Why Game Of Thrones Is Not Pornographic

With the debut of the eighth season of Game of Thrones, charges that the show is pornographic have, in some cases, intensified yet again--especially charges by evangelicals.  Not only do many evangelicals not understand what Game of Thrones is, but many also do not understand what pornography itself is.  The fact that Game of Thrones has featured sex scenes does not mean it is pornographic.  In fact, it takes far more for something to deserve that title.

That a TV show (or movie, video game, or book) features one or more explicit sex scenes does not automatically make it pornographic because a relatively small handful of scenes do not dictate genre.  After all, having one or even a handful of horror scenes in a movie does not mean that the film belongs in the horror genre!  Having jokes in a speech does not automatically make that speech a comedy.  Game of Thrones also includes some action scenes, but it is hardly an action show!  It is instead a fantasy drama.

There is also another issue, and one that is more significant: pornography is merely a subcategory of erotic media.  Erotic media is thoroughly sexual (the focus is persistently on sexuality) and is intended to arouse users, while pornography emphasizes illicit sexual acts (rape, adultery, bestiality, and so on) and is created with the intent of arousing users [1].  Thus, not every work of entertainment--or every explicitly, thoroughly sexual video, image, or writing--can be legitimately called pornographic simply for this reason alone.  Since not all entertainment featuring explicit sexual scenes is erotic media, and not all erotic media is pornography (and non-pornographic erotic media is not sinful; see Deuteronomy 4:2), equating entertainment containing sexual scenes with pornography is outright asinine.

Game of Thrones is not known only for its sexual content, though, of which there is far less than many people like to pretend.  Despite being very violent at times, the show predictably receives more criticism for showing even nonsexual nudity than it does for its depictions of horrendous torture and brutal deaths.  Such baseless prudery conditions people to regard nonsexual nudity as appalling and brutality as normal.  Of course, there is nothing problematic about portraying violence in entertainment because there is nothing wrong with simply portraying any behavior onscreen, but the arbitrary, subjective nature of the evangelical attitude towards sexuality and violence in entertainment is blatant.

Of course, Game of Thrones has also received specific backlash for portraying the sexual abuse of women, despite also showing the sexual assault of men (sometimes by women).  This confirms another point.  Although no one who protests against others watching Game of Thrones could possibly have a sound basis for the objections, as they could only argue from conscience or consensus, I have yet to see a single objection to the show that is actually consistent with itself.  Those who mistakenly believe no one should watch the show either seem to rarely, if ever, object to all of the sexual content in a genuinely consistent manner or to never criticize the graphic violence as much as the portrayals of sexuality, despite the latter being less graphic.

Logic, people.  It is very fucking helpful.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-truth-about-erotic-media-part-1.html