In some ways this problem overlaps the question of "Is there a difference between erotic art and pornography?" If so, what is it? These questions have not just been academic, but have had all kinds of legal implications.

At one point an woman anthropologist was asked to join a group called "Women against pornography". She replied "Against?" (comapre "Preventing?")

Some arguments have been pornography exploits people even when they don't know it. Can you be exploited if you don't know it> Compare sentences like "You are miserbale, but you just don't know it")

There are theories of art which hold that all art has some erotic component to it. The very fact that art is looked at, listened to or involved in some sensory input indicates people's desire to experience "art". What is it people want to see (hear, etc. and why?)

One of the questions we need to ask here is "Does an erotic comic differ in kind from a film with actual humans". Consider the very weird Let My Puppets Come. A porno film with puppets would be a very different film if done by humans. The same question holds true here about how much of the message is the medium???

Consider also the question of genre. Is eroticism often done in Science fiction? Barbarella

The comic is a French comic by Jean Claude Forest and is often thought of as using Brigitte Bardot as the "model" for the character. Some people feel it is drawn realistically but stiff and not very well drawn and for some not too erotic.

The film is made in 1968 with Jane Fonda as Barbarella and the director being her then husband Roger Vadim. (She later married Tom Hayden and received considerable publicity for her anti-Viet-Nam war position which infuriated military personnel and veterans' groups. She later married Ted Turner and divorced him after she became a born again Christian.

A new version may be being discussed at the moment.

Probably from many psychological points of view there is a sexual underpinning to all of this. In many cases in the visual arts there is a desire to see - a scopophiliac drive which may even carry over into the printed word.

We are all certainly aware of the eroticism in great works of art although this is either seen as debased over overlooked in more popular forms of art. Although it has been argued that people have tended to focus on violence and horror, they overlook the erotic. In some sense this is nonsensical since many would argue that violence and horror also have erotic overtones to them and the occurrence of such behaviors as sado-masochism would reflect this.

A distinction has been made between comics in which eroticism is just an aspect of the story and those where is it the main focus. Barbarella, a French comic strip is one of the latter, although it is often held to be inferior to Jodelle and some others. A spate of these have been developed in Italy like Satanic which form part of the fummetti neri or "black comics".

Women in these eroticomics are seen rather differently than those in the others, in that in the others it is held there is a more positive depiction showing women as something desirable rather than dangerous and often murderous. Some people have analyzed this as "a subliminal fear of sexuality" and a "triumph of the superego". It has also been argued that this could be taken as an "appeal to our infantile tendencies and are pre-genital: We get a certain kind of pleasure from them but they don't really satisfy". The more common argument is that there is a fear of women in these films. Women can use their bodies as weapons against men. The appropriation of firearms (phallic symbols) enhances this interpretation.

The question of sado-masochism never arises, and yet many of the films have exactly the tone of the bondage/discipline and/or sado-masochistic aspects of sexuality as well.

There is some question as to how one defines these things. In the AOA decision that homosexuality was not a pathology there was no discussion of how one defines pathology. Kinsey hints in some way that the definition seems to rest on its acceptability to the definer. "A Nymphomaniac is anyone who likes sex more than you do" said Kinsey. Some psychologists claim nymphomnics are people who don't like sex so they keep having it. How's that? So why do people who like it keep having it - or do they stop having it?

In Wertham began his attack on the comics pointing out their violence and sexuality. Although his methods of sampling may have terrified most experimental scientists, there is little doubt that much comic book art (and in fact art in general) has an erotic component to it. (more on this with Dick Tracy)

As an interesting aside the rock group Duran Duran takes its name from the character in the film.

AFTER THE FILM

How much does the film appear like a comic? Not a great deal, but oil swirls, color and some duplication of scenes (Fonda lying on bed after sex with Dildano.

Sexual Imagery

The zero gravity space suit strip tease is famous in which the titles act as cover-up.The Wasteland). Compare Dildano and the leader of the revolution. One is detached from people and wants real sex; the other is the leader of the revolution and wants "the pill". Is novelty the clue?

What can we say about Pygor?

Blind (does not make judgment? Like justice? Not the natural state for an angel)
Angels have no memory so they can forgive. Can you forgive whatyou don't remember? Doesn't Pygor have memory of what happened to him.
Pygor loses the will to fly. Sex with Barbarella restores it. (Compare Peter Pan) Angels don't make love, they are love
What does the film say about children? The result of sex?

Mattmoss feeds on negativity but can touch Pygor because he (and Barbarella) and "pure". Sex is not impure. What is?

What does the film say about sex and power?