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This is an essay on the Wikipedia is not censored policy.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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WP:HARDCORE

This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia should not include images from hardcore pornography

Articles about hardcore pornography subjects should not contain pictures or videos which are, themselves, hardcore pornography.

On the one hand, the articles this essay is concerned with are mostly about obscure sub-genres of pornography. These are not vital articles. They are marginal articles, and any images in them are, perforce, images in a marginal article.

On the other hand, in return for the encyclopedic value imparted by these images, we have that:

There is a considerable cost to the encyclopedia to host these images. These few images are among the most contentious materials hosted on Wikipedia, degrade Wikipedia's reputation, create a political vulnerability for Wikipedia, and drive away readers and potential new editors (including women; Wikipedia has a serious deficit of female readers and editors, and that is a problem, and this sort of thing doesn't help).
It is not a good thing for young people to be viewing these images. Other images on Wikipedia may also be problematic, but these images are especially problematic since they depict extreme sexual situations, and in some cases depict events that occur in pornography but not (at a verifiably notable level) in real life. A picture being worth a thousand words, this point may be lost on impressionable viewers.
Many of these images are misogynistic and degrading to women, and this is by intentional design, since the pornographic genres they illustrate are misogynistic and degrading to women.^[1] While it may be appropriate to display images depicting the degradation of women in certain historical or sociological contexts, its not appropriate to use them in what is at least a borderline "fanboy" context.

The Wikipedia community is overwhelmingly composed of single, childless white males.^[2] Yet Wikipedia is conceived as a reference work for the general population. In the war between the sexes, Wikipedia should not be taking sides.

Scope and definitions

Scope

This page is solely concerned with those activities which are primarily notable as occurring in hardcore pornography. It does not address the use of images in articles covering real-life human sexuality where the behavior in question occurs among populations at a notable level, and this is verified, and there is sufficient material for a worthwhile encyclopedia article, and the image depicts this real-life behavior.

Definition

"Hardcore pornography" is a fairly well-defined phrase. Wiktionary, the free dictionary, defines "hardcore pornography" as "Pornography featuring sexual penetration and other sexuality explicit acts". ("Explicit" is further defined as "very specific, clear, or detailed" and as "containing material that might be deemed offensive or graphic".) Our article on hardcore pornography (contrast with softcore pornography) discusses this in more detail.

It is true that at the limits, the application of the term "hardcore pornography" may be debated (as is true of many English terms, at the limits). Reasonable people may disagree over whether a particular article or image is hardcore pornography or not. That doesn't mean the term has no meaning, and in most cases the application of the term is uncontentious.

Reliable sources

Wikipedia aims to reflect the editorial judgment of the pool of published sources available. This is basic policy when it comes to the textual content of Wikipedia articles; Wikipedia makes corresponding commitments in policies such as WP:Verifiability, WP:Neutral point of view and WP:No original research. While many reputable publications on sexology feature illustrations of sexual positions and the like, by and large newspapers, books and printed encyclopedias that discuss pornography seriously in an educational context, as Wikipedia aims to do, do not illustrate their articles, book covers etc. with sexually explicit still shots from pornographic movies or other hardcore pornographic images. To be true to its basic mission, which is to reflect reliable source coverage in a neutral manner, Wikipedia should take its lead from reputable publications in this topic area, both for illustrations and textual content.

The disclaimer

The Wikipedia:Content disclaimer doesn't mention that we display hardcore pornography. The closest it comes is this statement:

Wikipedia contains many different images, some of which are considered objectionable or offensive by some readers. For example, some articles contain graphical depictions of violence, human anatomy, or sexual acts.

The implication is that "graphical depictions of sexual acts" are an example of material hosted here that some readers may find objectionable. But hardcore pornography images go beyond images of common sexual behaviour as depicted in articles such as List of sex positions. Were Wikipedia to eschew the display of hardcore images, our content would arguably be more in line with the expectations raised by the disclaimer.

An alternative view

For an alternative view on the topic discussed in this essay, see Wikipedia:Hardcore pornography images/Rebuttal.

Footnotes

^ Gail Dines for example quotes veteran porn actor and producer Bill Margold as stating, "I'd like to really show what I believe the men want to see: violence against women. I firmly believe that we serve a purpose by showing that. The most violent we can get is the cum shot in the face. Men get off behind that because they get even with the women they can't have." Gail Dines (1 July 2010). Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. Beacon Press. p. xxiv. ISBN 9780807044520. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
^ Wikipedia Survey by the Wikimedia Foundation and the Collaborative Creativity Group at UNU-MERIT, a joint research and training centre of United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. 24 March 2010.

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 ==Reliable sources==
-Wikipedia aims to reflect the editorial judgment of the pool of [[WP:RS|published sources]] available. This is basic policy when it comes to the textual content of Wikipedia articles; Wikipedia makes corresponding commitments in policies such as [[WP:Verifiability]], [[WP:Neutral point of view]] and [[WP:No original research]]. While many reputable publications on sexology feature illustrations of sexual positions and the like, by and large newspapers, books and printed encyclopedias that discuss pornography seriously in an educational context, as Wikipedia aims to do, do not illustrate their articles, book covers etc. with sexually explicit still shots from pornographic movies or other hardcore pornographic images. To be true to its basic mission, which is to reflect reliable source coverage in a neutral manner, Wikipedia should take its lead from reputable educational and instructional material in this topic area, both for illustrations and textual content.
+Wikipedia aims to reflect the editorial judgment of the pool of [[WP:RS|published sources]] available. This is basic policy when it comes to the textual content of Wikipedia articles; Wikipedia makes corresponding commitments in policies such as [[WP:Verifiability]], [[WP:Neutral point of view]] and [[WP:No original research]]. While many reputable publications on sexology feature illustrations of sexual positions and the like, by and large newspapers, books and printed encyclopedias that discuss pornography seriously in an educational context, as Wikipedia aims to do, do not illustrate their articles, book covers etc. with sexually explicit still shots from pornographic movies or other hardcore pornographic images. To be true to its basic mission, which is to reflect reliable source coverage in a neutral manner, Wikipedia should take its lead from reputable publications in this topic area, both for illustrations and textual content.
 ==The disclaimer==