The greatest challenge of addressing the topic of pornography is the lack of definition. After an email exchange with Dr. L about life, art, and our recent pornography posts, I found another instance where drugs and porn are similar and may help with the difficulty of defining the term. It all comes down to our reaction to the subject. Some of us process the subject one way while others go in different directions.
In our emails and blogs, we discussed the definition, or lack of definition, of "pornography." The good Dr. made a great point in her email,
"It is meaningless to me. If no one knows what something means, then it doesn't exist."How can something exist that can not be defined?
Think about a word of something physical like "pencil." According to Wikipedia,
A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use. Pencils create marks via physical abrasion, leaving behind a trail of solid core material that adheres to a sheet of paper or other surface. They are noticeably distinct from pens, which dispense liquid or gel ink that stain the light color of the paper.
That pretty much sums up a pencil. How about something more challenging like "love". According to Wikipedia,
Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment.Love then can be defined from different cultural views, physiological reasons. It was broken down into different types of love by the Greeks. These types were:
- agape - divine, unconditional love, eros - passionate, sensual, longing
- philia - a practical love with loyalty to the family, community, and those around you
- storge - natural affection and caring, like parent to child
- xenia - love through hospitality.
Drugs and Metabolism - a connection to porn
I am amazed how our body works with things to either hurt or help us. Our body stores fat in the belly to keep organs warm and maintain a fuel supply near them when food is scarce. It also causes health issues when we store too much fat there.
The body metabolizes things differently and can change things ingested or breathed in into completely different things. We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Our body changed it.
In a more complex example, our body ingests a drug and changes it into a different compound. Capecitabine is a colorectal and breast cancer treatment taken orally via a tablet. When some patients take capecitabine, it is changed in the body to a substance called 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). For some patients, 5-FU stops cancer cells from growing and decreases tumor size.
This is amazing. The drug is taken and the body decides how to digest it and interpret it into something different. Not all patients have the same response. This means it is up to the individual patient's body to decide what happens when the product is taken.
"I can't define obscenity, but I know it when I see it."This is where I see the relationship of drugs and metabolism to pornography. Pornography is defined by the individual in how his or her mind digests it. Depending on her/his beliefs, experiences, desires, likes/dislikes, exposure, education, and many other factors, the viewer interprets and defines the material differently. With the definition being unique to each individual, it is impossible to create a communal definition of pornography.
End note - I want to leave this poor beaten dead horse alone. Being related to a pheonix though, the porno horse will rise again and I am sure I will write about it then.
Perhaps pornography only makes sense as an industry that sells a product its buyers find sexually stimulating and, like sex, may fall prey to an addiction to it or an obsession anyway. That would best reflect the Greek root word, which basically meant to sell sex.
ReplyDeleteReally, that's the best I can come up with as an industry is a real business that can be documented with statistics and makes its own claim to be what it is.
Does that make sense?
Other than that, there is just passable, good, and great art - and bad art. Something need not be even passable to fit the basic definition of art as artifice.