Notes Toward A Theory Of Pornography

I don’t believe that pornography creates a problem (that is, it doesn’t create a need for sexual fantasy) but that it reflects a problem, or rather, for me, not a problem but simply a fact: that a part of man’s make-up, a part of his sexual being, is this fantasy element.

Words

The words pornography, obscenity, and erotica — and the emotions they evoke — create an endless debate which quickly twists into confusion when terms are vague and law is complex.

More Than A Rumor

I watched a slide show prepared by a women-against-pornography group from New York. The bulk of the images were presumably the most startling pages from hard-core pornography magazines though they didn’t include the issue of Hustler which our narrator described as having drawn her into this fight.

Thoughts On Censorship

What is true for a person, in other words, is not true for a republic; from our private life we can, like a dictator, ban anything which offends us; but in our life as a citizen in a democracy not only can we not ban from the public realm that which offends us, but for our own protection we must fight for its right to exist.

A Matter Of Degree

It’s not the mere existence of pornography that troubles me. We’ve always had it. It’s the amount of it that’s the problem. Never before, to my knowledge, has the world had so very much printed and cinematic pornography. It will not go away by itself, so it cannot be ignored.

The Gift Of Sexual Energy

Please understand that you did not come to this planet at this time out of the void. You have been on a journey for a very long time. So you have come with certain tendencies, which are outpictured through your own being, your own consciousness, through your own life. These tendencies have produced certain attitudes in you toward sexuality and have become a part of who you are.

Yellow Silk

Journal Of Erotic Arts

I’ve fallen in love with a magazine. Its name is Yellow Silk and its editor is Lily Pond. Does that sound improbable? Well, so is this unique and sassy literary journal, devoted exclusively to erotica, exuberantly different from all the other women’s and men’s magazines that sell sex.

The Housesitting

Didn’t like hippie chicks anyway. Not clean. The kind he liked were always clean. Fastidiously clean. Eternally douched and perfumed, that’s the way he liked them.

M’Orgasms

Halfway up University, in front of Walt’s Drugs, I said, “Mom, I’ve never had an orgasm with a man.” I said the “with a man” under my breath but it got us off placemats. When mother was surprised she’d get a little smile on her top lip.

Organic Gardening

You have watched your love kneeling, stretching, tugging weeds. Her muscles slide beneath her skin. She sweats where your tongue wants to be. And the good air fills you, and your body thrums from the inside out. You are an animal, naked in the grass, in the dirt. You are hot and you want.

Thesme And The Ghayrog

With exaggerated care Thesme rose to her knees, steadied herself, and crawled slowly toward the bed. She peered at the Ghayrog, but her eyes were blurred and she could make out only a rough outline of him.

The Day Of Saint Valentine

And finally you’re a lady. You sleep with your cat, wash between your legs with washcloths, and go to the bathroom with the door closed. Lead weights fall on you.

Desire

Reluctantly he comes up the stairs, as if I am taking him away from much more exciting business than talking to his father. I am not sure exactly what to say. I do not want to damage his world of desire.

Ovulation

Year’s End, ’84