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History of erotic depictions


Roman oil lamp depicting coitus more ferarum
Erotic depictions include paintings, sculpture, photographs, dramatic arts, music and writings that show scenes of a sexual nature. They have been created by nearly every civilization, ancient and modern. Early cultures often associated the sexual act with supernatural forces and thus their religion is intertwined with such depictions. In Asian countries such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan and China, representations of sex and erotic art have specific spiritual meanings within the native religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto and Taoism. The Greeks and Romans produced much art and decoration of an erotic nature, much of it integrated with their religious beliefs and cultural practices.[1][2]
In more recent times, erotic depictions have gone from being a luxury item for the few to a propaganda tool and then an everyday commodity, and even a livelihood for some. As the technology of communication has changed, each new technique, such as printing, photography, motion pictures and computers, has been adapted to display and disseminate these depictions.[3]
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Historic attitudes regarding erotic depictions

Fig. Typical heterosexual Roman painting from Pompeii
In early times, erotic depictions were often a subset of the indigenous or religious art of cultures and as such were not set aside or treated differently than any other type. The modern concept of pornography did not exist until the Victorian era. Its current definition was added in the 1860s, replacing the older one meaning writings about prostitutes. It first appeared in an English medical dictionary in 1857 defined as "a description of prostitutes or of prostitution, as a matter of public hygiene." By 1864, the first version of the modern definition had appeared in Webster's Dictionary: "licentious painting employed to decorate the walls of rooms sacred to bacchanalian orgies, examples of which exist in Pompeii." This was the beginning of what today refers to explicit pictures in general. Though some specific sex acts were regulated or prohibited by earlier laws, merely looking at objects or images depicting them was not outlawed in any country until 1857. In some cases, the possession of certain books, engravings or image collections was outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that actually restricted viewing sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct.
When large-scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of sexuality, and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper class scholars. The movable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples, and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off so as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working class. England's (and the world's) first laws criminalizing pornography were enacted with the passage of the Obscene Publications Act of 1857.Despite their occasional repression, depictions of erotic themes have been common for millennia.
Early depictions

The Venus of Willendorf is a prehistoric depiction.


Traditional pederastic courtship scene on an Athenian black-figure amphora from the 5th century B.C.
Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings. Some of the more common images are of animals, hunting scenes and depictions of human genitalia (thought to be fertility symbols). Nude human beings with exaggerated sexual characteristics are depicted in some Paleolithic paintings and artifacts (e.g. Venus figurines). Recently discovered cave art at Creswell Crags in England, thought to be more than 12,000 years old, includes some symbols that may be stylized versions of female genitalia. However there is no indication that these were made for erotic stimulation, so it is far more likely that these were objects used in religious rituals. Archaeologists in Germany reported in April 2005 that they had found what they believe is a 7,200-year-old scene depicting a male figurine bending over a female figurine in a manner suggestive of sexual intercourse. The male figure has been named Adonis von Zschernitz. However, it is not certain that the purpose of these artifacts was individual sexual arousal. Instead, the images may have had a spiritual significance and are probably connected with fertility rituals.
The ancient Greeks often painted sexual scenes on their ceramics, many of them famous for being some of the earliest depictions of same-sex relations and pederasty. Greek art often portrays sexual activity, but it is impossible to distinguish between what to them was illegal or immoral since the ancient Greeks did not have a concept of pornography. Their art simply reflects scenes from daily life, some more sexual than others. Carved phalli can be seen in places of worship such as the temple of Dionysus on Delos, while a common household item and protective charm was the herm, a statue consisting of a head on a square plinth with a prominent phallus on the front. The Greek male ideal had a small penis, an aesthetic the Romans later adopted. The Greeks also created the first well-known instance of lesbian eroticism in the West, with Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite and other homoerotic works.
For more details on this topic, see Art in ancient Greece.

A Priapus figure from Pompeii. Large phalli were considered undesirable for men to possess and often depicted for comic effect in ancient Rome.
There are numerous sexually explicit paintings and sculpture from the ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii and Herculaneum but the original purposes of the depictions can vary. On one hand, in the "Villa of the Mysteries", there is a ritual flagellation scene that is clearly associated with a religious cult and this image can be seen as having religious significance rather than sexual. On the other hand, graphic paintings in a brothel advertise sexual services in murals above each door. In Pompeii, phalli and testicles engraved in the sidewalks were created to aid visitors in finding their way by pointing to the prostitution and entertainment district as well as general decoration. The Romans considered depictions of sex to be decoration in good taste, and indeed the pictures reflect the sexual mores and practices of their culture, as on the Warren Cup. Sex acts that were considered taboo (such as those that defiled the purity of the mouth) were depicted in baths for comic effect. Large phalli were often used near entryways, for the phallus was a good luck charm, and the carvings were common in homes. One of the first objects excavated when the complex was discovered was a marble statue showing the god Pan having sex with a goat, a detailed depiction of bestiality considered so obscene that it is not on public display to this day and remains in the Secret Museum in Naples.
For more details on this topic, see Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The Moche of Peru is another ancient people that sculpted explicit scenes of sex into their pottery. Their purpose however, was much different than that of other early cultures. The Moche believed that the world of the dead was the exact opposite of the world of the living. Therefore, for funeral offerings, they made vessels showing sex acts such as masturbation, fellatio and anal sex that would not result in offspring. The hope was that in the world of the dead, they would take on their opposite meaning and result in fertility.

Shunga (Japan)


Prince and his lady on a terrace at night (India)
There has been a long tradition of erotic painting in the East. Japan, China, India, Persia and other lands produced copious quantities of art celebrating the human faculty of love. The works depict love between men and women as well as same-sex love. In Japan, the erotic art found its greatest flowering in the medium of the woodblock prints. The style is known as shunga (春画, pictures of spring?) and some of its classic practitioners (e.g. Harunobu, Utamaro) produced a large number of works. Painted hand scrolls were also very popular. Shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity despite occasional attempts to suppress them, the first of which was a ban on erotic books known as kōshokubon ( 好色本, kōshokubon?) issued by the Tokugawa shogunate in Kyōhō 7 (1722). Shunga only ceased to be produced in the 19th century when photography was invented.
The Chinese tradition of the erotic was also extensive, with examples of the art dating back as far as the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The erotic art of China reached its peak during the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).[1][15]
For more details on History of pornography in Japan, see Pornography in Japan#History.
In both China and Japan, eroticism played a prominent role in the development of the novel. The Tale of Genji, the work by an 11th-century Japanese noblewoman that is often called “the world’s first novel,” traces the many affairs of its hero in discreet but carnal language. From 16th-century China, the still more explicit novel The Plum in the Golden Vase has been called one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The Tale of Genji has been celebrated in Japan since it was written, but The Plum in the Golden Vase was suppressed as pornography for much of its history, and replaced on the list of four classics.
Erotic scenes in medieval illuminated manuscripts were also common but meant only for those who could afford the extremely expensive hand made books. Most of these drawings occur in the margins of books of hours. Many medieval scholars think that the pictures satisfied the medieval cravings for both erotic pictures and religion in one book, especially since it was often the only book someone owned. Other scholars think the drawings in the margins were a kind of moral caution, but the depiction of priests and other ranking officials engaged in sex acts suggests political origins as well.
It was not until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg that sexually explicit images entered into any type of mass circulation in the western world. Before that time, erotic images, being hand made and expensive, were limited to upper class males who deliberately kept them away from the laboring class, fearing the effect such things would have on the animal lust of the uneducated. Even the British Museum had a Secretum filled with a collection of ancient erotica donated by the upper class doctor, George Witt in 1865. The remains of the collection, including his scrapbooks, still reside in Cupboard 55; though the majority of it has recently been integrated with the museum's other collections.[18]
Beginnings of mass circulation
Printing

Erotic engraving supposedly after Agostino Carracci (1557–1602)
In the 16th century an attempt to print erotic material caused a scandal when Italians Pietro Aretino and Marcantonio Raimondi produced the I Modi in 1524, an illustrated book of 16 "postures" or sexual positions. Raimondi had actually published the I Modi once before, and was subsequently imprisoned by the Pope Clement VII and all copies of the illustrations were destroyed. Raimondi based the engravings on a series of erotic paintings that Giulio Romano was doing as a commission for the Palazzo del Te in Mantua. Though the two depictions were very similar, only Raimondi was prosecuted because his engravings were capable of being seen by the public. Romano did not know of the engravings until Aretino came to see the original paintings while Romano was still working on them. Aretino then composed sixteen explicit sonnets ("both in your pussy and your behind, my cock will make me happy, and you happy and blissful") to go with the paintings and secured Raimondi's release from prison. The I Modi was then published a second time, with the poems and the pictures, making this the first time erotic text and images were combined, though the papacy once more seized all the copies it could find. Raimondi escaped prison that time, but the censorship was so complete that no original copies have ever been found. The text in existence is only a copy of a copy that was discovered 400 years later.
In the 17th century, numerous examples of pornographic or erotic literature began to circulate, mostly printed in Amsterdam, and smuggled into European states. These included L'Ecole des Filles, a French work printed in 1655 that is considered to be the beginnings of pornography in France. It consists of an illustrated dialogue between two women, a 16-year-old and her more worldly cousin, and their explicit discussions about sex. The author remains anonymous to this day, though a few suspected authors served light prison sentences for supposed authorship of the work.[20] In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys records purchasing a copy for solitary reading and then burning it so that it would not be discovered by his wife; "the idle roguish book, L'escholle de filles; which I have bought in plain binding… because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it."[21]

Illustration from Juliette by the Marquis de Sade
During the Enlightenment, many of the French free-thinkers began to exploit pornography as a medium of social criticism and satire. Libertine pornography was a subversive social commentary and often targeted the Catholic Church and general attitudes of sexual repression. The market for the mass-produced, inexpensive pamphlets soon became the bourgeoisie, making the upper class worry, as in England, that the morals of the lower class and weak-minded would be corrupted since women, slaves and the uneducated were seen as especially vulnerable during that time. The stories and illustrations (sold in the galleries of the Palais Royal, along with services of prostitutes) were often anti-clerical and full of misbehaving priests, monks and nuns, a tradition that in French pornography continued into the 20th century. In the period leading up to the French Revolution, pornography was also used as political commentary; Marie Antoinette was often targeted with fantasies involving orgies, lesbian activities and the paternity of her children, and rumors circulated about the supposed sexual inadequacies of Louis XVI. During and after the Revolution, the famous works of the Marquis de Sade were printed. They were often accompanied by illustrations and served as political commentary for their author.
The English answer to this was Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (later abridged and renamed Fanny Hill) written in 1748 by John Cleland. While the text satirized the literary conventions and fashionable manners of 18th century England, it was more scandalous for depicting a woman, the narrator, enjoying and even reveling in sexual acts with no dire moral or physical consequences. The text is hardly explicit as Cleland wrote the entire book using euphemisms for sex acts and body parts, employing 50 different ones just for the term penis. Two small earthquakes were credited to the book by the Bishop of London and Cleland was arrested and briefly imprisoned, but Fanny Hill continued to be published and is one of the most reprinted books in the English language. However, it was not legal to own this book in the United States until 1963 and in the United Kingdom until 1970.
Photography
For more details on this topic, see History of erotic photography.

19th-century nude photograph
In 1839, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre presented the first practical process of photography to the French Academy of Sciences. Unlike earlier photographic methods, his daguerreotypes had stunning quality and detail and did not fade with time. The new technology did not go unnoticed by artists eager for new ways to depict the undraped feminine form. Traditionally, an académie was a nude study done by a painter to master the female (or male) form. Each had to be registered with the French government and approved or they could not be sold. Soon, nude photographs were being registered as académie and marketed as aids to painters. However, the realism of a photograph as opposed to the idealism of a painting made many of these intrinsically erotic. In Nude photography, 1840–1920, Peter Marshall notes: "In the prevailing moral climate at the time of the invention of photography, the only officially sanctioned photography of the body was for the production of artist's studies. Many of the surviving examples of daguerreotypes are clearly not in this genre but have a sensuality that clearly implies they were designed as erotic or pornographic images."
The daguerreotypes were not without drawbacks, however. The main difficulty was that they could only be reproduced by photographing the original picture since each image was an original and the all metal process does not use negatives. In addition, the earliest daguerreotypes had exposure times ranging from three to fifteen minutes, making them somewhat impractical for portraiture. Unlike earlier drawings, action could not be shown. The poses that the models struck had to be held very still for a long time. Because of this, the standard pornographic image shifted from one of two or more people engaged in sex acts to a solitary woman exposing her genitals. Since one picture could cost a week's salary, the audience for these nudes mostly consisted of artists and the upper echelon of society. It was cheaper to hire a prostitute and experience the sex acts than it was to own a picture of them in the 1840s. Stereoscopy was invented in 1838 and became extremely popular for daguerreotypes, including the erotic images. This technology produced a type of three dimensional view that suited erotic images quite well. Although thousands of erotic daguerreotypes were created, only around 800 are known to survive; however, their uniqueness and expense meant that they were once the toys of rich men. Due to their rarity, the works can sell for more than 10,000 GBP.
In 1841, William Fox Talbot patented the calotype process, the first negative-positive process, making possible multiple copies. This invention permitted an almost limitless number of prints to be produced from a glass negative. Also, the reduction in exposure time made a true mass market for pornographic pictures possible. The technology was immediately employed to reproduce nude portraits. Paris soon became the centre of this trade. In 1848 only thirteen photography studios existed in Paris; by 1860, there were over 400. Most of them profited by selling illicit pornography to the masses who could now afford it. The pictures were also sold near train stations, by traveling salesmen and women in the streets who hid them under their dresses. They were often produced in sets (of four, eight or twelve), and exported internationally, mainly to England and the United States. Both the models and the photographers were commonly from the working class, and the artistic model excuse was increasingly hard to use. By 1855, no more photographic nudes were being registered as académie, and the business had gone underground to escape prosecution.


Eadweard Muybridge: Woman walking with fishing pole (detail)
The Victorian pornographic tradition in Britain had three main elements: French photographs, erotic prints (sold in shops in Holywell Street, a long vanished London thoroughfare, swept away by the Aldwych), and printed literature. The ability to reproduce photographs in bulk assisted the rise of a new business individual, the porn dealer. Many of these dealers took advantage of the postal system to send out photographic cards in plain wrappings to their subscribers. Therefore, the development of a reliable international postal system facilitated the beginnings of the pornography trade. Victorian pornography had several defining characteristics. It reflected a very mechanistic view of the human anatomy and its functions. Science, the new obsession, was used to ostensibly study the human body. Consequently, the sexuality of the subject is often depersonalized, and is without any passion or tenderness. At this time, it also became popular to depict nude photographs of women of exotic ethnicities, under the umbrella of science. Studies of this type can be found in the work of Eadweard Muybridge. Although he photographed both men and women, the women were often given props like market baskets and fishing poles, making the images of women thinly disguised erotica.
Magazines
For more details on this topic, see Pornographic magazine.


The first issue of Playboy
In 1880, halftone printing was used to reproduce photographs inexpensively for the first time. The invention of halftone printing took pornography and erotica in new directions at the beginning of the 20th century. The new printing processes allowed photographic images to be reproduced easily in black and white, whereas printers were previously limited to engravings, woodcuts and line cuts for illustrations. This was the first format that allowed pornography to become a mass market phenomenon, it now being more affordable and more easily acquired than any previous form.
First appearing in France, the new magazines featured nude (often, burlesque actresses were hired as models) and semi-nude photographs on the cover and throughout; while these would now be termed softcore, they were quite shocking for the time. The publications soon either masqueraded as "art magazines" or publications celebrating the new cult of naturism, with titles such as Photo Bits, Body in Art, Figure Photography, Nude Living and Modern Art for Men.[3] Health and Efficiency, started in 1900, was a typical naturist magazine in Britain. [30]
Another early form of pornography were comic books known as Tijuana bibles that began appearing in the U.S. in the 1920s and lasted until the publishing of glossy colour men's magazines commenced. These were crude hand drawn scenes often using popular characters from cartoons and culture.
In the 1940s, the word "pinup" was coined to describe pictures torn from men's magazines and calendars and "pinned up" on the wall by U.S. soldiers in World War II. While the '40s images focused mostly on legs, by the '50s, the emphasis shifted to breasts. Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe were two of the most popular pinup models. In the second half of the 20th century, pornography evolved into the men's magazines such as Playboy and Modern Man of the 1950s. In fact, the beginning of the modern men's glossy magazine (or girlie magazine) can be traced to the 1953 purchase by Hugh Hefner of a photograph of Marilyn Monroe to use as the centerfold of his new magazine Playboy. Soon, this type of magazine was the primary medium in which pornography was consumed.
These magazines featured nude or semi-nude women, sometimes apparently masturbating, although their genitals or pubic hair were not actually displayed. Penthouse, started by Bob Guccione in England in 1965, took a different approach. Women looked indirectly at the camera, as if they were going about their private idylls. This change of emphasis was influential in erotic depictions of women. Penthouse was also the first magazine to publish pictures that included pubic hair and full frontal nudity, both of which were considered beyond the bounds of the erotic and in the realm of pornography at the time. In the late 1960s, magazines began to move into more explicit displays often focusing on the buttocks as standards of what could be legally depicted and what readers wanted to see changed. By the 1970s, they were focusing on the pubic area and eventually, by the 1990s, featured sexual penetration, lesbianism and homosexuality, group sex, masturbation, and fetishes in the more hard-core magazines such as Hustler.
Magazines for every taste and fetish were soon created due to the low cost of producing them. Magazines for the gay community flourished, the most notable and one of the first being Physique Pictorial, started in 1951 by Bob Mizer when his attempt to sell the services of male models; however, Athletic Model Guild photographs of them failed. It was published in black and white, in a very clear yet photographic manner celebrating the male form and was published for nearly 50 years. The magazine was innovative in its use of props and costumes to depict the now standard gay icons like cowboys, gladiators and sailors.
Moving pictures
For more details on this topic, see Pornographic film.


Images from early Austrian erotic films
The next technological advance that affected the way people viewed erotic depictions was the invention of the motion picture. William Laurie Dickson, an employee of Thomas Edison, invented the first practical celluloid film for this application and decided on 35mm for the size, a standard still used. He then worked on making the kinetoscope, a peep show machine showing a continuous loop of the film Dickson invented lit by an Edison light source. This was the predecessor to the motion picture projector.[34]
Dickson left Edison's employ and formed his own company that produced the mutoscope, a form of hand cranked peep show movie machine. These machines produced moving images by means of a revolving drum of card illustrations, taken from an actual piece of film. They were often featured at seaside locations, showing (usually) sequences of women undressing or acting as an artist's model. In Britain, they became known as "What the butler saw" machines, taking the name from one of the first and most famous softcore reels.[35][36]
The idea of projecting a moving film onto a screen in front of an audience was a European invention. In 1895, Robert W. Paul and Auguste and Louis Lumière gave their first public demonstrations of motion picture projectors.[37] Pornographic films were produced almost immediately after the medium was invented. Two of the earliest pioneers were Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner(Although today, Kirchner is chiefly remembered by film historians as the first man to produce a film about the life of Christ, the Passion du Christ), who directed the earliest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name "Léar". The 1896 film, Le Coucher de la Marie showed Mlle. Louise Willy performing a striptease. Pirou's film inspired a genre of risqué French films showing women disrobing when other filmmakers realised profits could be made.[38][39]
Because Pirou is nearly unknown as a pornographic filmmaker, credit is often given to other films for being the first. According to Patrick Robertson's Film Facts, "the earliest pornographic motion picture which can definitely be dated is A L'Ecu d'Or ou la bonne auberge" made in France in 1908; the plot depicts a weary soldier who has a tryst with a servant girl at an inn. The Argentinian El Satario might be even older; it has been dated to somewhere between 1907 and 1912. He also notes that "the oldest surviving pornographic films are contained in America's Kinsey Collection. One film demonstrates how early pornographic conventions were established. The German film Am Abend (1910) is "a ten-minute film which begins with a woman masturbating alone in her bedroom, and progresses to scenes of her with a man performing straight sex, fellatio and anal penetration."[40]
Soon illegal, stag films or blue films as they were called, were produced underground by amateurs for many years starting in the 1940s. Processing the film took considerable time and resources, with people using their bathtubs to wash the film when processing facilities (often tied to organized crime) were unavailable. The films were then circulated privately or by traveling salesman but being caught viewing or possessing them put one at the risk of prison.[3][41]
The post-war era saw developments that further stimulated the growth of a mass market. Technological developments, particularly the introduction of the 8mm and super-8 film gauges, resulted in the widespread use of amateur cinematography. Entrepreneurs emerged to supply this market. In Britain, the productions of Harrison Marks were "soft core", but considered risqué in the 1950s. On the continent, such films were more explicit. Lasse Braun was as a pioneer in quality colour productions that were, in the early days, distributed by making use of his father's diplomatic privileges. Pornography was legalized in the Netherlands in 1969 and this led to an explosion of commercially produced pornography. Now that being a pornographer was a legitimate occupation, there was no shortage of businessmen to invest in proper plant and equipment capable of turning out a mass-produced, cheap, but quality product. Vast amounts of this new pornography, both magazines and films, were smuggled into other parts of Europe, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs.[3]
The first explicitly pornographic film with a plot that received a general theatrical release in the U.S. is generally considered to be Mona (also known as Mona the Virgin Nymph), a 59-minute 1970 feature by Bill Osco and Howard Ziehm, who went on to create the relatively high-budget hardcore/softcore (depending on the release) cult film Flesh Gordon.[42][41] The 1971 film Boys in the Sand represented a number of pornographic firsts. As the first generally available gay pornographic film, the film was the first to include on-screen credits for its cast and crew (albeit largely under pseudonyms), to parody the title of a mainstream film (in this case, The Boys in the Band), and to be reviewed by The New York Times.[43] In 1972, pornographic films hit their public peak in the United States with both Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door being met with public approval and becoming social phenomena. The Devil in Miss Jones followed in 1973 and many predicted that frank depictions of sex onscreen would soon become common place, but culture soon shifted to the more conservative side and that fantasy never came true. William Rotsler expressed this in 1973, "Erotic films are here to stay. Eventually they will simply merge into the mainstream of motion pictures and disappear as a labeled sub-division. Nothing can stop this."[44] In Britain however, Deep Throat was not approved in its uncut form until 2000 and not shown publicly until June of 2005.[41][45][46]
Video and digital depictions
For more details on this topic, see Internet pornography.


Digitally altered erotic photograph
By 1982, most pornographic films were being shot on the cheaper and more convenient medium of video tape. Many film directors resisted this shift at first because of the different image quality that video tape produced, however those who did change soon were collecting most of the industry's profits since consumers overwhelmingly preferred the new format. The technology change happened quickly and completely when directors realised that continuing to shoot on film was no longer a profitable option. This change moved the films out of the theatres and into people's private homes. This was the end of the age of big budget productions and the mainstreaming of pornography. It soon went back to its earthy roots and expanded to cover every fetish possible since filming was now so inexpensive. Instead of hundreds of pornographic films being made each year, thousands now were, including compilations of just the sex scenes from various videos.[3][41]
Erotic CD-ROMs were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s because they brought an unprecedented element of interactiveness and fantasy. However, their poor quality was a drawback and when the internet became common in households their sales declined. About the same time as the video revolution, the Internet became the preferred source of pornography for many people, offering both privacy in viewing and the chance to interact with people. The recent influx of widely available technology such as digital cameras, both moving and still, has blurred the lines between erotic films, photographs and amateur and professional productions. It allows easy access to both formats, making the production of them easily achieved by anyone with access to the equipment. Much of the pornography available today is produced by amateurs. Digital media is revolutionary in that it allows photographers and filmmakers to manipulate images in ways previously not possible, heightening the drama or eroticism of a depiction.[3]

Ancient Greek erotic art

Chinese erotic art

Eadweard Muybridge

Erotic art of the Roman civilization

Erotic art of India

Erotic art of Persia

Erotic engravings

Shunga

Vintage nude photographs

Pan copulating with a goat (statue)
Explicit Moche pottery
More Moche pottery
Erotic Daguerreotype
Cover of early men's magazine

Nudity in film

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.


Publicity photograph of Audrey Munson c1916. She is reputed to be the first woman to appear nude in a motion picture.
Nudity in film is the appearance in motion pictures of humans without clothing. A so-called nude scene is an individual scene of a film that features nudity when the rest of the film does not. Nude scenes can be controversial due to the fact that they go beyond culturally specific boundaries regarding appropriate modesty in clothing.
In many cultures, nudity in cinematic film is governed by a tiered system of censorship. Such systems are predominately aimed at limiting children's access to content that is deemed harmful to their development by the masses, the government, the industry, or a combination of these collectives.
Because nudity is a universal (someone with no clothing at all), culturally-specific (someone with one or more body parts exposed, but not completely unclothed), tonally specific (the context of the exposure of parts of the body), and individually-defined (someone with a certain exposed part may be considered nude to one person in a culture but not another), it is a volatile subject. Moreover, the majority of contemporary societies are uncomfortable with nudity, usually to the point of making it illegal in public. This contrasts with several cultures of the ancient world, such as the Roman Empire, where public nudity was considered only a reflection of the person's social status, and the Gauls of ancient France, whose soldiers fought unclothed.
Contents
[hide]
1 United States
1.1 History
2 Famous nude scenes
3 Footnotes
4 Further reading
5 See also
6 External links
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United States
Few American films dare to show both male and female genitalia (in what is called by many full frontal nudity). Instead, buttocks and breasts are shown to titillate, surprise, or amuse viewers. In many cases, objects are used to obscure the view of an actor's primary erogenous zones. This can prevent films from receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA ("No one 17 and under admitted"), which usually leads to commercial failure for films targeting the mainstream theatre market in the US. Some nudity may be found in PG and PG-13 films as well, particularly when it isn't presented in a sexual context (e.g. a scene in the PG-rated Footloose in which a minor character is seen from behind taking a shower after a PE class). In mainstream US films, the genitals are rarely shown, and the penis is never shown erect, because of the NC-17 code threat.
The tastefulness of nude scenes is hotly debated in the United States. Adding nudity to films can increase audience interest and pre-release publicity. However, some movie critics take a negative view of gratuitous nudity that has little to do with the plot of the film. Some actors refuse nude scenes out of personal values or the belief that it will harm their reputation. Elisha Cuthbert, Lindsay Lohan and Eliza Dushku are among those who have stated that they will never do a nude scene.[1][2][3]
History


Audrey Munson, the first leading actress to appear nude in the film, as she appears in Inspiration.
Several early films of the silent era and early sound era featured nudity; in response to objections voiced by several groups, scenes of nudity were forbidden in films from the major American studios from 1934 until the late 1960s under the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hayes Code. During this time, the only acceptable cinematic displays of nudity in the U.S. were in naturist quasi-documentary films and foreign films. Other portrayals were in early pornographic films which, due to limited means of distribution, were not widely seen.
Nudist films are a genre of films associated with the 1950s and 1960s, although the genre has roots dating back to the 1930s. Nudist films claim to depict the lifestyles of members of the nudism or naturist movement — known commonly as nudists — but were largely a vehicle for the exhibition and commercial exploitation of female nudity within the context of public theatrical screenings.
Famous examples of nudist films are Garden of Eden (1954) directed by Max Nosseck. Other producers and directors active in the genre included David F. Friedman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and Barry Mahon. Filmmaker Doris Wishman was probably the most active producer/director in the genre, with eight nudist film to her credit during the early 1960s.
The 1959 film The Immoral Mr. Teas by Russ Meyer, in which the main character was overcome with fantasies of nude women, was the first non-naturist feature film to openly exhibit nudity. The 1964 film The Pawnbroker became the first movie under the Hayes Code to show a woman with bare breasts. In 1966, the British-Italian film Blowup became the first mainstream English-language film to show a woman's pubic hair, although the particular shot was only a few seconds long.
In autumn 1966 the Motion Picture Association of America unveiled a new Production Code. The new Code replaced specific rules, including those on nudity, with more general principles advising caution in matters like nudity and sexual intimacy. It also gave the MPAA the power to label certain films as "Suggested for Mature Audiences". In November 1968, the MPAA abandoned the Production Code altogether and replaced it with the voluntary rating system. Full nudity could then be legitimately included in a commercially distributed film.
At present, genital nudity is still rare in U.S. cinema. Further, the MPAA finds it more acceptable for a male's genitals to be depicted in a flaccid state. The film Angels and Insects (1996) was the first to be given an NC-17 rating specifically because an actor had an erection. A large amount of genital nudity, especially in a sexual context, often leads to an X or NC-17 rating. Many movie theaters refuse to show films with these ratings. Nevertheless, many X-rated films became culturally significant, including Midnight Cowboy (1969) A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Last Tango in Paris (1972). In the 2000s, most nude scenes only lead to an R rating from the MPAA, instead of NC-17. Many films that were once rated X have been "re-rated" R.
Famous nude scenes
Films with nude scenes that have attracted significant attention include:
About Schmidt (2002), a scene in which Kathy Bates appeared nude while taking a whirlpool bath was much discussed, due to the fact that she was in her fifties and overweight. Jack Nicholson also reveals his buttocks in this film.
Age of Consent (1969), A young Helen Mirren Mirren is featured in several revealing nude scenes, including one where she skinny dips in the ocean.
All the Right Moves (1983), Tom Cruise (or a double) appears nude.
American Gigolo (1980), first full frontal of a major Hollywood actor (Richard Gere).
And God Created Woman (1956), Brigitte Bardot, Opens with a shot of some clothing on a washing line with a nude Bardot sun tanning herself beneath.
Angel Heart (1986), controversial film by Alan Parker featuring an explicit love scene between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet.
Animal House (1978), which featured the all-famous scene where Bluto (Belushi) is on a ladder peering through the window watching Mandy (Weller) undress until the ladder falls.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1990), Hector Babenco directed adaptation of a story of fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians, includes numerous nude scenes with the indegenous population, as well explicit scenes with most of the cast - Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates (12 years before About Schmidt) and nine-year old Niilo Kivirinta as the son of John Lithgow and Kathy Bates (a role reportedly first offered to Macaulay Culkin.)
Basic Instinct (1992), known for a scene in which Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs, revealing her genitals. Also shows a scene of a dead man, with his penis showing.
Ben-Hur (1925), Roman soldiers pull off a woman's top, exposing her breasts; rear nudity of galley slave; bare-breasted maidens in parade scene.
Blowup (1966), Jane Birkin, First mainstream (and British) film to feature female pubic hair.
The Blue Lagoon (1980), which featured several nude scenes of actors Brooke Shields (or her double) and Christopher Atkins.
Borat:Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Sacha Baron Cohen and Ken Davitian wrestle naked in a hotel room, hallway, and in full view of a conference, in a scene that appears to have been inspired by the nude wrestling scene in Women in Love. However, Cohen's genitals were blocked by a superimposed black bar.
British Sounds (1970), In this experimental film by Jean-Luc Godard, there is a scene with an extended close-up of a woman's pubis.
The Brown Bunny (2003), caused major scandal in the Cannes Film Festival because of an explicit scene in which the main female character (played by Chloë Sevigny) performs oral sex on the main male character (played by Vincent Gallo).
Child Bride (1938), Shirley Mills, Twelve-year-old Mills appears nude in an infamous skinny dipping scene.
Contempt (1963), Brigitte Bardot, Features several extended shots of Bardot's bare buttocks.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Helen Mirren and Alan Howard appear nude for most of their screen time. They begin by secretly having sex in a toilet, and in a later scene they hide together in a meat freezer while nude.
Crash (1996), Deborah Kara Unger is nude in several scenes. While in bed with husband James Spader, her labia majora is clearly visible. Spader then sodomizes her (simulated) as she continues talking.
The Crying Game (1992), the sex scene between Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson is pivotal to the movie's plot, since, showing Dil's (Davidson's) genitals, it reveals her to be a transvestite rather than a biological female.
A Daughter of the Gods (1916), Annette Kellerman, The first film in which a major star appeared fully nude.
Devil in the Flesh (1987), Marushka Detmers appears casually nude during several scenes in this film of Raymond Radiguet's novel by Italian director Marco Bellocchio. In one notable scene, Detmers fellates her co-star, Federico Pitzalis (unsimulated).
Don't Look Now (1973), featured an explicit scene where Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are about to get dressed after having made love (some believe that the sex was unsimulated).
The Dreamers (2003), Eva Green plays several long scenes in the nude as do her male co-stars, Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel. In one scene, Louis Garrel masturbates to a photograph of Marlene Dietrich, in another Eva Green handles Michael Pitt's penis. In one close-up shot, Eva Green's labia majora is clearly visible.
Ecstasy (1933), Hedy Lamarr, Lamarr skinny dips in the lake and runs through a forest nude.
Equus (1977), featured extended full frontal and rear nudity from Peter Firth and Jenny Agutter.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999), gathered pre-release publicity for nude scenes of then-married couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, as well as extensive nudity during an orgy scene. Some film critics accused Warner Brothers of censorship when they reedited the film for an R-rating after the death of director Stanley Kubrick.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), a scene in which Phoebe Cates emerges from a swimming pool and removes her top has been endlessly imitated and parodied.
Havoc (2004), Anne Hathaway (actress) appears in one graphic nude scene, as well as several tamer ones. Hathaway was known as a Disney "good girl," starring in the Princess Diaries films, before taking on this role. The second Princess Diaries movie was released the same year. Bijou Phillips also appears nude several times in Havoc.
Henry & June (1990), the first film to receive an MPAA NC-17 rating, most notably for an explicit lesbian sex scene featuring (simulated) cunnilingus.
I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967), Vilgot Sjöman and Lena Nyman, Explicit portrayal of sex and nudity in a non-pornographic film.
If... (1968), Malcolm McDowell, Frontal male nudity in a shower scene by three of the film's lead actors.
Inspiration (1915), Audrey Munson, The first film featuring its leading actress naked.
James Joyce's Women (1985), Fionnula Flanagan appears casually nude and masturbates in full view of the camera while reciting a monologue.
Je vous salue, Marie (1985), controversial film by Jean-Luc Godard which presents Myriem Roussel as a modern Virgin Mary who appears nude (and in close-up) for much of her screen time.
Last Tango in Paris (1972), Maria Schneider appears fully and casually nude in several long scenes. In one scene, Marlon Brando spreads margarine between her buttocks before sodomizing her (simulated), and in another he rubs her breasts and pubic region with a wet sponge while she bathes in a tub. There is also a scene in an elevator which features a close-up shot of Maria Schneider lifting up her dress and revealing her pubic hair.
Los Años Bárbaros (1998), actress Hedy Burress appears in a full frontal nude scene as she runs across the beach to jump in the ocean. Since the film takes place during the 1960s, director Fernando Colomo had a large tuft of faux pubic hair attached over Burress's shaved crotch because he believed few women shaved their pubic hair off in the 1960s.
Macbeth (1971), Francesca Annis, Annis performs Lady Macbeth's famous sleepwalking soliloquy in the nude, baring her buttocks. A young male child is also shown, fully nude, being bathed.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), features David Bowie, Candy Clark and Rip Torn in a number of explicit nude scenes, including full frontal.
Maurice (1987), James Wilby and Rupert Graves have spent the night together in a London hotel. While relaxing in bed, and then getting dressed, both rear and frontal nudity are shown.
Medium Cool (1969), First mainstream American feature to show full male and female nudity.
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), Brian (Graham Chapman) appears naked on a balcony in front of a crowd.
Mulholland Drive (2001), the sex scene between Naomi Watts and Laura Harring has become popular on peer-to-peer downloading networks.[citation needed] In another scene, Watts masturbates in full view of the camera.
1900 (1976), featured a scene in which the characters of Robert DeNiro and Gerard Depardieu visit a prostitute. Both actors are seen completely naked as the woman visibly fondles both their penises. The scene was edited out for the US release of the film, and later reappeared on the 1993 NC-17 re-release.
1984 (1984), Suzanna Hamilton strips in the woods and performs two other long scenes casually in the nude. Her full-frontal nudity is frankly presented with particular emphasis on her ungroomed pubic and underarm hair.
The Pawnbroker (1964). First American film to show a woman (Thelma Oliver) nude from the waist up and still be granted a Production Code seal.
Planet of the Apes (1968), Charlton Heston is stripped, in rear view; one of the few instances of adult nudity in the last months of the Production Code era. His character is also featured in a nude bathing scene.
Prénom Carmen (1983), Maruschka Detmers appears nude for much of her screen time, including one close-up shot of her pubic area.
Pretty Baby (1978), which featured nude scenes of actress Brooke Shields, who was eleven and twelve during the shooting, raising allegations of child pornography.
Promises! Promises! (1963), Jayne Mansfield becomes the first mainstream American star to appear nude in the sound era, baring her breasts and buttocks.
Prospero's Books (1991), nearly all of the inhabitants of Prospero's island are nude in this deconstructionist interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Quadrophenia (1979), Jimmy (Phil Daniels), the main mod character, enjoys a full-frontal bath in a private cubicle of a public bath-house when his enjoyment is cut short by the sound of a rocker (the mods' cultural enemies) singing Gene Vincent's Bebop a Lula in the next cubicle. It incenses Jimmy, who bursts into a rendition of You Really Got Me by mod favourites The Kinks. Jimmy and the rocker are both seen fully naked in their cubicles as they compete in a raucous singing display. The baths'caretaker angrily bangs on their doors and shouts 'What do you think this is ? The bleedin' Eurovision Song Contest?' Later, the rocker is revealed to be Jummy's old school-mate, Kevin (Ray Winstone).
Romeo and Juliet (1968), Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, Caused some controversy because of the brief nude scenes featuring its two teenage leads.
A Room With a View (1985), Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, and Julian Sands frolic naked around a pond during a swimming scene.
The Rules of Attraction (2002). Nudity in bathub during suicide scene, nudity in context of sexuality, intercourse, nudity during male masturbation (seen from behind), and nudity at a party (sexualized).
Savage Messiah (1972), Helen Mirren walks up a staircase in the nude.
Shallow Ground (2004), Rocky Marquette is nude throughout the entire film, in much of the film he is also covered in fake blood, only briefly having it wiped off.
Shortbus, (2006). Scenes of nudity, especially in the context of solo, partner and group sex.
Showgirls (1995), Elizabeth Berkley performs an intense nude lapdance for Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon. Rena Riffel also contributes an intense nude performance with Berkeley at a strip club where they are both employed, and Gina Gershon leads a glitzy topless group dance number before Berkeley replaces her as the star of the show.
Summer with Monika (1953), Harriet Andersson, The first nude scene in postwar European cinema. Andersson's bare buttocks are seen briefly as she runs to skinny dips in a lake.
Swordfish (2001), Halle Berry appears topless in a scene
Tarzan of the Apes (1918), Gordon Griffith,, Tarzan at eleven years old is nude for much of the first half of the film; the breasts and rears of African natives are shown briefly.
10 (1979), Bo Derek's nudity in 10 is limited to a darkly-lit bedroom scene, but the movie made her an overnight sex symbol and led to a profusion of nudity in her later movies.
The Terminator (1984), Arnold Schwarzenegger appears nude early in the film.
Titanic (1997), a scene in which Kate Winglet poses nude and wears only a diamond necklace for her portrait.
Two Days in the Valley (1996), Charlize Theron's first lead role where she is stripped naked by James Spader in a motel room.
Ultimo mondo cannibal (1977), lead actors Massimo Foschi and Me Me Lai are nude throughout most of Ruggero Deodato's predecessor to the controversial Cannibal Holocaust, which also contains an explicit close-up of Foschi's genitals.
The Unashamed (1938). Typical nudist exploitation film of the 1930s, showing bare breasts and buttocks.
Walkabout (1971), David Gulpilil, Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg, Famous scene showing Gulpilil, A gutter and Roeg (as the Agutter's 11-year-old brother) skinny-dipping in a lake in the Australian outback.
What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? (1970), This film examines the public response to unexpected nudity.
The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Amanda Peet appears topless (her first nude scene) as a distraction to three hitmen along with an undercover cop.
Women in Love (1969), Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson and Jennie Linden. Known for its full frontal nudity in a wrestling match between Bates and Reed. Jackson became the first actress to do a nude scene and win an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Footnotes
^ http://www.ketv.com/entertainment/2992785/detail.html
^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8320680/
^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0244630/bio

Nudity Portal

Film Portal
Nudity in art
Nudity in American television
Sex in film
List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex
No-nudity clause
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity_in_film"

Pornography


Pornographic movies
Pornography (from Greek πόρνη (porne) "prostitute" and γραφή (grafe) "writing"), more informally referred to as porn or porno, is the explicit representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. It is similar to, but distinct from erotica. Over the past few decades, the pornographic industry has skyrocketed due to the technological convenience of VHS and DVD, and in particular the rise of the Internet.
In general, "erotica" refers to portrayals of sexually arousing material that hold or aspire to artistic or historical merit, whereas "pornography" often connotes the prurient depiction of sexual acts, with little or no artistic value. The line between "erotica" and the term "pornography" (which is frequently considered a pejorative term) is often highly subjective. In practice, pornography can be defined merely as erotica that certain people perceive as "obscene." The definition of what one considers obscene can differ between persons, cultures and eras. This leaves legal actions by those who oppose pornography open to wide interpretation. It also provides lucrative employment for armies of lawyers, on several "sides."
Pornography may use any of a variety of media — printed literature, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, or video game, and may even be performed in a live venue, possibly in front of a live audience.
Cultural historians have suggested that every art medium and publishing medium first was used for pornography: handwriting, painting, sculpture, the printing press, printed sheet music, motion pictures, videotapes, DVD's. The World Wide Web This may not be true throughout history, but it does seem to be true for recent history. The videotape and DVD media might have flourished without porn, but they have certainly flourished very well with it: the porn industry produces more titles per year than Hollywood; it even compares to Bollywood. Curiously, porn plays in few theaters, and in many countries it is difficult to rent porn videos, because Blockbuster and other large video-rental firms avoid porn; most distribution is by sale.
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Technology
Mass-distributed pornography is as old as the printing press. Almost as soon as photography was invented, it was being used to produce pornographic images. Indeed some claim that pornography has been a driving force in the development of technologies from the printing press, through photography (still and motion) to video, satellite TV, DVD, and the Internet. Calls to regulate or prohibit these technologies have often cited pornography as a concern
Photo manipulation and computer-generated images
Digital manipulation requires the use of source photographs, but some pornography is produced without human actors at all. The idea of completely computer-generated pornography was conceived very early as one of the most obvious areas of application for computer graphics and 3D rendering.
The creation of highly realistic computer-generated images creates new ethical dilemmas. If illusionistic images of torture or rape become widely distributed, law enforcement faces additional difficulties prosecuting authentic images of criminal acts, due to the possibility that they are synthetic. The existence of faked pornographic photos of celebrities shows the possibility of using fake images to blackmail or humiliate any individual who has been photographed or filmed, although as such cases become more common, this effect will likely diminish. Finally, the generation of entirely synthetic images, which do not record actual events, challenges some of the conventional criticism of pornography. It also challenges the traditional notion of evidence, where at present; in the United States it is possible to prosecute producers of child pornography without violating the First Amendment, because the film is evidence that an adult has had sex with a child. However, it may be possible to film things that were imagined but never done: the film would not be evidence of a crime. Perhaps it wouldn't be a crime to make such a film.
Until the late 1990s, digitally manipulated pornography could not be produced cost-effectively. In the early 2000s, it became a growing segment, as the modelling and animation software matured and the rendering capabilities of computers improved. As of 2004, computer-generated pornography depicting situations involving children and sex with fictional characters, such as Lara Croft, is already produced on a limited scale. The October 2004 issue of Playboy featured topless pictures of the title character from the BloodRayne video game. [1]
Mainstream movies containing CGI and other realistic special effects show that if a director can imagine something in sufficient detail, combined with sufficient resources, it can be put on a screen. Pasolini created some gruesome images in Salo, without using computers, but some of them are not really seen by the viewer. De Sade described even more gruesome images in 120 Days of Sodom, the book on which Salo is based: perhaps a truly fiendish director with a roomful of up-to-date computers—costing less than $1 million total—could realize de Sade's worst visions without actually torturing a person to death in front of a camera. The recent Lord of the Rings films by director Peter Jackson show what is technically possible in filmmaking: this technology has yet to be applied to pornography. Clearly, more can be done than already has been done.
Internet Distribution
Some internet entrepreneurs operate pornographic internet sites. As well as conventional photographic or video pornography, some sites offer an "interactive" video game-like entertainment. Due to the international character of the Internet, it provides an easy means whereby consumers residing in countries where pornography is either taboo or entirely illegal can easily acquire such material from sources in another country where it is legal or remains unprosecuted.
The low cost of copying and delivering digital data boosted the formation of private circles of people swapping pornography. With the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing applications such as Kazaa, pornography swapping has reached new heights. Prior to this, the Usenet news service was a popular place for pornography swapping. Free pornography became available en masse from other users and is no longer restricted to private groups. Large amounts of free pornography on the Internet are also distributed for marketing purposes to encourage subscriptions to paid content.
Since the late 1990s, "porn from the masses for the masses" seems to have become another new trend. Inexpensive digital cameras, increasingly powerful and user-friendly software, and easy access to pornographic source material have made it possible for individuals to produce and share home-made or home-altered porn for next to no cost. Such home-made pornographers are able to cater more closely to the desires of the viewers, sometimes actually playing out scenarios suggested by a particular viewer for fulfillment of their fantasy.
Despite adult filters and settings on most Internet search engines, porn sites are easily found on the Internet with Adult industry webmasters being the first and most active to optimize their pages for search engine queries. As a result, many porn-related search returns are overwhelming and often somewhat irrelevant. This has led to development of porn-specific search engines, like Booble, which started as a parody of porn on the web and the business of porn for search engine giants like Google, which quickly sought to shut the parody down.
Pornography is as old as civilization but the concept of pornography as understood today did not exist until the Victorian era. Previous to that time, though some sex acts were regulated or stipulated in laws, looking at objects or images depicting them was not. In some cases, certain books, engravings or image collections were outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that restricted viewing of sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct. When large scale excavations of Pompeii were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the Romans came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of sexuality, and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper class scholars. The movable objects were locked away in the Secret Museum in Naples, Italy and what couldn't be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working class. Soon after, England’s and the world's first law criminalizing pornography was enacted in the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. [2] The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the Hicklin test stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "Whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Despite their suppression, depictions of erotic imagery are common throughout history, and remain so. [3]
Legal status
List of pornography laws by region
The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Most countries allow at least some form of pornography. In some countries, softcore pornography is considered tame enough to be sold in general stores or to be shown on TV. Hardcore pornography, on the other hand, is usually regulated. The production and sale, and to a slightly lesser degree the possession, of Child pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and most countries have restrictions on pornography involving violence or animals.
Most countries attempt to restrict minors' access to hardcore materials, limiting availability to adult bookstores, mail-order, via television channels that parents can restrict, among other means. There is usually an age minimum for entrance to pornographic stores, or the materials are displayed partly covered or not displayed at all. More generally, disseminating pornography to a minor is often illegal. Many of these efforts have been rendered irrelevant by widely available Internet pornography.
In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order, either against all mail from a particular sender, or against all sexually explicit mail, by applying to the United States Postal Service.
There are recurring urban legends of snuff movies, in which murders are filmed for pornographic purposes. Despite extensive work to ascertain the truth of these rumors, law enforcement officials have been unable to find any such works.
The Internet has also caused problems with the enforcement of age limits regarding performers. In most countries, males and females under the age of 18 are not allowed to appear in porn films, but in several European countries the age limit is 16, and in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) and Denmark it is legal for women as young as 16 to appear topless in mainstream newspapers and magazines. This material often ends up on the Internet and can be viewed by people in countries where it constitutes child pornography, creating challenges for lawmakers wishing to restrict access to such material.
Some people, including pornography producer Larry Flynt and the writer Salman Rushdie, have argued that pornography is vital to freedom and that a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography.
Anti-pornography movement
Main article: Anti-pornography movement

This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Opposition to pornography comes generally, though not exclusively, from several sources: law, religion and feminism. Some critics from the latter two camps have expressed belief in the existence of "pornography addiction."
Legal objections
Distribution of obscenity is a Federal crime in the United States, and also under most laws of the 50 states. There is no right to distribute obscene materials. Child pornography is illegal. The determination of what is obscene is up to a jury in a trial, which must apply the Miller test.
In explaining its decision to reject claims that obscenity should be treated as speech protected by the First Amendment, in MILLER v. CALIFORNIA, 413 U.S. 15 (1973)the US Supreme Court found that
The dissenting Justices sound the alarm of repression. But, in our view, to equate the free and robust exchange of ideas and political debate with commercial exploitation of obscene material demeans the grand conception of the First Amendment and its high purposes in the historic struggle for freedom. It is a "misuse of the great guarantees of free speech and free press . . . ." Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S., at 645 .
and in PARIS ADULT THEATRE I v. SLATON, 413 U.S. 49 (1973) that
In particular, we hold that there are legitimate state interests at stake in stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles and to passersby. 7 [413 U.S. 49, 58] Rights and interests "other than those of the advocates are involved." Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622, 642 (1951). These include the interest of the public in the quality of life and the total community environment, the tone of commerce in the great city centers, and, possibly, the public safety itself... As Mr. Chief Justice Warren stated, there is a "right of the Nation and of the States to maintain a decent society . . .," [413 U.S. 49, 60] Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 199 (1964) (dissenting opinion)... The sum of experience, including that of the past two decades, affords an ample basis for legislatures to conclude that a sensitive, key relationship of human existence, central to family life, community welfare, and the development of human personality, can be debased and distorted by crass commercial exploitation of sex.
Attorney General for Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese, also courted controversy when he appointed the "Meese Commission" to investigate pornography in the United States; their report, released in July 1986, was highly critical of pornography and itself became a target of widespread criticism. That year, Meese Commission officials contacted convenience store chains and succeeded in demanding that widespread men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse be removed from shelves, [5]a ban which spread nationally [6] until being quashed with a First Amendment admonishment against prior restraint by the D.C. Federal Court in Meese v. Playboy (639 F.Supp. 581).
In the United States in 2005, Attorney General Gonzales made obscenity and pornography a top prosecutorial priority of the Department of Justice - "Attorney General Gonzales' priority: porn, not terrorists", Daily Business Review, 8-2005.
Religious objections
Some religious groups often discourage their members from viewing or reading pornography, and support legislation restricting its publication. These positions derive from broader religious views about sexuality. In some religious traditions, for example, sexual intercourse is limited to the express function of procreation. Thus, sexual pleasure or sex-oriented entertainment, as well as lack of modesty, are considered immoral. Other religions do not find sexual pleasure immoral, but see sex as a sacred, godly, highly-pleasurable activity that is only to be enjoyed with one's spouse. These traditions do not condemn sexual pleasure in and of itself, but they impose limitations on the circumstances under which sexual pleasure may be properly experienced. Pornography in this view is seen as the secularization of something sacred, and a violation of spouses' intimate relationship.
In addition to expressing concerns about violating sexual morality, some religions take an anti-pornography stance claiming that viewing pornography is addictive, leading to self-destructive behavior. Proponents of this view compare pornography addiction to alcoholism, both in asserting the seriousness of the problem and in developing treatment methods.
Feminist objections
Feminist critics of pornography, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, generally consider it demeaning to women. They believe that most pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment, and contributes to the male-centered objectification of women. Some feminists distinguish between pornography and erotica, which they say does not have the same negative effects of pornography. However, many Third-wave feminists and postmodern feminists disagree with this critique of porn, claiming that appearing in or using pornography can be explained as each individual woman's choice, and is not guided by socialization in a capitalist patriarchy.
Effect on sex crimes
A lower per capita crime rate and historically high availability of pornography in many developed European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Sweden) has led a growing majority to conclude that there is an inverse relationship between the two, such that an increased availability of pornography in a society equates to a decrease in sexual crime. [8] Indeed, since the widespread adoption of the Internet as an unfettered method to distribute adult material, the United States crime rate nation-wide has consistently and steadily dropped by almost 50% from 1993.[9] Moreover, there is some evidence that states within the U.S. that have lower rates of internet access have a greater incidence of rape.
Effect on sexual aggression
In the 70's and 80's, feminists such as Dr. Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin criticized pornography as essentially dehumanizing women and as likely to encourage violence against them. It has been suggested that there was an alliance, tacit or explicit, between anti-porn feminists and fundamentalist Christians to help censor the use of or production of pornography. [11]
Some researchers have found that "high pornography use is not necessarily indicative of high risk for sexual aggression," but go on to say, "if a person has relatively aggressive sexual inclinations resulting from various personal and/or cultural factors, some pornography exposure may activate and reinforce associated coercive tendencies and behaviors."[12].
Pornography production and violence against women

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
According to Dr. Diana Russell, "When addressing the question of whether or not pornography causes rape, as well as other forms of sexual assault and violence, many people fail to acknowledge that the actual making of pornography sometimes involves, or even requires, violence and sexual assault." [13]
In 1979, Andrea Dworkin published Pornography: Men Possessing Women, which analyzes (and extensively cites examples drawn from) contemporary and historical pornography as an industry of woman-hating dehumanization. Dworkin argues that it is implicated in violence against women, both in its production (through the abuse of the women used to star in it), and in the social consequences of its consumption (by encouraging men to eroticize the domination, humiliation, and abuse of women).
U.S. Government Commissions


The then available evidence as to the influence of pornography was assessed by two major Commissions established in 1970 and 1986, respectively.
In 1970, the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography concluded that "there was insufficient evidence that exposure to explicit sexual materials played a significant role in the causation of delinquent or criminal behavior."
In general, with regard to adults, the Commission recommended that legislation "should not seek to interfere with the right of adults who wish to do so to read, obtain, or view explicit sexual materials." Regarding the view that these materials should be restricted for adults in order to protect young people from exposure to them, the Commission found that it is "inappropriate to adjust the level of adult communication to that considered suitable for children." The Supreme Court supported this view.
A large portion of the Commission's budget was applied to funding original research on the effects of sexually explicit materials. One experiment is described in which repeated exposure of male college students to pornography "caused decreased interest in it, less response to it and no lasting effect," although it appears that the satiation effect does wear off eventually ("Once more"). William B. Lockhart, Dean of the University of Minnesota Law School and chairman of the commission, said that before his work with the commission he had favored control of obscenity for both children and adults, but had changed his mind as a result of scientific studies done by commission researchers. In reference to dissenting commission members Keating and Rev. Morton Hill, Lockhart said, "When these men have been forgotten, the research developed by the commission will provide a factual basis for informed, intelligent policymaking by the legislators of tomorrow."
President Reagan announced his intention to set up a commission to study pornography. The result was the appointment by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the spring of 1985 of a panel comprised of 11 members, the majority of whom had established records as anti-pornography crusaders.
In 1986, the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, reached the opposite conclusion, advising that pornography was in varying degrees harmful. A workshop headed by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop provided essentially the only original research done by the Meese Commission. Given very little time and money to "develop something of substance" to include in the Meese Commission's report, it was decided to conduct a closed, weekend workshop of "recognized authorities" in the field. All but one of the invited participants attended. At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed consensus in five areas:
"Children and adolescents who participate in the production of pornography experience adverse, enduring effects,"
"Prolonged use of pornography increases beliefs that less common sexual practices are more common,"
"Pornography that portrays sexual aggression as pleasurable for the victim increases the acceptance of the use of coercion in sexual relations,"
"Acceptance of coercive sexuality appears to be related to sexual aggression,"
"In laboratory studies measuring short-term effects, exposure to violent pornography increases punitive behavior toward women" According to Surgeon General Koop, "Although the evidence may be slim, we nevertheless know enough to conclude that pornography does present a clear and present danger to American public health"
Japan, which is noted for its large output of rape fantasy pornography, has the lowest reported sex crime rate in the industrialized world, which has led some researchers to speculate that an opposite relationship may in fact exist—that wide availability of pornography may reduce crimes by giving potential offenders a socially accepted way of regulating their own sexuality. Conversely, some argue that reported sex crime rates are low in Japan because the culture (a culture that greatly emphasizes a woman's "honor") is such that victims of sex crime are less likely to report it (e.g. chikan).
A case study: Japan
Pornography in Japan
Milton Diamond and Ayako Uchiyama write in "Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan" (International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22. 1999):
Our findings regarding sex crimes, murder and assault are in keeping with what is also known about general crime rates in Japan regarding burglary, theft and such. Japan has the lowest number of reported rape cases and the highest percentage of arrests and convictions in reported cases of any developed nation. Indeed, Japan is known as one of the safest developed countries for women in the world (Clifford, 1980). (...)
Despite the absence of evidence, the myth persists that an abundance of sexually explicit material invariably leads to an abundance of sexual activity and eventually rape (e.g., Liebert, Neale, & Davison, 1973). Indeed, the data we report and review suggest the opposite. Christensen (1990) argues that to prove that available pornography leads to sex crimes one must at least find a positive temporal correlation between the two. The absence of any positive correlation in our findings, and from results elsewhere, between an increase in available pornography and the incidence of rape or other sex crime, is prima facie evidence that no link exists. But objectivity requires that an additional question be asked: "Does pornography use and availability prevent or reduce sex crime?" Both questions lead to hypotheses that have, over prolonged periods, been tested in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany and now in Japan. Indeed, it appears from our data from Japan, as it was evident to Kutchinsky (1994), from research in Europe, that a large increase in available sexually explicit materials, over many years, has not been correlated with an increase in rape or other sexual crimes. Instead, in Japan a marked decrease in sexual crimes has occurred.
There has also been a recent increase in sex crimes in Japan which parallels an increase in all crimes. Some in Japan have blamed the increase on violent pornography and indeed, some sex offenders report having been inspired by themes in commonly available pornography. The counter argument is that some sex offenders will likely use any defense they can to lower their culpability.

Stereotypes
Pornographic work contains a number of stereotypes. Although pornography targeted at heterosexual males often includes interaction between females, interaction between males is rarely seen. In hardcore materials, a male generally ejaculates outside his partner's body, in full view: the so-called "cum shot". Penises are almost always shown fully erect (except where prohibited). In heterosexual pornography, the choice of position is naturally geared to giving the viewer the fullest view of the woman, making the reverse cowgirl position and the man holding the woman in a "dog-and-lamp-post" position among the most popular. Fellatio scenes usually involve the woman looking into the camera or at the man, for similar reasons. Especially in American and Japanese porn, women tend to be vocal and loud during hardcore scenes.
Pornography by and for women
"We came up with the idea for the Feminist Porn Awards because people don't know they have a choice when it comes to porn," said Chanelle Gallant, manager of Good for Her and the event's organizer. "Yes, there's a lot of bad porn out there. But there is also some great porn being made by and for women. We wanted to recognize and celebrate the good porn makers as well as direct people to their work."
Some recent pornography has been produced under the rubric of "by and for women". According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography."
Some say no porn could ever be feminist. Lots of us disagree. But that doesn't mean we agree on what it is: each filmmaker defines her or his work differently. For me, feminist porn is about character, choice, and consciousness. I like to collaborate with performers on how their sexuality is represented, rather than give them a script or formula to follow. I want to capture complex, three-dimensional beings rather than stereotypes, to create an open environment that's safe for everyone - especially women - to take charge of their pleasure and be able to express their desires freely. I want to represent sex as positive, fun, healthy, and adventurous. I consciously work to create images that contradict (and hopefully challenge) other porn that represents women only as objects and vehicles for male pleasure.
In my chosen porn genre, gonzo (the cinema vérité of porn, unscripted, where the camera is acknowledged), the trend is toward hardcore imagery that supports every anti-porn feminist's claim that porn is degrading and offensive. Its emphasis is on rough (often bordering on hostile) sex, circus-like stunts, and what I call impalement contests (how many things can we fit into how many orifices simultaneously?). I'm not saying all gonzo is bad or all rough sex exploitative by nature, but a lot of it has become very one-sided. The lack of female pleasure in porn just sucks. I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble of sticking a girl's head in the toilet, you damn well better give her an awesome orgasm. sometimes i feel like really down, i just go to my girlfriends room, lock the door and give her a damn good sex "Political Smut Makers"; Village Voice;6/8/2006
Production and distribution by region
Pornography by region
The production and distribution of pornography are economic activities of some importance. The exact size of the economy of pornography and the influence that it has in political circles are matters of controversy.
Economics
United States: In 1970, a Federal study estimated that the total retail value of all the hard-core porn in the United States was no more than $10 million. Although the revenues of the adult industry are difficult to determine, by 2003, Americans were estimated to spend as much as $8 to $10 billion on pornography. The majority of pornographic video is shot in the San Fernando Valley, which acts as a center for various models, actors/actresses, production companies, and other assorted businesses involved in the production and distribution of porn.
In 1998, Forrester Research published a report on the online 'adult content' industry, which estimated at $750 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. A $10 billion aggregate figure had been estimated, and repeated in many news stories, but this was unsourced and not accurate.
Sub-genres
List of pornographic sub-genres
In general, softcore refers to pornography that does not depict penetration, and hardcore refers to pornography that depicts penetration.
Some popular genres of pornography:
Amateur pornography
Fetish pornography
Homosexual pornography (gay pornography; lesbian pornography)
Orgy pornography
Race-oriented pornography (e.g. Asian, black, Latino, interracial)
Voyeur pornography (e.g. hidden camera pornography, "up skirt" pornography)
External links
Criticisms
Andrea Dworkin's Attorney General's Commission Testimony on Pornography and Prostitution
Andrea Dworkin's Keynote Speech at the January 1985 Pornography Awareness conference at Duke University. (Audio File: 1 hour, 128 Kbps, mp3)
Media Watch A resource with written and audio downloads, much of them against pornography
Pornography and Sexual Violence by Robert Jensen
Pornography Issues: The Nature of Danger
Pornography As a Cause of Rape from Diana Russell's book.
"Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" by Melissa Farley, Ann Cotton., Jacqueline Lynne, Sybile Zumbeck, Frida Spiwak, Maria E. Reyes, Dinorah Alvarez, Ufuk Sezgin 2003 Journal of Trauma Practice 2 (3/4): 33-74. (Includes information about pornography)
Bibliography on Pornography and Men's Violence Against Women[10]
Youth, Pornography, and the Internet by Dick Thornburg and Herbert S. Lin, Editors
Commentary
"How Big is Porn?" Forbes, May 25, 2001
American Porn Interactive web site companion to a Frontline documentary exploring the pornography industry within the United States.
Rushdie Turns India's Air Blue Discussion of the debate over pornography within Indian society.
"Who wants to live in a Porn Nation?" Discussion of pornography on college campuses
Famous quotations about pornography
Government
Kutchinsky, Berl, Professor of Criminology: The first law that legalized pornography (Denmark)
History
xyclopedia: the history of pornography and sexual expression
Perkins, Michael. (1992) The Secret Record: A History of Erotic Literature
Sociology
Beck, Marianna Ph.D., "The Roots of Western Pornography", part 2, history of pornography in the West.
Diamond, M. and Uchiyama, A. (1999), Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22.
Pornography and Censorship in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography"

Lolicon


Lolicon art often depicts childlike characteristics with possible double meanings.
Lolicon (ロリコン, rorikon?), in the Western world, is a genre of manga-style sexual artwork involving childlike female characters. The term Loli is derived from Vladimir Nabokov's book, Lolita. In Japan, Lolicon is a slang portmanteau short for Lolita complex. In Japan, it refers to an attraction to girls below the age of consent, or an individual attracted to such a person. The equivalent genre focused on male characters is shotacon.
Contents
[hide]
1 Lolicon in Japan
2 Lolicon in the West
3 Controversy and legal issues
3.1 Legal status in Canada
3.2 Legal status in Germany
3.3 Legal status in Hungary
3.4 Legal status in the Netherlands
3.5 Legal status in Norway
3.6 Legal status in South Africa
3.7 Legal status in Sweden
3.8 Legal status in the United Kingdom
3.9 Legal status in the United States
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 External links
//

Lolicon in Japan
Lolicon is a Japanese portmanteau of Lolita complex, a term derived from Vladimir Nabokov's book Lolita. Generally, it is a term used to describe an attraction to any girl beneath the age of consent, both perceived and actual pedophilia and ephebophilia. Strictly speaking, Lolita complex in Japanese refers only to the paraphilia itself, but the abbreviation lolicon can refer to an individual that has the paraphilia as well. Lolicon is a widespread phenomenon in Japan, where it is a frequent subject of scholarly articles.[1] Many general bookstores and newsstands openly offer illustrated lolicon material.
Sexual manga featuring children or childlike characters are called lolicon manga. These are generally legal in Japan, although child pornography was outlawed in 1999. Some lolicon manga also include crossdressing and futanari.[1]
Lolicon in the West
The meaning of lolicon has evolved much in the West (as have the meanings of other words such as anime, otaku and hentai). In the West, lolicon refers to anime or manga that contains sexual or erotic portrayals of prepubescent or childlike characters, and is thus close cognate to the Japanese term lolicon manga.[4] The use of the word lolicon is an indication that the material is overtly—even if not explicitly—erotic.[5]
Controversy and legal issues
Opponents of illustrated lolicon pornography claim that fictional material encourages viewing children as sex objects and can contribute to actual sexual abuse.[6] However, there is no direct evidence to support these claims of causality.[7] Despite the fact that most lolicon artwork is produced in Japan, there is no evidence that it has caused an increase of violent crimes against children and teens. The number of reported incidents of crime against children in Japan, as well as violent crime in general, is well below that of most other developed countries, and indeed there appears to be a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards, and a dramatic decrease in reported sexual violence,[8] lending some credence to the somewhat counter-intuitive theory that, in fact, material of this nature can be beneficial to society by providing an outlet for those who may otherwise find themselves compelled to carry out their fantasies on unconsenting people.
Legal status in Canada
Section 163.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code defines child pornography as "a visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means", that "shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity", or "the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years." The definitive Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Sharpe, interprets the statute to include purely fictional material even when no real children were involved in its production. From paragraph 38 of the decision:
Interpreting "person" in accordance with Parliament's purpose of criminalizing possession of material that poses a reasoned risk of harm to children, it seems that it should include visual works of the imagination as well as depictions of actual people. Notwithstanding the fact that 'person' in the charging section and in s. 163.1(1)(b) refers to a flesh-and-blood person, I conclude that "person" in s. 163.1(1)(a) includes both actual and imaginary human beings.
– Supreme Court of Canada, R. v. Sharpe, Paragraph 38
In October 2005, Canadian courts sentenced an Edmonton, Alberta, man to one year of community service for importing manga depicting child sex, possibly the first manga-related child pornography case in Canada.[10] The man was on probation at the time for possession of child pornography that featured real children.
In April 2006, an American was sentenced to 30 days in jail for bringing child pornography to Canada. While he had possession of three videos and three images of real children, a criminal investigator cited the 13,000 "mostly cartoon" or "anime" images in his possession and the "prohibitive nature of these goods".[11]
So far, no one has been prosecuted solely for possession or importing of lolicon in Canada. It is rather something used to compound charges already present for real child pornography. As the law is written it is possible to do this, and could occur in the future.
Legal status in Germany
German law does not discriminate between actual and "realistic" sexual depictions of children. Whether or not this includes Lolicon is yet unclear.
Legal status in Hungary
According to the latest definition of the act (Law 1997/LXXIII., Penal Code 195/A. §), "Production of Forbidden Pornography" is only forbidden if an underage person actually suffered through the production process. Due to this, any sort of graphics that were produced without using actual live models, or those using live models that were not sexually abused is legal. (Similarly it is legal if the resulting graphics is not original but a derivative of two or more pictures, in where the original picture of the underage person contains no matter violating the above paragraph of the Code. It does not need to bear any express label that the material was produced by any of those methods; and it is the task of the State to prove guilty, not of the defendant to prove innocent, which, with the recent developments in computer graphics, might be a burdensome if not impossible task.)
Legal status in the Netherlands
On October 1, 2002, the Netherlands introduced legislation (Bulletin of Acts and Decrees 470) which deemed "virtual child pornography" as illegal. The laws appear to only outlaw "realistic images representing a minor engaged in a sexually explicit conduct," and hence lolicon is not included.
Legal status in Norway
Any images or videos that depict pornography in a childish context (which would include, for example, an adult model with childish clothes/toys/surroundings) are to be considered child pornography. Lolicon are therefore counted as child pornography, and not legal, in Norway (although this has not been proved by Norwegian court). So far, however, this law has only been used to sentence individuals in possession of real child porn.


Legal status in South Africa
With the promulgation of the "Films and Publications Amendment Bill" in September 2003, a broad range of simulated child pornography became illegal in South Africa. For the purposes of the act, any image or description of a person "real or simulated" who is depicted or described as being under the age of 18 years and engaged in sexual conduct, broadly defined, constitutes 'child pornography'.[17] Under the act, anyone is guilty of an offence punishable by up to ten years imprisonment if he or she possesses, creates or produces, imports, exports, broadcasts, or in any way takes steps to procure or access child pornography.
Legal status in Sweden
Any images or videos that depict children in a pornographic context are to be considered child pornography in Sweden, regardless of how realistic or abstract they are. This means that lolicon is considered to be child pornography and is therefore illegal in Sweden. It has, however, not yet been tried in court.
Note: This might not actually be the case, since the law covering this is vague, at best.
Legal status in the United Kingdom
The Protection of Children Act 1978 made it an offense to take, make, distribute or show "indecent" photographs of real children, and was later amended to include possession. At the time, a child was considered to be anyone under the age of sixteen years, although this was raised to eighteen years in 2003. Its purpose was to attempt to prevent abuse towards children during the creation of the photographs.
Non-photographic images have never been proscribed by the Act, and on the 23 November 2006, Vernon Coaker, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, stated that "Although cartoons depicting child abuse are deeply offensive, they do not in themselves constitute abuse of a child. The 1978 Act is well understood by those who work with it and enforce it and there are substantial arguments against extending its scope to cover cartoons of child pornography."
Despite this, by 13 December 2006, the UK Home Secretary, John Reid, had announced that the Cabinet was discussing how to ban computer-generated images of child abuse — including cartoons and graphic illustrations of abuse — after pressure from children's charities[1].
Legal status in the United States

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996
The Supreme Court of the United States decided in 2002, and affirmed in 2004, that previous prohibition of simulated child pornography under the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 was unconstitutional.[21] The majority ruling stated that "the CPPA prohibits speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production. Virtual child pornography is not 'intrinsically related' to the sexual abuse of children."
On 30 April 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also dubbed the Amber Alert Law) which again criminalizes cartoon child pornography.[22] The Act introduced 18 U.S.C. 1466A which criminalizes both Miller Test obscene cartoon depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and, as noted by the 11th Circuit in United States v. Williams [[2]], cartoon depictions of a minor or what appears to be a minor engaging in overt sexual intercourse (not merely sexually explicit) and need satisify only the third part of the Miller Test, that it lack serious artistic value.
In December 2005, Dwight Whorley was convicted [23] under 18 U.S.C. 1466A(a)(1) [3] on twenty counts for receiving "...obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in genital-genital and oral-genital intercourse with adult males." Whorley was also convicted under 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(2) on fourteen accounts for receiving "...digital photographs of actual children engaging in sexually explicit conduct." Whorley was on parole for earlier sex crimes at the time of the violations, although these convictions were independent of Whorley's violation of the terms of his parole.[26] The same FOIA-requested November 2006 United States Attorney's Bulletin describing the details of the conviction, concludes by suggesting that the precedent set by the Whorley case be used as a basis for future prosecutions of possession of such obscene cartoons. It is worth noting that Whorley's charges were coupled with charges for possession of conventional child pornography and that he was on parole at the time making the legal possibility of appealing the charges far less feasible and far less attractive to civil rights groups, such as the ACLU.
Neither Whorley's, nor any other conviction under this law has been reviewed by the Supreme Court.
See also
Shotacon, the male equivalent of lolicon.
Bishōnen, often the subject of female desire towards underage boys.
Shōnen-ai, or 'Boys Love'. Mostly drawn by women and marketed to a female audience.
Moé, a similar aesthetic.
Legal aspects
Legal status of Internet pornography
Child pornography
Pedophilia
External links

Look up Lolicon inWiktionary, the free dictionary.
"'Virtual child' pornography on the Internet: a 'virtual' victim?" Duke Law & Technology Review, 9/23/2002,
"Does comic relief hurt kids?" at ecpat.net Japan Times (April 27, 2004)
"New Law Banning Lolicon?"