[LINK] why calm, rational thought is required....

[Kimberley Heitman]

>Adam writes
>
>> Actually the definition of "pornography" means anything that offends a
>> person.  It doesn't have to be sexual in nature

Stewart taps

>Actually the definition of "pornography" is whatever the community
>currently
>mean by "pornography".  And that doesn't include things that the community
>currently *doesn't* mean by "pornography"
>
>Definitions aren't absolutes, nor is there an Oxford-dictatorship of words.
>
>Current usage is what matters, and in current usage "pornography" means
>girl
>with donkey, and two men ... , and you all know exactly what I mean without
>needing me to spell it out.
>
>Which precisely illustrates my point.
>
>It doesn't mean cricket matches on TV.

I'm not sure that there's a community consensus that "pornography" means
illegal stuff, or even adults-only stuff. With the modifier "soft-core", or
when spoken with a puritanical flourish, it can refer to anything that
conceivably excites the prurient interest. 

Perhaps it's in the reaction of the beholder - if they just watch, it's
erotica.

While for professional reasons it would suit me for the term "pornography"
to refer only to illegal material, I suspect it's one of those irregular
nouns:

"I look at erotica"
"You look at pornography" 
"They commit an indictable offence" 


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Kimberley James Heitman
www.kheitman.com
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