Porn vs. Erotica and Meal Bars

A friend was looking at the book I mentioned in my previous post, Forbidden Erotica, and the question arose: when does pornography become erotica? The pictures in this book are definitely pornographic, but the feeling of them isn’t the same as in what you see on the internet or in magazines. But the same acts are depicted by men and women and various combinations thereof. The feeling just isn’t there though. It seems more, well, cute, quaint and OMG-they-did-that-back-then-ish.

So, when? If a picture is 100 years old, does it become erotica? What is erotica versus pornography? My erotica is probably someone else’s hard core porn and vice versa. Is there a formula, a more or less clear cut line?
The common wisdom is that porn degrades women. How about degrading men, does that count? And again, what I find degrading is probably not what someone else finds degrading…

And is all porn bad? Mr. Jazz and I have been known to watch the odd "instructional" DVD and it was quite amusing and, well instructional - at least as far as we, ahem, managed to see. Does that make me a sleazeball? I don't think so, and if it does, well so be it, I can live with that.

Which reminds me of a conversation with a colleague recently. She had seen a completely veiled woman at her neighborhood grocery store (which seems sort of well just weird, ya know). She asked me how I felt about this? Did I find it degrading (there's that word again) to women, and oppressive, and should the practice be banned (not that you see that many women in Montreal who are completely veiled, the odd hijab here and there perhaps).

I dunno about banning it, what would be the point really? These women would simply end up never leaving their homes. Personally, I don't see how anyone can stand for that, but it's a whole different culture. I hope these women's daughters won't stand for it though, and their granddaughters and so on.

But degrading? I think it's more degrading for men, since women are veiled to keep them from the concupiscent looks of men. To keep them safe from men. As if all men are animals who feel the need to jump on any woman they see. Give men some credit please. Although it is paradoxical that men are the ones who want to keep their women safe... from others as bad as themselves? Somehow I don't think being veiled is keeping these women any safer. I'd like to see statistics on rape... though obviously rape doesn't exist in those communities. OK, I'll stop shooting off my mouth now.

On a totally different tack: Meal bars. Ewww. My m-i-l left me a sample at home the other day. Damn, those things are nasty. Tasted like a chocolate sawdust brownie. Whoever decided that you could replace a meal with a bar is in severe need of psychiatric help. Seriously, how hard is it to make a sandwich? There is no reason to eat that crap. Why do we fall for this stuff?

Advertising? If so, damn they’re good because although no amount of advertising will ever have me eating those meal bars, it seems lots of people buy them. I guess they're doing something right.