whether pornography promotes the progress of science and useful arts
The creation of sexual pleasure is a useful art. People clearly care enough about sex to devote significant parts of their lives to it, and it has major interactions with their health and happiness. Why then should its practice and technique not be fit subjects for art? What is the purpose of music but to supply aural pleasure, or of paintings and sculpture but to supply visual pleasure?
To be sure, pornography of one kind or another may not appeal to people. What of it? Many art works in other media leave me cold or even repulse me. I can cite artists whose work I loathe looking at but yet consider to be extremely high in art value, partly because they make me so uncomfortable. I see no reason for art based on sexual performance to be any different.
I find this whole proposition offensive, designed to devalue the interests, creativity and effort of one group of people in order to maintain the convenience of others - the very definition of oppression. In a broader sense, telling people in general that their sexuality is inherently lacking in worth is little more than a crude bid for psychosocial control by associating a center of bodily excitement and pleasure with feelings of shame and uselessness.
The creation of sexual pleasure is a useful art. People clearly care enough about sex to devote significant parts of their lives to it, and it has major interactions with their health and happiness. Why then should its practice and technique not be fit subjects for art? What is the purpose of music but to supply aural pleasure, or of paintings and sculpture but to supply visual pleasure?
To be sure, pornography of one kind or another may not appeal to people. What of it? Many art works in other media leave me cold or even repulse me. I can cite artists whose work I loathe looking at but yet consider to be extremely high in art value, partly because they make me so uncomfortable. I see no reason for art based on sexual performance to be any different.
I find this whole proposition offensive, designed to devalue the interests, creativity and effort of one group of people in order to maintain the convenience of others - the very definition of oppression. In a broader sense, telling people in general that their sexuality is inherently lacking in worth is little more than a crude bid for psychosocial control by associating a center of bodily excitement and pleasure with feelings of shame and uselessness.