The Encyclopedia Of Smut: S Is For Softcore

Softcore material is one of those things that you know when you see, but might have a little trouble defining precisely. What kind of body parts can you show in softcore films, and what can those parts be doing? Even the word itself is confusing; what is this "core" and why does the scale only go from soft to hard?

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Softcore Vs. Hardcore

When we call something softcore, it's because it contains any of the following:

· Non-sexual nudity
· Sexual acts without nudity
· Untouched genitals (as soon as someone touches a genital area, it's over)
· Suggested but not visible genital or anal penetration (whether by fingers, phallus, or toys)
· No visible bodily fluids

Of course, a movie that has all of those things might not be called softcore, but racy or erotic instead. When people call something softcore porn, that suggests that it has the goals and pacing of hardcore pornography; it's a movie or show that is designed to arouse and in which nudity takes front and center with numerous sex scenes that may or may not have bearing on the plot. Basically, it's what people think hardcore pornography is supposed to be minus the extra-graphic views.

You probably noticed that our list is full of "non" and "not," making it seem like softcore doesn't exist as a concept by itself, but is instead a watered-down version of hardcore. We can't say if that's a fair assessment of the word. There was definitely a time when the morpheme "soft" came loaded with ideas of femininity, but we think softcore has evolved past that.

Oh, and if you think our softcore criteria are strange, check out the Mull of Kintyre test. It's what the British Board of Film Classification used to decide whether or not to show a penis. It's all about the angle of the dangle!

[Above: Rebecca Blumhagen in "The Girl's Guide to Depravity"]

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Erotica Vs. Porn

In "Soft in the Middle: The Contemporary Softcore Feature in Its Contexts," David Andrews writes, "the softcore-hardcore distinction was preceded by the erotica-porn distinction, which it closely resembles." He goes on to quote Walter Kendrick in "The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture" who examines the social stratifications of smut terminology:

"'Erotica' seems to have entered the general vocabulary only in the 1950s and 60s, as 'pornography' became increasingly tainted with low-class distinctions. A word was needed to designate the increasing number of books that, though they dealt with sex, somehow did so in a safe and classy way."

If we ever see sex or nudity in movies or on television (we're not counting Cinemax), it's only because it's presented "in a safe and classy way." To some extent, the desire to consume or promote "tasteful" nudity isn't just about appreciating sexuality in a larger context or for the sake of art, it's also a form of elitism, elevating the consumer above the obscene, the lowbrow, the base body-centric "frenzy of the visible" (as Linda Williams calls it).

[Above: European films always have more graphic sex than American ones, and we wonder if · "Elles" counts as softcore.]

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In Defense of Softcore

Maybe softcore stuff comes with a whiff of the elitist and pretentious--so what? We still think it has a place in the world. In fact, one of the things we like about it is that it can show up almost anywhere! Here are some other positive points:

· It's smut for beginners - We know we sort of criticized softcore porn for being less porny porn, but we think that's a good thing, too! Some hardcore stuff can be intimidating or downright scary, and can present sexual acts or situations that some viewers aren't ready for (or are ever going to be interested in). Softcore images give you the thrill of seeing human anatomy without pushing many boundaries.
· It's easy to recreate - Like it or not, people are going to imitate what they see in porn. Really, as long as you're safe and communicative, there's nothing wrong with that! So, yes, another cool thing about softcore porn is that you can take notes from it--learn some sexy poses, explore new lingerie options, etc.--and you don't have to worry about your flexibility or your gag reflex.
· Censorship can be sexy - As we mentioned in the Asian Mosaic Porn article, it can be nice to be freed from the visual tyranny of attractive genitalia. That is, when you're not busy looking at body parts slapping together, you can focus on other things like facial expressions, sweaty torsos, busy hands, and/or plot. Suggested sex lends an air of mystery to a scene and encourages viewers to imagine the graphic stuff for themselves, and as we all know, there's nothing more hardcore than your imagination.

[Above: The Asylum makes some crazy softcore smut, such as "Celebrity Sex Tape"]

[At top: a cutie named Anita, via avErotica (promo.averotica.com)]