Recap: MBS Sunday Brunch for Sept 4

Our question of the week was whether spanking blogs constitute pornography. Here are your thoughts.

Six of the Best: For the unenlightened members of society, spanking is considered sexually taboo. What to them is sexually taboo is considered by them to be pornography. Therefore, it is up to us as spankos to enlighten them.

Xantu: Porn for me is any material that is consumed primarily to feed the sexual appetite. But I do not always read spanking blogs for prurient reasons. And not all spanking blogs titillate. There are many that address the broader issues of living a life as a spanko. While not necessarily sexy, these topics are interesting and helpful. So, I think sometimes spanking blogs are porn and sometimes not. It depends on the topic.

Hermione: I think a pornographic blog is one that is sexually explicit in words or pictures. By that definition, this blog certainly is not pornographic, although I have learned that some web censoring software considers it as such.

There is a huge range of content in the 450 blogs that appear on your blogroll. Some qualify as pornography, but most do not. Some vary, depending on the individual post. Most of the spanking blogs I read are not pornographic. I read them not for sexual titillation, but out of interest and with a sense of camaraderie with the authors. I try to steer clear of the ones that consistently display explicit sexual images.

Lea: I know my blog carries the "adult content" tag to enter, but I definitely wouldn't consider it sexually explicit. I actually try to avoid going into that side of things at length so I can appeal to a greater audience. Some blogs are more sexual and others aren't at all. "Not that there's anything wrong with that" to quote Seinfeld. LOL I like to browse both, depending on my mood. It's all a matter of preference.

Daisy: I think there is a vast difference between sexy and overtly sexual. Maybe I am alone in that. I consider porn to be material which is very graphic and explicit in content, and as others have said, spanking per se is not. Some blogs are more explicit than others, but porn is sex for the sake of sex, usually with no relationship content. Since the blogs I read are about spanking enhancing a relationship, I would not class them as porn.

I know there are blogs that discuss spankings outside of relationships, including some with deliberately provocative poses with all sorts of "unnecessary bits" on show. Davey came across several when he was researching my suggestion to try spanking as a way to enhance our relationship. He freaked! These may come under the heading of porn. Heck, some he came across definitely fall under that heading!

Molly: Ahhh, the age old question, What is Porn? Who famously said, “I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.” I think is that is actually a great definition as it is a purely one indivdual's view. One's man or woman's porn is another's morning newspaper (we have bare boobies in some of our daily papers here in the UK).

Is a spanking blog porn? Again, that is a question for each individual. For some, it is interesting reading, a learning experience, and a place to find like-minded opinions or beliefs. For others, maybe it is just a place to get off.

There are certainly some spanking blogs that have a more pornographic content than others, but like all the different sex bloggers, there really is something for everyone out there.

Michelle Carlyle: I don't write porn. I write explicit sex, but I classify it as romance. Romantic spanking fiction. But I know others classify what I do as porn.

Porn is in the eye of the beholder.

Jean Marie: You'll get as many answers to that question, Bonnie, as you get responders. I think Dr. Ruth Westheimer answered the question by saying that porn was when non-consentual negativity was pictured or discussed. Depicting children in sex or rape of anyone is porn. Causing pain when both partners want this exchange (and the power behind it) is not, in my opinion. Similar to Michelle Carlyle, I like to write about sex and sexuality, but have character and plot development, so I consider my work erotica. It was a conservative Supreme Court justice who said he knew it when he saw it, like Ed Meese of the Reagan administration. I think their viewpoints would differ from mine. And I'm proud of that!

Bobbie Jo: To me, porn is explicit, sexual content, consentual or not, depicted in film, pictures in magazines, etc. I don't care much for the films and pictures of a naked lady being spanked as that is a bit to close to porn. I wouldn't call it porn, though. I just don't care for it. Adult spanking in and of itself is not porn. It is vastly misunderstood and in some corners, porn is included which doesn't help because society can't distinguish between the two.

Yes, there is something about spanking that turns a lot of us on, but is that porn? I don't think so. Porn is graphic sexual content. Some stuff I have seen as I researched TTWD isn't even related to spanking and, to me, is some of the worst, sleasy junk there is. I know that will not go over very well with some, but it is just how I see it.

MarQe: I think spanking probably is porn. Do I care? Not really, it's only a word after all! We all know the folks who inhabit the spanking scene are largely nice, normal folks who have found something they all enjoy. Other folks who perceive themselves to be 'normal' think that we're weird. It's a funny old world!

Gracie: I think I'd have to qualify most of the spanking blogs I read as not pornographic- not anymore graphic than what you'd find in a PG-13 movie. Some of them do, though. Then again, I like pornography, by and large. My blog is pretty explicit, but there's a lot of mundane stuff in there, too.

Dr. Ken: I think it's a matter of content and is most likely "in the eye of the beholder." My blog talks about spanking, usually with a photo or two depicting a spanking or a cute girl''s bare bottom, a "spankable." But there's nothing graphic in words or in pictures, nothing overt. I consider it pretty innocent, actually. Still, it might qualify to someone out there as "porn," I suppose. It depends on your interpretation of the word, and that varies from person to person.

Our Bottoms Burn: I guess it's porn if it offends the reader. MBS could be out of Disney, but the stories are HOT!

Sites with parts showing have less to do with spanking than they do with sex.

I suspect Walt might not be too pleased to see Minnie with her bloomers around her ankles!

Prefectdt: For my money, pornography is whatever gives the viewer or reader sexual titillation. It is one thing to one person and another to someone else.

For example, my own quirks leave me feeling somewhat guilty when viewing some images. There are plenty of images of half or wholly unclad female spankees on blogs that are clearly intended to interest the heterosexual male viewer. Yet they do nothing for me. I am not interested in female bottoms and subs in a sexual way. I can tell that they are good looking, but that does not automatically click my sexual jolly button.

In contrast, blogs and websites intended for the lovers of Victoriana and Edwardian period clothing that have women fully clad (often more so than in modern fashions) in a way that gives them that strict historical Miss image are very often exciting to me, even though there is no sexual intent on presentation of the image.

So are spanking blogs pornographic in nature? To some readers, yes, and to others, no.

Ronnie: What one person classes as a pornographic blog might not be to someone else. I personally don't like to see very graphic pictures of women in silly poses showing off all their bits and bobs. :)

I do post pictures of bare bottoms on my blog, but I don't class them as pornographic and none of the blogs I read would be classed as a pornographic blog, and yours certainly isn't.

A-Non: The "I know it when I see it" quote is from long before Reagan's court. This is what Wikipedia says:

"The phrase was infamously used by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964)."

Sara: As has been said, we all have our own sense of 'appropriate' boundaries and those may differ. I think some spanking blogs are pretty much pornographic and others are not at all. To me, spanking is not just all about sex and not all sex is porn. There is such a thing as taste and discretion. Just about anything can be talked about within bounds, if you should choose to do so. And, BTW, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with 'porn' anyway. It's just not at all my thing!

Emanuele: Since spanking is such an exciting topic to me, I find most spanking blogs very interesting. Yes, I also find them sexually stimulating. I think to most people that would qualify as porn. That is fine with me. I don't have any real objections to porn.

Bonnie: Here's my short and sweet definition of pornography:

Explicit depiction of genital contact in a sexual context created for profit

So let's apply it:

Mainstream movie love scenes – No – Not explicit
Dirty dancing or passionate kissing – No – No genital contact
Gynecological examination – No – Not a sexual context
Nude modeling – No – No genital contact
Homemade sex videos – No – Not created for profit
Most spanking videos – No – No genital contact
Most spanking blogs – No – Doesn't fit multiple elements of this definition
Commercial sex videos – Yes – Fits all elements

Thank you all for sounding off on our porn question. Please join us again next week when we will gather again.