I don't think porn is predominantly about the communication of ideas and concepts. It's about sexually arousing the viewer (and not much more than that).
Watch it. Larry Flynt is worshipped as an intellectual heavyweight--a veritable philosopher king--by many of these pro-porn loons. To them, Viagra is a mind-enghancing drug.
Yendu: I don't think porn is predominantly about the communication of ideas and concepts. It's about sexually arousing the viewer (and not much more than that).
I couldn't disagree more. Porn is portraying a wide range of concepts and ideas
One (of many) concepts porn promotes is of sex on demand and female compliance. The message being sent is the setting of a standard of sexual response in women that is not attainable nor desirable for most women. This sets the standard for what the porn consumer wants a "sexual" or sensual woman to be. How she is to be defined and identified in the larger society. The primary message underlying it though is that she not set that standard herself.
The underlying premise is that women are not sexual beings in their own right by their own standards and with their own sexual desires and goals ___ ie women's individualism (in all aspects including her individual sexuality, the most intimate and personal part of herself) are subordinate to men's. She does not "own" her own sexuality, others do. It is imposed on her, does not originate with her as an autonomous (sexual) human being.
IMO this message hardly needs reinforcing in our society. We can see evidence here of men presuming to "own" women's sexuality by presuming to speak on her behalf about her sexual nature eg "women don't have as strong a sex drive as mens" (again men setting the standard). There are no shortage of men in society who TELL women what women's sexuality is ... or should be ... every step of the way. This is a concept reinforced in porn.
Porn sends many messages, again just as all of media, tv music etc. does about our society. A good part of "entertainment" is actually marketing of social ideals and concepts. Your Sex in the City references are a good example of this. This is not only entertainment it is prosyletizing a concept lifestyle ... or selling it as the "norm" when it clearly is not (yet) the norm. There is an agenda in all media, whether overt or covert. This includes porn.