Feb 27 2009
Clubbing Seals In A Zoo (Part Two)
The discussion of erotic art lovers is still going on. Still about that lame question: “What separates erotic art from porn?”. I am adding my response here, as well as on my Facebook page, since this question is asked very often in my line of work. Now I can relax and send links through Email. :)
Part One is here.
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The problem is that porn is also culturally and geographically defined. Show a female nipple on a photograph in the US and some if not most will find that distasteful or even pornographic. Show a male nipple in a Calvin Klein ad in that same country and you can buy all the billboard space you need. Show half a male butt, and have a bunch of female office workers licking their lips while looking at it, bingo you have a Pepsi commercial.
I do not doubt the military leadership of the US, but as cultural leaders, I’d prefer the Europeans. We are not scared of nipples male or female, we show sex on tv and we have Rembrandt etchings of copulation in museums for children to watch. In fact most of our famous artists since the Dark Ages and even before have depicted sex in the most explicit ways. These artists were rarely excluded from exhibits, not even in the most prestigious museums. Not even today.
This particular site – http://eroticsignature.ning.com/ – I believe is hosted in England, the country of the private schools where homosexual behavior is quite normal even amongst heterosexuals, but please, please do not show an erect penis here, because they will faint on the spot.
It is not porn or the definition of erotic art we are discussing, we are discussing moral, cultural issues and above all the hypocrisy of countries that somehow got lost in a mostly global effort to celebrate the act of love. That could be Saudi Arabia, Iran, the US, or China. Countries that celebrate industrial production more than anything else. Sex distracts from production. Worker bees should not be distracted, they should produce, preferably 24/7. It is an old trick that goes back to feudalism.
If we return to the original meaning of the Greek word pornography, the meaning is much wider. In this meaning Fox News is pornography and showing pictures of innocent children being slaughtered is pornography. I think we should keep that in mind once in a while. And do not forget that the Greeks did not think of the depictions of erect penises on their plates and drinking mugs as pornography.
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I am starting to really enjoy clubbing seals in a zoo…