Here is a short list of other things that some people like: Gambling, painting murals, skeet shooting, writing, eating fast food, bull-fighting, roping cattle, bungee jumping, washing skyscraper windows, naked water-skiing, and climbing Everest. Each one of these things can be potentially dangerous, but we do them anyway. And those of us who live in free societies are fortunate to be able to choose to do these things. Take them away, and all hell would break loose. I, for one, would go completely insane if the newly formed Literary Police stormed in here right now and snatched up my keyboard. Despite the fact that my writing might end up being dangerous, I do it anyway. I have to do it. You see, I am addicted to writing. I CAN NOT STOP.

So let’s put smoking, drinking and enjoying porn on my little list as well. Interestingly enough, however, it’s the addition of these words to my list that seems to be the most shocking to people. But not so much the smoking and the drinking part, which is strange because both of those can actually kill you. It’s the one that can’t: the pornography part. That particular word is a guaranteed eyebrow raiser. Anytime, any place. And I think that’s too bad, because it’s not an ugly word, per se...(In fact, if I had to choose an ugly word, I’d choose onomatopoeia. Now, that’s an ugly word. Ugly in every aspect: it’s a grouping of letters that weren’t meant to be together, it’s never is a fun word to say, and it means something that it, itself, is not. That’s ugly.) And when pornography is hanging out with geography, photography, calligraphy and stenography, it’s the one word that stands out. What a tragedy! Now, why on earth would that be?

Aha! It’s because of what pornography means, not how it looks...Now I get it.

All right, adult entertainment makes tons of money, and some people enjoy it. Others find the word itself to be downright disgusting. That’s where we are right now. But it is fair to argue that one can preach the virtues of the First Amendment and discuss freedom of choice until the cows come home and never really get down to defending pornography for pornography’s sake. Now the cows are home, and they want something to watch on TV.

So let them watch porn.

What actually is pornography? We all think we know what it is, or at least have associations that we freely make with the word which help to personally define it. But what does the old dictionary say? Funny you should ask. I have one right here:

por-nog-ra-phy /n/ 1. the treatment of sexual objects in pictures or writing in a way that is meant to cause sexual excitement 2. books, films, etc., containing this

Okay, that seems simple enough. According to this definition, pornography is meant to cause sexual excitement. And that’s it. “But that can’t be it. It’s got to involve cameras and actors and directors and drugs and money shots, doesn’t it?” Well, not exactly. It can and sometimes does, but not as a rule. I think that’s where the main hang-ups that people have with pornography occur: people generally make the immediate connection to the adult film industry when the word pornography is uttered. But there is much more to pornography than meets the screen.