Shouldn't there be standardized definitions of SC and HC?

[magnut]

I'm browsing listings on e*ay, and sellers have wildly diverse concepts of hardcore and softcore.

One seller uses the term middlecore to describe m-f content without penetration. Some describe softcore magazines as hardcore - I don't know whether they're really unclear on the concept or if they are hoping that by describing their wares as hardcore, they'll get higher prices. And I just saw a bunch of magazines described as "M-F softcore" - another man's middlecore.

Do we already have good working definitions of softcore and hardcore, or is it time to adopt some?

e*ay (US) offers no guidance; they put all adult content into one broad category so people looking for either HC-only or SC-only are out of luck.

[Viklas]

Originally it just meant:

Softcore = sex is simulated
Hardcore = sex is NOT simulated

[bigtrain45]

So does that mean that women who've just done scenes with other women, but with lots of penetration, either fingers, dildos, or cucumbers, who are now classified as softcore, should be re-classified as hardcore? I'm thinking Regina Hall, Chloe Sweet, and any number of Viv Thomas models.

[Viklas]

I may be old school, but I definitely class that stuff as hardcore.

Your typical softcore movie from the 70s typically showed titties and maybe some bush, but no pink, no erections and definitely no visible penetration. Lots of grinding and moaning, but it was obvious that the performers were faking it.

Nowadays, what used to be softcore is basically mainstream cable TV fare.

In an interview Jon Bernthal talked about his sex scene with Lori on TWD, and the director told him they could include "buttocks but no thrusting." <g>

[sto]

Originally Posted by bigtrain45

So does that mean that women who've just done scenes with other women, but with lots of penetration, either fingers, dildos, or cucumbers, who are now classified as softcore, should be re-classified as hardcore? I'm thinking Regina Hall, Chloe Sweet, and any number of Viv Thomas models.

I would say that any form of penetration, whether dildo, finger, fist, or tongue, performed by female or male, would be hardcore.


I just don't get when some classify lesbian fisting as "softcore". It does not make any sense.


Maybe it's just me but I wold also consider extreme pussy spreading also as hardcore, even without penetration.

[vinceprince]

The British Board of Film Classification was said to have an informal rule called the Mull of Kintyre test about the erectness of penises shown in films and videos. If a man’s penis was at an angle greater than Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula, you couldn’t show it.

[Viklas]

I don't think it's a good way to classify models anyway. A model may have done a hardcore appearance or two and still not be a "porn star," that really depends on their credits more than their willingness to have sex on camera.

Some 'softcore' models get pretty daring. The lines got blurred as the men's magazines pushed the envelope and started showing more hard cocks, tongues making at least minimal contact with genitals, etc.

If you're doing a photoshoot where you're grasping a hard cock and almost putting it in your mouth, you're not very far from hardcore anyway.

[bigtrain45]

Originally Posted by Viklas

I don't think it's a good way to classify models anyway. A model may have done a hardcore appearance or two and still not be a "porn star," that really depends on their credits more than their willingness to have sex on camera.

Some 'softcore' models get pretty daring. The lines got blurred as the men's magazines pushed the envelope and started showing more hard cocks, tongues making at least minimal contact with genitals, etc.

If you're doing a photoshoot where you're grasping a hard cock and almost putting it in your mouth, you're not very far from hardcore anyway.

You mean something like this?

[Viklas]

Originally Posted by bigtrain45

You mean something like this?

Exactly! That is classified as "softcore" but by some older definitions it would be a portrayal of "unsimulated sexual activity." Publishers really pushed the envelope from the '80s into the '90s, and when hardcore porn became readily available on the Internet, they crossed the line into hardcore in order to compete. I don't blame them since most fans of their pictorials were probably also viewers of hardcore anyway. "Community standards" became pretty much irrelevant in determining obscenity (the Internet is a worldwide community) so they probably weren't worried about prosecution as long as they limited their material to 18+