New meanings for pornography?

[James Smith]

If Playboy weren't pornography, who'd buy it?  I know,
I know ...those who just read the articles!



--- David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET> wrote:

> So Playboy recently conducted a tryout
> session/preliminary photo shoot
> here in Orlando to find, um, models for its upcoming
> "Girls of
> Conference USA" issue: story at
>
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-playboy2406oct24,0,4636626.story
>
> (Sidebar: Girls of Conference USA? The SEC, Big 12,
> Big 10, PAC 10, even
> the Big East i can understand. But Conference USA?
> There's some
> barrel-bottom scraping going on here, it seems to
> me.)
>
> Anyway, aside from the bemusement that occurs when
> you see former
> students quoted in a news article like this one,
> what most caught my
> attention was this quote:
>
>    "'It's not like it's pornography,' said Pamela
> Runsick, 22,
>     a senior from Melbourne majoring in advertising
> and public
>     relations, who stripped down to a black lace
> bra, panties
>     and high heels for a test shoot. 'It's Playboy.
> It's
>     glamorous.'"
>
> Since any definition of "pornography" i've ever run
> across before seems
> to have, at core, the purpose of some sort of sexual
> titillation or
> prurience involved, it seems to me that Playboy
> counts.
>
> Of course, the most recent Playboy i've seen was one
> from the early 70s
> i ran across in the basement of the house i grew up
> in. Times have
> changed, maybe all the models wear parkas now or
> something.
>
> More seriously, it sounds like this student is using
> "pornography" to
> mean something like what i'd have to use an
> adjective for: "hard-core
> pornography". Anyone else seen anything similar
> lately, or have i just
> not noticed something that's been obvious to
> everybody else?
>
> --
> David Bowie                               University
> of Central Florida
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no
> chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be
> purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it
> must be consumed.
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society -
> http://www.americandialect.org
>

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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