Thinking about porn
The thing about anti-pornography as its own stance is that I've yet to encounter a cogent argument distinguishing between pornography and erotica that isn't just "One makes me feel bad and is gross while the other appeals to my particular sensibilities," which is just a roundabout way of getting into the tiresome argument of "There exists a nebulously defined group of Reasonable Individuals to which I belong, and this group is identifiable largely by their enlightened agreement with me, and anybody outside of this group is a blithering savage who's too busy jerking off to be Reasonable."
But like, idk dude I think It Depends. I've seen "tastefully erotic" things I've found so repulsive it made my hair stand on end. And I've also seen tasteless porn that ended up making me think in ways I did not anticipate. There are sexual materials I'm interested in that do nothing to turn me on and there are non-sexual materials that really do it for me. If the only kinds of sexual works you've been exposed to are like "ANAL BUKKAKE - EVERYONE FUCKS MY BARELY LEGAL STEPMOM" versus some literary novel containing arch depictions of sex, then like, yes, I can see how it can be difficult for you to imagine how categorizing between porn and erotica might be tricky. But-- and I concede this is likely a self-selecting group-- most people I know who are interested in sexuality in art tend to agree this is an enormous spectrum with a lot of gray area. Of course, it's easy to dismiss such people as selfish perverts (whatever that actually means) who are too busy jerking off to have thought things through like Reasonable People have, etc. (Never mind that we live in a society that very nearly precludes the possibility of anybody genuinely adhering to that imagined legal ideal of the Reasonable Person when it comes to sexuality...)
I dunno. I simply just do not see any particular reason for distinguishing between porn/erotica versus other forms of art and consumer products except in that we live in a society of enormous sexual hangups and so the former appears particularly morbid due to its prurience. This is not to say "porn/erotica is beyond criticism," (I can't help but roll my eyes at anybody who says shit like this, whether in defense or in petulant whining about how they're "not allowed" to say things), but rather that I think people need to be more critical about like, every other aspect of society, including art and consumer products as a whole.
Like, a lot of mainstream porn is revolting about women. That is because society is a grim fucking place for women. A lot of mainstream porn is nauseatingly racist. That is because society is nauseatingly racist. I have personal opinions about psychosexual repression and the way prescriptivist views towards proper sexuality makes porn significantly worse that I won't get into because I don't think there's much there wrt material arguments, but ultimately I do think porn in itself is not "worsening" things on a broader scale so much as expressing an already dire fucking state of things. The problem, as always, is capitalism, the commodification of bodies and the complete disinterest our country has in protecting the vulnerable, especially when their torment is profitable and when the victims are associated with "lower" or "more degrading" forms of labor.
I've heard both anti and pro-porn folks accusing the other of failing to listen to sex workers. I've seen sex workers arguing over who "counts" as a sex worker and therefore has the biggest say on whether the morally correct stance is anti or pro-porn. I can understand debates about how to make the industry safer, to make the actual work of sex work safer, but none of this, to me, feels relevant to the issue of pornography as a concept, y'know? Like the issue is the material conditions brought about by society, not this nebulous world of ideas in which some things are good (erotica, art) and others are bad (pornography, products) and never shall the two entwine because one side is championed by degenerate cavemen with perma-boners who want to legalize sex slavery and the other by the good and righteous people with normal sexualities who care about the plight of women, pls do not look at the sort of people who have been associated with our particular politics tyvm
How does society practically preclude people from following the perscription for acceptable sexuality? I agree with the rest of what you said I just don't fully understand what you meant by that part.
Ehh that's a whole other rabbit hole I probably should have removed reference to altogether but basically the normative ideas of sexuality are so narrow + punishing, and so many people fall outside of it and are taught to view themselves as subhuman as a result, that almost nobody has what I'd call a healthy relationship with sexuality without sustained intervention. Shame and repression are so heavily baked into how we even think about ourselves, much less others, that I think the notion of "The Reasonable Person" wrt sex is an even greater fiction than you can encounter in other domains because falling outside of the expected average invites heavy condemnation
