The Porn Economy: Desire, Power, and the New Sexual Regime

The Porn Economy: Desire, Power, and the New Sexual Regime In one generation, sexuality moved from the private realm to the global marketplace — digitized, optimized, and delivered on demand. The Porn Economy investigates how this silent revolution has reshaped desire, rewired the mind, and restructured the most ancient human institution: intimacy. Drawing on sociology, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and cultural psychology, George Blacksmith traces the rise of an economic system built on attention, arousal, and algorithmic feedback loops. Pornography is no longer a fringe industry — it is a multi-billion-dollar behavioral ecosystem that now influences dating, masculinity, femininity, relationships, and even fertility patterns. The book argues that porn is not merely entertainment but a new form of digital labor, a data-driven marketplace where desire itself becomes a commodity. From the psychology of endless novelty and dopamine-driven compulsion, to the economics of creator platforms and subscription culture, to the global implications for marriage rates, loneliness, and gender relations, Blacksmith shows how the sexual marketplace has been transformed into something unprecedented: a frictionless system of gratification detached from real-world human bonds. Without moralizing or sensationalism, The Porn Economy asks the central question of our era: What happens to a civilization when its most powerful biological instinct becomes fully commodified — unlimited, personalized, and algorithmically optimized? Clear-eyed, deeply researched, and culturally urgent, this book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand modern desire, digital relationships, and the future of intimacy in a hyper-connected world.