ERIC S. RAYMOND, who seems to be developing into an Den Beste – style essay-blogger, has some lengthy ruminations on why pornography is (usually) bad and what that means.

UPDATE: Here’s a response to Raymond. Be sure to click on “comments” and read the observations of Jacqueline and Elizabeth, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A regular InstaPundit reader (and if I hadn’t gotten thoughtful email from her before, I’d assume this was just a shameless effort at promoting her site, but I have) sends this email:

Suicidegirls is a website that depicts girls in various stages of undress, but also provides the girls with their own journals (blogs?).

Here is one of the girls’ takes on dancing (stripping).

For the record, the girls either provide images of themselves or choose what sort of set they want to shoot and ask our photographer (one of the girls on the site – Missy) to shoot it for them.

I’m not saying we’re the epitome of morality, but we try to present a kind of erotica where the models decide exactly how they are depicted and are given a forum to explain themselves and to present the other sides of their personality. We are often called blogger porn (on sites like metafilter and in various blogs) – but I’m not sure that¹s an accurate term, either way, I’m a loyal reader of your site, and thought I’d send you a link to mine.

“Blogger porn.” Now there’s a niche market. I can’t help but feel, though, that with a name like “Suicidegirls” it’s going to be hard to project a really positive image. But it’s certainly free of the teased-blonde-hair phenomenon that Eric identifies.