The Invention of Pornography

Pornography tends to be defined by what it is not: it is not art, it is not legitimate, it is not safe for popular consumption.…Explicit imagery is as old as art itself, but pornography, as a thought structure, can be traced back to the eighteenth century with the discovery of Pompeii and the impetus to develop a new taxonomy of art.

There were scenes of couples having sex in twos and threes, there were numerous nudes, images of priapic men and satyrs, their erections massive and bobbing from their bodies. By 1758, rumors began to circulate that Pompeii was not the Rome historians had envisioned.