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173

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Art and PornograPhy

Paul Dumol
This mticle

it morally acceptable; art falls under ethics and morals. The reason is that ethics and morals cover all
human actions, and the creation of art is
a

human action'

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or an object's maker that makes that object pomographic

dislineuishcs art from potnrysplry uril.tcn.Ay .4n emt'nmt

is a

much'auaited- picce which

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not. If, however, someone were to decide to make a pomographic billboard which he then put up, we would find'it hard to call the billboard pomographic if it
provoked laughter instead of leers' Pornography means "writing about harlots"' not for

the remark, "That's not pomography; that's art," as though art and pornography were the opposite ends of the same
ometimes one hears
spectrum: the one is not the other; something cannot be both art and pomogtaphy at the same time' I do not

etymologically

the sociological PurPoses, but to produce in the reader sort of pleasure we associate with sex' When something meant to be pomographic produces no such pleasure'

think, however, that the possibility of "artistic pornography'' is something anyone would challenge'
Similarly, no one would challenge the possibility of "pornographic art'' todaY. What I am saying in effect is that it is possible for something to be both art and pomography, which
means that the two are not opposite ends of the same spectrum. The reason for this is that pomography has to

it is then we are surely justified in wondering whether art' The even Pomography. The same thing is tme of it so' An declaration of something as art does not make He artist on the other hand may decide to paint a nude' it too shows it to a friend, and the friend says' "I find not the sexy'' (or "vety sext''). Let us suPPose this was he has artist's intention. Let us say further he insists that The long a work oi art and will exhibit it as such.
created

do with the subject matter, while art has to do with the way something is made. The one does not exclude the other. \Alhen art is pomographic, then all strictures on pomography apPly. Art does not excuse what is wrong' On the other hand, the fact that pomography is artistic

frequent queue of males who obviously do not usually the art galleries, but who stand in line to take a look at
was painting may convince him that, even if his intention solely to create a work of art, he has unintentionally object is created pornography. What decides whether an

pomographic or not is the work itself'

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Ba&.tohe&osirs 175

Let me discuss two subjects that

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surface

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with regard to art and pornography. The first

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nudity. The perception of a painting of a nude is not the same as the_perception of a nude in a photograph. The
difference is in the medium. A painting (and like

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his photograph. This is the reason why we normally carry phbtos, nbt drawings, of our loved ones in our (or never) wallets. This is the reason why you will rarely find pornographic magazines illustrated with paintings and drawings: the PhotograPh is the illustration of
principles that choice. What this means is that ihe ethical

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statue)

is a

representation

of its

subject matter;

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photograph is a record of it. Between the viewer of

painter sees the naked model and translates what he

I.

painting of a nude and the nude model is the painter: the

sees

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act of govern gazing at a naked person govern the with few looking at photographs of naked persons' viewing of exceptions if any, but do not govern the
movie' which is paintings of naked Persons' A nude in a as a nude in a composed of photographs, is not the same difference is in the medium' and the

into a painting. When we see a painting from life, we are

never aCiually sure whether what we see in the painting is what we would have seen in the artis/s studio had we

painting: the

been present while the artist was painting. On the contrary, no one intrudes, so to speak, between the
viewer of a photograph of
a

difference determines our reaction to it' Let me briefly consider two misunderstandings
does he of the foregoing. One concerns the photographer: Why cannot not "represent" as much as the painter does? The answer to his work be called representation as well?

nude and the

nude model: the camera, we assume,

has captured exactly what we

would have seen had we been

present

in the studio

during

the photo shoot. A representation refers us as

much

to the author of the

representation as to its subject matter; a record by definition refers us to what is recorded.

The next best thing to actually
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image is this is a consideration of how ihe photographic captures produced: simpiy put, the film in the camera is a light waves 6ouncing off the subject' The camera the photographic passive instrument in the production of of painting is the image. Its closest counterpart in the art paper' The surface of the painting: the canvas or the of photographer sets the conditions for the production and the photographic image: attending to both camera

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seeing a person is to look at

the camera' subject. When he presses the button of his direct however, the camera takes the picture without

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Ba&tndekis 1n reality. What the argument usually forgets is that part of

intewention in the Process: the light waves travel from subject to film without his assistance. The equivalent of the light waves in the Process of painting is pigment paintbrush, and the artisfs hand: the painted image is produced directly by the artist through the mediation of his own sense of sight. The painter is personally involved

the reality of human sexual love

is

intimacy' By

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"intimaq/' I do not mean "dn amorously familiar act'' or "sexual intercourse," both meanings given by the dictionary for "intimacy." I mean rather.-"privacy" -yet another meaning of "intimacy." The human being is the
only animal that engages in sexual intercourse in private' Intimacy in the sense of privary is part of the reality of human sexual relations, and so the artist who wishes to
depict erotica in the name of realism must include this in his depiction. Is this possible at all? Does not the very

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in the production of the painted image' This is why the painting sends us ultimately to the painter; in contrast, the photograph sends us directly to the model: the
model, in the process by which the photographic image is produced, is the equivalent of the painier; hence, the nature of the photograPh as a record of the model' A second misunderstanding regards the nature

nature

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of the painting: can not a painting be used as a record and is this not what historians do? A painting can certainly be used as a record, but tltat does not change what it is: it is a representation. My remarks about how we perceive paintings and photographs refer to what
paintings and photographs are respectively. Paintings and photographs may be used for a variety of purposes,

depiction, which consists in the public presentation of something violate intimary? The problem is not as difficult in literature as it is in the visual arts and is at its most challenging in the theater' We know how some filmmakers try to solve the problem:

of

medium shots limited to head and shoulders of the couple. The special nature of such Scenes, however' even with the precautions taken by filmmakers, usually spells
the difference inthe rating of films'

but

do not affect what they are and consequently how we perceive them whether as
these purPoses paintings or photograPhs.

Let me Spend some sPace on intimary ' "Privacy" merely hints at the deeper meaning of the word' Other meanings are "a closg familiar, and usually affectionate

The second subject related to art

and

pornography is the depiction of erotica. Sometimes the argument is given that realism demands the depiction of erotica, which is, after all, very much a part of human

or loving personal relationship with another Person or group" and "an act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like'" These meanings are all related-even "ptivacy," "an amorously familiar act"'

178

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179

and "sexual intercourse." I like to think of intimacy as an

inner space in each person into which we welcome only people we trusf friends.
kalooban.

however, we should point out that the negative ethical character of pornography comes precisely from its being the great de-contextualizer. Pornography has the nature of a stimulus working on the imagination tfuough the

It is related to the Tagalog

that

Only persons have intimacy; animals and things

do not. When we say of someone in Tagalog

"nagbukas siya ng kalooban" ("he opened up"), the sense

is always predented in a context: the context of a painting or the context of a piece of

senses. That stimulus

is not so much something private being made public

as

literature. The person that uses pomography to stimulate his imagination precisely detaches the stimulating image

rather allowing someone entrance into one's private life. Intimacy is very much related to one's personhood, to
one's being a person.

its context, isolating its erotic charge or investing the image or scene with an erotic value on or
scene from

The opposite of being a person is being an

object.

which the imagination concentrates. De-contextualization

It is a violation of personhood to treat someone

like an obiect. Histprically, there have been two ways in which human beings have tended to treat other human
beings as objects- as slaves and as prostitutes. We know

is the characteristic of the patron of pornography who detaches sex itself from its proper context in human
reality; thus, the placement of an erotic scene in a specific context does not insure it will not be used as a sexual
stimulus.

this is wrong. Feminists rightly complain about women

All the preceding discussion of nudity and erotica in film is really about preventing people from being treated like objects. The main difference between a pomographic film and a
being made into objects.

Any dictionary will fumish you a definition of pornography. I would like to consider, however, three
different meanings that pomography may have. I call the first the personal meaning of pornography, whal it means

pornographic novel is that the former uses photographs

in the life of a particular individual.

The second is the

of real persons, real

naked persons:

it

involves the

social meaning of pornography, what it means in relation

violation of the personhood of real people, something you don't have in pornographic literature.
The argument is sometimes given that erotica is

to the life of the people who make up a society, which is viewed as consisting of children, adolescents, and adults.

allowable in a work of art

if its context

justifies it,

as

when

it is called for by the plot of a film. In reply,

The third is the legal meaning of pornography, which considers the forms of pornography considered pemicious for society as a whole, whether children,

fu&btgWis
180

181.

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adolescents,

or adults.

These three should not be

undeistood as what understanding parents have in mind

confused with one another.

when thuy educate their children in

handling

The first meaning 6t po*og"phy is the primary one: what it means to the individual' By this I do not to mean to proPose a subjectivistic view of pomography'

pornography. This meaning ditfers from the first because now we have the case of someone considering the himself but meaning of pomography not exclusively for

claim that pomography is what you claim

it to be'

also

for

others. Father

or

mothei are invariably

fot it Enough people agree on the meaningof pornography to have a definition in the dictionary' Persons may differ' however, in what actually serves as an effective stimulus to their imagination to provoke sexual pleasure: some

has for influenced by the personal meaning pomography is what them. Part of the second meaning of pornography call its conventional meaning-what most

we may

people think it is.

may be more affected visually; others by sounds; still others may be affected only by graphic representations; some others, by what most other people would consider innocent pictures. I do not mean to claim that there are wide radical differences between what seduces (in the manner of the harlots being written about) different individuals. Doubtless, most people are seduced by the same sounds, images, or descriptions; otherwise' pomography would not be the multi-biliion dollar industry it now is. Nevertheless, individual differences do eist, and these are what the personal meaning of pornography encomPasses. It won't do to say one can

The third meaning of pornography is as the law

definesit.Ifthesecondmeaningofpornographyisthe the result of society's concern for its younger citizens' third meaning reflects society's concem to avoid that is not pollution, to avoid having an environment
or child' healthy for anyone, be he adult, adolescent' These three different meanings of pornography

otherwise' should not be confused with one another; for society as many problems arise' It would be a mistake

awholeortheindividualswhomakeituptoreduce
be a mistake pornography"to its legal definition' It would for parents to allow the personal meaning pornography

look at a photograph one finds stimulating, on the grounds that everyone else is not stimulated by it; the point is yau are, and so for you, that photograph is in
effect pomograPhic.

their children has in their lives to dictate how to educate

in handling PomograPhY' We should not forget that what ethics demands

The second meaning

of

pornograplty

is

best

ofthehumanbeingisnotavoidingpornogtaphy'but rather cultivating the virtue of purity or chastity'

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182 IDw, %uolity ntdFrienMip

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183

Avoiding pornography makes sense only if one struggles

to cultivate the virtue of purity; otherwise, one cultivates
neuroses. Part of the struggle is the education of the eyes

own reaction to a particular film or artwork, our guide should be the virtuous man who may tell us we did right averting our gaze or that we should school ourselves gradually in looking.

to be able to see chastely works of art whose theme is the beauty of the human body. There are certain professions

which demand a special education of the senses with regard to the naked human body. Consider the
physician, the painter, and the

film critic. In

their

professions, they must develop certain strategies to avoid

violating ethical principles, while going about their

professional work. To a certain extent the ordinary adult
is expected to develop similar habits, That is the meaning

of films restricted to adults. Obviously, these will not be films that violate the iaws of the country regarding
pornography, and yet, because of their delicate subject
matter, they are restricted to adults. The assumption here

is that the adult has a

measure

of

self-control the

adolescent does not have, that he knows how

to see

without looking and when to do so, that he knows, because he knows himself, when to avert his eyes or
when to disfract his mind from what he hears. He knows
as

well when to get up and leave.

More than two thousand years ago Aristotle observed that the best guide in ethical matters is the virtuous man. We recognize that. We do not usually choose for film review boards the most depraved members of the community. When in doubt about our

This is an original article printed by permission from the author.