Letter: Porn is no art

Sir: I was astonished that The Independent chose to pass off as a serious article on the arts Laurence O'Toole's apologia for pornography and criticism of the Government's failure to remove all restrictions ("Time to shrug off the dirty mac", 12 June).

The fact that the laws of this country differ from those in other countries does not mean that they go against public opinion. I will take some convincing that the people of this country would be happy to see a career appearing in pornographic films presented to their children as if it were as morally neutral as teaching or nursing.

Nor do I believe relaxing restrictions on pornography would be an act of social liberalisation. Such a change would indicate that society considers the pornographer's right to make money by exploiting sex to be of greater importance than building a society based on mutual respect. A society in which people are "free" to do as they please in this context seems to mean a society where we don't care how others are exploited. Only the pornographer would be more free.

"Hardcore" pornography is not warm and cuddly; it is exploitative and degrading and those that make it are not artists.