Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Head Shop >

Pornography, Erotica, Sexuality, Government, Law

We're The Great Old Ones Now

17:03 / 29.09.03

What does it mean to say that something is pornographic?

Is there a difference between erotica and pornography (beyond the old Customs & Excise rule of thumb that if it's a picture of someone in stockings, it's porn, but if they're naked, it's art)?

Is pornography a bad thing - either because it has social consequences in terms of reinforcing stereotypes and legitimising sexual misconduct, or because it has direct links with sexual exploitation and criminal enterprise - or a good thing because it expresses minority sexualities and can empower, liberate and challenge?

Where are the lines drawn between what is acceptable and what is not? And how should they be enforced?

Feel free to add your own questions?

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:22 / 29.09.03

There's some good (and some bad) discussion of pornography here, which may provide some background.

The art/erotica/porn question is as good a place to start as any... I believe that it was suggested elsewhere that erotica is what gets you hot, and pornography what gets other people hot. Although I see the sense of this argument, I don't believe that it is complete, and depends too much on subjectivity at the expense of other social and mercantile denominators. Whether there is *any* aesthetic component to the distinction I'm not sure...that might be a place to start.

23:48 / 29.09.03

For me, the only firm distinction between art and pornography is a construct based on the reputation/label of the author. Art is made by an artist, porn is made by a pornographer.

Ai no Corrida vs. Asian Babes Road Trip (that second one was made up but hopefully you get the point) ... there's not a lot in it.

What do you think?

23:55 / 29.09.03

The above might be taken as a circular argument so I will add that it is possible for an artist to gain a rep/label before making some "erotica" and vice versa.

01:09 / 30.09.03

Well, not to clutter the headshop, but there is this from the now defunct Brunching Shuttlecocks site. Answer the questions about a specific work and it'll tell you if it's porn or erotica.

03:44 / 30.09.03

I'm not sure that there is a useful distinction between erotica and porn. (Porn is [obviously] in full color, while erotica is black&white...)

In general, I like the idea of drawing a line based on social consequences, but society is an amalgam of different attitudes/types/etc... so there is no single line that can be drawn.

What does it mean to say that there is a grey area?

04:59 / 30.09.03

I'm not sure that there is a useful distinction between erotica and porn. (Porn is [obviously] in full color, while erotica is black&white...)

It's like there are various factors that tip the scale in one direction or another. Photography tends to have more 'points' in the porn column than, say, a wood cut, color photography more than black and white, etc.

.

09:52 / 30.09.03

On some level don't we usually associate porn with a, um, bodily stimulation, and erotica with a corresponding mental one?

Or porn is giving you too much of what you want and erotica teasing you with too little?

Alternatively, porn is a series of linked scenes, whereas erotic has a narrative (of sorts)?

Or maybe it's just that porn is for boys and erotica for girls?