What is porn? Because of the use of explicit language and imagery, the majority of our society would label this blog "pornography." I never intended it to be; in my opinion it isn't. To my thinking, it is educational and informative. At least that is what I strive for.
Faithful Reader Jean sent a wonderful link from the NY Times. Op-ed contributor Lux Alptraum hits upon some major points I've tried to make, but without photos and without rhetoric which might be considered vulgar.
For me, words are words; "penis" conjures the same mental image as "cock;"
"boner" or "hard-on" brings to mind the same thing as "erection,"
and it simply depends upon personal preference and, at times, the situation. The same might be said for photos, gifs, and videos; yet "a picture is worth a thousand words." But, interpretation will differ. Where one might see two men engaging in sex, I might see two men in the midst of a buddy ball-and-cock check.
What would this gif conjure?
For me, Alptraum's most important point is this:
We belong to "...a culture where sex education is minimal, fear based, and often inaccurate; parents treat the sex talk as a shameful task to be gotten over with as quickly as possible; ... We need to stop treating sex as a taboo topic and start treating it as an ordinary aspect of life, one that young people should be educated about in all its weird, wonderful, risky and rewarding complexity."
Read the entire op-ed piece here: NY Times - The Opinion Pages
What do you think: What constitutes porn?
13 comments:
Unfortunately, the NYTimes wouldn't let me read the article because I've reached my limit of free reading for the month. Anyway, I prefer to think of all images as art.
porn ... I love pornography, even if I prefer make sex (and love) with other men! So, I could answer: porn is something I love!
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" It is all too subjective - I'm sure many would see my blog as porn, yet my readers have always argued to the contrary - when I share a beautiful image of two men making love - others see it as nasty, dirty porn - That being said those people who show picture of ankles and elbows - well that's just plain, dirty porn. LOL - I don't know, bro. It's just an arbitrary line that moves around with the times. The depiction of what we as humans are and do sexually is natural to me. Why hide it or consider it shameful. Silly really. I hope you are feeling better and having a lovely day. Hugs, Licks, and Strokes, AOM
The classic response is "Art is in the eye of the beholder, and I know pornography when I see it."
Nope, it's not that simple and easy.
I don't believe that it's very helpful for drawing a line between pornography and art. For drawing our own line, maybe, a private and moving line, but no more.
And where is the line between pornography and porn?
The pornography can be art, and reciprocally, but it's not always the case.
The porn cannot. Even if inside it there are limits between what we like, what is bearable, and what make us vomit.
The truths of today, on which it is so difficult to agree, are neither those of yesterday nor those of tomorrow.
Love, hugs and bisous, my darlings Jean and Pat.
I guess for most people "porn" involves some kind of sexual activity, alone or with others. Both of these would be seen by others as a natural (unnatural) use of ones sexuality - be it solo, with one other, with several others. Most people would consider straight, bisexual and gay videos as "porn" and sexual "performance" in public. But where would one draw the line? There are some gay sexual rites that I certainly would not take part in, but does that give me the right to call them "PORN"?
Interesting article. I agree that better sex education would be beneficial to help eliminate the "naughtiness" side of it by addressing sex as an important part of one's life and happiness. I am sure that pre-internet, porn was basically Playboy and Penthouse magazines. Today, there is nothing much left to the imagination and that probably makes it tougher for a young person to not associate sex immediately with porn.
Really interesting article, thanks Pat. Hugs and bisous to you and French Patrick.
Porn is acting. Its the same as your normal movies and tv shows except the subject matter is different. Its just like everything else with movies; if you dont like it or find it uncomfortable dont watch it. If people think porn is real then hell might as well re-label Transformers as a documentary. Dont look at that toaster sideways it may spit more than bread out at you.
Its peoples attitude towards porn that is the issue.
Simple definition - porn is what you jack off to? Erections are good, jacking is good, so porn is good!
So your blog isn't porn for me, although it is very pleasantly erotic - I don't jack my cock when reading it. I frequently borrow images on your blog, put them in my screen background folder and my masturbation pix folder that can end up reposted on my blog. Sometimes I will masturbate while images from these folders are displayed on my screen. So does that connection qualify your blog as porn?
I call it porn if its primary purpose is obviously to promote horniness, and it's graphically sexual.
Of course, you can be turned on by/ jack off to anything (baseball games, Olympic divers), but that doesn't make them porn --- although I guess there's a "for me, this is porn" category we all carry around in our heads (baseball teams, Olympic divers ;-p).
Some things are meant to arouse but not sexually graphic, e.g. most movies, TV shows, & advertisements. Some things are sexually graphic but not created for the purpose of arousal, e.g. reproductive health information.
For me, your blog is kind of both porn and non-porn: the pictures are obviously graphically sexual and meant to arouse us (a guy with an erection or a cumshot gif is not "neutral" nudity like the Michelangelo David), but the words are much more thought-provoking. I find myself thinking about the subject matter at times when I'm nowhere near a computer... e.g., if I'm in the locker room at the Y and I see a dad with a young son, and the son is staring wide-eyed at all the hairy naked men, I think "if I were his dad, what would I do? Ignore it? Tell him it's OK to look but try not to stare? Tell him not to look? Acknowledge that naked bodies are interesting but nothing to get weirded out over? What would I do if my son got an erection?" That kind of thing. Not lascivious thoughts, but thoughts to do with sex & sexuality.
The author's point is nothing new: Americans have always been uptight and embarrassed about sex, and it's always been silly and/or damaging. We need to get over that, and I thank you for the role you play in helping it happen.
Porn is sex on screen for sex alone. Here in America if two people have sex portrayed in a sensual loving manner on screen it's considered porn while it's OK to kill with blood, guts, and gore. Our european nieghbors are for the most part the opposite. To me that says we are full of hate and shame while they portray openness and love. - Richard
Thank god my dad doesn't view this blog as porn otherwise he probably never would've lead me to it last year. I've read damnnear every post now and learned alot. - Randy
so big....
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