How did mainstream porn in the 1970s and 1980s represent penis size compared to today?
Executive summary
Mainstream porn in the 1970s–80s foregrounded a few legendary men—John C. Holmes and Long Dong Silver—whose billed or reputed sizes became part of the industry’s marketing, even as contemporaneous reporting and later investigators note exaggeration and prosthetics [1] [2]. Contemporary porn still emphasizes large penises and uses camera tricks and staging to amplify size; commentators and a producer quoted in reporting say the industry intentionally makes performers’ members look bigger than they are [3] [4].
1. Golden Age legends: size as star power
The 1970s “Golden Age” of porn turned a handful of male performers into publicity brands built on perceived endowment; John C. Holmes was marketed around an “exceptional” penis and is repeatedly described in profiles as a defining attraction of his career [1]. Similarly, Long Dong Silver’s fame rested on an advertised, outsize measurement—reports give everything from “a good nine or ten inches” to a reputed 18 inches—while photographers and later writers say the effect was partly staged or faked [2].
2. Exaggeration and stagecraft then, not just myth now
Multiple sources emphasize that legendary sizes from that era were often inflated for effect: Long Dong Silver’s “18 inches” claim is contradicted by a photographer who called the real instrument “a good nine or ten inches” and reported prosthetics were used in shoots [2]. Retrospectives on Holmes record wildly varying self-reported numbers (claims of 10 inches, 13.5 inches, etc.) alongside anecdotes that his size was central to marketing and legend-making rather than precise measurement [1] [5].
3. Modern porn’s visual priorities: the same demand, different tools
Contemporary observers and producers say the visual industry standard continues to prize larger-than-average penises and that today’s shoots deliberately employ camera angles, lighting and performer handling to preserve a consistently “big” look across cuts—techniques some say are used more aggressively today than in older films [4] [3]. A quoted rule-of-thumb from a named producer summarizes the industry’s visual inflation: “seven inches equals nine inches, eight inches equals 10 inches and nine inches equals 12 inches” as an expectation management practice [3].
4. Community measurement and myth-busting
Fans and online communities have pushed back against hype by measuring and comparing performers; investigative pieces show that many highly touted sizes are more modest on measurement than legend suggests, and that some of today’s performers who measure around seven inches are still perceived as “huge” relative to baseline population data [6]. The subreddit and measurement-driven reporting aim to counter the skewed norms set by marketing and camera craft [6].
5. What the data say—and what’s missing from reporting
Mainstream sources provided here document industry hype and anecdote but do not offer systematic, peer‑reviewed comparisons of average performer penis size across decades; academic measurements of general population size exist separately, but the present reporting does not supply longitudinal, representative porn‑industry data to prove whether performers are larger today than in the 1970s–80s (available sources do not mention a rigorous decade‑by‑decade dataset comparing porn performers) (not found in current reporting). Coverage instead highlights iconic outliers, marketing claims, and the mechanics of visual inflation [1] [2] [3].
6. Two competing explanations for perceived growth
One explanation is selection and supply: today’s industry and audiences favor and pay for visibly larger performers, incentivizing recruitment and post‑production choices that emphasize size [3] [4]. The competing explanation is that camera trickery and prosthetics—already present in the 1970s and 1980s—have become more sophisticated, so perceived “growth” is as much a media effect as a biological shift; Long Dong Silver’s shoots are a documented example of prosthetic use decades ago [2].
7. Takeaway for readers worried about realism
If your question is whether porn accurately represents “normal” size, current reporting is explicit: porn favors and amplifies large members through selection, marketing and visual techniques, both historically and today [1] [3]. For claims about trends in real bodies across eras, available sources do not provide direct, representative measurements of porn performers by decade; anecdote and myth persist alongside admitted staging and exaggeration (not found in current reporting; p1_s3).
Limitations: this briefing uses available journalism, fan forums and encyclopedic entries that document legend, producer comment and admitted prosthetics; it cannot supply clinical, decade‑by‑decade measurements of porn performers because those data are not presented in the cited reporting (not found in current reporting).