Hardcore pornography  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 19:46, 25 April 2017
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

← Previous diff
Revision as of 19:48, 25 April 2017
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)
(Etymology)
Next diff →
Line 20: Line 20:
From the 1970s, the salient distinction was between hardcore pornography and [[softcore pornography]], which may use simulated sex and limits the range and intensity of depictions of sexual activities. For example, [[William Rotsler]]'s 1973 classification subdivided the [[X rating]] for erotic films: "The XXX-rating means hard-core, the XX-rating is for simulation, and an X-rating is for comparatively cool films." From the 1970s, the salient distinction was between hardcore pornography and [[softcore pornography]], which may use simulated sex and limits the range and intensity of depictions of sexual activities. For example, [[William Rotsler]]'s 1973 classification subdivided the [[X rating]] for erotic films: "The XXX-rating means hard-core, the XX-rating is for simulation, and an X-rating is for comparatively cool films."
 +=== Difference from softcore ===
 +While both softcore and hardcore feature extensive [[nudity]] and sexual situations with the intention of [[sexual arousal|arousing]] the viewer, the key difference between softcore and hardcore is that softcore does not include the following hardcore elements: shots of an erect penis, shots of actual [[sexual intercourse|penetration]] (vaginal, anal and/or oral), shots of a third party touching/licking female breasts, and shots of [[ejaculation]] (often over the subject, usually a female). Generally (although not always), sexual acts in softcore are simulated, while the appeal of hardcore is that the acts themselves are obviously real (although the emotions of the performers may be simulated). [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hardcore_pornography&action=edit&oldid=69184520]
==History== ==History==

Revision as of 19:48, 25 April 2017

In the realm of erotica the differences between hardcore and softcore can be described along the axes simulated/unsimulated, explicit/suggestive. --JWG [Aug 2006]


Pornography, as we have observed, is usually classified into "hardcore" and "softcore". This utilises a HARD-SOFT image-schema. Hardness is generally associated with activity and forcefulness, probably because muscles in action become hard, and hard objects can penetrate soft objects. In the case of "hard porn", the particularly apposite nature of this image-schema needs no comment. From this HARD IS ACTIVE, we can derive ACTIVE IS MORE (since activity produces more results than inactivity) therefore HARDER PORNOGRAPHY IS MORE PORNOGRAPHIC. This combines with MORE IS BETTER (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:22) to give us HARDER PORNOGRAPHY IS BETTER PORNOGRAPHY (at least for those who enjoy pornography). --"Debating Pornography: Categories and Metaphors" by Robin Turner, 1999


While both softcore and hardcore feature extensive nudity and sexual situations with the intention of arousing the viewer, the key difference between softcore and hardcore is that softcore does not include the following hardcore elements: shots of an erect penis, shots of actual penetration (vaginal, anal and/or oral), shots of a third party touching/licking female breasts, and shots of ejaculation (often over the subject, usually a female). Generally (although not always), sexual acts in softcore are simulated, while the appeal of hardcore is that the acts themselves are obviously real (although the emotions of the performers may be simulated). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_pornography [Aug 2006]

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Hardcore pornography, or hardcore porn, is still photography or video footage that contains explicit forms of pornography, most commonly including depictions of sexual acts such as vaginal, anal or oral intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus, ejaculation, and fetish play. Hardcore pornography usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films and cartoons. Since the 1990s, the genre is studied academically in such publications as Hard Core: Power, Pleasure (1989).

Contents

Etymology

A distinction between "hardcore pornography" and "borderline pornography" (or "borderline obscenity") was made in the 1950s and 1960s by American jurists discussing obscenity laws. "Borderline pornography" appealed to sexual prurience, but had positive qualities, such as literary or artistic merit, and so was arguably permitted by obscenity laws; "hardcore pornography" lacked such merits and was definitely prohibited. In Roth v. United States (1957) the government brief distinguished three classes of sexual material: "novels of apparently serious literary intent"; "borderline entertainment ... magazines, cartoons, nudist publications, etc."; and "hard core pornography, which no one would suggest had literary merit". Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen in 1959 distinguished "erotic realism" from "pornography"; in the latter "the main purpose is to stimulate erotic response in the reader. And that is all." Most famously, in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Potter Stewart wrote:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case [The Lovers] is not that.

In Jacobellis v. Ohio and other cases, the United States Supreme Court ruled that only "hardcore" pornography could be prohibited by obscenity laws, with the rest protected by the First Amendment. The category of "borderline obscenity" thus became obsolete. The 1970 report of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography said:

[M]ailers dealing in sexually oriented materials define "hard-core pornography" as "photographic depictions of actual sexual intercourse with camera focus on the genitals and no accompanying text to provide a legal defense". This, of course, is not a legal definition.... Some judges have employed the term "hard-core pornography" as a synonym for "material which can be legally suppressed". In this Report, the term is used as a synonym for "under-the-counter" or covertly sold materials. This is, in effect, the definition of hard-core applied in the marketplace. It can be argued that because of the confusion about the meaning of the term, which stems primarily from an undefined legal concept, it would be well to avoid the use of the term altogether.... There is one genre of sexually oriented material which is almost universally sold under-the-counter in the United States: wholly photographic reproductions of actual sexual intercourse graphically depicting vaginal and/or oral penetration.... A[t] present, distinctions between materials sold openly and those sold covertly have become extremely unclear.

From the 1970s, the salient distinction was between hardcore pornography and softcore pornography, which may use simulated sex and limits the range and intensity of depictions of sexual activities. For example, William Rotsler's 1973 classification subdivided the X rating for erotic films: "The XXX-rating means hard-core, the XX-rating is for simulation, and an X-rating is for comparatively cool films."

Difference from softcore

While both softcore and hardcore feature extensive nudity and sexual situations with the intention of arousing the viewer, the key difference between softcore and hardcore is that softcore does not include the following hardcore elements: shots of an erect penis, shots of actual penetration (vaginal, anal and/or oral), shots of a third party touching/licking female breasts, and shots of ejaculation (often over the subject, usually a female). Generally (although not always), sexual acts in softcore are simulated, while the appeal of hardcore is that the acts themselves are obviously real (although the emotions of the performers may be simulated). [1]

History

The prehistory of modern pornography is the classical American stag film, also known as blue movies, a body of clandestine short pornographic films produced during the first two-thirds of the 20th century. While the exact corpus of the distinctive stag film remains unknown, scholars at the Kinsey Institute believe there are approximately 2000 films produced between 1915-1968. Stag cinema is a form of hardcore film and is characterized as silent, usually filling a single reel or less, and was illegally made and exhibited because of censorship laws in America. Women were excluded from these private screenings that were shown in American "smoker" houses such as fraternities or other exclusive institutions. In Europe, films of the same kind were screened within brothels. The mode of reception of the all-male audience of stag films was raucous, collective sexual banter and sexual arousal. Film historians describe stag films as a primitive form of cinema because they were produced by anonymous and amateur male artists who failed in achieving narrative coherence and continuity within their diegesis. Today, many of these films have been archived by the Kinsey Institute, however most are in a state of decay and have no copyright, real credits, or acknowledged authorship. The stag film era inevitably ended due to the beginnings of the sexual revolution in the fifties in combination with the new technologies of the post war era, such as 16mm, 8mm, and the Super 8. American stag cinema in general has received scholarly attention first in the mid-seventies by heterosexual males such as in Di Lauro and Gerald Rabkin's Dirty Movies (1976) and more recently by feminist and queer cultural historians such as in Linda M. Williams' Hard Core: Power Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" (1989) and Thomas Waugh's Homosociality in the Classical American Stag Film: Off-Screen, On-screen (2001).

Legality

The distribution of hardcore pornography had been widely prohibited in many countries until the second half of the 20th century when many countries began to allow some dissemination of softcore material. Supply is now usually regulated by a motion picture rating system as well as by direct regulation of points of sale. Restrictions, as applicable, apply to the screening, or rental, sale, or giving of a movie, in the form of a DVD, video, computer file, etc. Public display and advertising of hardcore pornography is often prohibited, as is its supply to minors.

Most countries have eased the restrictions on the distribution of pornography, either by general or restricted legalization or by failure to enforce prohibitive legislation. Most easing of restrictions has been by way of changes to the criteria of a country's movie classification system. The anti-pornography movement often vigorously opposes legalization. In 1969, Denmark became the first country in the world to legalize pornography. In the U.S., legal interpretations of pornography in relation to the constitutional right to free speech differ from state to state and from city to city. Hardcore pornography was legalized in the UK in 2000.

Impact on society

Berl Kutchinsky's Studies on Pornography and Sex Crimes in Denmark (1970), a scientific report commissioned by the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, found that the legalizing of pornography in Denmark had not (as had been expected) resulted in an increase of sex crimes.

A study conducted in Denmark in 2003 and later published in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that men and women generally believe that hardcore pornography has a positive influence on their lives.

United Kingdom

The Independent reported in 2006 that Nielsen NetRatings found that more than nine million British male adults used Internet porn services. The study also reported a one-third rise in the number of women visiting X-rated sites, from 1.05 million to 1.38 million. A 2003 study found that one third of all British Internet users accessed hardcore porn.

United States

A 2005 study by Eric Schlosser estimated that revenues from hardcore porn match Hollywood's domestic box office takings. Hardcore porn videos, Internet sites, live sex acts and cable TV programming generate US$10 billion, roughly equal to U.S. domestic box office receipts.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Hardcore pornography" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools