History Main / ItsNotPornItsArt

* Creator/AlanMoore's ''Lost Girls''. A graphic novel series done in watercolours about Literature/{{Alice|InWonderland}}, [[Literature/PeterPan Wendy]], and [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy]] meeting each other as grown women... and the [[SlashFic copious amounts of raunchy sex]] they have, with [[GirlOnGirlIsHot each other]], with many people in their youth (the framing device is all the "fairy tales" are actually the girl's first/continuing encounters with sex, with references as to how sex acts became story points) and various [[DepravedBisexual other guests]] at the hotel they happen to find themselves at. It is rigorously defended as "high art" by almost all critics, has fairly good standing amongst the literature circles, despite the vast amounts of sexual depravity and indulgence; [[InvertedTrope and Moore will swear up and down they are all idiots and]] ''[[InvertedTrope Lost Girls]]'' [[InvertedTrope is nothing but porn.]] Well-drawn and well-written porn, maybe, but still ''porn''.

* Creator/AlanMoore's ''Lost Girls''. A graphic novel series done in watercolours about [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]], [[Literature/PeterPan Wendy]], and [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy]] meeting each other as grown women... and the [[SlashFic copious amounts of raunchy sex]] they have, with [[GirlOnGirlIsHot each other]], with many people in their youth (the framing device is all the "fairy tales" are actually the girl's first/continuing encounters with sex, with references as to how sex acts became story points) and various [[DepravedBisexual other guests]] at the hotel they happen to find themselves at. It is rigorously defended as "high art" by almost all critics, has fairly good standing amongst the literature circles, despite the vast amounts of sexual depravity and indulgence; [[InvertedTrope and Moore will swear up and down they are all idiots and]] ''[[InvertedTrope Lost Girls]]'' [[InvertedTrope is nothing but porn.]] Well-drawn and well-written porn, maybe, but still ''porn''.

-->'''May''': Mr. Dali may put a lobster on a naked woman's head and call it art, but he doesn't fool me. The man is running a burlesque show.

-->'''Man''': But darling... [[Creator/FranciscoDeGoya Goya]]!

* The ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' fanfic ''Fanfic/FrozenWight'' has a peddler who tries to use this to justify some illicit paintings of Anna and Elsa.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

-->'''Jack:''' What's the difference?
-->'''Photographer:''' "Naked" is dirty. "Nude" is art.

-->'''Richie''': It doesn't matter how you art it up, Eddie, it's still a... "jazz mag".
-->'''Eddie''': That's what they said to Creator/{{Michelangelo|Buonarroti}} about the Sistine Chapel!
-->'''Richie''': No it's not! The Sistine Chapel is art. If they said anything they would have said "Blimey! Nice painting Mr. Angelo. Now that's what I call art, and it's not porny at all!"
-->'''Eddie''': It bloody well ''is'' dirty you know. There's those three birds on the top of the third pillar from the left with the blue ribbon. Corr -- some of the things they're doing would make your nose bleed!

-->'''Chris''': Mom, how come I can look at the garage here and I couldn't at home?\\
'''Shirley''': Well, because now it's a work of art.\\
'''Tracy''': Why wasn't it a work of art at home?\\
'''Shirley''': Well, then we didn't know it was a work of art.\\
'''Laurie''': And sometimes we don't know if something's good until someone tells us.

-->Sing "la!" for the classical play!
-->With plenty of smut,
-->And not a line cut,
-->And no entertainment tax to pay.

--> '''Tommy''': Why'd you get into this business, ya prick? Huh? For the pussy, that's why. What is this?
--> '''Scott''': This is my art.

* This is a common topic of discussion of Website/DeviantArt. The webpage allows frontal nudity (since it is considered art) but nothing that seems porn/hentai (example: someone grabbing a naked woman's boob). This leads to some conflict, because some "artists" upload pictures or their model/girlfriend/themselves with their legs opened in a less-than-subtle way, [[note]]leading to phrases like "I am no gynecologist, so how come I am always looking at pussy here?"[[/note]] whereas more artistic drawings/photos are rejected because they show person-to-person contact.

* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'': "I deal in publishing. Entertainment."
** "So which one is ''Logjammin'''?"

* Along the lines of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' ruminations, in ''Literature/BestServedCold'', there is a passage in which the AntiHero Monza (who lives in a Renaissance Italian FantasyCounterpartCulture) sees a piece of art that makes her question the distinction: "There was a huge canvas in a gleaming frame on one wall-a woman with an improbable bosom bathing in a stream, and seeming to enjoy it a lot more than was likely. Monza never had understood why getting out a tit or two made for a better painting. But painters seemed to think it did, so tits is what you got."

* Creator/AlanMoore's ''Lost Girls''. A graphic novel series done in watercolours about [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]], [[Literature/PeterPan Wendy]], and [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Dorothy]] meeting each other as grown women... and the [[SlashFic copious amounts of raunchy sex]] they have, with [[GirlOnGirlIsHot each other]], with many people in their youth (the framing device is all the "fairy tales" are actually the girl's first/continuing encounters with sex, with references as to how sex acts became story points) and various [[DepravedBisexual other guests]] at the hotel they happen to find themselves at. It is rigorously defended as "high art" by almost all critics, has fairly good standing amongst the literature circles, despite the vast amounts of sexual depravity and indulgence; and Moore will swear up and down they are all idiots and ''Lost Girls'' is nothing but porn. Well-drawn and well-written porn, maybe, but still ''porn''.

* Used as an excuse by the AntiHero in Eric Ambler's novel ''The Light of Day''. At one point in his life, he published illegal pornography of no literary value in several European countries and got prosecuted for it. When questioned about this by the Turkish police, he engages in sophistry and references the previous banning of works like ''Literature/LadyChatterleysLover'' (which had just been allowed to be published in England at the time Ambler's novel was written).

* The film in ''Film/{{Jacobellis}}'' is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovers_(1958_film) The Lovers]]'', a French film about a bored wife, her workaholic newspaperman husband, her ennui-laden friends, a dinner party, a sensitive young archaeologist, and...well...[[LeFilmArtistique you can see how Stewart might have concluded that this movie isn't hardcore porn]]. Seriously, the sex is hardly there.

** Quite a few artists from around the 19th century ran into this problem, it's possible that Thomas Eakins got into trouble for this(and a variety of other indiscretions). Sort of what happens when you get the right combination of prudery, the dawn of public art exhibitions, and artist not being dead enough to get away with nudes.

* Being made by Romans doesn't mean it can't be porn. Archaeologists have discovered obscene wall-paintings in the ruins of Pompeii, on the walls of brothels. There also exists Greek vases which were decorated with pictures of people having sex. Since Greek vases often had pictures which demonstrated their contents on them, it's maybe best not to think too closely about that one...Greek "vases" were actually drinking vessels [[ButLiquorIsquicker so]] [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy yeah]]...

-->-- '''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts U.S. Supreme Court]] Justice Potter Stewart''', concurring in ''Jacobellis v. Ohio'', commenting on ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovers_(1958_film) Les Amants.]]'' [[note]]The quote would haunt Justice Stewart as no one remembers that he consistently voted ''against'' censorship, including the very case from the quote. But then again, maybe Stewart was being facetiously serious about his ability to distinguish pornography; he was a young naval officer stationed in Casablanca during WWII, and one of his jobs as watch officer was to confiscate the locally-produced hardcore pornography his seamen ([[HehHehYouSaidX stop sniggering]]) tried to smuggle in.[[/note]]

-->-- '''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Supreme Court]] Justice Potter Stewart''', concurring in ''Jacobellis v. Ohio'', commenting on ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovers_(1958_film) Les Amants.]]'' [[note]]The quote would haunt Justice Stewart as no one remembers that he consistently voted ''against'' censorship, including the very case from the quote. But then again, maybe Stewart was being facetiously serious about his ability to distinguish pornography; he was a young naval officer stationed in Casablanca during WWII, and one of his jobs as watch officer was to confiscate the locally-produced hardcore pornography his seamen ([[HehHehYouSaidX stop sniggering]]) tried to smuggle in.[[/note]]

-->'''Mark:''' Oh my God. It’s Porn.

* Invoked in-universe in Creator/HBeamPiper's novel ''Uller Uprising''. The Terrans [[OhCrap realize]] that some of the native rebels had an opportunity to learn about nuclear weapons while employed as laborers on a DeathWorld where nukes were used in mining. They start desperately searching for the detailed information they need to build their own nukes first to put down the rebellion. They find it in some appendices attached to a [[RomanceNovel trashy novel]] set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, where they were included by an author who wanted her work to be seen as serious historical fiction rather than smut.

* {{Hex Sign}}s that include sexual images, such as [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150516080102/http://www.zaubereigarten.com/betweenthesheets.htm O. Henrietta and Hunter Yoder's hex series "Between The Sheets"]], which was criticized by the traditional Hex Art community as being "overly Liberal", especially the pieces with pro-feminism themes.