PERHAPS NOT surprisingly, most of those who are attracted to porn are men. But then that may also be because most porn materials are devoted to the sex act and to the sex organs, and are devoid of any context, which seems to matter a lot to women.

A 2001 informal survey of Filipino consumers of pornography revealed that about 85 percent of the male respondents and 15 percent of the females are sexually excited by graphic sexual acts shown in films. While women prefer erotic films, where sexual acts are embedded in a narrative context, the men are easily aroused by simply viewing nudity and sexual organs. Female consumption of pornography seems to take place in the context of the couple; for men it is more linked with the sex act itself.

The survey was done by Filipino sex expert Jose Florante Leyson, chairman of the American College of Clinical Sexologists for Licensure in New Jersey. He also observed that there are indications of a rise in the consumption of softcore pornography (the type peddled by Playboy and its ilk) by educated, sophisticated, and professional couples.

That may be because modern consumer culture has made pornography mainstream or "socially acceptable." Just 30 years ago, it had been some back-alley thing; now porn is everywhere. Observed the alternative U.S. magazine Utne recently: "Pornography is no longer simply out there for those who seek it; it is in here, inside computers, inside telephones, inside homes. It is innate in the way we live our lives."

Living technology-mediated lives, people of the 21st century are seeing the blurring of the boundaries between what is pornographic and what is not. "Sex, or at least our dreams of sex, is allowed to permeate areas of life it never would have been permitted to enter until recently," says Pick Poynor in his book Designing Pornotopia: Travels in Visual Culture.

Leyson himself said that the gradual blurring of the distinction between pornography and other forms of erotica has led to "some level of social acceptance of pornography and opened new markets." He noted that in the Philippines, the anti-pornography position in public debates is weak, while pornography is often presented as a form of sexual liberation.

And that was before the advent of DVDs and the mushrooming of Internet cafés in many cities across the country. Writing before digital video players became popular, Leyson noted, "The most important sector of the Filipino pornography market is the sale of videocassettes, fueled by the wide distribution of videocassette players-recorders."

LEYSON, WHO is also director of the Sexual Dysfunction Center, Spinal Cord Injury Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care Systems, said that it was after World War II that U.S. and other foreign magazines started pouring into the country.

He said that even as pornographic magazines were illegal, the rich and some collectors managed to import erotic literary pieces. According to Leyson, by the 1960s "changes were visible in the social attitudes and private interests of Filipinos" with the availability of women's magazines where almost every issue had articles about sexuality and eroticism.

Leyson also said that the swinging '60s, Philippine-style, saw private viewings of adult films by the rich, who could afford eight- or super-eight-millimeter portable film projectors, or by college students in "stag parties." Most of the materials were produced abroad and were imported for rental through video shops and newsstands.

The early '70s, though, heralded the coming of the so-called bomba films, including "Uhaw (Thirsty)," acknowledged as the trailblazer in the genre. But then President Ferdinand Marcos cut the trend short, although in the early '80s, a film festival initiated by his wife Imelda would bring in a mini-boom in graphic sex films. In the post-EDSA I years, naughty but less explicit skin flicks went mainstream.

These days, the nearly dead local film industry is still producing the occasional sexual comedy and some rinky-dink theatres still sneak supposedly excised "pumping scenes" in the films they show. Porn aficionados, however, know better and go straight to the bootleg DVD stalls or log on to the Net.

Experts say that in most cases, those who turn to porn do so to see their fantasies acted out or to help them pleasure themselves. Sociologist Sarah Raymundo also says that if we were to take away the inhibitions of people, our society would be one of unbridled sadomasochistic violence and the will to dominate. Porn, then, is a mere expression of these repressed inhibitions given free rein.

"This is not even a behavior that's resistant or dissident," she says. "Capitalism allows this because it has space for these types of perversions."

In any case, medical anthropologist Tan says those who become obsessed with porn become prone to what one U.S. psychologist calls the "centerfold syndrome," which could result in "fear of true intimacy," or the inability to have a relationship in which "sensuality and intimacy are as important as sexual gratification." Those who are already in relationships may in fact eventually lose their partners — often because the porn addict can no longer connect with the real-life partner who cannot measure up to the vixens or studs that inhabit the fantasy world he or she likes so much.