this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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Honestly, I've never really gotten the train of thought that if a piece of media is sexual in nature it automatically becomes socially unnecessary. In my opinion, this whole narrative that something must be SFW to be socially necessary is... kinda arbitrary?
Fair point. Ultimately the lines are kinda arbitrary. I'm OK with drawn vanilla hentai since it's just art, but dislike real life porn because it's probably exploitative. My distinction is also kinda arbitrary.
China just doesn't bother with these distinctions, so just bans anything explicit. The law was created when "explicit" referred mainly to prostitution, which should definitely be banned. The law is likely kept because (1) no politician wants to be the one who advocates for porn, and (2) Chinese parents likely support the law, just like how Chinese parents are the main advocates of anti-gaming legislation.
Porn is less exploitave than the actual model/photography industry which pimps men and woman out, alan ritchson talked about his experience on dax shepard's podcast and how normalized it is.
Media being sexual in nature doesn't automatically make it pornography. Media that's specifically designed for sexual gratification is. Movies like Her, American Beauty, The Graduate are all not porn even though sexuality is heavily involved.
From my perspective, I don't view the sexual as "antisocial until it is adorned with "higher" aspects of humanity". I think the sexual can be pro-social in and of itself.
No one said the non-sexual aspects of media are "higher aspects of humanity". Yes the sexual can be pro-social, you'll see plenty of that in China, but media designed specifically as wanking material is not considered healthy by China.
But then how would you differ creative expression of one's own sexuality from wanking material?