Positioning as art versus entertainment protects raunch from criticism unequally.

Evidence

Despite their different markets, Joe Francis and Terry Richardson were two sides of the same raunch culture coin. Both enjoyed equal impunity: No one could criticize Francis’s raunch positioned as entertainment, and no one could criticize Richardson’s raunch positioned as art. Yet, as author Rachel Shukert quipped, “Only one of those sets of pictures is going to wind up in some chic gallery on Rivington Street or in the pages of French Vogue.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 67

Categorization

• QUESTION: The distinction between art-as-protection and entertainment-as-vulgar maps onto how the omnivore era revalues formerly ‘low’ content — worth chasing in Marx’s cultural-capital frame.
• XREF: Shukert’s point about gallery placement parallels Bourdieu’s institutional consecration of cultural goods.