The Pornography of Death: Review
In my explorations around death and dying, I’ve read-- and am reading-- a great deal. This post is a part of an ongoing collection to summarize some of these works, and are generally devoid of my commentary.
Don't scandalize the ladies; remember, those aren't trousers you're wearing, they're the "Southern Necessity". Image CC0 from Pixabay
One of anthropologist Geoffery Gorer’s shorter works, “The Pornography of Death” is arguably the eldest of the 20th century calls to recognize the disconnect between contemporary American culture attitudes and one of the three ‘unmentionables’ of life: birth, copulation and death. In his article, Gorer was the first to draw a parallel between the Victorian era’s uptight prudery around sex and the modern era’s prudery around death. He took his argument a step further, however, believing that the increasingly violent media being consumed by the populace was, in fact, a new pornography.
Gorer’s article, circa 1955, The Pornography of Death opens with the statement that all societies in all times have topics and modes of conduct that are considered acceptable, which he terms ‘seemly’, and that while what is seemly varies greatly across cultures and times, the existence of such rules is a universal feature of all human societies. Likewise, then, obscenity is a universal feature of human societies, because obscenity is the opposite face of seemliness; if one doesn’t act in a seemly way, then those actions are obscene. While seemliness and obscenity are universal, Gorer argues that pornography-- that is, the description or depiction of tabooed activities circulated for private titillation-- is historically rare.
Deathbed scenes were once common, both in experience and in literature and popular media. Image from Wikimedia Commons
Just as obscenity is the opposite face of seemly, pornography is the opposite of prudery. Noting that obscenity is highly situational, Gorer asserts that prudery is defined by subject, wherein “some aspect of human experience is treated as inherently shameful or abhorrent, so that it can never be discussed or referred to openly…”. This unmentionable aspect of life then becomes the subject for private fantasy, and therefore pornography.
In the 19th century, the Victorians relegated sex (and to some extent birth) to the realms of the ultimate prudishness. This Victorian viewpoint is what generated the general tie of pornography to copulation. In contrast, death was so prevalent and commonplace (and accepted) that very few people, even the youngest of children, hadn’t seen the dying and death of someone. As time has moved on, sex has become increasingly ‘mentionable’ and death has become more and more ‘unmentionable’. Gorer notes that changes in religious views may have helped this shift, as there was a shift away from the Pauline belief in the sinfulness of the body, at least as long as that body is living; the natural decay and decomposition process is the component too horrible to contemplate or discuss.
Additionally, advances in medicine have meant that fewer young people are exposed to the natural death of their peers, but have also been simultaneously made more aware of the myriad ways of violent deaths to occur via war, revolution, and gang violence, as well as vehicular accidents. In other words, while the natural dying process has faded from view and normalcy, the awareness of the possibility of violent death has been increasingly expected by law abiding, peace-time societies.
Modern Industrial warfare has significantly changed the outlook of the youth and society at large. Image CC0 from Pixabay
Comic book from 1948 Image is Public Domain
Referencing the popular culture of the day, Gorer finds that the pornography around sex and death have many parallels. First and foremost, the emotions that are generally tied to these acts (love and grief) are neglected or downplayed, while anything that evokes sensation is amplified, generally through the reliance on onomatopoeia-based sound ‘effects’ (“spak”, “”swik...snap”, etc.) and heavy use of adjectives and similes (“eerie”, “ghastly”, “the gate creaked like old bones”, etc.). Additionally, Gorer notes that both “are completely unrealistic, since they ignore all physical, social, or legal limitations.” Finally, Gorer argues that it’s important to recognize that neither sex- or death- based pornography is likely to incite action because they are designed and meant to serve as a substitute gratification. Because of this, censorship is the strategy most likely to fail at deterring the proliferation of violent media; instead, the taboos surrounding natural death and dying must be removed.
Gorer’s article was primarily aimed at addressing concerns with the increase in popularity of the horror genre, detective stories and comics, but his analysis and commentary on the new Victoriana-like prudery around death remains influential.