cliterature

No, not that P-word, the other one.  You see the word ’porn’ attached to all sorts of products these days: cat porn (LOLcats), food porn, vampire porn and so forth.  Indeed, this trend seems to be growing in the media where some journalists are quick to grab for an easy, attention-getting headline.

This spreading use of the term is interesting in three ways.  One is that it gives a word a mean that is independent of sex.  Secondly it gives modifies the implied meaning of the word–by suggesting that it refers, at least by analogy, to any somewhat gratuitous pleasure.  Finally, in almost all cases the overall spin of the word is positive.

 Meanwhile many people who write genres of pornography (a somewhat gratuitous display of sexual activity for the purpose of causing pleasure) continue to refuse to use the word at all.  The overall message is that gratuitous pussycats are wonderful, but any kind of “pussy” fiction (and I refer here to the reaction of the reader not the objectification of the heroine) is still shameful and requires extensive legitimizing (literary merit, the plot made me do it, etc) and the use of words with a higher level of sophistication.

 Perhaps this wider use of the p-word will help strip it (so to speak)of some of the unnecessary shame and taboo associated with any art form that depicts what is, after all, just one of life’s pleasures.

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