"Adult" entertainment
The Daily News has been running its series on pornography this week -- a solid, balanced effort, I think. But I have one quibble: the word "adult."
I can see the need for synonyms (how many times can you say "porn," smut," etc?), but do we have to use this lame euphemism? There's nothing "adult" about someone "pleasuring" himself in front of a computer screen. Indeed, this is generally the province of teenage boys, who, for the most part, leave it behind upon entering adulthood. Real adulthood means adult relationships, which involve commitment, love, respect, fidelity, sacrifice -- virtues utterly lacking in the degrading, narcissistic world of porn.
Perhaps we need to use the word because we hope that no one but an adult would be involved with such activities. I think it came from the early days of smut, when terms like "consenting adults" and "adults only" seemed to set limits while at the same time suggest entertainment that was not at all "mature."