Printable View
I realize that as adult webmasters, our standards of what could be considered obscene are actually a lot higher than most people but, that being said, how would you define something on a porn site as being considered 'obscene'?
Bukakke, waterports, role play/rape fantasy, etc, etc?
Where do you personally/professionally think the obscenity line should be drawn when it comes to adult content?
Regards,
Lee
honestly, the big thing for me is not things like dookie and such, but the line that is crossed when one or more participants are deliberately degraded. BDSM is one thing where you can tell the sub is enjoying the hell out of the situation, but when someone is getting slapped around and the like, I think the act has stopped being erotic and has become obscene.
I big one in straight "gonzo" content is something common to European productions (example: Rocco Siffredi) where the female model is being sodomized doggy style, with her face on the ground (or couch, or whatever) and the male model puts his foot on her face. It strikes me as so damn degrading it's nauseating.
my $.02
Wow, Lee, that's both a very good question and a quagmire.
This may be irrelevant to your specific question at first, but consider this. Each of us may have personal distinctions and reactions to what we classify as "obscene," but is there a consensus? In terms of the law, there has to be, despite it changes over time. Setting legal issues aside, I say doubtful (fortunately or unfortunately). This for the same reason it gets stickier when you ask individuals...
First what's "obscene" is terribly subjective, much less an intellectual/ethical thing than people would admit. It comes from a gut reaction, and then we rationalize it, ha! Me included. I don't think even the most "obscene" people in the world would agree on what's obscene.
Grittier and more to the point, and denied by many, is that ALL of us have some kind of sexual hangup or two, whether major or minor. Of course this influences what we think is obscene. Sexually "liberated" or not, people might not find this to be favorite topic to discuss because it exposes things we don't want to look at and/or don't want anyone else to know.
That said, my opinion of what's obscene on a porn site is anything where people are hurt/abused/endagered...emotionally, mentally and physically. An obvious one child abuse. The trickier one is just what Jacob said. In submissive/dominant situations, there's a fine line but a distinct one between fun, enjoyable play and despicable, hurtful and dangerous activity. Any healthy person knows that point - it's the "STOP" point. All I can (or could) say is how I react when I see something. Sometimes I've seen movies of very hot guys doing things I thought would be hot to me but instead find something isn't working. It must be either I just don't get into it, or I'm sensing something that is truly destructive and terribly disturbing, and that really concerns me.
More obscenities depending on who you talk to:
Piss turns some people off. Turns me on tremendously. Piss is cool. Piss is like cum in big amounts. People think it is dirty when actually it's sterile. While it supposedly carries far less HIV than semen, it's still clearly a body fluid that carries possible disease (if someone is sick) and medications or drugs a person is taking. So I'd say don't knock it, just be smart.
Shit is a double edged thing. Taboo for sure. Can't even really talk about it here. Also more popular than most people realize. It's indisputable totally absolutely disgusting - or it can, yes, be wonderfully erotic, depending on many things.
Ear wax and head cheese (barf!!!!!!) is the grossest most disgusting things people do in sex in my opinion. I can't understand why the creepy, deafening sound of someone's tongue in your ear or the taste of someone's earwax would turn anyone one, but I guess it does. I can't even talk about the other... To me they are both obscene and I would not put it on my sites. But no harm done if other people like it, even though it is really hard for me to admit. Happy day.
LOL @ Ear wax fetish... Thats a totally new one to me, definitely a strange one for sure but it takes all sorts.
That being said, i wonder how well that would sell on a Raunch Revenue site and more importantly, how the hell would you create the content for it :eek:
I do agree with you that everyone will have different standards when it comes to what is deemed to be obscene and some will say nothing should be as long as it is between consenting adults.
Regards,
Lee
Yeah, it is funny. It's incredible that practically anything can be a fetish, any object, color, sound...anything!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
The consenting adult idea is basically what I feel, too. To be honest with you (and everyone else, lol) I have a problem with the "consenting adult" idea. The problem is I agree with it, but it's not perfect. Some people are so vulnerable (innocently and not), duped, stupid or deranged that they consent to things that can't see or don't care are or will endanger them. Tough luck? To me that's worse than obscene. So then what, who makes the judgment call? Very sticky indeed.
True enough, you just have to look at the whole 'bug chaser' scene to realize that but as i said, it takes all sorts :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by tim460
Regards,
Lee
and yet many women and men are turned on by being degraded, even more so when it's done in front of the camera.
there are some things i find stomach-churningly gross, but i don't find them obscene. i am not sure that by my personal definition obscenity exists. i don't feel that my personal tastes should be adopted to define other adults' behaviour. if we didn't have so many religious beliefs of right and wrong, we wouldn't be deeply shocked if we accidentally see an act we wouldn't care to take part in.
honestly i can't see why anything that is legal in private between informed and consenting adults should be deemed obscene or illegal if seen by others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrChango
"and yet many women and men are turned on by being degraded, even more so when it's done in front of the camera."
The quote from Basschic couldn't be more true, and the same for Jacob's. Sounds like a contradiction but it isn't. I see the problem being how cultural views about sex affect the words/concepts we have available to describe and talk about sex. This is a big deal.
It's exactly the same as how some cultures have one or no words for something, while other cultures have several words for the same thing/activity. Is it the Hawaiian language that has several different words for love, for example? If it does, how does a person in another culture describe those differences if those concepts don't exist in their language? They may not be able to. The culture doesn't understand or accept the concept, so there are no words for it, or only misnomers and or inaccurate facsimiles. Our concepts shape our language...but the words our language gives us to communicate with also have a profound influence on our concepts, values, and personal identity.
For example, if a young kid happens to get a sneak peak of his/her parents (or people on TV) having a good hard, intense, pleasurable fuck, some kids (and adults) might be horrified because they don't understand what is really happening. They're not old enough to understand sex and nobody discussed it yet with them. Or they're old enough but out of touch, misinformed, sex phobic, etc.. They might call it abuse or rape when it isn't.
Worse, some people who like those good hard fucks might say they like to rape or get raped by each other....and here we go. Any healthy, sane, caring people work together to have a good time so nobody gets hurt. So they like to get hurt but they don't hurt each other doing so. I know what that means but the language we have doesn't have a clue. The Not only is the sentence illogical, you'd have to do quite a song and dance to explain, and only hope somehow people "get what you're really saying." This dilemma shows the power of language. Some of the words we have to describe sex create misunderstandings about it even with people who should know better. If our culture understood sexuality better, we'd have a vocabulary that would clarify what we are really saying that eliminates misleading and/or negative slants on things that aren't bad at all...but good.
I find it obscene when I see dressed people :D
dev..
the other day I waked by a store and read "erotics boutique"... went back and read again... "electronics boutique"....
I like the fact that people in porn pretty much do what they want.
The specific things that turn my stomach, and I personally see as obscene, are shit, piss, blood, mutilation, CP and models trying to pass for underage.
Out of those, the things that I feel should be illegal are the last two.