the neverending debate about porn vs. erotica

[Stella_Omega]

Personally I have decided that there's no difference, really. There's Sexually Explicit Media that doesn't get me off, Sexually Explicit Media that does, SEM that infuriates me for one or a few reasons, SEM that interests me more than only sexually, SEM that bores me to tears because there isn't enough sex in it.





Anyway, here's a good discussion. The original blog post is pretty good, and there are some interesting statements in the comments too.

Greta Christina's Blog

 

[lovecraft68]

Personally I have decided that there's no difference, really. There's Sexually Explicit Media that doesn't get me off, Sexually Explicit Media that does, SEM that infuriates me for one or a few reasons, SEM that interests me more than only sexually, SEM that bores me to tears because there isn't enough sex in it.





Anyway, here's a good discussion. The original blog post is pretty good, and there are some interesting statements in the comments too.

Greta Christina's Blog

To me its always been as simple as erotica having somewhat of a storyline and some build up to the sex. Something that builds up to the act so that there is an air of anticipation. If done right you're excited before they get to it.

Porn is just straight to the act, and designed for stroke purposes.

 

[Kurokami]

Goddamn it, I was already planning a post here on the theme of "I don't care if it's porn or erotica, I care if it's good," but then the last paragraph of that blog post beat me to it, almost verbatim. Ah well...

That is seriously all I care about when it comes to this stuff, though, and quality even in sexually explicit stuff, to me, has always been about more than just getting me off. Don't get me wrong, I won't be complaining if I can get an orgasm out of it, but that's hardly the point. Even if I don't find the content attractive at all from a cock-and-balls standpoint, it can still have enough intellectual value to make me stop and go "hmm, interesting."

Whenever this porn vs. erotica discussion comes up, the distinction most people end up with (and Lovecraft's already done it here) is based around thought; porn is designed for the dick (or pussy. Or crystalline octohedral nerve construct, I don't know what you guys have) and erotica for the brain, at least in part. You get off to porn, but erotica requires a certain level of intellectual participation, and perhaps no getting off at all. Part of me questions why you'd want to write something sexually explicit, but not enough to get off on, but whatever. Maybe that's just me.

I don't know if that distinction is useful, though. Mostly because literally everyone ever has a different idea of what that minimum threshold of thinkery is that turns a simple stroke story into erotica; it's entirely possible that the author was aiming for something artsy and intellectual, and merely failed. Or that the reader missed it. Happens to the best of us. Does that make the story porn, or erotica? Neither, but it does make everyone wrong.

In the end it's all in the eye of the beholder, and hence pretty useless as a division in terms. Far better to think in terms of quality; it's still completely subjective, but at least after thinking about it you'll have a list of things you like. That's always good. And, I mean, there's really nothing stopping you from thinking about the sexy stuff designed to get you off, and getting off on sexy stuff designed to make you think. Honestly, once it's in your hands (hur, hur) you decide which organ you're going to stroke. Hell, thinking at it like that, it's possible for a story or whatever to transition between being porn or erotica depending on where you place your hands, like it's a quantum state!

...Or hell, maybe I'm just weird. I seem to be qualifying my posts like that a lot, lately.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Meh, if it doesn't engage my cunt, it's a failure as erotica.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

The brain is the biggest erogenous zone.

Ergo, Erotica (by kurokami's standard) will always be more arousing then porn.

Also, I tend to get more comments, likes, votes, and general good feedback on my more plotted stories, while my one series that is more focused on sex has very few comments but a LOT of views.

I was unfortunate enough to have a story come out recently when the site was bugging out, and on a sunday no less. It was very story-based, with very little erotic text. However, it was the romance and the story that people liked. It has eighteen comments, despite having the fewest views of any of my current stories.

It's an MM story about a political prisoner. Told entirely from transcripts; his journal, interviews, police reports, etc.

http://www.literotica.com/s/file-66

 

[Stella_Omega]

See-- people keep saying stuff like that, that "erotica is more arousing than porn,"

except for the people who say "Porn goes straight to the genitals and induces stroking"

Personally, I do get more aroused by a bit of plot in my porn. Except for certain BDSM fetishes, which can make me cum before i finish reading the description of the action.

What's the difference?

 

[HeatherVivant]

Good literature first, erotica second. If porn is a side-effect, so be it, but it has to engage.

That's what floats my boat (or at least what floats my little man in the canoe).

 

[Etaski]

See-- people keep saying stuff like that, that "erotica is more arousing than porn,"

except for the people who say "Porn goes straight to the genitals and induces stroking"

Personally, I do get more aroused by a bit of plot in my porn. Except for certain BDSM fetishes, which can make me cum before i finish reading the description of the action.

What's the difference?

Errr, well, when I was younger in my mind, "erotica" was written, "porn" was video only.

I think I would be fighting an uphill battle with that distinction since it's either changed or I misunderstood it from the start.

But regardless and generally, I always did associate the word "erotica" by itself with "softer" or "anticipation." The Porn was "BAM! WE'RE NEKKID! Starting spanking!"

Both can engage my cunt, though, so it's all good.

 

[estragon]

Make sure brain is warmed up and fully functioning before engaging cunt, dick, ass, tits, or whatever.

 

[lovecraft68]

See-- people keep saying stuff like that, that "erotica is more arousing than porn,"

except for the people who say "Porn goes straight to the genitals and induces stroking"

Personally, I do get more aroused by a bit of plot in my porn. Except for certain BDSM fetishes, which can make me cum before i finish reading the description of the action.

What's the difference?

I agree on the BDSM aspect, if it's a particularly rough scene, one that seems more like a fight than a sexual encounter, I'll hunt the wife down before I'm halfway finished.

 

[mikey2much]

Mho

Porn is just fucking, sucking, topping, or bottoming. erotica is fleshed out people with personalities fucking, sucking, topping, or bottoming.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Well, the BDSM aspect that works for you doesn't mean anything to me.

And BDSM fetishes might not mean anything to someone else.

It's not about the particulars, its about the fact that many of us have triggers that shorten the route to orgasm.

 

[mikey2much]

BDSM people have strange triggers

I known some of them to get off while walking around home depot. An ace hardware flyer could be erotica to them.

 

[lovecraft68]

I known some of them to get off while walking around home depot. An ace hardware flyer could be erotica to them.

Don't know about home depot, but I have had a few awkward moments in pet smart looking at training collars and dog crates

 

[Stella_Omega]

I known some of them to get off while walking around home depot. An ace hardware flyer could be erotica to them.

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff512/Loverskitten/7a865fee.jpg

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Don't know about home depot, but I have had a few awkward moments in pet smart looking at training collars and dog crates

For me it's touching.

I haven't had a lot of sex in my life, and I haven't had any 'good sex'. But for me what gets me excited is anticipation. How excited you can get if you're near someone who you really like. I'm friends with this guy who I have a huge crush on, (one-sided, but he's a cool guy) And sometimes I can get aroused just if he looks at me, or touches me in an entirely platonic way.

For me, a lot of what turns me off of some porn is when people focus too much on gimmicks or genitalia to even remember that a lot of the attraction comes just from being near, just from the look they give you or the way they touch you.

A lot of my work comes across as very romance oriented, and it is, but I think that it's mostly that I focus on touch.

 

[SamScribble]

For me, it's usually a question of the quality of the writing, drawing, or whatever.

If it's done well, it probably counts as erotica. If it's done crudely - yet still works - it's probably porn.

Also (and it may be that I'm just getting old and jaded), porn quickly becomes boring; while erotica can hold my attention (among other things) for a sustained period of time. A page or two of porn is generally quite enough; but a hundred pages of good erotica can still leave me wanting a little more.

 

[lovecraft68]

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff512/Loverskitten/7a865fee.jpg

Well Stella, as I imagine you would well know, fetishes seem to cycle and change as we move on, or they will take turns taking the forefront.

A few years ago this picture would have gotten me going, but seeing as the other half has been investigating her new found "puppy girl" fetish. It's the pet deptartment that has me worked up now.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

I find that for me, porn is crude and quick. An easy means to an underwhelming end. When it gets to the point that the sex is kind of like watching grass grow or paint dry, it's just porn and I walk away. It still gets me wet, but I won't cum to it.

Erotica, on the other hand, builds it up slowly in a way that doesn't make me drowsy. While porn is so obviously happening to someone else (whether it's an actor in a movie or a character in a story) erotica let's me imagine that I am that character that it's happening to.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I find that for me, porn is crude and quick. An easy means to an underwhelming end. When it gets to the point that the sex is kind of like watching grass grow or paint dry, it's just porn and I walk away. It still gets me wet, but I won't cum to it.

Erotica, on the other hand, builds it up slowly in a way that doesn't make me drowsy. While porn is so obviously happening to someone else (whether it's an actor in a movie or a character in a story) erotica let's me imagine that I am that character that it's happening to.

But there is plenty of erotica that is equally like watching paint dry.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

But there is plenty of erotica that is equally like watching paint dry.

True that.

 

[Anjasa]

Personally I have decided that there's no difference, really. There's Sexually Explicit Media that doesn't get me off, Sexually Explicit Media that does, SEM that infuriates me for one or a few reasons, SEM that interests me more than only sexually, SEM that bores me to tears because there isn't enough sex in it.

This is one of those things that no two people will ever agree upon. Porn to one person is erotica to another. Erotica to one person is porn to another.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Can you tell the difference between sexual and erotic?

If so, then you know the difference between porn and erotica.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I known some of them to get off while walking around home depot. An ace hardware flyer could be erotica to them.

Oh hell yes. I find hardware very erotic, and have since I was like 8 years old. Pulleys, clips, rope & chains, hoists... Fabrics too, and I'll be the only man in a Minnesota Fabrics, feeling the textures and imagining.

Sexuality is certainly not just confined to the genitals. The world is saturated with eroticism, and literature that makes us aware of that is called 'erotica.'

 

[Stella_Omega]

Can you tell the difference between sexual and erotic?

If so, then you know the difference between porn and erotica.

What is the difference, Zoot? I'm not asking to be snarky, honest. it's just that any erotic stimulus -- physical or emotional-- engages me in the genitals.