Comics fandom is probably the most porn-positive left-leaning slice of online fandom that you'll find. Comics fandom probably uses the most restrictive definition of porn that you'll find.
The fact that you think a picture with no exposed naughty bits is "porn" leads me to think otherwise. I have yet to see a right-wing Christian group define anything lacking so much as a nipple as "porn". Even O'Reilly, when he's criticizing rap videos for having half-naked women flaunting it onscreen, doesn't call it "porn". (Porn-like, "disgusting" - but not porn.)
In fact, my impression is that a great deal of supposed "left-leaners" are every bit if not more so prudish about porn than conservative America, especially when the porn isn't - eh, what's a good word - respectful, or defined as "healthy". It was the Clinton Administration that came out with the Digital Millennium act, after all.
My impression is also that this prudishness is also more prevalent in the young. The US has got a weird divide going on, with a marked increase in media's sexual content - while at the same time a focusing on sex crimes and child abuse in the news is fostering an anti-sex hysteria that gets drilled into kid's heads. Even as actual rape and child abuse statistics decline, a greater push for awareness and vigilance is intoned menacingly in the news.
It is my completely unscientific opinion that younger folks today are far more likely to develop a distaste for sexual content than, say, my generation. In an environment where the message seems to be that perverts and rapists lurk just around every corner, I think that can't help but affect how even people who consider themselves sexually "open-minded" develop. Which leads to Gaia Online, and a population that skews towards the young calling my picture "porn".
You still haven't said yea/nay regarding "is my picture (or an FHM magazine cover) porn", and I'd be interested to hear that answer, because I've provided a picture with particular characteristics, and a sampling of opinions from the population of Gaia Online, a site that as I type this has 31,847 users online, and has had a top record of 86,738 simultaneous connections, with a bit over 8 million accounts. I have no way of knowing how wide and varied the selection of folks commenting on my picture are, but if that sampling is an accurate cross-section of Gaia's user base, and can be applied to the entire Gaia population, a surprisingly huge number of people will see my picture as porn. And that, true, would bear out your assertion that the HfH cover is porn, because if my picture is porn, that cover certainly must be. And that would also indicate that the dilution of the word mentioned earlier is already underway.
So I would like to hear it from you, and I'll consider the matter discussed and over with: Do you think my picture is porn? (And the secondary question is: does the answer depend on Gaia's reaction and definition?) If it is, then I am a pornographer, and I guess I'll have to adjust to my new role in the world. If not, then you'll have to explain to me why not, and why that reason trumps a population that potentially exceeds that of "comics fandom".
no subject
The fact that you think a picture with no exposed naughty bits is "porn" leads me to think otherwise. I have yet to see a right-wing Christian group define anything lacking so much as a nipple as "porn". Even O'Reilly, when he's criticizing rap videos for having half-naked women flaunting it onscreen, doesn't call it "porn". (Porn-like, "disgusting" - but not porn.)
In fact, my impression is that a great deal of supposed "left-leaners" are every bit if not more so prudish about porn than conservative America, especially when the porn isn't - eh, what's a good word - respectful, or defined as "healthy". It was the Clinton Administration that came out with the Digital Millennium act, after all.
My impression is also that this prudishness is also more prevalent in the young. The US has got a weird divide going on, with a marked increase in media's sexual content - while at the same time a focusing on sex crimes and child abuse in the news is fostering an anti-sex hysteria that gets drilled into kid's heads. Even as actual rape and child abuse statistics decline, a greater push for awareness and vigilance is intoned menacingly in the news.
It is my completely unscientific opinion that younger folks today are far more likely to develop a distaste for sexual content than, say, my generation. In an environment where the message seems to be that perverts and rapists lurk just around every corner, I think that can't help but affect how even people who consider themselves sexually "open-minded" develop. Which leads to Gaia Online, and a population that skews towards the young calling my picture "porn".
You still haven't said yea/nay regarding "is my picture (or an FHM magazine cover) porn", and I'd be interested to hear that answer, because I've provided a picture with particular characteristics, and a sampling of opinions from the population of Gaia Online, a site that as I type this has 31,847 users online, and has had a top record of 86,738 simultaneous connections, with a bit over 8 million accounts. I have no way of knowing how wide and varied the selection of folks commenting on my picture are, but if that sampling is an accurate cross-section of Gaia's user base, and can be applied to the entire Gaia population, a surprisingly huge number of people will see my picture as porn. And that, true, would bear out your assertion that the HfH cover is porn, because if my picture is porn, that cover certainly must be. And that would also indicate that the dilution of the word mentioned earlier is already underway.
So I would like to hear it from you, and I'll consider the matter discussed and over with: Do you think my picture is porn? (And the secondary question is: does the answer depend on Gaia's reaction and definition?) If it is, then I am a pornographer, and I guess I'll have to adjust to my new role in the world. If not, then you'll have to explain to me why not, and why that reason trumps a population that potentially exceeds that of "comics fandom".