Art vs. Porn

There is a clear difference between pornography and art. Art expresses something that is aesthetically pleasing to the viewer while porn intends to evoke sexual excitement. In art, there is a subject that expresses the feelings of the artists while pornography represents people as objects. An art is suggestive which enables viewers to be part of the phenomenal qualities of art while pornography is mostly about the anatomical details and the sexual acts. Moreover, porn conceals emotional response from the viewers because it is about the organs rather than the persons. But it also doesn’t mean that genital representations cannot be beautiful. Another distinction between art and pornography is their manifestation. Porn is aggressive, emotionless and alienated while art is about love, passion and equality. Erotic art or any works that are sexually explicit differ from porn because they capture the formal elements of art and depict men and women with equality and respect. Erotic art came from the Greek work “eros” which means “love” while pornography came from “porne” which means “prostitute.” Erotic arts thus portray sexuality on mutual basis while porn dehumanizes an individual by sexuality. Art is about beauty and aesthetic qualities. On the other hand, pornography is a term interchangeably used for obscene works. Freud stated that the genitals are exciting and beautiful so the challenge for art is to express beauty away from the origin of sexual arousal. In art, beauty is a subject, while in pornography it is objectified using sexual activities or behaviour. There is a difference between being “nude” and “naked.” In art, nude implies form and shape, the human body’s aesthetic qualities; naked, on the contrary, is deprivation of clothes or bareness in an embarrassing manner. In art, nudity is not the focus but mainly used as the form or medium for the artist’s representation. We experience art in sensory, emotional and intellectual manner. Art is a matter of