Defining the term

Porn gets a lot of flack from people. Of course the first folks one usually thinks of on that subject are those with religious or personal issues with graphic depiction of human sexuality. Heavens forefend that the act of coupling should ever be witnessed by another human being. For some, sexual congress must only be utilized for the purpose of breeding and only through a hole in a sheet. Look around and I'm confident that there are still subscribers to the belief that sex must be an ordeal for a woman and that even upon the marriage bed, intercourse must be an act of force to be endured through. As further proof that humanity likes inventing mental trauma, usually the latter camp are also fervent believers that a marriage must be consummated and bearing several children is their duty. Alright, if they feel they need to "take one for the team" or "lay back and think of England," that's their choice. I can understand why from their perspective pornography would be distasteful. Their arguments against have long been polished to a rich luster, as solid and weighty as a marble sculpture.

They don't have to partake in the adult industry. There is no reason for them not to be able to try to live as if the concept did not exist. Unless they're attempting to legislate their own morality upon others, there's no grudge.

Yet there are other people casting a critical eye on pornography as well. Some of the most strident are people who are associated with sex and sexuality. They complain that mainstream porn is too glossy, too artificial, too manufactured. They cast their eyes across the industry and see an incestuous community busily handing each other praise and awards to reinforce their own idea of worth. Instead of the American Kennel Club brandishing pedigree papers and trotting breeds carefully sculpted to display features someone arbitrarily decreed were the premier qualities of the bloodline, it's production companies brandishing flashy footage and trotting scantily-clad talent carefully sculpted to display the features the industry has decreed are ideal.

Others cite the feigned passion. The scenes are often mechanical chains of position culminating in someone getting saturated in bodily fluids. They point out the harmful or unrealistic practices and cry foul. Lack of condoms, ass-to-mouth, DVDA, the laundry list of failures is long.

They're right. The industry is like that.

I wonder however if their objections are truly sensible. I wonder if they have been so exposed, so inured to pornography that they no longer have the objectivity to see the line between what is and what they think it should be. Perhaps they have focused so heavily on the limits of porn that they no longer recognize where limits need to be, much like a doctor so obsessed with extending life that they no longer comprehend emotionally the necessity of death or quality of life.

I have to ask what these people expect of pornography. When it comes right down to it, porn only has one very discrete mission; arousal. It doesn't matter the format whether captured in; hastily scrawled text in a smut novel, in the penned lines of a cartoon, the composition of a photograph, a voice through a speaker, or confluence of all in a movie, if it doesn't get a guy hard or a woman wet, it's a failure.

Some will argue that it should lead to orgasm as well. It's a small, logical step following arousal, but frankly falls outside of what porn is. It can happen, but isn't a required element. Granted the better the porn is targeted to a given audience, the greater the chance and intensity of the orgasm, but plenty of people will indulge in pornography without the ability to do anything more than get themselves all hot and bothered.

So titillation is the name of the game. There is no question that publishers are largely successful at that game. Does it really matter that the starlet is so implanted, injected, and plied with cosmetics to the point she no longer resembles any woman who ever walked the earth? No. As long as the audience wants to fuck her or be her being fucked, her role is fulfilled. Reality is not an essential element. In fact, reality tends to be more of a liability.

Porn is entertainment. Complaining that it's limited is like complaining that the ocean is salty or that the family sedan can't operate as a sailboat.

But some people want more from it. They think it should be educational. They think it should demonstrate safe, responsible sexual practices. They want the participants to look like everyone else.

Talk about "mission creep."

You want to become educated about sex, look for educational materials. It's not the industry's fault if someone is too stupid to look for anything beyond porn. Just because it uses sex does not mean the sex resembles reality in any way. If you want to learn how to drive a car, you read instruction manuals, watch educational videos, perhaps take courses, and above all, practice. I don't care how many times you've watched "Smokey and the Bandit" or "Fast and Furious," it isn't going to do a damned thing constructive for your driving skills. Yeah, a lot of guys are going to base their entire sexual repertoire off of what they see in porn movies. What can I say? A lot of guys are bloody morons. How about we place the responsibility for their erroneous understanding of sex with them instead of the "fairy tales ending in a facial."

You want safe, responsible sexual practices? There are people who do monogamous porn. There are people who do condom-only sex with partners who undergo thorough medical testing. There are lots of people who only use toys or pin-up type shots. Pick your preferred value of "safe and responsible" and go wild with your bad self. All it requires is a little searching. It isn't porn's fault that most fantasies don't touch upon mundane matters like pregnancy or pathogens so they're either ignored or glossed over. If you're too lazy to locate what you want to see, you don't get to bitch about not getting to see it.

You want the actors to look completely average? Write your own. Put yourself in front of your own camera. Contact swingers. The stuff is out there. The production quality isn't likely to be high, but it's a niche market. Few people are going to be clamoring to see their Aunt Ethel with her housecoat bunched around her sagging middle, stretch-marks and cellulite flying getting donkey-punched by their Uncle Buford in coke-bottle glasses and brown socks. Professionals go where the money is and usually that's where the "beautiful people" are rutting.

You don't have to like it. It could bore you to tears. Just don't make porn more than it is.