> Porn invented in the nineteenth century? I seriously doubt this.
Checked out any excavated Roman bedroom walls or floor mosaics lately? (Probably some French Stone-Age cave walls would yield interesting results, too.)
Ken quoted Dr. Hunt:
> Until Sade, sexual imagery was used primarily for other political or
> religious purposes:
> fertility, regicide...
I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that people weren't consuming pictures and text to get off on them long before Sade is suffering from a serious case of academic tunnel vision -- I don't care how impressive her credentials are.
I am relying on the following definition of "pornography."
1 : the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement 2 : material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ "In an ideal world, people would be preoccupied with reading and writing poetry and having love affairs, as people were in the Japanese court in the 11th century, as described in 'The Tale of Genji.' If people were involved in that type of life, maybe there would be no war." -- Wallace Shawn