I am in the business, and I refer to it as pornography and myself as a pornographer all the time. I admit I do this primarily for hte amusement value and I do so in situations where it makes no difference, but still…
You are right, though. When it counts, I refer to the business as “adult entertainment”.
stoid
It’s erotica if I tell the wife, check this out.
Its pornograph if I hide the window when she walks in.
[sub]Which is just another way of saying that there is no objective difference, but there is a subjective difference–hance two words with different connotations and the same definition[/sub]
I kid you not, porno films used to try to dodge being classified as pornographic by having a few Shakespeare quotes at the beginning. “Look, it has culture!”
It’s all in the inflection.
Erotica makes you go “Ooooooooh!”
Pornography makes you go “Ewwwwwww!”
Palm Cove: HA! 
I am firm.
You read erotica.
He read pornography.
Bound and Gagged, by Laura Kipnis. I read it too. What a wonderful book!
Heh, I have a video called “Princess of Thieves”, it’s the adventures of this blond headed lass named Bobbin Head. Really cheesey (even for porn). One of her Merry Men is wearing a wristwatch.
Max Torque:
No, you are describing the Supreme Court’s definition of obscenity or “obscene speech” not protected by the First Amendment.
The Court may feel that certain pornography falls into the category of obscenity, but it has never defined pornography per se.
I believe both eros and pornaea (sp?) are Greek terms. What is the meaning of each when translated to English?
~~Baloo
Erotica is the pornography of whatever power elite is trying to make you feel guilty.
Pornography is the sympathetic depiction of sex as an expression of anger or hatred.
Erotica is the sympathetic depiction of sex.
Yes, I know this would classify all depictions of sado-masochism as pornography. It is meant to; S&M is evil.
Well, I know eros is love, especially sexual. Back in the old days, when statues of the male god Eros were in gymansiums (derived from the Greek gymnos, nude) men used in the buff, it had the connotation of lustful homoeroticism (there is that eros root again). But understand, the Greeks viewed homosexuality as the only way a man could love an equal (i.e., a male). That wasn’t what we were looking for in this discussion, so I might as well shut up now.
The definition of “pornography”, from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
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
3 : the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>
The definition of “erotica”, from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
1 : literary or artistic works having an erotic theme or quality
2 : depictions of things erotic
From these definitions, it looks to me like the only difference between porn and erotica is whether there is an intent to cause sexual exctiement.
Yeah, but from the same source, we have “erotic” defined as:
Which, by the principle of substitution, turns “erotica” into “literary or artistic works having a theme or quality of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire/strongly marked or affected by sexual desire” or “depictions of things of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire/strongly marked or affected by sexual desire”. Which comes pretty close to collapsing the distinction again.
In evaluating this for my own personal opinion on the topic, I always found that it’s a very thin line. In explaining to people the difference between the two has always been a difficult balance. There isn’t much different between Erotica and Pornography. However, I do think that on the further ends of the scale, there are differences.
I do consider pornography as a more raw, self-indulgent form of adult entertainment. It’s what you find in Red-Light districts of big cities…the private booths, the movie-theaters, etc. It’s adult entertainment where the sole purpose is self-pleasure.
I consider Erotica to be a more “artistic” form of pornography. It’s the sexual painting you are proud to have hanging on your wall. It’s the book of stories or poetry that are sensual and exciting that you want to read, not necessarily for the sole purpose of exciting and then pleasuring yourself. Erotica you share.
OTOH, You can masturbate to both forms.
I like Spiritus’ remark about Erotica he shares with his wife and Pornography is what he hides.
Although for myself, while I mostly enjoy the more sensual, subtleties of Erotica, I do enjoy a good search/share with my SO for the down & dirty.
Another dodge was to dress an actor up in a doctor’s lab coat in the beginning (before the film actually started) and proclaim that the porn flick was intended to be an instructional video.
I think this makes sense. Most people don’t realize there are serious body positioning problems when a woman is pleasuring five guys at once.
Sua