You won't find "Hustler" magazine or X-rated movies at your local Target, but you will find something comparable.
"Porn" has an automatic, largely negative connotation, and maybe that's part of the problem. Pornography simply is, according to Webster's: "the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement."
But for some reason(s), we've generally labeled and judged as "porn" the sort of erotic depictions men typically consume. It is true that X-rated videos and magazines are pornography, but they are just one kind — what we might call masculine porn.
What about feminine porn?
Explicit sex novels may be considered dirty or even smutty. But they're generally not considered pornography.
They should be.
I understand the attention paid to masculine porn. It's visual, noisy and, when men abuse it, the side effects tend to be worse. But that doesn't make "Fifty Shades of Grey" — the best-selling novel whose film version is being widely released on Friday — any less pornographic. In fact, books like this serve the same purpose for, predominantly, female readers as videos do for, predominantly, males. Each are gaudy with contrived characters and situations designed to trigger a respective gender's sexual instincts and fantasies.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" is about a man named Christian Grey. He is the "epitome of male beauty." He's mysterious and rich — but not banker or oil-tycoon rich. He's rich because of green technology. What a perfect way to neutralize any concerns about joining "the 1 percent" — not just a man with money but one who's saving the world. He flies his own helicopter. He speaks French.
