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User:Шизомби/Brainstorming PORNBIO

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On this subpage I'm drafting some thoughts to present for discussion on Misplaced Pages talk:Notability (people) regarding WP:PORNBIO and/or to develop into a notability essay but am not ready to do so yet.

Articles regarding pornographic actors have presented problems on Misplaced Pages. This may also be true of articles regarding pornographic directors, pornographic movies, etc. but that does not seem to be as big an issue. (But porn is probably dealt with more strictly than the guidelines of Misplaced Pages:Notability (people)#Creative professionals Misplaced Pages:Notability (films).)

Some past discussions of PORNBIO:

Some search links for prior AfDs on pornographic actors:

Problems with articles

A number have little more than:

  • a statement that “X is an actor in pornography”

Stub articles can be problematic, e.g. Misplaced Pages:Avoiding common mistakes#Creating... (an unclassified Misplaced Pages: namespace projectpage) asserts that there are "Articles which are too short to have encyclopedic value." Stubs such as described above come close to meeting the "A3. No content" criterion for speedy deletion, "Any article consisting only of external links, category tags".

Problems with Articles for Deletion discussions

Things that seem to recur:

  • the existence or keeping of articles on actors in pornography sometimes is resented by editors arguing for the notability of authors or other people
  • "one of England's 'leading cultural critics' is apparently not, by Misplaced Pages editor consensus, as notable as a moderately obese middle-aged woman who films herself having sex with dogs, and the TLS is apparently by the same consensus not a "major" publication with the stature and reputation of Color Climax Anal Sex or Big Fuckin' Tits, or even Juggs," Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Ophelia Benson

Notability and Verifiability

It is likely that general indicators of notability can be found for many actors, and specific indicators can be found for some. The problem with articles about them might be less one of notability and more that secondary sources can be hard to come by.

Notability

One of the more concrete measures of notability are Category:Pornographic film awards and mainstream media coverage. However, there are other things to look for.

Verifiability

Pornography is somewhat emphemeral in nature; older movies and magazines are generally harder to find as there is a promotion of and/or interest in the newest performers, in the newest movies, doing new things. This was true of non-pornographic films as well; most silent-era films are lost. As the articles on lost films and ephemera note, (also garbology and probably others as well); things that may have been considered to have little or no value at the moment of their creation or things considered to have lost their value after their initial intended use are now objects of study and collectibles. Pornography has further suffered in that it is also widely considered obscene and taboo, and thus has often historically been kept secretive and been subject to censorship, including destruction by authorities.

Pornographic periodicals are relatively unlikely to have created their own indexes, and there may not even be many indexes created by others such as are available for many magazines and journals.

Pornography Studies as a distinct academic field seems relatively new; Professor Linda Williams’ Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible and Porn Studies are examples. Nevertheless, many libraries have holdings for long-running, prominent pornographical periodicals such as Playboy Holdings for publications specializing in adult films such as Adam Film WorldAdult Video Newsappear to be more limited. ] may have some; some in Category:Sexology may, e.g. the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction does. Sex-positive feminism and Anti-pornography feminism#Feminist objections have also studied the subject; the Andrea Dworkin Papers at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University have print and film pornography she collected for her research, and this may be true of other special collections as well.