Portal:Erotica and pornography

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Welcome to the Erotica and Pornography Portal

Before the Deluge by Cornelis van Haarlem, 1615

Introduction

P:XXX

Pornography (colloquially known as porn or porno) has been defined as sexual subject material "such as a picture, video, or text" that is intended for sexual arousal. Intended for consumption by adults, pornography depictions have evolved from cave paintings, some forty millennia ago, to virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adult content is made classifying it as pornography or erotica.

The oldest artifacts considered pornographic were discovered in Germany in 2008 CE and are dated to be at least 35,000 years old. Throughout the history of erotic depictions various people made attempts to suppress them under obscenity laws, censor, or make them illegal. Such grounds and even the definition of pornography have differed in various historical, cultural, and national contexts. The Indian Sanskrit text Kama Sutra (3rd century CE) contained prose, poetry, and illustrations regarding sexual behavior, and the book was celebrated; while the British English text Fanny Hill (1748), considered "the first original English prose pornography," has been one of the most prosecuted and banned books. In the late 19th century, a film by Thomas Edison that depicted a kiss was denounced as obscene in the United States, whereas Eugène Pirou's 1896 film Bedtime for the Bride was received very favorably in France. Starting from the mid-twentieth century on, societal attitudes towards sexuality became more lenient in the Western world where legal definitions of obscenity were made limited. In 1969, Blue Movie became the first film to depict unsimulated sex that received a wide theatrical release in the United States. This was followed by the "Golden Age of Porn" (1969–1984). The introduction of home video and the World Wide Web in the late 20th century led to global growth in the pornography business. Beginning in the 21st century, greater access to the Internet and affordable smartphones made pornography more mainstream. (Full article...)

Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right. Erotica also exists in a number of subgenres including gay, lesbian, women's, bondage, monster and tentacle erotica.

The term erotica is derived from the feminine form of the ancient Greek adjective: ἐρωτικός (erōtikós), from ἔρως (érōs)—words used to indicate lust, and sexual love. (Full article...)

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Selected article

A French postcard is a small, postcard-sized piece of cardstock featuring a photograph of a nude or semi-nude woman. Such erotic cards were produced in great volume, primarily in France, in the late 19th and early 20th century. The term was adopted in the United States, where such cards were not legally made. The cards were sold as postcards, but the primary purpose was not for sending by mail, as they would have been banned from delivery. The cards sometimes even depicted naked lesbians. French street vendors, tobacco shops and a variety of other vendors bought the photographs for resale to tourists. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected work of erotic literature

Title page of Les 120 Journées de Sodome, first edition, 1904

The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage (French: Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage) is an unfinished novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785 and published in 1904 after its manuscript was rediscovered. It describes the activities of four wealthy libertine Frenchmen who spend four months seeking the ultimate sexual gratification through orgies, sealing themselves in an inaccessible castle in the heart of the Black Forest with 12 accomplices, 20 designated victims and 10 servants. Four aging prostitutes relate stories of their most memorable clients whose sexual practices involved 600 "passions" including coprophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, incest, rape, and child sexual abuse. The stories inspire the libertines to engage in acts of increasing violence leading to the torture and murder of their victims, most of whom are adolescents and young women.

The novel only survives in draft form. Its introduction and first part were written according to Sade's detailed plan, but the subsequent three parts are mostly in the form of notes. Sade wrote it in secrecy while imprisoned in the Bastille. When the fortress was stormed by revolutionaries on 14 July 1789, Sade believed the manuscript had been lost. However, it had been found and preserved without his knowledge and was eventually published in a restricted edition in 1904 for its scientific interest to sexologists. The novel was banned as pornographic in France and English speaking countries before becoming more widely available in commercial editions in the 1960s. It was published in the prestigious French Pléiade edition in 1990 and a new English translation was published as a Penguin Classic in 2016.

The novel attracted increasing critical interest after World War II. In 1957, Georges Bataille said it "towers above all other books in that it represents man's fundamental desire for freedom that he is obliged to contain and keep quiet." Critical opinion, however, remains divided. Neil Schaeffer calls it "one of the most radical, one of the most important novels ever written," whereas for Laurence Louis Bongie it is "an unending mire of permuted depravities." (Full article...)

List of selected works
The Autobiography of a Flea Fifty Shades of Grey Story of the Eye Story of O Fanny Hill Jin Ping Mei Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle Lady Chatterley's Lover The Songs of Bilitis Kama Sutra Lolita Tropic of Cancer (novel) Josephine Mutzenbacher Tijuana bible Emmanuelle (novel) Sex (book)

Slideshow of selected contemporary images

Image 1Example of Erotic photography
Image 2Sculpture of Marilyn Monroe in Haugesund harbour, Norway

Image 2Sculpture of Marilyn Monroe in Haugesund harbour, Norway
Image 3Jenna Jameson
Image 4Transsexual pornographic actress Erica Andrews
Image 5Silvia Saint, wearing a Bomis tee-shirt (a site previously run by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia).
Image 6Pierre Woodman filming in Australia
Image 7Katsuni - French pornographic actress.
Image 8Valentina Nappi at the AVN Awards Show, Las Vegas, Nevada on 21 January 2017
Image 9Playmate of the_Year Corinna Harney
Image 10Louise Glover
Image 11Bondage pornography, showing classic "wrist to ankle" rope hogtie. Other bondage methods depicted are breast bondage, elbow bondage, head to ankle tie, knees tied, and a crotch rope. Model is also wearing a muzzle gag.
Image 12Dean Flynn and Chi Chi LaRue
Image 13Playmate of the Year Claire Sinclair
Image 14A Fluffer hands gay porn performers Jake Starr (seated) and Erik Grant (lying) items needed for a scene in the 2008 Lucas Entertainment production Pounding the Pavement.
Image 15Swedish/Tanzanian Playmate of the Year Ida Ljungqvist
Image 16Tila Tequila
Image 17Karen McDougal
Image 18Sean Michaels - pornographic actor.
Image 19Hugh Hefner with Karissa Shannon, Dasha Astafieva, and Kristina Shannon
Image 20Francois Sagat, Folsom Street Fair
Image 21Audrey Hollander - American porn star
Image 22Pornographic film set. Pictured from left to right: Cali Chase, Mikey Butders, and a photographer identified as "Nicole."
Image 23Dana DeArmond
Image 24Erotic actress and public health advocate Sharon Mitchell.
Image 25Figure 12 in Zillmann, Dolf: "Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography", included in the Report of the Surgeon General's Workshop on Pornography and Public Health, United States Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General, August 4, 1986
Image 26Jessie Andrews
Image 27Michael Lucas, Nonie, Rafael Alencar, David Shankbone, and Ernesta Alamirano in Fire Island Pines
Image 28Playboy Playmate Alison Waite
Image 29Michele_Merkin - Glamour photography
Image 30Hentai Manga, Japan
Image 31Xaviera Hollander, author and former Sex worker
Image 32Pornographic DVDs, Japan, "Kawaii" section
Image 33Joanna Jet - transsexual pornographic actress and director
Image 34Shy Love at AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2012
Image 35Pornographic actor and director Miles Long (submitted by self)
Image 36Cindy Margolis
Image 37Daisy Marie posing with a fan at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2008
Image 38American pornographic actor Ron Jeremy. One of top Porn Stars of All Time.
Image 39Carmen Luvana, Adult Entertainment Expo 2008
Image 40Lupe Fuentes
Image 41Penthouse Pet Dani Daniels, wearing Penthouse key necklace
Image 42Pornographic actress and cosplayer Tanya Tate as She-Ra
Image 43Rocco Siffredi
Image 44Raylene
Image 45The COLT Studio Group, San Francisco
Image 46Rebeca Linares at AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2009
Image 47Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood
Image 48Lisa Ann
Image 49Playmate of the Year and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokesperson Pamela Anderson, signing DVDs at the USS Halsey
Image 50World map showing laws of general pornography
Image 51Hentai style of art, originally from Japan

Slideshow of selected historical images

Image 1Kama Sutra illustration (19th century?)
Image 2Erotic detail from the Vishwanath temple at the Khajuraho Group of Monuments
Image 3Lakshmana Temple, Khajuraho, India, taken by User:Ggia
Image 4Lakshmana Temple, Khajuraho
Image 5Katsushika Hokusai, "The Adonis Plant (Fukujusô)" Woodblock, ca. 1815, Japan Shunga
Image 6A Mercury Priapus figure from Pompeii, ancient Rome
Image 7Silenus and maenad. Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BC. From Vulci, ancient Greece
Image 8Traditional pederastic courtship scene on an Athenian black-figure amphora from the 5th century B.C.
Image 9Two Lovers, by Reza Abbasi.
Image 10Illustration from Juliette by the Marquis de Sade.
Image 11Nineteenth century nude photograph.
Image 12Illustration from La Grande Danse macabre des vifs, Martin van Maële (1905)
Image 13A rape scene by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (ca.1797-1861).
Image 14Nights of Horror, panel by Joe Shuster (public domain)
Image 15Kama Sutra illustration (19th century?)
Image 16Erotic scene. Rim of an Attic red-figure kylix, c. 510 BC., ancient Greece
Image 17Miniature from 15th century Persian book
Image 18Hadrian engaging in anal sex with Antinous in Egypt, portrayed by Édouard-Henri Avril.
Image 19The Venus of Willendorf prehistoric sculpture
Image 20Shunga, Japan (ca 1750)
Image 21Erotic art, 18th century India
Image 22Classical Greek Bas Relief showing "Cowgirl" position
Image 23Roman oil lamp portraying intercourse
Image 24Hokusai, Untitled (Plate No. 4) From the series Picture Book Patterns of Couples (Ehon tsui no hinagata), c. 1812
Image 25Kama Sutra illustration (19th century?)
Image 26The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, an erotic woodcut made circa 1820 by Hokusai.
Image 27Erotic art, India, 18th century
Image 28Hokusai, Untamed Lion, From the series Picture Book Patterns of Couples (Ehon tsui no hinagata), c. 1812
Image 29Indian Princess, by Richard Borrmeister [de] (1888?)
Image 30Johann Nepomuk Geiger, watercolor, 1840
Image 31Cunnilingus portrayed at Pompeii - Source: John R. Clarke: Ars Erotica. Darmstadt: Primus 2009
Image 32Erotic engraving supposedly after Agostino Carracci (1557–1602)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that the Japanese male–male romance magazine June was originally pitched to its publisher as a "mildly pornographic magazine for women"?
... that the nature documentary The Green Planet, narrated by David Attenborough, has been compared to both horror films and a "plant porno"?
... that a pornographic screenplay about Jesus led to papal and royal condemnations, a firebombing, the writer's ban from the UK, and thousands of letters per week demanding the ban of a non-existent gay Jesus film?
... that zombie pornography emerged in the 1980s during a rise in the Italian sexploitation film industry?
... that Nickelodeon storyboard artists created a book with hundreds of pornographic drawings of SpongeBob SquarePants characters?
... that later pressings of the soundtrack of the soft porn film The Stud replaced Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Davy's on the Road Again" after a journalist blabbed its presence to the band's keyboardist?
... that Lewes Road in Brighton has a gyratory named after a pornographic cinema?
... that Claudia Riner was falsely accused of distributing lesbian erotica in the Kentucky House of Representatives?