Seriously, what's the argument for porn being speech and expression? What is the message it's trying to convey?
Edit: Guys, I'm asking if it's speech/expression and, if so, how. Most of the comments in support of it aren't answering the question, just showing their support for free speech and expression, in general. Only one guy has made a case for it, comparing it to car shows and art. And, even though I have reservations about labeling it as art, I appreciate that he's making a case for it and not just side-stepping the issue.
Main reason why I am always against this argument to ban porn. One side wants to ban it because it's degenerate, the other because it's my soggy knees when in fact both want to dictate what you should and should not watch.
I am all for making porn difficult to obtain, especially for minors but outright ban will just give this new weapon the next guy in charge a nice little tool to censor even more they deem "problematic". Doubt anyone here thinks the government is ever gonna give back the tools they have gotten.
We can't play morality police and at the same time cry free speech from the rooftop. Since I know it's gonna come up at some point: I would however never advocate for cheese pizza be legalised, children have been exploited, trafficed, abused and murdered for this disgusting filth. There's no argument for free speech or anything else involving that to justify it in my eyes and the left should be ashamed of themselves that they're now in cahoots with those very same child abusers.
To the main point of OP: I think the issue is harder than a yes or no. It really depends on your personal bias and viewpoint. I could argue for or against it but it isn't really my forte to defend or attack porn as free speech/free expression. We'd first need to try to find out what porn you exactly mean because there's tons of different kinds. I could argue hentai could be porn, it however often times can have an interesting story or be a really depraved shitpool. Does that mean I could judge which of those would be free speech?
What about drawn stuff? Artistic expression could 100% be called free speech but even there you might find the truely degenerate stuff(diaper furry shit or something). While I draw myself I would not call all "art" I see art yet some might disagree. It's really up to you which brings me back to it's no easy yes or no, I'd still call it a way to express yourself aka free speech even if that way is crude and not to my liking.
What about real life porn? Real life porn has set designers, the performance(no, the other one) of the actors, some even have storylines(and even if it's only "there's straw on the ground, let's bang"), camera work etc. All this can be to a degree artistic, thus free expression.
Now, what value all this has is an entirely different topic. I did mention it shortly in the art part but a lot of it has rather low value. Might just be the bias in me but I'd value the drawn versions higher than any real life stuff but that's just me. Value should be a main focuspoint when talking about that stuff...just not wether we should ban stuff or now.
Another possibility would be a sketchy politician might use legalizing it as an excuse for people who want/defend porn to vote for them.
A shitton of gender criticals will aggressively defend abortion and may even blindly vote for politicians who will initiate politicide against them in the name of regressive leftism, rather than sucking it up and accepting the dissident right's arguments against abortion abuse.
As for art, it's arbitrary as fuck and extreme lack of quality is usually the qualifying factor as to what isn't art, though when it comes to pornography drawings and animations are always artwork and photography and video do not count 99.99% of the time. Parody law is similar as shitty parodies legally qualify as parody regardless of how bad it is,