Why Does Porn Matter?

Why does porn matter?

In my career as a sex writer, I've written many times in defense of porn. I've written about why it's morally defensible. I've written about why it's legally defensible. I've written about why it's a valid thing for people in monogamous relationships to enjoy. I've written about why it's feminist... or at least, why it can be feminist, why it's not automatically and by its very nature sexist (even though a fair amount of it is).

Today, I want to talk about something else.

I want to talk about why porn matters. I want to talk about what porn contributes: to individuals, and to a culture. I want to talk about why porn has redeeming social importance... even the "no redeeming social importance" stuff, the sleaziest, skankiest, artistically shabbiest, porniest porn you can imagine. I want to talk about why porn, simply by its nature as porn, has value.

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Thus begins my latest piece on the Blowfish Blog, Why Does Porn Matter?. To find out why I think porn -- not sex art, not erotica, but regular old "purely for the sake of turning people on" porn -- is important and valuable, read the rest of the piece. (And if you feel inspired to comment here, please consider cross-posting your comment to the Blowfish Blog -- they like comments there, too.) Enjoy!

Comments

[Spencer]

You have a very distinct style when it comes to writing introductions, Greta. This is the first time I really noticed it, but it seems many of your posts start with the "I've talked about all sorts of aspects of this issue... but today I'm going to talk about something else" pattern.

Just something that jumped out at me.

[Spencer]

(For what it's worth, I meant no offense by my last comment. It was merely an observation-- I've said elsewhere that you write beautifully and with great clarity, and that still stands, despite the similarities some of your introductions share.)

[Rachel]

I am not often (read: approximately never) compelled to post responses to things I read on the internet, but I found your piece fascinating. While I've always considered porn something that, while perhaps not particularly interesting to me, should be protected along with the rest of our free speech rights, I definitely never thought about its possible benefits as you describe them. This was a truly eye-opening, mind-expanding blog post for me. Thank you.

[Valhar2000]

I've said elsewhere that you write beautifully and with great clarity

Yeah. Say what you want about Greta: she knows her way around a keyboard.

[Maria]

but it seems many of your posts start with the "I've talked about all sorts of aspects of this issue... but today I'm going to talk about something else" pattern.

I've noticed that too, several times. I like that sort of distinctive style! It's Greta-style. Many writers I like have these things that make you recognize it's their writing right away. With Greta you know there most probably will follow something good when you read that :-)

[Circe]

Excellent article. This is exactly what I needed to read. Thank you.

[ragdish]

Great article. Could you elaborate on what are your criteria for "good" porn be it visual, text, etc..

And mind you, what you consider good porn may be considered sexist and misogynist by another.