However, you’re right that I’m tired of hearing from the “it’s all fake” brigade. I’ve been sex blogging for almost five years now. We were discussing airbrushed magazine covers back in freakin’ 2003! And that’s not the only time.

I’m not sure it’s fair to my regular readers to repeat all the standard disclaimers every time I post a picture. And I know it would be boring as hell for me.

Besides, this particular issue (discussion about whether and to what extent a photo has been photoshopped or not) has come here so often that I’ve had to ban it from the comments. And that’s in the FAQ, which states:

“Also, we don’t play the “Is it real or is it Photoshop?â€? game here, because (a) comments that a photo is not real tend to expressly or implicitly imply that the commenter is smarter and more perceptive than whoever posted the photo, which is rude, and (b) such comments lead to flamewars because everybody has an opinion, but nobody has any data. Even a friendly reservation (â€?I’m not sure if that’s real, but if it is…â€?) will often get moderated, because it invites twenty-seven unwelcome comments on the “real or Photoshopâ€? topic.)”

So, yeah. For Lola to parachute in here, raise a tired issue in an aggressive tone and attribute to me a credulousness for which there’s no evidence… well, it failed to impress.

There are a whole host of issues that need to be dealt with when we attempt to appreciate porn. At one time or another, this blog has addressed most of them, often repeatedly. There’s no way I’m going to post disclaimers about each of them in every post.

As you say, ‘nobody with a brain over the age of eleven’ believes the camera never lies any more, but there is a huge gap between knowing something intellectually and grasping it instinctively in such a way that it affects your perception. I have to say that all of my friends (NO exceptions) have been amazed at how convincingly I can make them slimmer, brighter eyed and smoother of skin. When you see images, they’re just kind of there, and unless you *really* stop to think about every image you see, it just goes under the radar.

I agree that Lola was abrasive and I am not quite sure what point s/he thought s/he was trying to make. All I can say was that it was the most obvious thing about your post to me too, and I do like porn and pretty women. My view is perhaps coloured by the fact that I simply don’t find heavily retouched images very attractive, as the first thing I perceive is the skill/intrusiveness of the retoucher and not the gorgeousness of the girls themselves! You’re probably tired of hearing from the ‘it’s all fake!’ whining brigade, but honestly, I don’t think this ‘truism’ has fully sunk into our cultural consciousness yet. Without any indication that you were aware of it in the original post it is not difficult to jump to the conclusion that it didn’t even enter your head to think that this isn’t simply How Hot They Look.

As you say though that conclusion is pretty insulting and combative. And also kinda pointless. Talking to people is generally much more interesting and productive than insulting them.

P.S. Longtime lurker, seem to have got sucked into commenting. You keep a most excellent blog (not that I would expect any less of a deity! ;)).

But the real reason I challenged Lola on her comment was the “you don’t seriously believe” business. She was using derisive language to suggest a proposition that nobody here ever proposed. Of course I don’t believe that any person on a magazine cover looks “exactly like that” in real life. Nobody with a brain over the age of eleven believes that. So she was being abrasive and insulting for no obvious reason.

The other thing to remember is that people who get hostile about the artificiality of female images in popular culture (as Lola seemed to be doing) are, in my experience, a subset of the people who object to pornography broadly on objectification grounds. It’s not a perfect overlap, but it’s pretty consistent. And that left me to suspect that Lola’s insulting approach on this narrow issue was the result of a broader hostility toward the enterprise and endeavor that is ErosBlog. For all its flaws, we celebrate porn here, and we’re not ashamed to do it. Some people can’t handle that.

I concede that’s a lot to conclude from one rude comment flying in from somewhere deep in left field. It could all be a big misunderstanding on my part, which is why I responded with a question. Hearing no answer, what else am I left to think?

Many people (myself not included in most contexts) feel that this is not only unappealing to them (and thus ought to be to everyone else) but also ‘cheating’ and actively harmful. Thus they feel the need to object whenever it looks like such an image is being taken at face value.

I assume you are aware of just how much these photos are generally edited, but for those people reading who are not, you might want to take a look at some of the many portfolio sites by retouchers on the net, eg http://www.iwanexstudio.com/. Myself, I don’t exactly object to the practice, but I do wish people were more conscious of it.

My gf’s weight has fluctuated in the last year since we started going out, but it’s not her waist measurement I am concerned about when we’re alone, it’s the fire in her eyes, the feel of her skin under my finger tips, and the way she reacts when I move those fingers to certain favorite places.

We’re both working on losing weight, not just to look good for each other and to make her cousins jealous, but because we’re both healthier that way. Can anyone else relish the thought of eating crisp salad greens, ripe tomato slices and crunchy carrot sticks fed them by a naked lover?