How do you define porn?

December 20, 2011

I found many different definitions of porn online. These are a few of my favorites.

Alexander Cockburn, Britain's chief justice:

"The test of obscenity [pornography] is whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall."

Virginia state obscenity statute:

The word "obscene" where it appears in this article shall mean that which, considered as a whole, has as its dominant theme or purpose an appeal to the prurient interest in sex, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, excretory functions or products thereof or sadomasochistic abuse, and which goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description or representation of such matters and which, taken as a whole, does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

(Code 1950, § 18.1-227; 1960, c. 233; 1975, cc. 14, 15.)

Merriam-Webster

1: the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement

2: material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement

3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>

Alan Sears, president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund and former director to Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography stated: “The sexual union marriage, between one man and one woman, is meant by the Creator to be an act of supreme love, giving, and unity. It’s a picture if you will, of supreme selflessness. Virtually all advocates of secular sexual behavior center on an “it’s all about me” philosophy rather than mutual love and care for the other partner. I have repeatedly referred to pornography as the “true hate literature” of our age, because of its hatred and exploitation of the human person, regardless of size, shape, color or gender. It reduces human beings to valueless commodities to be ogled at and disposed of like used tissue”.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“Pornography is any material depicting or describing the human body or sexual conduct in a way that arouses sexual feelings”.


What's your definition?