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Originally Posted by punkworld
Theory and reality are inseparable in this case. The connection is real, and thus people will continue to use the same words. Child exploitation contains but is not limited to child pornography. Child abuse, the same. What we are talking about is pornography containing children.
You want to destroy the association between kiddy porn and normal porn? Tough shit - it ain't gonna happen. Both are porn, and people know that.
Pornography contains snuff, kiddy porn, beast porn, rape vids, etc., and trying to change that meaning is extremely unlikely to be successful. If you want to destroy the association between "us" and "them", focus on terms for us like "the adult industry" and "adult entertainment". Throwing the subgenres out of the main genre doesn't make sense linguistically, and indeed doesn't make practical sense either. Take your cue from language and theory, and you'll see that the much more obvious solution is to emphasize our subgenre, and separate that from the others.
Theory is valuable because it helps us deal with reality in an effective way 
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How
I have been called upon to champion the Rationalist-Pragmatist position in this discussion is really beyond me, and soooo funny to me personally -- you have no idea -- many of the voices in my head are laughing at the irony --
But fine, you like the realm of theory and abstraction, I have an argument there, too.
Let's discuss
symbolism, metaphor and euphemism as relates to this situation.
Symbolism: You're encouraging us to direct our energies at defining a territrory for ourselves among the
sub-genres of pornography, to accept the legitimacy of the word's usage to describe atrocious crimes on the basis of semantical technicality, and accept also that we have no power to reclaim and redefine the word, that we should just "abandon" it as one would a piece of rotten wood.
Sorry. No can do. "Pornography" is a good word, I like it, I like how fighting for it will give a focus to our larger fight. I can't help but be struck by the undesirable Smbolism of taking flight from something we invented, from a word with an etymology appropriate to us. I also like the challenge. I like that it's going to be
difficult to make people re-think a word that pervades our culture, a word that is all but lost to a condemnatory quagmire created by the same people who are trying to win our illegality today.
I am in love with the Symbolism of change and revolution. I think it's going to give us strength and focus in our cause. You say: "
...the connection is real, and thus people will continue to use the same words..." You say: "
...tough shit - it ain't gonna happen. Both are porn, and people know that..." Well, I say -- The struggle we face to assert our legality in 2005 has got to rise to a new level. We can no longer be content to merely "squeak by" on the "technicality defense" the First Amendment has been reduced to in our case. I say the reclamation of a word, and our unification as an industry under that SYMBOLIC effort is going to help clarify our message, elevate our argument to the level of Proud Ideal, where it belongs, and bring the question what is "pornography" into every living room in this country right where it belongs.
Sorry, this word is taken!
Metaphor: "...take your cue from language and theory, and you'll see that the much more obvious solution is to emphasize
our subgenre, and separate that from the others..." I couldn't tell you when or where it happened, but at some point pornography lost its
rhetorical vitality, it ceased to be a thing whose nature was understood clearly by most people, and it ceased to be thing that was obviously positive in the lives of the people who used the word. I'm sure it didn't happen all at once, but gradually over time -- erosively. I'm going to venture to guess, though, that the undermining of pornography's connotative legitimacy coincides with the increase in suppressive (shame-based) influence of organized religion and the governments who have tried to curry the favor of Religious Establishment by parroting that suppressive rhetoric. Once pornography -- the word, the idea, the material, had been dipped in the acidic bath of equivocal, conditional meanings, the erosion of its legitimacy could begin earnest -- thereafter (and to the present moment) we have been
negotiating what we are and what we aren't in the shadowed back-office recesses of
government, flling out forms, worrying that our
t's are crossed and that we'll lose everything if we don't follow the increasingly byzantine and effectively censorial "legal hoops" those skinny-necked clerks who push pencils all day keep tellings us (SMUGLY) we have to jump through -- or else.
I say to hell with that! We are a good thing! We have a right to exist -- UNEQUIVOCALLY -- better than that, we are ESSENTIAL. And, I'm sorry, punkworld, but our days of "emphasizing sub-genres" are OVER. That's just a metaphor for UNWORTHY TO STAND UP AND BE SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF DAY FOR WHAT WE ARE.
Euphemism:
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eu·phe·mism (yf-mzm) n.
The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: ?Euphemisms such as ?slumber room?... abound in the funeral business?
an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive
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"Adult Indusrtry" & "Adult Entertainment" are euphemisms. Like all occasions of this linguistic phenomenon, their existence and use indicates a culture's discomfort with an idea, to the extent that the orginally used word for that idea has been REPLACED with something more --
palatable.
Here's a list of some euphemisms we should all recognize:
dead = departed, deceased, late, lost, gone, passed
garbage dump = landfill
killing of innocents = collateral damage
prison = correctional facility
spying = surveillance
tramp= homeless person
unemployed = between jobs, taking time off
victim = casualty
wrong = improper, questionable, impropriety
That's not a list I want to be on. You?
! -- I AM A PROUD PORNOGRAPHER -- !
2HP