Pornography, sex toursim and prostitution converge in the Hungarian capital, to the delight of some and the frowns of others. A framed photo of his wife hangs above his desk. The economic factor also has its importance, he adds. The Hungarian porn industry employs a great number of professionals, though it is difficult to provide an exact figure, given the fact that a lot of them are temporary employees.
Kovi estimates the number of actresses at about a hundred, whilst there are only between thirty and forty actors. Kovi feels worried about the crisis that the industry is going through. More movies are being produced than the market can take.
Despite this crisis, adult cinema is still a very lucrative business: I wanted to flee poverty and help my brothers and my mother financially. They do everything possible to stay in the business as long as they can and make the most money. Porn is like an adult fairytale. Vilmos Szilagyi is one such critic. The 79 year-old Hungarian psychologist and sexologist has written more than twenty-six books about sexology and runs a website specialised in sexual psychology. We are at his apartment in the northern part of Buda, on the sixth floor of a huge communist-style square building.
He describes how he has dealt with patients having problems related to pornography throughout his fifty-year career. In pornography, there is no depiction of sexual culture.
There are only techniques. There are a lot of cases where problems related to pornography are dealt with, especially with addiction. Could porn be seen as the same thing as prostitution? Prostitution is also becoming internationalised in Hungary. During Christmas, for example, we get an influx of Italians. Prostitutes also tend to work abroad in Italy, Greece or England for short periods, having to move on quicker because of legal reasons.
