Pornography
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Pornography is art and writing which makes people think about sex. Some people like to call it "erotica" instead, The words "sexually explicit" are also used. It is also called "porn" or "porno" for short.
The word "pornography" comes from the Greek words meaning "whore" and "writing". It used to mean "writing about whores", and it meant stories or books that told about people having sex. Today, people usually use the word to mean photographs, movies, or other pictures of people who are naked or are having sex. However, books or stories about sex are sometimes also called pornography.
Usually, such material is called pornographic, if the only focus of it is to make people want sex. Materials, the purpose of which is not to make people crave for sex, are sometimes called erotic. A picture of a partly or completely naked person need not be pornography. It can also serve a different purpose, for example to show the difference between men and women, or to show how certain people live, mainly in tribe-like communities.
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[edit] Kinds of pornography
There are many kinds of pornography. Different people have different sexual likes and dislikes. Some porn shows people who are not even naked, but who are posed in a sexy manner. This is called "soft porn" -- sometimes "cheesecake" or "beefcake", depending on if women or men are in the pictures. Porn which shows people actually having sex is sometimes called "hardcore porn" or "hard porn".
Most pornography is intended for men. Some scientists think that men are more likely to be sexually turned on by pictures than women are. One of the most common kinds of sexually explicit writing, though, is the romance novel. These are novels which tell stories about women falling in love and having sexual romances with exciting, passionate men. Most people who read romance novels are women. Some women also enjoy pornographic pictures or movies.
[edit] The business of pornography
From the earliest years of the invention of the camera and motion pictures, there have been companies making pornography. However, until the 1970s, companies making pornography were small, because there were many laws against making pornography. In the 1970s, pornographic magazines such as Penthouse became a huge and successful business. As well, in the 1970s, pornographic films became more mainstream. In the 1980s, the development of the video cassette recorder caused a huge boom in the pornography industry. A number of companies began producing hardcore pornographic sex videotapes in the US and distributing the tapes to home viewers. In the 1990s, as more people began using of the Internet, and as computers became more powerful, companies began selling pornographic pictures on the Internet. In the 2000s, the increased speed of computers allowed pornography companies to sell porn videos over the Internet that are send electronically to the purchasers computer.
There are many different kinds of businesses that make and sell pornography. There are magazines such as Playboy and Hustler; movie production companies such as Vivid Video which hire pornography actors and produce porn videos; and also many thousands of Web sites that produce and sell porn. Businesses that make pornography call themselves adult entertainment businesses. This is because most people think only adults should see pornography, and that it is not good for children to see it. In some countries it is a crime to sell or show pornography to children.
[edit] Pornography and the law
In almost all countries, it is a very serious crime to make pornographic photographs of children. This is called "child porn". In the United States, for instance, there are laws that say that anyone who takes pornographic photos must keep records that prove the ages of the people in the pictures are over 18.
In many countries, making or owning pornography is a crime. However, in some cultures, such as Western European nations and the US, making or owning pornography is legal, as long as all of the participants are over 18 years of age, and as long the pornographic material is not sold to people under 18. Many cities or towns have restrictions on where pornographic videos or magazines can be sold, and on how these videos or magazines can be displayed. For example, some towns in Canada require pornographic video packages to be kept out of sight of children.
[edit] Criticism of pornography
Since the 1970s, many women's groups and feminist writers have criticized pornography, especially hardcore pornography. Women's groups and feminist writers have argued that hardcore pornography shows women in degrading or humiliating positions. These critics of hardcore pornography have also argued that hardcore pornography encourages the viewers of the films or magazines to act violently to real women they meet.
From the other side, pornography is also often criticised by those who believe that it is ungodly.
In some famous novels, like Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, pornography has been described as a tool that is secretly pushed by some evil governments, because they believe it is a force that makes the public less likely to rebel, or even to care about injustice. In fact, Orwell got this idea from what some countries such as Nazi Germany had really done. A short time after Adolf Hitler came to power, Germany was flooded with tax-funded pornography like never before.
