New meanings for pornography?

David Bowie db.list at PMPKN.NET
Fri Oct 27 13:59:34 UTC 2006


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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