ABSTRACT
Whether operating in the soft or hardcore realm, the socio-cultural profile of individuals labelled ‘pornographer’ has been informed by representations in fictional and non-fictional media, and moralists, regulatory bodies and oppositional feminists have usually deployed the term pejoratively. That ‘official’ label has been joined by an array of colourful but none-too-polite designations such as ‘smut peddler’, ‘sleaze merchant’ or ‘porn baron’ which suggest that the conventions of language compartmentalise sexual entrepreneurs outside the realm of ‘respectability’, consigning them to the abject status of social pariah. However, despite their low cultural standing, pornographers have embraced technological change and operated across the social scale in networks of national and global business.
