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Would new cultural norms destroy the idea of pornography?

GoldenGuppy

Diamond Member
Please - this a serious topic that I am researching for my anthropology class.

Basically, the idea of a taboo in our society today would be for women and men to walk around the street naked. However, what about in the societies of the past, or in aborigine cultures where walking around in the flesh is a way of life.

Understand that in some cultures the body represents fertility instead of lust. However, there came an idea along the road, where we changed our perception on the naked human body and took its ideals to the next level.

So the main question here is: "If for some reason, we all returned to complete cultural relativity and began to disregard articles of clothing.... centuries upon centuries later, will the idea of pornography be banished?"

Because the idea of pornography is based on the idea of taboo... so if we changed our norms, centuries later, would pornography be banished?

I'm not in anyway saying that this idea is possible.. because of all the weirdos out there today. I'm also aware that there's like a 0.00000000000000000000000000001 percent chance of this actually happening...

basically this thread focuses on the theory and idea behind such a forthcoming.

><GG>
 
no it would never happen, because eve bit the apple and we're all sinners!!! it's immoral because the good book said so, no ifs ands or buts about it. if you enjoy looking at flesh, you're evil and should go to hell. and burn in the flames of eternal damnation!
 
gopunk - yep, you're definitely right w/ that. But we're talking about assumptions and such - lookin' forward to your &quot;always educated&quot; response 😉

><GG>
 
yes i would think so. If walking around naked becomes legal, then think about the possibilites. I think that the basic idea of porn would eliminate because it wouldn't hold it's value any more.
 
darby, I hope you are joking 😀

i'm sorry but i don't joke about the lord's word. that's not funny. you'll go to hell for that.

boobies are evil!
 
Centuries later if the pornography is banished......... thinking... thinking.....

Wait, wouldn't it hurt the internet anyway. 😀
 
gopunk - yep, you're definitely right w/ that. But we're talking about assumptions and such - lookin' forward to your &quot;always educated&quot; response 😉

alright, enough fooling around 😀

seriously, this is all purely based in judeo-christian religion. it does come from the bible and how we should be ashamed of our nakedness. okay i lied, in reality, even that came from zoroastrianism, which got the idea of the body being evil from the greek idea of &quot;logos&quot;.

in any event, our society tends to view the human body as &quot;baser&quot; than our thoughts, due to the dominant religion.

but that was just my diatribe on why our society views our bodies as worse than our minds.

i don't believe porn will cease to exist. i think people will always appreciate a beautiful body, just like people appreciate a smart mind today. intellectual thought is not taboo, yet we are still fascinated when we meet somebody who is a great thinker. we read books on philosophy and other subjects for this reason. so i think that porn will last, because as long as we have our eyes, we'll appreciate a nice ass 😀
 
GoldenGuppy, you may want to consider interviewing a longtime resident of a nudist colony. You may get a better insight from someone who has spent their life in nudity.
 

To answer your question indirectly, I've always stated that if we all walked around naked, rape would decline sharply (maybe not immediately, but over time). Also, the role sex (or even porn) plays in our lives would disappear. My thinking is that we would not need to ban porn, because of the decline in the idea of sex being sexy will be gone.

In our current century, people get raped due to the fact that A.) people are sick B.) clothes and our society tease these weirdo's into false ideas about the normal human body. This idea of glamourizing the human body does strange things to people. The idea that everybody is having sex, except the wierdo probably makes the loser even more upset and makes them act out upon the innocent. As a way of saying, I can do it too. Even if it is illegal it doesn't matter because they want to be like society. Sure, you have the people who do it as a means of showing their power, but that is for another discussion.

In this scenario of banning clothes, porn would be no big deal. The idea of insertion wouldn't be as appealing because everybody is already naked and the genitals wouldn't be looked at in a sexual manner.

Furthermore, I think that many people will read this and either not care, or have a hard time believing this could happen because &quot;we&quot; have been so trained to think of beauty as in showing more skin. Think of it like this.....At a bar, I love the idea of thinking about what a chic looks like underneath her clothes. Once you accomplish getting her clothes off, that appeal is gone, to a certain extent. Sure, it's always nice to have it come back around, but the eyes wander and the cycle begins again with other chics.....

Damn, I'm not even high and I broke it down......Maybe it will actually make sense....heh...

 
in short, yes it would

it was touched upon but let me expound further:

with a different idea of taboo, by regarding a certain behavior as normal, ideas such as pornography could not exist, by definition.

in a gunter-gatherer or horticulturalist society, one with no advanced methods of agriculture, subsitence strategy becomes paramount to survival and has an effect on &quot;modal personality&quot; (refer to Mead for an explanation). This is turn creates values and order. If nakedness was a normal occurence, then a humble respect for sex, fertility, community, and well-being would prohibit and prevent any pornographic ideas to become created within a culture.

Pornography wouldn't be banished, it would simply be non-existent because to know of pornography is to know of an alternative worldview. That would alter the existing culture where pornography or exposure would be perceived as the norm.

Does that make sense?
 


<< To answer your question indirectly, I've always stated that if we all walked around naked, rape would decline sharply (maybe not immediately, but over time). Also, the role sex (or even porn) plays in our lives would disappear.

In our current century, people get raped due to the fact that A.) people are sick B.) clothes and our society tease these weirdo's into false ideas about the normal human body. This idea of glamourizing the human body does strange things to people. The idea that everybody is having sex, except the wierdo probably makes the loser even more upset and makes them act out upon the innocent. As a way of saying, I can do it too. Even if it is illegal it doesn't matter because they want to be like society. Sure, you have the people who do it as a means of showing their power, but that is for another discussion.

In this scenario of banning clothes, porn would be no big deal. The idea of insertion wouldn't be as appealing because everybody is already naked and the genitals wouldn't be looked at in a sexual manner.

Furthermore, I think that many people will read this and either not care, or have a hard time believing this could happen because &quot;we&quot; have been so trained to think of beauty as in showing more skin. Think of it like this.....At a bar, I love the idea of thinking about what a chic looks like underneath her clothes. Once you accomplish getting her clothes off, that appeal is gone, to a certain extent. Sure, it's always nice to have it come back around, but the eyes wander and the cycle begins again with other chics.....

Damn, I'm not even high and I broke it down......Maybe it will actually make sense....heh...
>>






badluck - exactly what I meant... it's our cultural norms today that are attracting the trouble.. and if tomorrow were the days men and women started walking around naked then we would be in a chaotic society!

That's why I'm figuring that everything is based on the norms of a society.. just like you said there w/ the clothes teasing the weirdos and bringing up urges... all this would not be apparent if our norms did not consider them taboo...

><GG>

 
ummm... you still wouldn't see two beautiful women umm... sharing a moment very often, so that would still sell.
 
In this scenario of banning clothes, porn would be no big deal. The idea of insertion wouldn't be as appealing because everybody is already naked and the genitals wouldn't be looked at in a sexual manner.

i don't think porn exists solely for the display of genitals. i like looking at porn because i find some of the women very attractive. the curves of their bodies and the attractiveness of their face. i hate it when the porn vids focus in on the genitals. maybe i'm just weird...

Furthermore, I think that many people will read this and either not care, or have a hard time believing this could happen because &quot;we&quot; have been so trained to think of beauty as in showing more skin.

i don't think it's that we've been trained that beauty = more skin. i think it's more along the lines of, if you're beautiful, people want to see more skin. you can be butt ugly and show all the skin you want, people will still think you're ugly.
 


<< GoldenGuppy, you may want to consider interviewing a longtime resident of a nudist colony. You may get a better insight from someone who has spent their life in nudity. >>



Freejack2 - how would I concentrate during the interview? These people are weird to me!! A ha! That brings up the point as to how I would view these people weird due to my norms that were implanted into my head due to our society today... And if I were to tell them to put some clothes on, they'd be offended because I'd be telling them to reject their culture. If I were to be able to look at everything relatively, then it would definitely be a different story.

Hmm... maybe telephone? But then again, I find telephone interviews so impersonal... where's the love? 🙂

><GG>
 
let me add a twist to this:

in such a society, valuing subsitence and fertility, sex and pornography could NOT exist. THis is because it would be valued and worshipped. THe ritual of marriage would be celebrated in the community but sex would be a private matter and a voyeur would not find pleasure in observing a sexual act because it would be commonplace. Thus, it would both be strange to be a voyeur because of social norms and ritual and from the rational mind of the menber of the culture who places different value on sex.
 


<< gopunk - yep, you're definitely right w/ that. But we're talking about assumptions and such - lookin' forward to your &quot;always educated&quot; response 😉

alright, enough fooling around 😀

seriously, this is all purely based in judeo-christian religion. it does come from the bible and how we should be ashamed of our nakedness. okay i lied, in reality, even that came from zoroastrianism, which got the idea of the body being evil from the greek idea of &quot;logos&quot;.

in any event, our society tends to view the human body as &quot;baser&quot; than our thoughts, due to the dominant religion.

but that was just my diatribe on why our society views our bodies as worse than our minds.

i don't believe porn will cease to exist. i think people will always appreciate a beautiful body, just like people appreciate a smart mind today. intellectual thought is not taboo, yet we are still fascinated when we meet somebody who is a great thinker. we read books on philosophy and other subjects for this reason. so i think that porn will last, because as long as we have our eyes, we'll appreciate a nice ass 😀
>>




gopunk - I remember back in Art History when I learned about the humility process that was succubed by the early Assyrians... this was depicted in an artwork that showed King Narmar I believe it was... yep, King Narmar in the Pallet of Narmar that depicted nakedness as a sign of humility... but then again... that was their norms, see? What about the cave people? They didn't seem to care about their nakedness... due to their norms...

What if our norms took radical turns? How would that work out??

I get confused just thinking about it! 😕

><GG>
 
That's why I'm figuring that everything is based on the norms of a society.. just like you said there w/ the clothes teasing the weirdos and bringing up urges... all this would not be apparent if our norms did not consider them taboo...

there are a small number of people who look at porn becasue it's taboo, and i pity those people.

you have to look at why these things are taboo in the first place. clearly, they were intruiging enough to the point that they were considered important enough to be made taboo by those afraid of it's influence. attractiveness has always been appreciated, and always will be.

let me put it this way... i like to look at things when i do my business. so what if it isn't taboo anymore? what am i going to look at?
 


<< What if our norms took radical turns? How would that work out?? >>



that idea could never work since the conditions leading to those norms require a different method of life. In essence, with your current western conditioning, you couldn't fully imagine the beauty of such a culture.
 
gopunk - I remember back in Art History when I learned about the humility process that was succubed by the early Assyrians... this was depicted in an artwork that showed King Narmar I believe it was... yep, King Narmar in the Pallet of Narmar that depicted nakedness as a sign of humility... but then again... that was their norms, see? What about the cave people? They didn't seem to care about their nakedness... due to their norms...

i see what you mean. i guess we're talking about different things than. to me, porn is more than just nakedness, it's beautiful women. i don't look at porn because there's naked women, i look at it because there's beautiful naked women.
 


<< so what if it isn't taboo anymore? what am i going to look at? >>


nothing, you would have a completely different understanding of what was right.
 



<< GoPunk said: see what you mean. i guess we're talking about different things than. to me, porn is more than just nakedness, it's beautiful women. i don't look at porn because there's naked women, i look at it because there's beautiful naked women. >>



I think you make good points, but you have to remember that we are talking about society here and not necessarily your or my ideas entirely. Many of the porn shots are &quot;money shots&quot; not just two beautiful people having sex. You also have to remember that as a whole I think it is safe to say that most people look at the touching, insertion shots first, than look at the people. That is why usually you see the insertion shot as the tease, but you don't even see their faces......I see what you mean though....
 
nothing, you would have a completely different understanding of what was right.

right? i don't look at porn because it's right. you can't deny physical beauty. it's not just some manmade creation, it's there so that we'll hump away and procreate. it's human nature to be aroused from physical beauty.
 
I think you make good points, but you have to remember that we are talking about society here and not necessarily your or my ideas entirely. Many of the porn shots are &quot;money shots&quot; not just two beautiful people having sex.

well yes, i personally think money shots are more about degredation of the woman than physical beauty. but money shots aren't all of pornography.

You also have to remember that as a whole I think it is safe to say that most people look at the touching, insertion shots first, than look at the people.

grrr... i guess i'm strange then. dammit :frown:

i dunno, i always placed a heavy emphasis on the face. if i can't see the face during porn, i get bored, it just doesn't do anything for me without a beatiful face.
 
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