comment #1

T. S. Idiot says ...

McCain-Pallin are the ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD of campaign porn.

comment #2

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Guess you were out of pocket last summer when everyone was talking about the latest slasher films, especially Hostel 2, as "torture porn." But this was only the latest permutation of the word, as there had already been instances of other things being reduced to just their visceral essences so that obsessive can wallow in them without all the filler.

And this is a usage exclusively limited to educated and snarky types, nothing - cultural or otherwise - "street" about it.

comment #3

gruver1 says ...

Wells to T.S. Idiot: That's pretty good. Charles Laughton played Captain Kidd in that one, no? Yesterday George Will described Palin as McCain's "Sancho Panza."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/a_landslide_coming.html

comment #4

tmurry says ...

I think the term carries more implication of audience need than the nature of the experience provided. Porn now refers to scratching an itch, and implies a lack of audience standards, so that the experience (movies, TV, books, whatever) just become coal for the fire, good or bad, doesn't really matter. People will, presumably, watch a lot of the stuff they respond to uncritically. This probably started with the Food Network, a seemingly odd idea, calling attention to the idea that people would watch things they like in an indulgent, gratuitous way. There is a lot of porn out there. Architecture/building porn (see Breach for a DC example of this), travel porn, interior design porn... just about any odd thing that has it's own channel is porn. Wildlife porn needs a better name though.

comment #5

gruver1 says ...

Of course I remember the Eli Roth "torture porn" term, but that was more literal. It described a kind of sadistically violent pornography -- blood on the floor and severed limbs instead of boobs and ass cheeks. It's not the same with the term "terror porn" or "Genx marital strife porn." The term is evolving and shape-shifting as we speak. The train is moving on to the next station.

comment #6

p.Vice says ...

This type of definition of "porn" isn't new. I remember friends calling Merchant Ivory movies furniture porn back in 1992.

Deathtongue hits it pretty well but I think this definition is also partially about the exploitive element. It says as much about the maker as it does about the viewer.

comment #7

Gordie Lachance says ...

Isn't the term porn in this context just a synonym for exploitation of something?

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

So is ZACK & MIRI porn porn?

comment #9

Mark says ...

As Freud would say, don't discount the importance of sex, especially in defining the word porn. It's ALL about getting the audience off. Maybe they won't physically cream their pants during the Murder Death Kill pornography of the last Rambo e.g., though raising of testerone levels and whatever that leads to was definitely intended.

comment #10

hatchetface says ...

I think the "____-porn" phrases are referring to a sort of morbid, venal urge to gaze or be fascinated by unpleasant, unwholesome happenings.Although, it seems like people are starting to attach it to anything they don't care for, and don't want to spend their time with.

comment #11

Bocephus says ...

I think with food network the porn element is a little more intense. The heightened sounds that the cooking produces, the vibrant colors, the sounds and faces that the hosts make.

I often watch food network while eating my boring morning grains or ramen snacks. Although I never thought of it as a masturbatory act, maybe it is?

comment #12

Josh Massey says ...

It's pretty simple: "porn," in this context, is codeword for something that attempts to get you off.

comment #13

Chapman Carruthers says ...

>>> There is a lot of porn out there. Architecture/building porn (see Breach for a DC example of this), travel porn, interior design porn... just about any odd thing that has it's own channel is porn. Wildlife porn needs a better name though.

Don't forget christianist, red-state porn, possibly the most insidious and distrurbing variety of porn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us

comment #14

VoiceOfReason says ...

This post is inane blogger porn.

comment #15

slutsky says ...

I think hatchetface comes closest. To me, this term involves a certain amount of titillation, and in these contexts, the titillation is provided by something that wouldn't, or shouldn't, normally provoke that kind of reaction—like marital strife.

comment #16

Sean says ...

tmurry and Josh Massey have it. A similar linguistic phenomenon is the acculturation of "money shot." I disagree with hatchetface that the subject needs to be unpleasant or unwholesome, at least on its face. For instance, a bridal magazine is almost always 100% wedding porn, but it's not unwholesome on its face -- it's only unwholesome insofar as it's porn.

comment #17

Edward says ...

Am I the only person troubled by the reimagining of words like "porn"? I think using porn in so many contexts diminishes the power of the word, but maybe I'm just being curmudgeonly as I join the ranks of senior citizens. I also think baseball should do away with the designated hitter, because it diminishes the game.

comment #18

TheJERMSguy says ...

I think it's a conspiracy by pornographers to make pornography more acceptable by making everything porn. Reading these posts, I'm getting a Monty Python song stuck in my head, but replace the word spam with porn.

comment #19

bmcintire says ...

As tired of the "_____ porn" phrasing as I am sure to become, it is at least nowhere as coffee-mug simplistic and grating as the whole stupid "____ -a-holic" bullshit was in the '80s and '90s.

comment #20

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Hate to shatter TheJERMSguy & others' worldview, but porn has been acceptable for going on 20 years now. There's a reason why the Justice Department (gee, glad all those terrorists have been rounded up and no one smuggles drugs anymore...) went after someone like Max Hardcore: a typical Vivid movie isn't going to move a jury to convict for obscenity anymore (well, a non-Utah jury at least).

As of 2001 (the last year I could surf up a reliable figure) American adult entertainment made $10B, $4B was video. That ain't all college guys and dirty old men. Almost every couple I know has a few tapes/discs hidden away in the bedroom. Single guy friends say that most women they are dating these days either have watched or owns X-rated vids.

comment #21

MilkMan says ...

'All I know is that I would rather watch an actual porn than see another Sam Mendes movie.'
'What are you talking about? Sam Mendes is a great director. Jarhead is one of the best movies about war I've ever seen.'
'I didn't like it. And I didn't like Road to Perdition. And I hated American Beauty.'
'That's what everyone says now. But everyone liked it when it came out.'
'I didn't.'
'Yes you did.'
'How do you know I liked it? You weren't there.'
'Yes, I was. I was sitting next to you and you were totally into that movie.'
'I think that had more to do with Kevin Spacey and Conrad Hall than Sam Mendes. Spacey basically edited the film and Hall was responsible for the look. Mendes was a proxy, a friend of Spacey's.'
'Oh you're such an insider.'
'So if I gave you a choice right now of watching Teenstravaganza #8 or going to see Revolutionary Road, what would you choose?'
'Revolutionary Road.'
'Liar.'
'I haven't watched porn since I was a teenager.'
'Liar. You were just watching some when I walked in.'
'That wasn't porn. It was a Mexican art film.'

comment #22

adorian says ...

A few years ago, I heard someone say that old men watch the flood and hurricane and tornado damage on the Weather Channel because they are addicted to weather porn.

comment #23

PastePotPete says ...

I remember coming out of Road To Perdition and saying it was '30s Gangster Porn'. My usage was meant to convey that to me the whole thing was about making a movie about 30s gangsters, not because the story was anything particularly great(if it was entirely about the story, they could've easily placed it in a more modern era and saved themselves $60mil). It was just an excuse for the actors to wear slouch hats and trenchcoats and play with tommy guns, and the director and production designer to play around with trappings they liked from other, better movies.

Which is basically what Tarantino does, he's just more honest about it.

comment #24

Som12H8 says ...

porn = exploitation
pr0n = pornography
get with it