pornē + graphein

Language changes. Nouns become verbs. Slang turns legitimate. Or should I say 'Legit'? Hyperbole becomes common, loses all grandeur. Many of us mourn what we consider the debasement of our language.

Then there are other changes.  Changes that resemble evolution more than debasement. This is as unavoidable as it is enjoyable.

The old fashioned bicycles that have huge front wheels and tiny back wheels are called Penny Farthings, because the proportional size of the wheels mimics the relationship of Pennies to Farthing coins. (with the pennies being the larger coins) These bicycles were not originally called anything other than bicycles. But then more reasonably sized and shaped bicycles were developed. These bikes were called 'saftey' bicycles to distinguish them from ordinary ones. Eventually there were as many safety bikes as ordinary ones, which is when the term Penny Farthing gained currency.

A more recent example is our phones. For most of my childhood we had phones. Just plain old phones. Then 'touch tone' phones became more common among the general public. After a few years we began referring to the touch tone phones as phones and the older phones as 'rotary' phones. Which was fine until 'cell phones' came along. Now cell phones are so ubiquitous that we need to clarify by calling our non-cellular phones our 'land line' phones.

My most recent complaint may seem to be similar to the above examples but it's an entirely different animal.

We know that porn is short for pornography (which is Greek for writing about prostitutes.) In recent years people have begun to cleverly use the word 'porn' to basically mean any media that is sensuous or sensational, but about nonsexual subjects. Thus we now have food porn, weather porn, word porn, garden porn, earth porn, antique porn, bacon porn, and even justice porn. Justice porn is apparently video of someone getting what's coming to them. Because apparently peoples' need to feel self righteous is something that should be fed regularly? Shoe porn is a tricky one; there is pornography designed for people with shoe fetishes, and there are images of shoes for women who love shoes. A short ride through Pinterest shows us that many women unashamedly enjoy shoe porn. Because owning 500 pairs of shoes and wanting more is normal, but becoming sexually aroused by women wearing sexy shoes is a sickness.

Originally I ignored the 'porn' formation because I figured it would end soon enough. I do not know why I assumed that – every hack reporter and headline writer eventually succumbs to the temptation to add 'gate' to an otherwise innocent scandal.

You may wonder why I care. Sometimes I wonder why I care.

I care because of the basic resistance to the breakdown of our language. The same frustration I feel as our government becomes more dismissive of our rights. Or the shudder in response to accidentally viewing daytime talk-shows. Like the contempt and bafflement when seeing college kids in their brand new Che t-shirts.

Yet it is also something superficial. I have a simple desire to never hear my grandchildren talk about a video and hearing the phrase sex-porn.