How do you define porn, actually?

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said back in the 60's "I know it when I see it."

 

The thing is, you are quitting porn (presumably) for the psychological effects it has on you, so defining porn in a literary context shouldn't be very enlightening when it comes to deciding what you should and shouldn't watch. The fine line between porn and drama doesn't necessarily mark a fine line between psychologically damaging and not.

Really if you are not masturbating to the TV shows there shouldn't be a problem. On the flip side, if you are masturbating to TV shows then I don't think the fact that it's technically not porn is helping.

 

The legal definition is irrelevant for our purposes. What's porn to me might not be to you. Personally, if I see or read something that makes me want to relapse, I avoid it.

For example, I recently closed my online dating account because viewing some of photos on there gave me very strong urges, leading to fantasizing. Will those images always be "porn" for me? Definitely not, but I'm still weak and unnecessarily tempting myself wasn't helping.

 

Funny, when I saw the OP I thought of that supreme court case as well.

This is the best definition I've come across for porn, which intuitively makes a lot of sense and I've seen my own behavior in what he describes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h-CE0L_yNQ

 

It's actually a pretty complex question.

Literally, it means “writing about harlots”, from the Greek ‘pornographos’.

A useful definition has three criteria: (i) it is material depicting real or simulated sexual acts, (ii) removed from the private intimacy of a couple (iii) in order to be deliberately displayed to third parties.

Another definition comes from the so-called anti-porn feminists. In the 1980s these academics tried to halt the rising porn industry in America through the law. They came up with something called "The Ordinance", which included the following, comprehensive definition that you also might find helpful:

"‘Pornography is the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women, whether in pictures or in words, that also includes one or more of the following (i) women are presented dehumanized as sexual objects, things or commodities, or (ii) women are presented as sexual objects who enjoy pain or humiliation; or (iii) women are presented as sexual objects who experience sexual pleasure in being raped, or (iv) women are presented as sexual objects tied up or cut up or mutilated or bruised or physically hurt; or (v) women are presented m postures of sexual submission, servility or display, or (vi) women’s body parts - including but not limited to vaginas, breasts, and buttocks - are exhibited, such that women are reduced to those parts, or (vii) women are presented as whores by nature, or (viii) women are presented being penetrated by objects or animals, or (ix) women are presented m scenarios of degradation, injury, torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual ’ The ordinance also defines ‘the use of men, children or transsexuals in the place of women’ as Pornography. "