History of Pornography timeline | Timetoast Timelines

26,000 BCE

The Venus of Willendorf

Oldest recorded pornographic material.
Many historians believe that having lots of fat was the ideal beauty standard, as it showed you had lots of food and resources.
2000 BCE

Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs

Drawn on cave walls in Northern China
First depiction of sex in history
2000 BCE

Babylonian Statue

The depiction of Anal Sex shows that the Babylonians knew about contraception and how babies were made. Other ancient civilizations did not know this.
79

Lupanar of Pompei

Very detailed wall drawings. Pompei was extremely sexual. Legal prostitution, sex slavery, and open orgies were commonplace. Drawings were representative of the society.
1785

120 days of Sodom

First erotic literature. Seen as a possible origin of BDSM, Novel had rape and torture of teenagers. Officially published in 1905. (Porn has been problematic for a while)
1896

Le Coucher de la Mariee

First pornographic film. Produced in France. It was just a woman doing a strip tease for a couple minutes, but it still became a modest success.
1953

Playboy

Company peaked in terms of magazine sales in 1971 with 7 million issues sold. Articles and interviews were in the magazine, along side nude models. Marilyn Monroe was the first cover. Magazine ended in 2020.
1971

Boys in the Sand

First gay male pornographic film. Straight and lesbian films have been produced by decades at this point.
1972

Deep Throat

First pornographic film to become mainstream. Had a $20,000 budget, but grossed $40 million. Started the "Golden Age" of porn. Linda Lovelace, the star of the movie, stated she was forced to do the movie by her abusive husband.
1996

Sex.com

First ever porn site. It would be another decade until Fabian Thylmann would have a monopoly on the biggest sites.
2004

MindGeek

Biggest porn company ever. Owns the majority of sites, production companies, bandwidth, and revenue.
2016

OnlyFans

Porn users can now interact directly with creators. Anybody can be a pornstar now. Users can request personalized videos from creators and message them directly, all for a monthly subscription fee.