The Linoleum Principle (a lemma)

Cordelia: So does looking at guns really make girls wanna have sex? That's scary.
Xander: Yeah, I guess.
Cordelia: Well, does looking at guns make you wanna have sex?
Xander: I'm 17. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.

— “Innocence” by Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 2, episode 14.

Everything is going to be found erotic by somebody. That’s the basic idea of fetishes, really. And this is especially true with nude art and photography (however little it is or is not erotic in presentation or intent), and it is equally especially true with textual depictions of sex (however unerotic in style or intent). Everything’s going to turn on somebody.

I call this the Linoleum Principle (after the quote above).

What this means that if you’re definition of the erotic—or the pornographic, or the distinction between them, or any of the other addresses in that particular neighborhood—is bound up in whether something is arousing or not, then everything will be erotic, or pornographic, or whatever-it-is you are trying to define.

You may now return to your previous essay, already in progress.