The Philosophy of Pornography

Casey Gomez said:I recall being a bit of a degenerate myself... I mean, as a young adult, I was already diving into de Sade... it’s a little kitschy, sure, but honestly, who isn't? ☕
In truth, his logic is actually quite sound. ☕

So, what were you reading— Justin or 120 Days of Sodom? I actually got caught red-handed with the latter once. My middle school English teacher told me that definitely wasn't appropriate reading material for an eighth grader and sent me straight to the library. I brought it back, though I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. When I asked the librarian why they even stock books that kids our age aren't supposed to touch, she didn't have an answer for me. 😳

Eric Newman75 said:So, what were you reading— Justin or 120 Days of Sodom? I actually got caught red-handed with the latter once. My middle school English teacher told me that definitely wasn't appropriate reading material for an eighth grader and sent me straight to the library. I brought it back, though I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. When I asked the librarian why they even stock books that kids our age aren't supposed to touch, she didn't have an answer for me. 😳

Was she actually being helpful, though? The librarian, I mean.

Anyway, I’ve read Justine. I haven't found any specific instance where Nietzsche explicitly references him or attempts to frame him within his own work, but if you consider their shared leanings toward ethical relativism, one could argue de Sade was essentially an early influencer for Nietzsche.
By the way, de Sade is almost always framed in a purely negative moral light, which is really just a byproduct of ignorant, prudish hysteria.
Personally, I’ve always interpreted that kind of reactionary outrage as nothing more than weak cortical activity resulting from cerebral calcification.

Casey Gomez said:Was she actually being helpful, though? The librarian, I mean.

Anyway, I’ve read Justine. I haven't found any specific instance where Nietzsche explicitly references him or attempts to frame him within his own work, but if you consider their shared leanings toward ethical relativism, one could argue de Sade was essentially an early influencer for Nietzsche.
By the way, de Sade is almost always framed in a purely negative moral light, which is really just a byproduct of ignorant, prudish hysteria.
Personally, I’ve always interpreted that kind of reactionary outrage as nothing more than weak cortical activity resulting from cerebral calcification.

She was an older professor—they always seemed to work the school libraries back then. But honestly, she wasn't a stickler for the rules when it came to the books. You could check out whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.

I read the truth and another one of those literary works by de Sade back when I was in high school—which is to say, a lifetime ago... I don't remember much, probably because I was just so disappointed by it all, though I do recall some bit about "silk"... It didn't feel like much of a scandal that she was incredibly young, or that they were close relatives, or even that they were practicing sodomy, or whatever you want to call that kind of thing... The biggest temptation, if I recall correctly, was how "they could trick her future husband in such a disgusting way"🤣 (since they made sure she stayed a virgin)

If that girl from the silk story existed today, she’d be your typical "girl next door" type, probably playing around with a dildo the size of a baseball bat... She’d be an entrepreneur, a so-called "sex worker," who broadcasts every single detail of her activities on her OnlyFans account😁

Pornography doesn't always have to be about sex—though, let's face it, that’s usually where the lower classes find their fix—it can just as easily be about food prep, cooking, or sitting down for lunch...

After all, what is a reality show if not just another flavor of pornography?

We can take this concept as far as we want...

Laura Reyes3 said:Pornography doesn't always have to be about sex—though, let's face it, that’s usually where the lower classes find their fix—it can just as easily be about food prep, cooking, or sitting down for lunch...

After all, what is a reality show if not just another flavor of pornography?

We can take this concept as far as we want...

So, what you're saying is you're into Food Play?🙂
I'm certainly not judging; I always say there's a place for everyone... and let's be honest, I've got my own share of paraphilias. 😳
For me, I actually quite enjoy xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx in certain aspects of xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx.

Casey Gomez said:So, what you're saying is you're into Food Play?🙂
I'm certainly not judging; I always say there's a place for everyone... and let's be honest, I've got my own share of paraphilias. 😳
For me, I actually quite enjoy xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx in certain aspects of xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx.

There’s this one episode of Seinfeld where George basically conflates his appetite for food with his sexual urges🙂. They actually ended up calling him Caligula 🤣...

Casey Gomez said:I recall being a bit of a degenerate myself... I mean, as a young adult, I was already diving into de Sade... it’s a little kitschy, sure, but honestly, who isn't? ☕
In truth, his logic is actually quite sound. ☕

I'm with you there—it’s got that philosophical edge to it, too.

Casey Gomez said:Was she actually being helpful, though? The librarian, I mean.

Anyway, I’ve read Justine. I haven't found any specific instance where Nietzsche explicitly references him or attempts to frame him within his own work, but if you consider their shared leanings toward ethical relativism, one could argue de Sade was essentially an early influencer for Nietzsche.
By the way, de Sade is almost always framed in a purely negative moral light, which is really just a byproduct of ignorant, prudish hysteria.
Personally, I’ve always interpreted that kind of reactionary outrage as nothing more than weak cortical activity resulting from cerebral calcification.

+1

Eric Newman75 said:So, what were you reading— Justin or 120 Days of Sodom? I actually got caught red-handed with the latter once. My middle school English teacher told me that definitely wasn't appropriate reading material for an eighth grader and sent me straight to the library. I brought it back, though I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. When I asked the librarian why they even stock books that kids our age aren't supposed to touch, she didn't have an answer for me. 😳

I guess I first stumbled upon de Sade—maybe around eighteen, if I remember correctly.

Honestly, the best part about him is just his commentary—all those random observations, maxims, and those "philosophical" little nuggets he drops—stuff like this.
I’ve got this 1981 edition of Sodom—the one with that specific dialectal flavor—translated by S. and F. Termačić, so I guess you could say the novel feels a bit more... juicy while reading it. Maybe it's just me, but there's something about that particular version.

It’s funny how that works—those who hold all the cards tend to look at the status quo and call it justice, while everyone else is just sitting there feeling the sting of what’s clearly an injustice. I guess it's just one of those things.
*
I guess you could say that nothing really fuels the fire for someone to cross the line quite like seeing that first crime go totally unpunished. It’s like... once they realize there aren't any consequences—no slap on the wrist, no actual accountability—it just sets a precedent, I suppose. It basically acts as an open invitation for more trouble down the road.
*
It’s funny—though maybe a bit dark—how some weird logic of debauchery works. I guess there's this strange pattern where a woman who shares all our exact same vices doesn't actually hit the same way. She's too much like us, really—there’s nothing left to catch us off guard, nothing to truly shock the system. But then you have the one who is pure virtue—someone totally unexpected—and that’s when things get interesting. That's where the real charm lies, I suppose. There's just something about being completely blindsided by someone who seems so out of reach.
*
Even if there were established rules in place—and honestly, they were broken more often than not—it was probably because you just can't fight against pure debauchery. I mean, maybe it’s just human nature, but setting any kind of boundary seems like the quickest way to actually trigger that chaos and make it spiral even further out of control.
*
We all know where that unfulfilled longing eventually leads us... I guess it's just inevitable at this point.
*
So, how exactly are you supposed to explain a person like that... I mean, really? It’s one of those things where there isn't a straightforward answer—maybe because the definition keeps shifting—but I guess we're all just left trying to make sense of it.
*
Happiness isn't really about the actual enjoyment part—it’s more about the desire itself, I guess. It's that feeling of just ripping off the brakes whenever they try to hold your willpower back. Or maybe it's just the constant urge to push through whatever is standing in the way of what you want. Not sure.
*
I mean, what kind of power can a conscience actually hold over someone who’s become so used to crushing their own guilt that they eventually just... turn it into a source of pleasure? It’s a strange thought—maybe a bit dark—but if you spend enough time overriding that internal compass, you eventually reach a point where the friction itself becomes a sort of twisted indulgence. I guess once you stop fighting the impulse and start feeding off the transgression, the moral weight doesn't really weigh anything anymore. It just becomes part of the game.

Also, I guess de Sade has a certain way of describing things... quite nicely, actually.
*
It feels like everyone just headed off to curl up in Morpheus’s arms—you know, just gathering enough strength to go back out there and offer themselves up to Venus all over again.

*...since misery and wretchedness serve as the very soil where the wealthy pluck the flowers of their own indulgence and cruelty...
*
Crime is just one facet of nature—one of those fundamental drivers of human behavior. Why on earth would you want nature to steer me toward virtue instead of along that particular path?
*
...but if I may say so, mouths that lack any hint of scent don't offer much satisfaction when it comes to kissing.
There always needs to be some sort of salt, some spice in all those pleasures. (...) No matter how clean a mouth might be, the lover who tastes it ends up getting dirty.
(...) If you imagine it with a bit more intensity, you’ll find yourself craving that little bit of impurity... (...)

And so...
It's pretty fascinating, visceral, and beautiful literature.

When you look at the rise of pornography, its sheer ubiquity online makes the whole thing pretty obvious.
It used to be that if you wanted high-quality adult content, you actually had to pay for it. Nowadays? Everything is free and constantly shoved in your face. To me, it’s just another glaring symptom of how much our society is sliding into progressive decadence....

I’m glad someone finally brought this up. We talk about addiction in terms of substances, but we rarely demonize sex or sexuality with the same intensity—mostly because they're viewed as these inherently positive activities. In reality, the mechanism is nearly identical—that hit of instant dopamine reward without any actual effort or substance behind it. Plus, you have the massive availability and social acceptance working in its favor too.

We really need more public discourse on this to raise awareness; it's a true silent killer for today's generation.

I guess we forgot to mention Erotica magazine (a journal dedicated to the culture and art of love), which was actually quite a big deal back in the 80s and 90s here in the States.
It was pretty widely read—definitely had a decent circulation and stayed popular for a while. To give you an idea, people like Igor Mandić were actually writing for it, among others.

The editor-in-chief was Milivoj Pašiček, and beyond just the erotic photography, the magazine featured interviews with various famous American and international figures,
reports, small classifieds, deep dives, surveys (mostly sexual in nature, obviously), and literary pieces.
They also had this column called 'Photo-gaze through the keyhole,' where they’d feature photos of girls from all over the country. The editors noticed that, alongside shots taken by their partners, women actually started sending in their own erotic portraits voluntarily.😛
Some shots showed their full faces, while others focused on the body with the face hidden—maybe behind some hair or something—and underneath the photo, you’d see the girl's name or nickname, the photographer, and her location. Honestly, nowadays, it feels almost unthinkable for a girl to strip down and post her personal details like that online—but I suppose it was just a different era back then.
There are even some photos where they used pseudonyms—for instance, one shot shows a girl in the woods with the caption: Little Bee from the Tower—and another says: Chiquita and Pepita from Portorož.

The writings by I. Mandić are actually pretty interesting. For example, take The Glory and Misery of Love Letters:

A love letter is a kind of contagion; it spreads through the influence of literature, evolving from mere physical longing into a stage of total decay. It stands as a witness to the most sublime and most primitive emotions a relationship can produce.
(...)
Most people in love lose all sense of judgment the moment they feel that poetic tremor! (...)
That’s why most lovers, once they finally sober up, feel genuinely embarrassed by what they once poured into those love
letters.

Nowadays, it has become fashionable for people to strip bare in public. And I don't just mean fashion trends or the whole nuisance of nudism, nor even the visual pornography found in magazines and films, but rather the verbal, pornographic stripping of the soul. (..)

Erotica issue 28, October 1987.

Or an erotic journey, from a different issue (April 1988);

Every adventure or even the smallest trip wants to culminate in an erotic experience, because travel is inherently erotic in its essence, and it’s best
when you reach a satisfying conclusion!

In this era of late-stage capitalism, pornography has become the ultimate shortcut for mass sexuality. Nobody has the luxury of time anymore, and even fewer have the energy to attempt anything more than being mere spectators.
It offers a sterile kind of security—an escape from awkward emotions, the sting of disappointment, the messiness of falling in love, or the risk of disease.
It’s just us, alone with our screens. A pure, unadulterated spectacle.
What it really provides is resentment and a certain melancholy, looping endlessly with only minor variations to keep the gears turning.
Ultimately, pornography is just a commodity. Everything is categorized and packaged: the classics, BDSM, various fixations, and fetishes. It’s all sitting there, ready for consumption.
The modern individual no longer seeks self-discovery through intimacy with another person. Their own brain, paired with an image or a film, is enough to satisfy the urge.
That is the true triumph of pornography.

Laura Peterson3 said:In this era of late-stage capitalism, pornography has become the ultimate shortcut for mass sexuality. Nobody has the luxury of time anymore, and even fewer have the energy to attempt anything more than being mere spectators.
It offers a sterile kind of security—an escape from awkward emotions, the sting of disappointment, the messiness of falling in love, or the risk of disease.
It’s just us, alone with our screens. A pure, unadulterated spectacle.
What it really provides is resentment and a certain melancholy, looping endlessly with only minor variations to keep the gears turning.
Ultimately, pornography is just a commodity. Everything is categorized and packaged: the classics, BDSM, various fixations, and fetishes. It’s all sitting there, ready for consumption.
The modern individual no longer seeks self-discovery through intimacy with another person. Their own brain, paired with an image or a film, is enough to satisfy the urge.
That is the true triumph of pornography.

I think you’re oversimplifying things just a bit too much there. We have to talk about addiction issues, and let's face it, it can lead to psychological impotence. If a guy gets used to those extreme levels of stimulation, well, it can actually make him incapable of functioning normally, even if he's healthy and genuinely wants to perform. That doesn't mean everyone who watches porn is mentally ill, obviously, but if you're constantly consuming stuff like S&M, group sex, and all that heavy material, then standard, "classic" intimacy between two people might just stop being exciting for you.

So sure, you skip the diseases, but you end up trading them for psychological dysfunction.

I once knew a guy.
After spending an entire year consuming nothing but hardcore pornography, he confessed to me that actual, physical intimacy had lost all its appeal. He simply wasn't interested in real sex anymore.

The human brain is wired to gravitate toward the simplicity of 2D imagery; it’s much easier to process than reality.
There is also this growing anxiety regarding the opposite sex—this hesitation toward flesh and blood, toward a living, breathing person. It is a pervasive fear, particularly among the generations raised under the constant glow of a smartphone screen.

The philosophy behind pornography? It’s essentially a blueprint for destruction.

We are talking about a psychological weapon designed to destabilize the masses, all conveniently wrapped in the guise of "freedom and indulgence at any cost."
The primary target is the male psyche and his vital energy; every time a "detached" orgasm occurs through this medium, accompanied by ejaculation, he loses his drive. This provides a somewhat logical basis for the old adage regarding why women tend to outlive men—though, of course, there are other variables like social context involved, but I won't get sidetracked.
What follows is the creation of a progressively degenerative society across generations—especially when combined with other "additives," which is a topic for another day—where men are effectively feminized and stripped of their masculinity. As roles shift and the traditional family unit dissolves, you end up witnessing the collapse of civilization itself. And once that happens, everything resets to zero, only to begin the cycle all over again.

I will reiterate: it isn't just about pornography, though that is a significant factor; it is about the entire scope of this human experiment, or rather, this relentless social engineering...

When a guy hits that climax, he basically loses all his momentum—which, honestly, just goes to show why women outlive men.

First off, what century are you living in? And second, why on earth do you think shamanism, esoterica, and that whole vibe count as philosophy? You can find those topics a little lower down on the bookshelf.

Eric Newman75 said:When a guy hits that climax, he basically loses all his momentum—which, honestly, just goes to show why women outlive men.

First off, what century are you living in? And second, why on earth do you think shamanism, esoterica, and that whole vibe count as philosophy? You can find those topics a little lower down on the bookshelf.

1. It's the 21st century, and I’m fully present for it.

2. Because "philosophy" encompasses much more than the narrow curriculum they shoved down our throats in high school or college.

It honestly feels like you didn't pay much attention in high school or college, did you? Believe it or not, philosophy actually relies on science and hard evidence, not some Taoist nonsense. Real studies show the exact opposite of what you're claiming—men who are sexually active are actually half as likely to deal with cardiovascular disease or prostate cancer. And when it comes to longevity, several studies published in American medical journals by researchers in the UK and Sweden have shown that staying active in your later years brings massive benefits. It can even add three or four years to your life because of the positive impact it has on both physical health and your mental state.

Morning, everyone. I’m crashing into this thread like a skydiver without a parachute.
Back when I was in high school, a librarian let me in on the works of Nancy Friday. I have no idea how we even ended up on the same wavelength, but the woman certainly knew her craft. She hit on both subjects I was obsessed with: sexuality and psychology.

Totally unrelated to the main topic, but the title here actually took me way back... like, more than 30 years ago when I used to hit up the local library to rent books like the Tribunes' history of pornography of course

Naturally, I figured it would follow the "nomen est omen" rule—you know, where the name says it all—and expected the whole thing to be just about smutty stuff. But if I recall correctly, the actual plot had absolutely nothing to do with what the title suggested🤣🤣🤦

It kind of reminds me of those modern clickbait headlines you see online today... they’re specifically crafted just to force you to click through to an article because the actual point is being intentionally hidden from the headline itself🙄