Critique of "Smut, Erotic Reality/ Obscene Ideology" by Murray Davis and a philosophy of sex

In the book "Smut, Erotic Reality/ Obscene Ideology", by Murray Davis (1983),

the author expresses the idea that the best source for studying human sexuality objectively

is "soft core", rather than "hard core" pornography. (Davis p. xix). The purpose of this

paper is to critique Davis's claim and to study what understanding of human sexuality

someone might have if they used some other resource that is available today, in this case

the Internet.

Davis argues that , "hard core pornography is usually more abstract and less

explicit than soft-core pornography". (Davis, p. xix, 1983). Davis doesn't go on to

explain how hard-core pornography can be less explicit than soft-core. However he does

explain that hard-core pornography is more abstract in that, it depicts the sex act only and

not the emotional or personal characteristics of the people involved in the act. (Davis,

p. xx) He believes soft-core pornography is describing "a sexual experience", which

conveys characteristics of the participants that are not described by hard-core

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pornography. Hard-core pornography describes "sexual behaviour" which involves more

of the act of sex rather than the characteristics and feelings involved with sex. (Davis, p.

xix) Although Davis admits that the vocabulary of sex is changing (Davis, p. xxv), he also

states that hard-core pornography uses considerably more vulgar terms that are associated

with lower-class activity, such as, "prick, fuck, and suck" (Davis, p. xxiii). Davis believes

that hard-core pornography, induces imaginative behaviours by using these lower-class,

four-letter words. The stories use phrases such as "First we sucked, then we

fucked."(Davis p. xix, 1983), to allow the reader the tools to imagine the scene actually

taking place. The reader is lead by the author through the story by using words that may

be more understood or common in the readers' everyday life. He also...