Pornography Defined: Sexual Involvement Theory, Narrative Context, and Goodness-of-Fit

Unlike a single erotic image, imagery within a story provides a context to judge whether a product is pornographic. Pornography is defined as a commercial product in the form of fictional drama designed to elicit or enhance sexual arousal. It embodies a sexual fantasy of an intended audience by presenting explicit sexual activities between predominantly sexually motivated (and to a lesser extent power-motivated) characters whose mission is to experience erotic reality without the constraints of everyday reality, social norms, and conventional morality. The protagonist overcomes apparent obstacles (taboos on "deviant" sexual objects or linkages) to the sexual mission with ease, and thus, fails to undergo a transformation in character in the process of pursuing the mission. Mosher's (1980) sexual involvement theory posits that subjective response to pornography is a function of the match to the person's sexual script. Deep involvement in the pornographic image or fantasy requires goodness-of-fit to preferre...