are the key to how well performers are treated, and how desire, gender roles and agency are presented to consumers. According to Lust, 'ethics can also exist in the porn industry, and should be enforced'. == Specific issues == === Pornography vs. erotica === Some anti-pornography feminists, such as Gloria Steinem and Page Mellish, distinguish between "pornography" and "erotica", as different classes of sexual media, the former emphasizing dominance and the latter emphasizing mutuality. Her 1978 essay "Erotica and Pornography: A Clear and Present Difference" was one of the first attempts to make this distinction on etymological grounds, and in her 1983 book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Steinem argues that, "These two sorts of images are as different as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain." Feminists who subscribe to this view hold that erotica promotes positive and pro-woman sexual values and does not carry the harmful effects of pornography. Other anti-pornography feminists are more skeptical about this distinction, holding that all sexual materials produced in a patriarchal system are expressions of male dominance. Andrea Dworkin wrote, "erotica is simply high-class pornography: better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer." Ellen Willis holds that the term 'erotica' is needlessly vague and euphemistic, and appeals to an idealized version of what kind of sex people should want rather than what arouses the sexual feelings people actually have. She also emphasizes the subjectivity of the distinction, stating, "In practice, attempts to sort out good erotica from bad porn inevitably comes down to 'What turns me on is erotica; what turns you on is pornographic.'" Pip Christmass (1996) commented: 'Gloria Steinem's well-known essay, "A Clear and Present Difference" (1978), articulates what many of us might like to think are the fundamental differences between the two; but as it has often been pointed out, erotica is sometimes indistinguishable from pornography in that it is no less predictable, formulaic, or repetitive than its less culturally acceptable counterpart. As many critics are beginning to suggest, the traditional cultural division between erotica (supposedly aimed at a primarily female market) and pornography (as a masturbatory aid for men) is somewhat simplified.' Some feminists make an analogous distinction between mainstream pornography and feminist pornography, viewing mainstream pornography as problematic or even wholly misogynistic, while praising feminist pornography. === Sex workers === The work of feminist pornography includes studying women, children and men in the industry. As for opposition, some feminists, such as Catharine MacKinnon, argue against pornography because it can be viewed as demeaning and degrading to women and men. Sheila Jeffreys argues that pornography is used by men as a guide to hate, abuse, and control women. == Feminist pornographers == In the 1970s and 1980s, Annie Sprinkle, Candida Royalle, and Nina Hartley were some of the first feminist-identified performers in the porn industry. In 2002, Becky Goldberg produced the documentary "Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography," a look at women who direct, produce, and sell feminist porn. Feminist pornography is whenever the women is in control of the sexual situation, she is in control of what is being done to her and she enjoys it. Goldberg's views on feminism and pornography is, "if you don't see what you are looking for, make it yourself because chances are someone else wants to see that, too. Or if you can't find it at your local video store, demand it." Courtney Trouble is a feminist performer and producer of queer porn. Her films feature "sexual and gender minorities." Trouble began in the business when she decided she did not see enough diversity in the business, and wanted to make a positive change. Shine Louise Houston, owner of Pink and White Productions, produces porn that features and reflect different types of sexuality, different genders, and queer people of color. Lorraine Hewitt is the creative director of the Feminist Porn Awards based in Toronto, Canada. Tristan Taormino is both a sex educator and feminist pornographer who has helped produce films, written books, owns her own website and has published many articles on topics related to sexuality, gender and articles on sex positive relationships. == See also == == References == === Bibliography === Bindel, Julie (2 July 2010). "The truth about the porn industry". The Guardian. Life & Style, subsection Women. London. Retrieved 17 July 2010. Bright, Susie (October 1993). "The Prime of Miss Kitty MacKinnon" (PDF). East Bay Express. Jay Youngdahl. Retrieved 2 September 2009. Archived at SusieBright.blogspot.com Republished as: Bright, Susie (1995). Sexwise. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cleis Press. pp. 121–127. ISBN 978-1-57344-003-5. Brod, Harry (1996). "Pornography and the alienation of male sexuality". In May, Larry; Strikwerda, Robert A.; Hopkins, Patrick D. (eds.). Rethinking Masculinity: Philosophical Explorations in Light of Feminism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8476-8257-7. Brownmiller, Susan (2000). "The pornography wars". In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial Press. ISBN 978-0-385-31831-0. Chenier, Elise (2004). "Lesbian sex wars" (PDF). GLBTQ Journal: 1–3. Retrieved December 30, 2015. Dworkin, Andrea (1981). Pornography: Men Possessing Women. Women's Press. ISBN 978-0-7043-3876-0. Dworkin, Andrea (1989b). Pornography: Men Possessing Women. New York: E.P. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-48517-9. Dworkin, Andrea (1989). Letters from a war zone: writings, 1976–1989. E.P. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-24824-8. Dworkin, Andrea; MacKinnon, Catharine A. (1988). Pornography and civil rights: a new day for women's equality. Organizing Against Pornography. ISBN 978-0-9621849-0-1. Faludi, Susan (2000). Stiffed: the betrayal of the American man. New York: Perennial. ISBN 978-0-380-72045-3. Bell, Shannon; Cossman, Brenda; Gotell, Lise; Ross, Becki L. (1997). "Shaping Butler: The New Politics of Anti-Pornography". Bad Attitude(s) on Trial: Pornography, Feminism, and the Butler Decision. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-1680-2. Griffith, James D.; Adams, Lea T.; et al. (June 2012). "Pornography actors: a qualitative analysis of motivation and dislikes". North American Journal of Psychology. 14 (2): 245–256. Archived from the original on 2016-03-01. Hartley, Nina (1998). "Confessions of a feminist porno star". In Delacoste, Frédérique; Alexander, Priscilla (eds.). Sex work: writings by women in the sex industry. San Francisco, California: Cleis Press. ISBN 978-1-57344-042-4. Jeffries, Stuart (12 April 2006). "Are women human? (interview with Catharine MacKinnon)". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2009. LeMoncheck, Linda (1997). "I only do it for the money: pornography, prostitution, and the business of sex". In LeMoncheck, Linda (ed.). Loose women, lecherous men a feminist philosophy of sex. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510556-8. Long, Victoria (22 March 2005). "Girls girls girls: interview with Becky Goldberg". Iris: A Journal About Women: 17–18. MacKinnon, Catharine (1983). "Not a moral issue". Yale Law & Policy Review. 2 (2): 321–345. JSTOR 40239168. Reprinted as: MacKinnon, Catharine A. (1989). "Pornography: on morality and politics". In MacKinnon, Catharine A. (ed.). Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 195–214. ISBN 978-0-674-89646-8. Also reprinted as: MacKinnon, Catharine A. (1987). "Not a moral issue". In MacKinnon, Catharine A. (ed.). Feminism unmodified: discourses on life and law. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 146–162. ISBN 978-0-674-29874-3. MacKinnon, Catharine A. (1987). Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-29874-3. McIntosh, Mary (1996). "Liberalism and the contradictions of oppression". In Jackson, Stevi; Scott, Sue (eds.). Feminism and sexuality: a reader. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10708-2. Mason-Grant, Joan (2004). "Appendix #30". Pornography Embodied: From Speech to Sexual Practice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4616-1303-9. Morgan, Robin (1978). "Theory and practice: pornography and rape". Going too far: the personal chronicle of a feminist. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-394-72612-0. Ovidie (2004). Porno manifesto [Porn manifesto] (in French). La Musardine. ISBN 9782842712372. Rapp, Linda (2009). "Dworkin, Andrea (1946–2005)" (PDF). GLBTQ Journal (1–3). Shim, Jae Woong; Paul, Bryant M. (2014). "The role of anonymity in the effects of inadvertent exposure to online pornography among young adult males". Social Behavior and Personality. 42 (5): 823–834. doi:10.2224/sbp.2014.42.5.823. Steinem, Gloria (1983), "Erotica vs pornography", in Steinem, Gloria (ed.), Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions, New York: New American Library, ISBN 978-0-03-063236-5 Strossen, Nadine (2000). "Lessons from enforcement: when the powerful get more powerful". Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-8149-4. Valenti, Jessica (2009), "The porn connection", in Valenti, Jessica (ed.), The purity myth: how America's obsession with virginity is hurting young women, Berkeley, California: Seal Press, ISBN 978-1-58005-253-5 Vasquez, Tina (March 2012). "Ethical pornography". Herizons. 25 (4): 32–36. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2014. Webber, Valerie (January–February 2013). "Shades of gay: performance of girl-on-girl pornography and mobile authenticities". Sexualities. 16 (1–2): 217–235. doi:10.1177/1363460712471119. S2CID 144842110. Willis, Ellen (1981). "Feminism, moralism, and pornography". In Willis, Ellen (ed.). Beginning to see the light: pieces of a decade. New York: Knopf Distributed by Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-51137-5. === Further reading === Diamant, Anita (2 June 1981). "Porn Again: An Old Debate, New Feminist Theory, and the Same Damned Questions". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 29 March 2024. Lederer, Laura, ed. (1980). Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 978-0688037284. == External links == Pally, Marcia (1994). Sex & Sensibility: Reflections on Forbidden Mirrors and the Will to Censor. New York: Ecco Press. ISBN 0880013648. West, Caroline (Fall 2013). "Pornography and Censorship". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved August 6, 2023. Shrage, Laurie (Fall 2015), "Feminist perspectives on sex markets: pornography", Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Pornography Studies: This guide will help you find relevant materials for research relating to the study of pornography. Cavalier, Robert. "Feminism and pornography: a dialogical perspective". Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University. Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2016-03-12.	Wikipedia/Feminist_views_on_pornography

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