[ADS-L] New meanings for pornography?

Dave Wilton dave at WILTON.NET
Sun Oct 29 22:02:58 UTC 2006


There's also the use of " ____ porn" to refer to something that that appeals
to desires other than sex. An advertisement that features particularly
succulent photos of food is "food porn," a computer magazine is "geek porn,"
etc.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
RonButters at AOL.COM
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 11:10 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re:       [ADS-L] New meanings for pornography?

I think that Charlie Doyle is right in his post when he says that
pornography
implies illegality for many people. And it is also the case that not every
attempt at sexual titilation is pornography, and what constitutes prurience
is a
matter of taste. I suspect that what this young woman meant was that her
costume was not beyond acceptable levels of sexual titilationosity, and that
she
would not expect normal people to find it prurient. There are, for instance,
an
enormous number of print advertisements for normal products such as
undergarments, perfumes, and colognes that are quite erotic but most people,
I think,
would not call them pornographic.

I have not done a survey, but I suspect that a very large percentage of the
American public today--maybe a majority (depending on the ages of the
interviewees) would not consider anything pornography that did not involve
at least
naked below-the-belt genitals and/or simulated or actual sexual intercourse
of
one sort or another. Soft-core pornography generally involves simulated sex.

I'd call PLAYBOY risqué, but not pornographic (as I remember it).

In a message dated 10/27/06 9:00:08 AM, db.list at PMPKN.NET writes:

>
>    "'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.
>
>

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