We
tend to forget that pornography is entertainment.
It may not be entertainment to you, it may
not be entertainment to me, but it is entertainment
to some. We also tend to forget that reading
for pleasure is a form of entertainment. Go
figure. So when people tie the p-word exclusively
to the X-rated video part of it, they have
missed the boat entirely. Adult entertainment
has been around for centuries: in literary,
artistic and even verbal forms, while the
adult film industry has not. Nor the recent
addition of e-porn and its mechanics to the
family - now that, arguably, is something
worthy of being illegalized. Generally speaking,
pornography simply serves as a vehicle for
changing times, the current and most popular
method of getting an art form to its fans.
“Art form, did you say? Art form?”
You bet I did.
Do
I dare to open up the squeakiest and heaviest
of doors and go down this dusty corridor which
will bring pornography and art into the same
room together? Absolutely. Art is a very unpredictable
and unexplainable phenomenon, in general.
I have to admit that art is not a word that
I have ever looked up, or felt the urge to,
for that matter. And I’m not going to
start now. We just know what art is, don’t
we? We look at it, or we listen to it, or
we touch it, and it makes us react. Maybe
we laugh, maybe we cry, maybe we just cock
our heads to the side and say, “Hmm.”
Maybe we take in what the piece of art has
to offer, and, in doing so, we get excited
or just have fun. And sometimes, maybe we
just don’t get it at all, and while
walking down the steps from the Art Museum,
we turn around, look up at the building and
mutter silently, ”Yeah, it says ‘Art
Museum’... It must have been art.”
While
it is clearly art, we must always bear in
mind that pornography is a mature art form
and can only be viewed as such when marketed
towards and depicted by adults. The sexual
exploitation of children and unwilling adults
for the sake of creating pornography is a
crime and should be prosecuted without leniency.
Period.
So
what is the real problem with adult entertainment?
Can we not recognize or admit its economic
or industrial impact? Can we not see that
some people actually like it? Are we afraid
to label it as art? Why? Why? Why?
Pornography,
in all forms, from movies and books to poetry
and photography, is art. Like many other genres
of art, it can be interesting, comedic, sad,
frightening, educational, and of course, thrilling.
For some of us it is high art and for some
of us it is barely art, but it is art nonetheless.
And to stand up against it, and make efforts
to denounce another individual’s right
to have fun is absurd. Life is too short not
to have a little fun every now and then. And
enjoy a little porn if you want to.
