If pornography was to be made illegal what would the penalties involved be?

[Frumentarii]

If pornography was to be made illegal what would the penalties for production, distribution and viewing of it be?

Would the penalties differ in regards to the type of pornography and the method of its production? For instance would a person who produces and distributes pornography featuring only themselves be penalised to the same degree as someone who hired people to perform it?

In particular I overheard a conversation where a man asked his friends whether they had ever watched porn with their girlfriends/partners and if so did they ever say to them (their girlfriends/partners) "They've (the porn actress) done it, so you've got to."

His friends never replied, instead they laughed and the topic changed.

In regards to things I've seen it has been mostly been slapping or throat holding that seemed excessive and/or not expected, wanted etc. On other occasions it has been the occasional expression the faces of some of the women and indeed men, as to whether they wanted to be there or do what they where doing. I must stress this has not something I have come across regularly.

In regards to myself, I suppose it's to remind myself of what sex actually looks like I'm ashamed to say. I tend to prefer the amateur end of the spectrum (or at least that which has an amateur aspect to it), it tends to be less sterile or acted.

I admit these questions have become increasingly on my mind, one of the reasons why I have not been watching it as much as of late and reading up on the subject.

In regards to my emotions and empathy I don't think they've been blunted, I have been accused of being too emotional and understanding in regards to people and events.

In regards to watching women being strangled it is not something I enjoyed and neither watched beyond that point as I was troubled by it. As to what punishment I should have if it was to be illegal I do not know.

I will and I will also reflect upon your posts.

Frumentarii, do you think the men in your anecdote 'laughed and changed the subject' because they were all secretly guilty of ordering their partners to perform like women in porn films, or because they thought the bloke asking them was insulting them by calling them all ignorant rapists?

TeiTua in the Gauguin case do you understand what the woman meant when she said:

"He has two women in the painting and it's very homosexual."

I thought she meant they looked as if they might be lesbian lovers. Are you suggesting a play on words, that if Gauguin "had two women" it wouldn't be homosexual at all? Perhaps I'm missing something here.

And trying to keep alive the idea of the variability of pornography--there are women being strangled but there's also page 3 of The Sun. As porn goes, the second one is mild, but it's definitely still porn. Can any legal proposal cover this whole range?

The Gauguin case also reminds me of the famous 1970s TV series 'Ways of Seeing' where the art critic John Berger compares revered 'Old Master' paintings of nudes with images from girlie mags (as they were called in those days).

His point was that, whatever their relative artistic merits, they both turned women into dehumanized sex objects.

A painting of anyone doing anything turns them into an object. A painting is not about a real person, it's about what the artist sees and the message s/he is trying to transmit - though how the viewer percieves the image/message is up to a viewer. People who want to destroy or suppress or ban art (whether good or bad) made by painting, drawing or computer skills are ignorant wankers who no one should take any notice of - same as people who want to suppress written art they don't agree with.

If porn is to be made illeagal, could it not be for the same reason that you can't go shopping without clothes, or walk around in public naked?
why create a chance of exploitation in a first place? i mean what is an actual need for that?
what measures will stop minors getting access to it?
how many minors officially actually accessed it?
only way to prevent harm to minors is if that is not created in first place.
if it is not sensible to be naked in own house while curtains are open, why would a sensible adult want to put their sexual action accessible over the internet?

This thread is from 2011.