Why Porn and Pantomime are So Similar
First a confession: I haven’t actually watched a huge amount of porn for reasons that will become apparent soon. So this essay is based on my impressions that were largely formed many years ago when porn movies were the staple form of erotic entertainment. Today, short-form video clips of varying quality apparently dominate and I suspect evince less variety than the “blue movies” of yesteryear.
Nevertheless, please indulge me and allow me to explain why porn movies and the British wintertime staple of pantomime are in fact close cousins.
For those who aren’t familiar with pantomime, the tradition goes back quite a long way, deep into the late Victorian era. Think of it as a kind of Music Hall for kiddies. Just as with the adult version, stock characters and predictability are the keys to its popularity.
Pantomime reprises well-known stories. There’s Peter Pan (which was perhaps the first story intentionally written to be performed in such a way) and there’s Dick Whittington, the tale of a young boy who goes to London to make his fortune, becomes discouraged, but is persuaded to return and persevere and then becomes Lord Mayor. There’s Hansel & Gretel, that evergreen story of binge-eating gingerbread addiction. Occasionally there’s Jack and the Beanstalk, and finally there’s Cinderella.
Over the years, all these nominally different stories have more or less blended together and the same stock characters appear across the entire genre. Thus we have the two Ugly Sisters, invariably played by bulky men in drag. We have the Principle Boy, who is always a svelte and lithe young woman.
Yes, there’s most definitely a serious cross-dressing theme going on here. Ever wondered why the British are frequently so eccentric?
We have the Handsome Prince, who (disappointingly and somewhat astonishingly) is actually played by a handsome man. Equally disappointingly, the heroine will be played by an attractive young woman. She is easily identifiable as the pretty one to whom things happen and who lacks agency in the proceedings, waiting for her Prince to come and rescue her.
For those into the taboo thrill of bestiality there is invariably a Pantomime Animal, variously a horse, a cow, a cat, or a crocodile, all of which are in…
