By Adriana Sommer da Costa
Psychologist and Sexologist
Pornography may be classified as, study of prostitution, collection of obscene
pictures or paintings, characteristic of what transgress prudish, obscenity,
indecency, permissively; anything done in pornographic fabrics, regarding sex as something dirty, as a catch.
The concept of pornography seemingly manipulated, throughout its history, in fabrics of imprecision and ambiguity, even so serving precise purposes and clearly bias.
Going back in time in order to get on top of it.
In the XIX century, the English justice, deemed pornographic,
any given text written on purpose of corrupting the youth's moral, and with
meaning that by hook or by crook would shock feelings of decency of any sensible
mind. And yet, at the time, considered pornographic were all kinds of art likely
to taint or shock with regard to moral, which even old-fashioned, would be kept
by all means by defenders of a society as austere as decadent. Thus, censored
was the crème-de-la-crème of all arts, its best.
As for the Americans, with more objectivity, were rather precise
in their initiative, even though, not less prudish and bias. Since according
to the American law of the time, any issue or thing that would exhibit or visually
represent-or verbally, people or animals having sexual relations, would
be deemed as pornographic contents.
Things haven't changed much since then, that is, hundred years
after, we're still law-dictated and norms just as ambiguous as subjective that
ended up delimiting the boundaries of our social behavior, but surely don't
have control over our desires.
The Brazilian legislation, decreed in 1970, states that pornography
comprehends any given publication or exteriorization contrary to moral and good
customs in that exploring sexuality. But that is where all comes down
to, what to make of good customs, moral and exploitation of sexuality.
In addition, such concepts imprecision isn't restricted to one nation or another
but a bigger and broader concept of equal flexibility, as it comes to show us
that different eras and contexts make intimate part in the construction of such
concepts.
Hence, it turns dangerous and somewhat bias to try and comprehend
any given pornography that doesn't contextualize its inserted surroundings.
Not that ideas and codes of conduct en vogue in a social group and in the historical
moment of a certain piece or behavior would be considered pornographic.
Although it is impossible to articulate all variants so far described
in order to conceptualize something so erratic, as pornography, within its inserted
context, certain specific traits noticeably, which sort out pornography from
eroticism.
The most trivial distinction lies in eroticism, there's connotation
of "grandeur" and "noble", which opposes pornography, therein
connoting "gross and vulgar". What grants a bestow of noblesse to
erotica, would be the fact of not inculcating itself directly to sexuality.
Whereas pornography would exhibit and exploit mainly such aspect.
Pornography; explicit sex and eroticism, sex implicit.
Such definitions being well crystallized somehow in our society, given that
commercially churned appeals in all pornographic material, especially movies,
which come tagged, scenes of explicit sex.
Etymologically speaking, the word pornography, emphasizes a commercial aspect, which became prioritize objective of any given pornographic material
post industrialization phenomenon. From Greek pornos=prostitute + grafo=write,
the term pornography stands for the write of prostitution, in other words, a
writing concerning the commerce of sexual love.