Question

    • Moderator
    • 1195 posts
    December 5, 2008 2:54 AM GMT
    Your opinions please-
    What do you consider porn?
    There seems to be general confusion in the "general" population.
    It used to be nudity in movies was a no-no, then frontal nudity was not allowed, now its "let it all hang out."
    Since this is catolog season - I note that nipples aren't shown in the lingerie sections. Even in Frederick's of Hollywood catalog -no nipples - plenty of cheek.
    Don't get me wrong - I'm a painter and I've painted many pictures of both male and female models sans clothing - (usually not together).
    My conditioning is different than most - models are models, nothing sexual or enticing, neither are my painting. Most people can look at them and say nothing negative - but there have been a few who couldn't .
    What's your guide line?

    (thought I'd stir the pot)
    hugs
    Gracie
    • 171 posts
    December 5, 2008 9:33 AM GMT
    Mary, I use my trannyweb email account to receive promotional 'literature' from magazines, clothing, make-up manufacturers etc. The answer to your question is Dior.
    Every other day I seem to receive an email of some seductive, tempting and provocatively beautiful thing from them that arouses the senses..
    Answering your question, I must admit never to have been a user of pornography in the top-shelf sense, but if I was to read, watch or hear anything that physically or psychologically repulsed me - encouraging me to turn away, then I suppose that it would have crossed the line. Rachel
    • Moderator
    • 1195 posts
    December 5, 2008 4:31 PM GMT
    Thanks for such explicit answers - I guess "porn" like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm excluding straight out salacious stuff.
    My mother wasn't broad minded, to say the least. My brother had to complete high school after being discharged from the army (WW II). The English teacher had the students, all veterans, reading paper-backs. Remember this was 1946. In order to sell the books the front cover was always showing some bosomy babe. My mother had a few words to say about "her son" reading dirty books - so he'd tear the covers off them before he brought them home.
    hugs
    Gracie
    • 181 posts
    December 5, 2008 4:56 PM GMT
    Mary, I have to agree with Cristene here.Then too, i too was a commercial artist at one time and I also lived near a commune in Southern Oregon back in 1973. Hell, there was so much nudity there you never saw anyone with clothes on cept when it rained or was cold . Even during the van events that I attended in Texas could be construed as Pornographic. by the way, I'm proud of the fact that women liked the way my rear showed too! Hey, I won those "Joe Namuth " contests fair an square too!
    Seriously if you're mind is in the Gutter, it's always going after the lowest common denominator . That's all!
    Ellen S.
    • 1912 posts
    December 5, 2008 5:54 PM GMT
    I think Cristine gave an excellent description of porn.
    Hugs,
    Marsha
  • December 5, 2008 7:07 PM GMT
    I think it was Potter Stewart, a justice on the US Supreme Court, who wrote that he could not define pornography, but he knew it when he saw it. That's sort of unsatisfactory, but also true. An individual's view of what crosses the line is based on that person's upbringing, cultural milieu, maybe age and social group. Recall all the controversy around Abercrombie & Fitch ads, which might be fairly described as provocative to say the least, or some would say with reason soft porn.

    I disagree somewhat with Christine's definition, as I think that art is intended to arouse strong emotional reactions, and that can fairly include sexual arousal, and be perfectly healthy, indeed, a way of celebrating the beauty and nobility of the human form and the ways we connect. Conversely, I tend to see porn as that which demeans and debases sexuality rather than elevates it. It is more likely to incite violent and misanthropic reactions. A lovemaking scene in a well made movie, within the context of a story about humans interacting can be breathtakingly moving (yes, I cry at chic flicks), but a very similar scene in graphic detail solely for the sake of showing graphic physical contact is utterly repulsive.

    By the way, Mary, as an amateur (lightly talented) artist myself, I've taken a few figurative art classes. It surprised me at first, but no longer does, how quickly you get over the nudity as you try to tackle the technical issues of form, light, color, etc. I'm a great admirer of Edward Weston's nudes, which are more about light and form and beauty as they are about naked women.

    • 22 posts
    December 8, 2008 1:37 AM GMT
    hey ya Gracie, you mention porn i automatic think XXX sex flicks. Now when your talking about a nude or making love pic. or painting, that I would consider if it was tastefully done or trash.not porn. An ur right about fredricks. I had to dig a catalog an look for myself. huggs Jenn.
  • December 17, 2008 5:02 AM GMT
    That is a good question. To me porn is showing bare boobs and the bare crotch area of eather gender. Including sex but thats just me.
  • December 5, 2008 11:23 AM GMT
    Hiya Mary xxXxx

    My opinion, is that porn is somthing designed to titilate and cause sexual arousel, as opposed to appreciating somthing as an art form, What you or anyone else concieve as porn others might find it artistic and vsa versa. Its a matter of conjecture,
    Some might view an erotic picture, photograph as lewd and depraved others would look into it and see an artistic bent.
    Obviously that doe'nt include hard porn designed and produced purely for sexual stimulation and gratification.