Pornography

Introduction

Definition and History

What is the literal meaning of pornography? According to the apparent decisive definition by American Heritage Dictionary (1975) pornography refers to any form of communication whether written or graphic or in other forms which are intended to excite sexual and lascivious feelings. Pornography is not modern to our society and its origin goes as early as Western culture. It originated from a Greek work “pornographos” which meant writing about harlots. As the modern prostitutes endeavor to excite the lascivious feelings in their clients, in the ancient times the pornographic writings were meant to do things that the prostitutes of modern society do. In modern society, pornographic materials, also referred to as “sexually explicit materials” are the visual, textual or aural representation or depicting of sexual acts and/or behaviors or the exposition of reproductive body parts. Pornographic materials are primarily used for fulfillment of personal fantasy and sexual satisfaction and for entertainment purposes. In common perception, any material intended for arousal of sexual desires, mostly involving sexually explicit materials is termed as pornographic.

Background

Pornography forms a major issue and debating topic in the American society and also throughout the globe. Many concerns and controversies are associated with this area including the destructive or contributive nature of pornography exists in our society have made the topic of pornography deeply contentious. Most of the public concerns are associated with the internet which is the largest source of graphical and textual depicter of homosexual and heterosexual intercourses, masturbation, incest, rape, bestiality etc. Although many of these materials are available in other forms such as print media, hotels, magazines, video-rental stores etc. But, the availability of these materials on internet is found considerably higher on internet than other resources. Furthermore, these sexually explicit materials find their way to the computer screens of the youth particularly children and adolescents without being actively sought which makes the internet medium different from the other mediums.

The exposition of the youth to the sexually explicit materials through various types of media has been a major concern of the U.S. society. Mostly, such concerns are focused on the information associated with graphic portrayals of human reproductive parts, sexual matters and activities. Because of the existence of ambiguities in the definition of pornography, the concerns related to pornography, their implications and effective approaches to deal with pornography differ in different contexts. There also exists a considerable difference in the public opinion related to the association of internet with pornography as compared to other media. Some groups believe that the internet medium should not be considered differently from the physical world and the moral and ethical code of conducts, laws and cultural norms that govern the interactions and behaviors in the physical world should be same on the internet. These norms in physical world can be observed in different techniques such as movie rating, restricted sections of books and videos, opaque wrappings of adult magazine covers, and specific channels and certain hours of the transmission of sexually explicit content on TV. According to ...