Pornography, representation of sexual behaviour in books, pictures, statues, motion pictures, and other media that is intended to cause sexual excitement. The distinction between pornography (illicit and condemned material) and erotica (which is broadly tolerated) is largely subjective and reflects changing community standards. The word pornography, derived from the Greek porni (“prostitute”) and graphein (“to write”), was originally defined as any work of art or literature depicting the life of prostitutes.

Because the very definition of pornography is subjective, a history of pornography is nearly impossible to conceive; imagery that might be considered erotic or even religious in one society may be condemned as pornographic in another. Thus, European travelers to India in the 19th century were appalled by what they considered pornographic representations of sexual contact and intercourse on Hindu temples such as those of Khajuraho (see photograph); most modern observers would probably react differently. Many contemporary Muslim societies likewise apply the label “pornography” to many motion pictures and television programs that are unobjectionable in Western societies. To adapt a cliché, pornography is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Vishnu; Lakshmi Vishnu with his consort Lakshmi, from the temple dedicated to Parshvanatha in the eastern temple complex, c. 950–970, at Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India. © Anthony Cassidy

In many historical societies, frank depictions of sexual behaviour, often in a religious context, were common. In ancient Greece and Rome, for instance, phallic imagery and depictions of orgiastic scenes were widely present, though it is unlikely that they fulfilled anything like the social or psychological functions of modern pornography (see phallicism). A modern use seems more likely in some of the celebrated erotic manuals, such as the Roman poet Ovid’s Ars amatoria (Art of Love), a treatise on the art of seduction, intrigue, and sensual arousal. Some of the 100 stories in the Decameron, by the medieval Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, are licentious in nature. A principal theme of medieval pornography was the sexual depravity (and hypocrisy) of monks and other clerics.

Japan possessed a very highly developed culture of visual erotica, though these materials were so much part of the social mainstream that many cannot legitimately be described as “pornographic.” Elaborate depictions of sexual intercourse—pictures notionally designed to provide sex education for medical professionals, courtesans, and married couples—are present from at least the 17th century. Makura-e (pillow pictures) were intended for entertainment as well as for the instruction of married couples. This interest in very frank erotica reached its height during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867), when new technologies of colour woodblock printing allowed the easy manufacture and circulation of erotic prints, commonly described as shunga (“images of spring”; see photograph). The volume of this type of material was so large by the 18th century that the government began issuing official edicts against it, and some arrests and prosecutions followed. Nevertheless, Japanese erotica continued to flourish, and the prints of artists such as Suzuki Harunobu (c. 1725–70) have since achieved worldwide renown.

The Insistent Lover, wood-block print by Sugimura Jihei, c. 1680. 27.3 × 40.6 cm. Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1935.406/Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago

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In Europe too, new technologies (above all, the printing press) promoted the creation of pornographic works, which frequently contained elements of humour and romance and were written to entertain as well as to arouse. Many of these works harked back to classical writings in their treatment of the joys and sorrows of marital deception and infidelity. Margaret of Angoulême’s Heptameron, published posthumously in 1558–59, is similar to the Decameron in its use of the device of a group of people telling stories, some of which are salacious.

The modern history of Western pornography begins with the Enlightenment (18th century), when printing technology had advanced enough to permit the production of written and visual materials to appeal to audiences of all socioeconomic levels and sexual tastes. A small underground traffic in such works became the basis of a separate publishing and bookselling business in England. A classic of this period was the widely read Fanny Hill; or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748–49) by John Cleland. At about this time, erotic graphic art began to be widely produced in Paris, eventually coming to be known in the Anglophone world as “French postcards.”

Apart from its sexual element, pornography became a powerful vehicle for social and political protest. It provided a vehicle for the exploration of daring ideas that were condemned by both church and state, including sexual freedom for women as well as for men and the practices of contraception and abortion. Much pornography also focused on the misdeeds of royals and aristocrats, thereby contributing to the discrediting of the elites of Europe. Perhaps the most important author of socially radical pornography was the Marquis de Sade, whose books—notably Justine (1791)—combined orgiastic scenes with long philosophical debates on the evils of property and traditional social hierarchy.

By the time that Queen Victoria came to the throne in Great Britain in 1837, there were more than 50 pornographic shops on Holywell Street (known as “Booksellers’ Row”) in London. Pornography continued to flourish during the Victorian Age in Britain and in the United States despite—or perhaps because of—the taboos on sexual topics that were characteristic of the era. The massive and anonymous autobiography My Secret Life (1890) is both a detailed recounting of an English gentleman’s lifelong pursuit of sexual gratification and a social chronicle of the seamy underside of a puritanical society. An important periodical of the era was The Pearl (1879–80), which included serialized novels, short stories, crude jokes, poems, and ballads containing graphic descriptions of sexual activity. Such works provide a valuable corrective to conventional images of Victorian prudery.

In the 19th century the inventions of photography and later of motion pictures were quickly put to use in the production of pornography. Pornographic films were widely available no later than the 1920s, and in the 1960s their popularity enjoyed a massive upsurge. The development of videocassettes in the 1980s and digital videodiscs (DVDs) in the 1990s enabled the wide distribution of pornographic films and further encouraged their use because they could be viewed in private. Pornographic images and films became even more widely available with the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s. The pornographic industry became one of the most profitable on the Internet. Apart from providing a vast marketplace for commercial pornography appealing to many diverse tastes, the Internet also encouraged many amateurs to post images of themselves, images that often challenged traditional concepts of beauty and sex appeal. The use of webcams opened the industry even further to amateurs, allowing individuals to post live depictions of themselves, often for fees. The Internet also increased the availability of child pornography.

Pornography has long been condemned and legally proscribed in the belief that it depraves and corrupts both minors and adults and that it leads to the commission of sex crimes. Occasionally, important artistic or even religious works have been banned because they are considered pornographic under such assumptions. Those assumptions have been challenged on legal and scientific grounds. Nonetheless, the production, distribution, or possession of pornographic materials may be prosecuted in many countries under statutes dealing with obscenity. Although legal standards vary widely, most countries in Europe and North America permit depictions of sexual activity that would have been deemed grossly and criminally pornographic just a few decades ago. The only remaining taboo that is nearly universally accepted is the condemnation of child pornography.