Product Code Database
Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography, film, imagery, text or audio content that has a pornographic or erotic component but which is less sexually graphic than hardcore pornography, lacking sexual penetration and other sexual activities. It typically contains nude or semi-nude models or actors in suggestive poses or scenes, and is intended to be sexually arousing and Beauty in an aesthetic sense.
The distinction between softcore pornography and erotic photography, or erotic art such as Vargas girl pin-ups, is largely a matter of debate. When the subject is naked, the image must be differentiated from nude art, and photos belong within the broader category of nude photography.
Commercial pornography can be differentiated from erotica, which has high-art standards and aspirations.
Portions of an image that are considered too graphic may be hidden or obscured in a variety of ways, as by hair or clothing, intentionally-positioned hands or other body parts, artfully located foreground elements such as plants, pillows, furniture, or drapery, or by carefully chosen camera angles.
Pornographic filmmakers sometimes make both hardcore and softcore versions of a given film, with the softcore version using less explicit views of sex scenes or using other techniques to tone down any objectionable features. For example, the softcore version of a given film may have been edited for the in-house hotel pay-per-view market.
Total nudity is currently commonplace in several magazines, as well as in photography and on the Internet.
In some countries, images of women's genitals are digitally manipulated so that they are not too "detailed". An Australian pornographic actress says that images of her own genitals sold to pornographic magazines in different countries are digitally manipulated to change the size and shape of the labia according to censorship standards in different countries.
After the formation of the MPAA rating system in the United States and prior to the 1980s, numerous softcore films, with a wide range of production costs, were released to mainstream movie theatres, especially drive-in theater. Emmanuelle and Alice in Wonderland received positive reviews from noted critics such as Roger Ebert.
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