'Stormy's World' Tracks Actress's & Industry's Effects on Culture

RANDOLPH, Mass.—In case anyone's been sleeping for the past year or so, Stormy Daniels has become (and continues to be) front page news. Nonetheless, or possibly because of that, some people have reproached her morals, while others have expressed admiration for her astute business sense, and still others have wondered how a president of the United States could have let himself become involved, both physically and financially, with someone who had built a thriving career in the porn industry. But the fact is, attitudes toward pornography have changed. Professor Edward Shorter, PhD, FRSC, a Harvard-trained social historian, is the author of several books, including the widely translated History of Psychiatry. Shorter wrote Stormy's World: Inside Porn with the idea that, "Porn drives desire. It gives people new tastes, new ideas that they want to act on." As Dr. Shorter points out in the volume, "We aren't in the 1950s anymore. People today are able to enact their fantasies, and if they see something in porn they really like, they want to do it. This is a huge change in sexuality." Porn stars, including Stormy Daniels, are part of the story of changing sexuality, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Stormy has put porn stars in the headlines. Penned by an academic historian writing a "hardcore" book, and with assistance from AVN's extensive archives, Stormy's World offers a generally positive picture of porn—but it is not advocacy. Dr. Shorter admits there are aspects of porn that he finds socially problematic, most notably child porn, for example, which is wholly unacceptable, not just to ordinary people but to adult industry members as well. With five of the fifty most frequently visited websites belonging to porn, and Pornhub having gotten an average of 81 million visitors a day in 2017, it's pretty clear that that porn has moved into the mainstream. Dr. Shorter shows us how the adult entertainment industry teaches us, shapes our behavior, and enhances our lives. Stormy's World: Inside Porn, by Edward Shorter, PhD, FRSC, is a trade paperback available from BPT Press (ISDN# 978-0-9842285-5-3) for $20.00, or on Kindle at B07XSLLH1T for $9.99.