PORNOGRAPHY 9 psychoanalysis continued to assert that and can never be established directly or polymorphous pervcrse adults were either with absolute certainty. However, it is psychotic or unable to form stable human sufficient for critical purposes and is the relationships, and therefore driven from definition used in this article. one sexual episode to the next. With the Value of Pornography. Pornogra- gradual decline of the influence of psycho- phy has often been considered a symptom analysis the term no longer occurs in of societalillness, andits demisepredicted. general writing with any frequency, being That the gradual removal of restrictions replaced by more neutraldesignations, such on sexual activities has not produced a as "sexual pluralism." parallel decline in pornography, but rather Wayne R. Dynes the reverse, suggests that it satisfies a deep need. While animal sexual excitement is POLYNESIA produced by odors, a consequence of the See Pacific Cultures. estrus cycle, human beingsuse their minds. The separation of sexuality from repro- POPPERS duction, the increased lifespan civiliza- See Drugs. 1 tion has brought, and the anti-erotic trends PORNOGRAPHY in modern society mean that glandular impulses toward sexual activity are insuf- Originally referring mainly to ficient. Hence the production and con- writings, today pornography includes a sumption of pornography as a stimulant of whole range of sexually explicit cultural sexual activity. artifacts intended to produce immediate The production of pornography, sexual arousal. The term first appeared in then, is a naturally human activity, stem- eighteenth-century France, a coinage from ming from the same sorts of inner drive Greek pornegraphos, "a painter of prosti- tutes." It is documented in English from that lead to the production of music, art, the mid-nineteenth century. and literature. It has been found among Definition. Considerable thought many tribal peoples. That sexual excite- has been devoted to the definition of por- ment, like laughter, is contagious lies at nography. Proposed definitions are of three the root of pornography's power. types. The first is by content: the portrayal Pornography is, for many people, or discussion of genitalia or specific sexual pleasurable, directly and indirectly pro- acts is pornographic; this definition fails ducing orgasm, and that alone is a power- because sexual acts and gcnitalia may be ful argument for it. It relieves guilt over portrayed for medical purposes, or in edu- sexuality, encourages masturbation and cational material, without the intent to fantasy, and is a substitute forrisky sexual arouse. A second approach is by the encounters; as such, it can be relationship- observer's use of the materials: those enhancing. Through pornography the crea- materials which produce sexual arousal tor and consumer can explore and accept are pornographic. This approach fails bc- aspects of their sexuality which cannot be cause images not intended for arousal, and actcd upon. Although some pornography not found arousing by most, can be used to transmits misinformation, on the whole it produce sexual arousal; conversely, some provides education about sex and contrib- are not stimulated by scenes which the utes to public acceptance of sexuality. majority finds intensely erotic. Finally, Through pornography society does its there is the intent of the producer: those thinking about sex and to some extent materials which are intended to arouse the about relationships. Pornographers and the viewer, reader, or listener are pornographic. legalstruggles they have fought have made As a lcgal critcrion this approach also fails, it possible for non-pornographic sex edu- becausc intent can be disguised or denied, cation materials to circulate freely. Por- * PORNOGRAPHY nography also provides the historian and Little is known in the West about anthropologist with evidence of sexual the homosexual pornographic writings activities and attitudes. (mujun)of the classical Islamic cultures or Homosexual Pornography. It has the pederastic paintingsof Persia. In China been argued that almost all pornography is the Ming period (1368-1644) saw the ap- homosexual. Save for those small portions pearance of sexually explicit literature and consumedby women, orcreatedbywomen prints, including same-sex material. De- for consumption by men, pornography has spite the disapproval of the rulers, these been created by men in order to stimulate interests continued in the succeeding other men. Even if heterosexual activities Manchu dynasty, when China's greatest are described or portrayed, even if the novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber, producer and consumer are heterosexually which has a bisexual hero and many identified, the intent and, in some way, homosexual episodes, appeared. One of the true nature of such pornography is Japan's major writers, Saikaku Ihara, spe- homosexual. That homosexuality and cialized in frank writing about both amo- pornography tend to be accepted or con- rous women and the male-male loves of demned together gives further support to a the Samurai. probable deep relationship, perhaps that Until the nineteenth century, they both encourage and require societal homosexual pornography in the West was tolerance of non-procreative sexuality. often combined with defenses of sodomy. There has also been significant involve- Such works include Alcibiade fanciullo a ment of homosexuals in the production scola, an erotic defense of pederastic love andsale of materials directed to the hetero- from seventeenth-centuryItaly; the bisex- sexual public. ual, philosophical fiction of the Marquis However, pornography is usually de Sade; and The Sins of the Cities of the considered homosexual if it has homoscx- Plain, or the Recollections of a Mary-Anne ualcontent or subject matter. While erotic (1881], the earliest such work that sur- portrayals of men, and descriptions or vives in English and the first that is un- expressions of homosexual love, arewidely abashed masturbatory fiction, with brief found, homosexual pornography is much appended essays on "Sodomy" and "Triba- more restricted. Where it exists it shows dism." Pornographic scenes are found in an acceptance by society, however begrudg- the famous Teleny (1893))a novel falsely ing and limited, of homosexuality and attributed to Oscar Wilde. The number of homosexual sexual relations. The occa- published works, however, was small. Well sional exposure of non-homosexuals to it into the twentieth century pornographic has in turn contributed to further societal stories, such as Seven in a Barn, circulated acceptance of homosexuality. in typewritten form. History. Pornography is excep- The Pulp Novel. The vast major- tionally subject to destruction, homosex- ity of written gay male pornography in the ualpornography doubly so, and the follow- United States is issued in the form of ing discussion is presumably incomplete. paperback novels printed on pulp. Most of The earliest homosexual pornography this material is of no literary value what- occurs in Greek vase paintings, which soever, being typically composed at a rate show much sexually explicit homosexual of over 50 pages a day by writers who often activity (oral, o !all and intercrural inter- have little or no understanding of the set- course). Prims ly pederastic, these depic- tings (interstatetrucking, rodeos, theNavy, tions constitute a body of work unsur- etc.) involved. Typical pay for afull book is passed in artistic value and positive atti- $250. Writers may chum out scores of tude toward sex. books using the same basic ingredients: several pages of sexual description fol- PORNOGRAPHY 4 lowed by several pages of "plot/character" Modem Visual Pornography. The in a pattern repeated throughout the book. invention of photography in the nineteenth Occasionally, however, one finds well- century provided a new medium for the written pornography, often by professional pornographer. The best-known creator of writers "moonlighting" under pseudo- sexually stimulating male portraits was nyms, in which a talent for almost poeti- the Baron von Gloeden, although there cally concise description of characters and were others in bothEngland and Germany. setting is clearly visible, and sometimes Sexual activity was often the subject of an exotic setting is portrayed with such photographs, though legalrestrictions kept telling detail that one must presume the them underground. author is drawing on personal experience Twentieth-century homosexual or thorough research. visual pornography in the United States A wary consumer is well advised and Germany, other than that which was to browse such novels before purchase, as underground, began as an offshoot of the the title and cover illustration may have naturist and physical-culture movements. norelation to thecontents. Until the 1970s, Erotic "physique" magazines, picture sets, novels invariably were introduced by and films were published under the pre- pseudo-scientific statements, supposedly tense of non-sexual interest in body devel- from psychiatrists or clergymen, often opment. More explicit were the drawings denouncing the behavior depicted therein, of "Blade" (Carlyle Kneeland Bate; 1917- and intended to provide the "redeeming 1989).The devastation of German culture social value" then required by the Ameri- by the Nazis and World War I1 left the can courts, but actually providing no little United States as the principal center of gay humor in a genre seldom noted for a comic erotica. Eight and 16mm