According to Dictionary.com:

Pornography- obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit.

Erotica-literature or art dealing with sexual love.

These two definitions can be interchangeable.  Porn can deal with sexual love and who says that something has no artistic merit? I think it is in the eye of the beholder.


As to my own definitions, I would say that porn is more crude, rough, and can be a bit  raunchy whereas erotica is more sensuous, and a bit softer.

Personally, I prefer erotica-it does make me more hot than porn.  ;)


Any thoughts? Comments?


Cat

  Might be a venus/mars thing.  Men are supposed to respond best to the visual or tangible.  Like porn...

  Women are supposed to be more responsive to the abstract.  Romance novels, Walt Whitman, &etc...

  Men - sex first, love after... 

  Women -  love first, sex after...

  Does that sound right..?

  Edited to add:  Would make sense biologically...

 

  Might be a venus/mars thing.  Men are supposed to respond best to the visual or tangible.  Like porn...

  Women are supposed to be more responsive to the abstract.  Romance novels, Walt Whitman, &etc...

  Men - sex first, love after... 

  Women -  love first, sex after...

  Does that sound right..?

  Edited to add:  Would make sense biologically...

 



I agree with you. I was thinking of the male vs female thing of porn/erotica when I posted this thread. It is obvious in my house. I like the romance novels while Carlos likes the porn flicks.  ;)



Cat

I was having this talk with my honey today...turns out he likes porn with plot,i like porn without it so the boy/girl rule doesn't always apply.

Have to say i love written erotica way more than flicks,there's something about reading it that i find so sensual. But no cheap romance novel will do...it has to be right.

  Ah, well.  Back to the drawing board...

I agree with the differences as stated above.

However, I have seen hardcore pornography under the name "erotica."  I don't think there is a certain difference. 

"Erotica" in the '90s became a euphemism for any pornography NOT marketed to heterosexual males. 

When the militant feminists succeeded in getting "pornography" banned from the UMass bookstore, what they really meant was getting the "men's magazines" off the shelves.  The bookstore only carried Playboy and Penthouse, not Hustler or the more "hardcore" skin magazines.  However, with no objection from the feminist activists, the bookstore continued to carry "erotica," which was far more explicit than the men's magazines.  One lesbian sex photography book on the shelves at the time depicted vaginal and anal fisting, S&M bondage with skin piercing, and golden showers.  In the early '90s, even Larry Flynt Publications could not be that explicit lest their distributors refuse to carry the magazines.

Hypocrisy didn't even cross the minds of the anti-porn activists because "pornography" was only there to objectify women and call men to rape.  The fetishistic lesbian photos were not just tolerable, but celebrated as part of their liberation. 

Thus, the distinctions between erotica and pornography are often political rather than objective.