What is art? Here is a definition from Google:
(art is) "...The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."
Or this, from the Britannica on-line dictionary:
"...Something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings."
Now the question is, are these valid definitions? All art is simply the expression of human creative skill and imagination ? That sounds good enough for me, but I would have to add that art also has a deeply subjective value, either to the artist or to his patrons, or both. People are willing to spend time and money on producing art, and consuming art. There are both spiritual and material components involved here that the vast majority of us take very seriously.
If you agree with all this, then, how could you possibly consider pornography/erotica art? The subject matter here is perhaps the most primitive, basest, and mundane known to humankind. How is this uplifting, inspiring, or transcendent? It's merely sensual, appealing to our most ancient impulses. So, whether or not that is good, bad or neither, it is not art. It's sometimes fun, pleasant, passionate, and sometimes, the expressions of romantic love in private can transcend this crude materialism, but porn never inspires, never uplifts. Again, this is not to denigrate the concept of human pleasure, only to denigrate the idea that somehow, porn and erotica are art forms. At their best, porn and erotica are candy. At their worst, they're poison.
This is why (although there are other reasons) whenever I hear someone say "porn is art", I realize what they're really saying is "the porn I use is art". What could this absurdity mean, other than the one who uses it is deeply ashamed of his porn use? Hell, it may even be an addiction. There will never be a way to ever justify such an absurdity. This worldview seems dark, depressing, cynical and malevolent. You are willing to pervert a higher value for a lower one, out of shame, and a stubborn refusal to let it go. This is a narcissism so profound it would rather kill you than change.
