SimonDoom
Kink Lord
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2015
- Posts
- 17,191
I'm enough of an Epicurean, or libertine, or aesthete, or whatever you want to call it, to say: Giving pleasure is ethical. It's good. It's desirable. It's socially responsible to give other people pleasure (unless it's an inherently destructive, short-term sort of pleasure, with longer-term harm, like taking methamphetamine).
There's a tendency to discount the "good" of sexual and erotic pleasure. I don't think we should. When we talk about "socially responsible" erotica, one of the social goods to take into account is the pleasure given. The pleasure, the good, of erotica, in this sense, is obvious, indisputable, and widespread. We know it's there because of 1) the pleasure that we can all personally attest to, and 2) the pleasure our readers tell us about. The harm is more amorphous and more speculative.
So when people suggest by their comments, "Sure, it's fun, but is it responsible?" I don't think they've quite got the calculus right. You can't completely separate the two.
There's a tendency to discount the "good" of sexual and erotic pleasure. I don't think we should. When we talk about "socially responsible" erotica, one of the social goods to take into account is the pleasure given. The pleasure, the good, of erotica, in this sense, is obvious, indisputable, and widespread. We know it's there because of 1) the pleasure that we can all personally attest to, and 2) the pleasure our readers tell us about. The harm is more amorphous and more speculative.
So when people suggest by their comments, "Sure, it's fun, but is it responsible?" I don't think they've quite got the calculus right. You can't completely separate the two.