philosophy of sex

In the book Smut, Erotic Reality/ Obscene Ideology , by Murray
Davis (1983), the author expresses the idea that the best source for
studying human sexuality objectivelyis "soft core", rather than "hard core"
pornography. (Davis p. xix). The purpose of thispaper is to critique
Davis's claim and to study what understanding of human
sexualitysomeone might have if they used some other resource that is
available today, in this casethe Internet. Davis argues that , "hard core
pornography is usually more abstract and lessexplicit than soft-core
pornography". (Davis, p. xix, 1983). Davis doesn't go on toexplain how
hard-core pornography can be less explicit than soft-core. However he
doesexplain that hard-core pornography is more abstract in that, it depicts
the sex act only andnot the emotional or personal characteristics of the
people involved in the act. (Davis, p. xx) He believes soft-core
pornography is describing "a sexual experience", whichconveys
characteristics of the participants that are not described by
hard-corepornography. Hard-core pornography describes "sexual
behaviour" which involves moreof the act of sex rather than the
characteristics and feelings involved with sex. (Davis, p.xix) Although
Davis admits that the vocabulary of sex is changing (Davis, p. xxv), he
alsostates that hard-core pornography uses considerably more vulgar
terms that are associatedwith lower-class activity, such as, "prick, fuck,
and suck" (Davis, p. xxiii). Davis believesthat hard-core pornography,
induces imaginative behaviours by using these lower-class,four-letter
words. The stories use phrases such as "First we sucked, then
wefucked."(Davis p. xix, 1983), to allow the reader the tools to imagine
the scene actuallytaking place. The reader is lead by the author through
the story by using words that maybe more understood or common in the
readers' everyday life. He also accuses hard-corefilms of being
"behavioristic" and "abstract" because they often fail to "fully inform
theaudience about the characters personality types and social
categories."(Davis, p. xx, 1983) Soft-core pornography, on the other

hand, often depicts "the subtle phenomenologicaleffects that result when
a character's sexual behaviour clashes with his or her personal andsocial
characteristics." (Davis, p. xx, 1983). In short, he study's literature or
films thatinvolve characters with personalities that are developed and
conveyed to the audience. Inthese stories the characters will have sex,
but the sex may or may not be the main focus ofthe story, but rather
something that is bound to happen when personal and
socialcharacteristics clash. I believe that Davis is somewhat correct in
assuming that soft-core is a moreobjectively reliable source for studying
human sexuality. When I hear the words soft-corepornography, I tend to
think of Playboy, or films and movies that depict a story about aperson or
group of people, and within that story the characters engage in sexual
activity.This sexual activity is shown or described to the reader/viewer but
is not done in a graphicnature. That is, the actual sexual penetration is
not shown or shown very minimally. Hard-core, on the other hand, is
shown or described more graphically. Thedialogue usually includes, as
Davis states, four-letter words. The story seems to have lessof a plot and
less character development. The main purpose of the work is to show
ordescribe sex. So it is in this sense that I agree with Davis. However, I
firmly believe that there is not one single resource that is the bestmethod
of studying human sexuality. There are many sources which are helpful
whenstudying sex and human sexuality. They can range from textbooks,
entertainmentmagazines, television programs, to movies and novels. In
my opinion the most reliableand important resource for studying human
sexuality is personal experience. The actualhands on, if you will, of sex.
All the texts, magazines and movies can show what happensand maybe
guide your learning process, but the only real way to learn is to
experience foroneself. I feel that if a variety of resources are used when
studying human sexuality, anindividual will understand and learn all
aspects of sexuality in greater detail. Havinglearned all aspects of

sexuality a person may develop a sense of confidence in their
ownsexuality. This may allow for the person to have more respect for
sexual orientations orpractices that the individual may not take part in.
For example, a person educated inhuman sexuality at a university level
may realise that homosexuality is normal and shouldnot be shunned.
Whereas, a person not as highly educated in this field may
thinkhomosexuals are not right, or confused. If an individual uses a
mixture of hard-corepornography, soft-core pornography, educational
texts, and any other source ofinformation that is available, the base for
their knowledge will be broadened. With this broadened knowledge
base an individual can draw their own lines forlimits in their sexual
practises. A person may indulge in sex in similar manner to
hard-corepornography. That is, they may enjoy watching the penetration
and using four-letterwords during sex. Or an individual may enjoy sex in
more of a soft-core manner. For example they may like the lights off
and be more romantic in their sexual escapades. I feel that a
combination of the two, or even a mixture of many different resources can
bemore beneficial to the individuals sexual experience. That way the
individual could use the"hit and miss" method to explore human sexuality.
Which means they could try differentthings until they find something that
they are comfortable with. I believe that soft-core pornography when
used alone is much too vague whenstudying human sexuality. All
aspects of human sexuality are not dealt with. Theindividual would not
learn the "plumbing" aspect of sexuality , other than what is seen
ordescribed in soft-core. (i.e. breasts and penis). If an individual only
used hard-core pornography to study human sexuality theymay believe
that sex and sexuality are all about the act of sex. They may not learn
theidea of love or the responsibilities associated with sex and sexual
activity. The use of onlyone resource in studying anything, including
human sexuality, limits the quality ofknowledge gained about the

particular subject. One example of a restricted or limited view would be
if a person was only using aresource such as the Internet to study human
sexuality. The Internet, or the net, as we allknow, is a vast source of
knowledge for virtually every topic imaginable. I believe that aperson
would have a very limited view if using the Internet for information on
humansexuality. This would especially ring true if the person did not
know how to conductadvanced studies on the Internet. That is, the
person would simply type "humansexuality" into one of the many search
engines on the net. The resulting "hits" or "sites"(places to find
information) would be a wide range of topics. They would likely rangefrom
journal articles about human sexuality to adult oriented articles, which
would likelybe hard-core. Another type of hit the "surfer" (a person who
browses the Internet) mayfind is the adult oriented commercial sites.
These sites advertise free sex pictures or livephone sex. The problem
with using the Internet and only the Internet as a resource for study isthat
the information found can be so vast that one may not know where to
start. The moreattractive and marketed sites may get more attention. The
key words in the description ofthe site may draw one's attention to that
site and the less attractive sites may be by-passed. The problem is that
the less attractive sites are usually those from universities with
anabundance of credible information. The other sites are basically selling
sex not the idea ofthe total package of human sexuality. Another
problem is deciding which search engine to use. A search engine is a
toolthat one can use to find specific topics on the Internet. Different
engines have differentspecialities and a different number of sites that are
explored. If a person only used onesearch engine when looking for sites
dealing with human sexuality, an important site that iscatalogued in
another search engine may be missed. With any topic as broad as
human sexuality the Internet can be moreoverwhelming than it is helpful.
As with human sexuality itself , I believe that the bestway to learn how to

search the net is by trial and error. By learning how to narrow downtopics
that are being searched the individual may be able to find a few sites that
fit thecharacteristics they are seeking. Now, the problem is, which
characteristics should one look for when learningabout human sexuality?
This is another decision that if not made properly could lead tosomeone
having a limited view of human sexuality. In order to narrow down a
search onemust know a little bit about what they are searching for. For
example if an alien came hereand tried to research human sexuality, it
may not know any aspect of our sexuality to addto the search. For
example, love plays a role in our sexuality. If someone did not know
thisthey would enter "human sexuality" into the search engine and again
may be distracted byflashy, hard-core, sex-sites and may not find
anything on love. The over-all understandingof human sexuality would be
limited according to which sites were looked at. Although I agree
somewhat with Advisee's claim that soft-core , rather thanhard-core
pornography, may be a better resource for studying human sexuality. I
feel thatusing only one resource for information can limit the view and
even sometimes distort anindividuals ideas of human sexuality. When
using a resource such as the Internet, one maybe overwhelmed with
information and marketing tactics may win the attention ofinformation
seekers and take away from the sites that actually offer factual
informationregarding human sexuality. Therefore, I believe that an
individual should use all resources available to themwhen studying any
topic, especially a topic as complex as human sexuality.Reference
Davis, S. Murray. (1983). Smut erotic reality obscene ideology.
University ofChicago Press: Chicago.