I'll confess, I did submit this question a wee while back, and it didn't get too much traction - but I know there are folks with backgrounds in gender studies, obscenity, cultural history and the like who post here sometimes, and I think it's a fairly interesting question c:

The question occurred to me after a discussion on whether the (seeming) rise in preference for camshows and 'amateur' videos was related to a desire to reclaim authenticity re: 'real' sex.

As a follow up question: has the rise of globalisation and mass communication lead to a 'smoothing over' of styles? Were there historical differences in subject matter and film making technique which were idiosyncratic to certain countries or major production companies which fell out of fashion or were discarded?

Ta.

Edit: cheers to sowser for his brisk moderating efforts c: