Women Make Their Debauchery High Status (Perversion = Prestige)

Today on Based Camp, we examine the rise of prestige porn, where highbrow erotica in books, audiobooks, and films is marketed as sophisticated entertainment and even therapy. We review recent articles profiling women who consume explicit content framed as luxury or self-care, including mainstream retail tie-ins and celebrity involvement.

Our discussion covers cultural shifts toward hedonism and nihilism, with analysis of specific titles, apps, and movies, and the preposterous markups apparently charged by Bloomingdale’s—while also touching on broader trends in media consumption and relationship dynamics.

Show Notes

A Michigan State University analysis of 38,467 songs by 230 popular artists, spanning 1947–2024 found that artists’ lyrics grow more anxious over their careers and that newer artists write with more anger than their predecessors—plus declining references to social relationships.

The “Prestigification” of Porn

‘Prestige porn’: married doctor-moms are listening to XXX audiobooks in the family SUV and calling it therapy

Choice quotes:

Opening Profile

“Rachel is a 41-year-old doctor in Bergen County, New Jersey. She has a solid, loving marriage to a fellow MD, two boisterous kids under seven, and one method that she uses to stay sane:

Prestige porn.

Specifically, the kind of highbrow erotica with the same explicit content as a softcore video, but made by award-winning filmmakers and novelists, and starring Oscar-winning actors instead of OnlyFans girls.”

““It’s become like my therapy,” said the family medicine specialist, who plays XXX-rated audiobooks like “Helpless” by Jessica Knoll and “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas when she’s driving alone in her family SUV, and watches movies like “Baby Girl” and shows like “Industry” on her iPhone while doing laundry.”