That’s old.—Johnny V., Internet porn consultant, 2006Joe Obenberger plays it to the rafters. “I never feel as charged and proud as when I stand in front of this audience that shapes the sexual fantasies of the world!” he tells the online pornography producers. “You are the cutting edge of liberty!”His voice, made imposing by a pronounced Wisconsin accent, and amplified by a frame bulked with decades of bratwurst and beer, fills the room at the XBIZ convention inside the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. “Heroic!” Like the minutemen at “Lexington and Concord!” You are not just fighting for American liberty, he shouts, you are advancing human enlightenment! Like “Prometheus! You developed the technology that will keep kids in classrooms! I think you are patriots!”Greek mythological figures and doughty Revolutionary War fighters are not the usual metaphors used to describe pornographers and so most of them smile and nod, bathing in the warm affirmation of their importance to the world.
