On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Jon Johanning wrote:
> Anyway, I suppose I should bow out of this discussion, since I entered
> it under the misapprehension that it was about pornography as we
> ordinary folks understand the term.
Maybe I shouldn't get all pomo on your ass here, but why do you assume there is some stable, universally agreed upon definition of pornography among "ordinary people"? What strikes me in everyday life is how little consensus there is among people about pornography: "X is pornography!" "No it's art!" --I guess this whole thread is another example: pornography is a contested category, not a self-apparent signifier of a Platonic Form.
--An interesting research topic: how do people learn definitions of pornography? What causes variations in the definitions across time and place? How are these definitions imbricated with various socioeconomic relations?
Miles