What is porn? What is erotica? What’s the difference?
 
“The definition of ‘erotica’ vs. ‘porn’ seems to be ‘erotica is what gets me off, porn is what gets you off.’ - Michael Pearce” was posted to alt.sex.wizards on June 8, 1993. “Porn is what men look at. Erotica is what women read” was posted to dc.forsale on September 7, 1993.
 
“Erotica is what I like, Porn is what you like” was posted to soc.feminism on May 26, 1994.
 
 
Google Groups: alt.sex.wizards
Cola douche
Alan Olsen
6/8/93
(...)
The definition of “erotica” vs. “porn” seems to be “erotica is what gets me off, porn is what gets you off.” - Michael Pearce
     
Google Groups: dc.forsale
Adult CDROMs For Sale
Drew Mills
9/7/93
(...)
Porn is what men look at.
Erotica is what women read.
   
Google Groups: soc.feminism
Teaching Porn in College
Seth Finkelstein
5/26/94
(...)
But satire aside, the attitude is really not so logically inconsistent as it seems at first glance. If someone takes the viewpoint which I’ll sardonically describe as “Erotica is what I like, Porn is what you like”, then it’s easy to see where this readily becomes “Education is what I do, Degrading is what you do”.
 
Google Books
Male Myths and Icons:
Masculinity in Popular Culture
By R. Horrocks
London: Macmillan Press Ltd
1995
Pg. 105:
Or to put it more cynically, erotica is what I like; porn is what you like!
 
Google Groups: uk.net
Press Statement
Chris Croughton
9/6/96
(...)
And no-one, including you, has defined the difference except as “erotica is what I like, porn is what I don’t”.  Thoses sex groups mostly have ‘erotica’ in the name, I can’t see any which say ‘pornography’ - so why ban them?
 
Google Books
Suggestive Poses:
Artists and Critics Respond to Censorship
By Lorraine Johnson
Toronto, ON: Toronto Photographers Workshop: Riverbank Press
1997
Pg. 10:
From the slippery tricks of the annoyingly assured, who prop up their distinctions between porn and erotica with variations on the theme of “erotica is what I like, porn is what they like,” to the cuddly claptrap of some gender dinosaurs (“erotica is what women like, porn is what men like”) to the highhanded class bias on which most obscenity law was originally based (erotica has taste, style, and good production values, porn is nasty, crude, and low quality), basically what all this tired talk comes down to is a big blank where the idea should be. What is this thing called porn?
     
Google Groups: alt.support.depression
context around content
cp
11/21/97
(...)
(fun example about sex #2:  it was amusing to watch the antiporn furor not too long ago, watching people put down pornography while at the same time supporting “erotica.”  And what was the definition of “erotica”?  It always came down to the same thing:  Erotica is what we view to get off, porn is what they view to get off.)
 
Google Groups: soc.sexuality.general
Porn/erotica creators (was Re: When does “No” mean “Yes”?)
just julia
7/12/99
Wildchld97

wrote:
: There is a distinct difference between erotica and porn.  I happen to
: enjoy the former.
 
The difference is entirely subjective.  “Erotica is what I like, porn is what you like.”
 
Twitter
Nobilis Reed
‏@Nobilis
@ledemure Like I said, erotica is what you like, porn is what someone else likes.  If you dislike all sexual themes, then…
5:00 PM - 4 Aug 2009
 
Twitter
Bee Ess
‏@MaestraBenAqui
@maymaym the classic distinction is porn is what poor people fap to and erotica is what rich people fap to
2:49 PM - 12 Jun 2010
 
Twitter
Kitty Fine
‏@kittysfine
“Difference btw erotica & porn is simple. Erotica is what I like & porn is what you like, you perv!” - Unknown (LOL so I’m a pervy wench)
4:27 PM - 6 Dec 2011
 
Twitter
Graydancer
‏@Graydancer
@piecesofjade old quote, don’t remember source: “Erotica is what I like. Smut is what you like. Porn is what they like.”
11:52 AM - 7 Aug 2013
 
Twitter
Benjamin de Sade
‏@Benzy84148
Erotica vs Porn
Erotica is what turns *me* on.
Porn is what turns *you* on.
11:19 PM - 9 Apr 2016
 
stuff.co.nz
Aotearotica: New journal explores Kiwi erotica
WILL HARVIE
Last updated 05:00, July 30 2016
(...)
There’s an old joke that “porn is what you like and erotica is what I like”, says Borrowdale.