It would be useful if people tried to hear what I actually have and 
haven't said. This is an extremely emotive topic and it's easy to get 
annoyed by what the other guy SEEMS to be saying, Try to take 
statements at face value.

That said

>> - Would you be happy for pictures of your wife and daughters
>> to be posted on such a "tasteful" site?

> What does that have to do with whether it's pornography or not?

I thought it was a reasonable measure of the stature of the site. If 
it was a harvest queen website or a PepsiCola bottlers awards site 
(should such exist) or a boyscouts/girl guides / line dancing etc 
site, then many would be happy enough for their loved ones to be 
pictured there. (Some maty draw the line at line dancing).

And if the purpose of any site was to honour, uplift and celebrate, 
the same would usually apply.
But if the purpose of the site was for men (mainly) to gaze lustfully 
on images of your naked loved ones and <add own text here>. then many 
would often feel differently about such a site. Establishing whether 
any given person would be happy with this gives a reasonable 
indication of the merit of the site.

>  I can certainly think of many things that I'd be LESS happy for my
> daughter or wife to be doing...

So can I. As I said previously, it's a matter of degree rather than 
type. This site is of course far from a hard porn site. But it's also 
far from eg the sort of site that it's front page suggests it is.

> You're arguing against their claims
> of "empowering women",

No. I'm not.

> but I'm not sure anyone here is going that
> far: we're just claiming it isn't "pornography."

I provided an online definition.
I'll attempt my own summary definition here. take the spirit rather 
than the exact words.
"Pornography is visual input which is intended to or used to create 
sexual arousal when viewed / used."
That gives you a vast range of course, Where and why would you draw 
the line? The brain certainly doesn't.

While my ideas on the merits of pornography are probably partially 
(certainly not fully) obvious from my emails, can you find anywhere 
where I have said that pornography was bad or evil or sinful or 
whatever similar?




        RM

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist