Rule 34 is at it again.
The internet’s meme-happy Rule 34 comes from a comical list of online protocols and states that, “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.”
It’s unfortunate yet true that the porn industry continues to capture every possible element of life and culture and turn it into a sexualized graphic, video, or experience. It isn’t just “pizza delivery guy/plumber meets girl”—we’re talking objects, events, and realities you never imagined could be pornified.
The latest Rule 34 example reflects our current cultural reality yet again—the viral Facebook event calling people to storm Area 51.
The spike in alien-related Pornhub searches
The Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” may have originated as a prank, but 2 million people have marked themselves as going. The grassroots raid is set to take place on September 20 under the premise that if enough citizens gather to physically storm Nevada’s top-secret military base, they will be able to break in and learn the truth about the alien government activity rumored to have been taking place there for years.
The event exploded on social and traditional news. We have yet to see what actually happens on September 20, but we already know some things about how this event has manifested in the world of online porn.
Pornhub Insights published that after the event went live, the number of searches for “Area 51” surged from nothing to 160,000 in a mere 4 days. July 16th alone had almost 59,000 searches.
As people latched onto the Facebook event and started creating and spreading alien-related and Area 51-specific memes, Pornhub saw a parallel rise in alien searches—a 217% increase on July 2nd, 199% on July 15th.
People are searching the for “alien impregnation,” “alien sex,” and “alien probe,” among other things.
A pornified version of reality is not as funny as it seems
The idea of people across the globe rushing to their computers to search for videos of aliens having sex may seem humorous at first. Certainly a lot of bloggers and online voices are interpreting it that way.
But underneath the funny memes, these stats reveal just how much porn is a reflection of our society and culture. What happens in reality gets mined continuously for anything that can be fantasized, objectified, and sexualized.
The impossible idea of aliens in captivity at Area 51 is integrated for many people with their sexual curiosities. While it’s normal to be sexually curious, the porn industry hijacks that curiosity with exaggerated, over-produced content that twists expectations or desires for real human interactions.
There’s an unthinkable amount of porn available at anyone’s fingertips, and anyone who can type out a search and click “play” has access, even if that porn plays on themes of exploitation. Prisoner alien porn might not exploit real humans, but we see in that trend the impulse of our culture to instantaneously grab that sexualized quick fix regardless of larger implications.
This knee-jerk reaction to look up the Pornhub version of what’s happening in reality can easily take wrong turns. One example of this is pretty recent and relevant—when the documentary about rapper R. Kelly was released, porn searches spiked with people looking for the tapes of the defamed artist raping minors.
No portion of our reality is safe from the porn industry’s objectification.
Does porn represent our collective social conscience?
Everything is fair game to become a sexual object to be used, and everything can be turned into an erotic fantasy to be degraded and exploited. And it happens again and again, with ridiculous and funny things like Area 51 raids, but also with our most sensitive realities such as rape, child exploitation, and other abuse.
And unfortunately, as long as porn is allowed to represent our collective social conscience, we can’t pick and choose what gets objectified.
The Area 51 porn searches are weird and funny at first glance, but consider this—do we want to live in a world where everything in our reality has a pornified alter ego? Including the things that are exploitative, abusive, or violent. Is that completely safe or healthy? Research has shown that it’s not, and personal stories only serve to back that up.
This is why we’re the global fight for real love that’s choosing to reject the lies and influence of the porn industry. You with us?
