The line between pornography, erotica, and art is often blurred and subject to diverse cultural, legal, and ethical interpretations. The main reason for the distinction is that the analysis of their impact and their regulation has historically depended on their intentionality, approach, aesthetics, and context .

Pornography

• Intention : To provoke the sexual arousal of the receiver in the most direct and explicit way possible.
• Focus : It focuses on the graphic and mechanical representation of the sexual act (the physical action), often reducing people to mere objects for the visual or physical pleasure of the viewer.
• Aesthetics : It tends to sacrifice character development, deep plot, emotional complexity, and aesthetic quality in favor of the immediacy of sexual action. It frequently reproduces stereotypes and simplified power dynamics.
• Context : It is often associated with the industrialization of explicit sex and social problems (addiction, exploitation, distortion of sexuality).

Eroticism

• Intention : To awaken sensuality, desire, and imagination.
• Focus : It centers on suggestion, allusion, the interplay of glances, intimacy, emotion, and desire that precedes or surrounds the sexual act. It emphasizes sensuality, emotions, and the connection between the individuals.
• Aesthetics : It uses artistic resources (poetry, metaphors, suggestive framing) to create an atmosphere and meaning that transcends the physical act. The focus is on artistic quality and the exploration of the psyche and human relationships.
• Context : It is historically linked to high culture and literature. It is valued as a form of expression of libido and inner life. It is a space where consent and reciprocity are fundamental, as its value lies in the connection.

Art

• Intention : To create a work that expresses an emotion, an idea, or a worldview; to generate aesthetic pleasure, to provoke reflection or debate.
• Focus : The value lies in the form, the concept, the technique, and the ability of the work to transcend its superficial theme.
• Aesthetics : It is geared towards contemplation and interpretation by the public. Originality, technical skill, and conceptual coherence are key criteria, regardless of the level of explicitness of the content.
• Context : It is recognized within a cultural and institutional system (museums, galleries, critics). It possesses artistic, social, or historical merit that, in many cases, protects it from legal restrictions imposed on obscenity or pornography.

However, these definitions are not strict and do not define what they are, but rather what individuals have culturally, legally, or ethically attributed to them. The distinction between these three definitions operates within the arbitrary domain of observers who are never neutral (Cauti, 1996). Definitions such as erotic art or ethical pornography often arise as well, for which establishing a strict definition is impossible, since artistic quality or good taste are value judgments that change historically and culturally (Kieran, 2001), (Maes, 2013).

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Cauti, FI (1996). Pythagoras's panties: Theorem on eroticism and pornography. The literary territories of the history of pleasure: I Colloquium on Hispanic Erotica (pp. 107-114). Montilla, Casa del Inca: Huerga y Fierro.

Kieran, M. (2001). Pornographic art. Philosophy and Literature , 25(1), 31-45.

Maes, H. (2013). Pornographic art and the aesthetics of pornography. Springer.