What Is Pornography?

"Pornography" is derived from the Greek word "pornographos" which means "writing about prostitutes." It is defined at Wordsmyth.com as "written or visual material intended to be sexually stimulating, esp. when void of artistic merit." For purposes of this blog, we aren't concerned about legal definitions, but only about the affect pornography has on individuals and relationships. And just because someone calls it "art" doesn't mean it's suddenly harmless. We'll drop the "esp." part so that porn is defined as "written or visual material intended to be sexually stimulating." Such material is also known as "erotica." The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines erotica as "books, pictures, etc. which produce sexual desire and pleasure."

A more helpful definition of pornography for your personal use might be based on what pornography does rather than what it is. It's like the duck analogy. If you see something that looks like a duck, swims like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then for all practical purposes, it is a duck, no matter what someone else may be calling it. So what is it that pornography does? Well, mostly it just catches your eye and begs you to look. As you look, you feel excitement and sexual pleasure. If you are married, it can make your wife seem relatively less exciting. It might make her feel less appreciated and less loved. We might define it as "any sexually exciting image that causes you to be less romantically satisfied with your wife" or perhaps as "a sexually exciting image of any woman who is not your own mate." Because a given image may affect different men in different ways, and men differ in how sensitive they are to visual stimuli, what is porn to one man may be only a pretty (or uninteresting . . . or repulsive) picture to another. For the most sensitive men, pornography may include almost any view of an attractive woman showing cleavage or in tight or otherwise revealing clothing, and is easily accessible on magazine covers in grocery store checkout lines, in department store clothing advertisements, on television, on billboards, and in most popular movies. Even a relatively innocent image may be a trigger that brings on cravings for more.