I've been thinking about this question on and off for years. As I've said more than once in other threads, I consider the "beautiful woman" one of the great proofs of God's existence.

But I also know that some of the things I've considered "beautiful" others would consider "p*rnographic depiction." (Indeed, the paranoid part of me is very hesitant to even admit that I've looked at a single p*rnographic picture for fear that it might get me an unwanted kind of attention by state and employer. I live in a small town and I work for a PC employer.)

I'll always remember Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's response when asked to define obscenity: something like "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

Now there are some things in the p*rn universe that disgust me and make me want to puke and pull out a castrating knife for those creating it and enjoying it: stuff involving 10 year old children, animals, defecation, and worse.

But there's other stuff that, to me, goes in the column of "beauty."

Yes, I know, there's a difference between "beauty" and "sexually arousing." Not all beauty yields a hard on (sunsets, for example, or a babbling brook, or Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca). But that seems to me a false distinction: cannot a picture of Jessica Biel's face lead one to say either "she's beautiful" or "those lips make me think of ...." Or both.

Maybe what I'm asking is this: when does presentation/appreciation of beauty cross the line into pornography?

(Kevin: feel free to relocate this post to the back alley if you think it should go there.)

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these are the things you ponder, wade? you fascinate the hell outta me. ;)

i really don't have anything to add to this discussion since looking at naked males in pictures doesn't interest me in the least. in person? well now that's a different story. tee hee.

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What can I say? I'm strange. :)

Though if truth be told, I ponder the beautiful more often than I ponder the nature of beauty. 🙂

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you know this might sound wierd but the first thing that popped through my mind with the title of your post was - will I jerk it to the picture(movie) if not then its just beauty 😉

Wow....heavy thought process.
I never really thought about WHERE the line would be drawn.
I really don't have a "This is where" definition.

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If it makes you sit in awe of admiration, beauty.
If it makes you harder than a marble table, pornographic.

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If women like it, it's beautiful.

If men like it, it's pornography.

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What makes other art art? If you appreciate it, it's art. If if gives you a boner, it's not art.

So beauty can't be arousing, too? Sort of like blondes and brunettes -- you can be one or the other, but not both?

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Beauty can give you a boner. But if you can only appreciate 'it' (whatever 'it' is) in a sexual way, then it's pornographic.

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