It's Not Porn, It's Art: Difference between revisions

** "[[Light Bulb Joke|How many Greeks does it take to screw in a vase?]]"

** Not coincidental that "pornography" is from a Greek term meaning "depictions of prostitutes."

* This is a common topic of discussion of [[Deviant ART]]. The webpage allows frontal nudity (since it is considered art) but nothing that seems porn/hentai (example: someone grabbing a naked woman's boob). This leads to some conflict, because some "artists" upload pictures or their model/girlfriend/themselves with their legs opened in a less-than-subtle way;<ref>leading to phrases like "I am no gynecologist, so how come I am always looking at pussy here?"</ref> whereas more artistic drawings/photos are rejected because they show person-to-person contact.

* By simply being old, pornography can lapse into art. Ancient pornographic material such as illustrated Kama Sutras, and Japanese booklets are now on display in museums as historical artifacts.

 

 

* High school students in the third ''Porky's'' attempt this on the Principal when caught misusing the Audio-Visual Club's equipment to view a stag film. They insist the film cannot be judged without viewing it in its entirety. While the gym teacher isn't buying it one bit, the principal is more than eager to screen it.

* ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076749/ Spielen wir Liebe]'', possibly the most controversial film of all time, features full frontal nudity and simulated sex between underage participants. The boy and the two girls featured were fourteen and twelve respectively when they made this film. Its defenders have tried—unsuccessfully—to make this argument with the courts in Germany and the Netherlands, where it is now banned as child pornography and the company that released it on DVD has been forced to recall every copy it could. (This has not stopped rips of it—for better or for worse—from remaining available on the internet.)

 

== Literature ==

* Used as an excuse by the [[Anti-Hero]] in Eric Ambler's novel ''The Light of Day''. At one point in his life, he published illegal pornography of no literary value in several European countries and got prosecuted for it. When questioned about this by the Turkish police, he engages in sophistry and references the previous banning of works like ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'' (which had just been allowed to be published in England at the time Ambler's novel was written).

* In [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[God Bless You Mr Rosewater|God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]'', conservative Senator Rosewater is quite proud that he created a law that defines what is obscene and not art. If it has pubic hair, it's pornography. (Note that this was before the modern custom of porn stars [[Loophole Abuse|shaving off their pubic hair]]).

{{quote|"So, you claim this film expresses an environmentalist theme?"

"Yes. The woman feels ''very passionately'' about the zucchini." }}

* [[William S. Burroughs]] makes a sly nod this trope in his book [[Naked Lunch]] (which was itself on trial for being pornographic, but later found to have redeeming merit) with the character of The Great Slashtubitch, an "impresario of blue movies and short-wave TV" who takes pornography ''very'' seriously as an art form. Disgusted by "counterfeit orgasm", he thinks it takes "sincerity and art, and devotion" for actors to work in his films in lieu of "shoddy trickery" like "dubbed gasps, rubber turds and vials of milk concealed in the ear and shots of yohimbine sneaked in the wings". Slashtubitch appears again in Burroughs' later book [[The Wild Boys]], spelled Slastobitch and elaborates upon his position.

{{quote|'''Slastobitch:''' The new look in blue movies stresses story and character. This is the space age and sex movies must express the longing to escape from flesh through sex. The way in is the way through . . . The scene where Johnny has crabs and mark makes him undress . . . Who are these boys? Where will they go? They will become astronauts playing the part of the American married idiots until the moment they take off on a Gemini expedition bound for Mars disconnect and lave the earth behind forever . . .}}

 

 

* ''[[30 Rock]]'': in the episode "Cougars", Frank's poorly rendered painting of a mermaid had to have the breasts covered for Standards, yet the outside of 30 Rockefeller Center is covered with carvings of topless women which are shown every week in the title sequence.

* ''[[Boston Legal]]'' has a university professor accused of soliciting prostitution under the guise of "research". He had made a video of himself with the prostitute that the prosecution is going to use as evidence. But, taking advantage of the odd American legal rule, his own lawyers argue that he actually ''was'' creating pornography and was therefore protected under the First Amendment. If it's porn, it's not prostitution and therefore not a crime!

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Art Tropes]]