This is fascinating to me. I don't watch a lot of porn but I read a fair amount and have never thought about doing a media analysis to it. Hm.
I think you're right, I think critiquing porn can be done like any other art form. And, also, I think in addition to the forbidden and hidden nature of smut and arousal, a lot of people don't have the emotional practice to separate "I like/don't like this" from "this was good/bad".
Like, we already have the problem where if you critique a piece of art you'll get superfans crawling out of the woodwork demanding to know why you hate them personally, and that's for tame stuff like Kpop Demon Hunters and Stardew Valley and the concept of romance novels. Our current (US) culture encourages people to take art that they love and make it part of who they are as a person, so that the corpos making that art can sell it to you over and over again in the form of merch, sequels, soundtracks, and reboots. Now, most art we can talk about with our friends and think about on our own, and we can figure out okay I liked Princess Bride but I didn't like how Buttercup was kinda useless through most of it. Through discussion, we can develop nuance. But our current (US) culture also refuses to talk about an important emotion that matters to a LOT of people: sexual arousal. We're not supposed to talk about it or think about it, we're just supposed to ignore it most of the time. Which leads to 1) a lack of critique in general--if you can't talk about it at all, you definitely can't talk about it critically--and 2) a lack of practice in separating what you like from what you don't like. And when we live in a (US) culture that encourages taking things you like into your sense of identity, you get people who will take any critique of the thing that gets them off EXTREMELY personally.
Then, too, there's the part where some people have things that they might enjoy in a sexy way that they would not otherwise enjoy. The example above is absolutely pro-military propaganda, probably leaning on a long history of "kidnapped by enemies and rescued by the hero" kinds of stories. (If there were not smutty stories of Theseus or someone rescuing a fair maiden from wild Phoenicians or something and fucking her senseless, I'll eat my hat.) Someone who might otherwise walk away from obvious military propaganda might get off on that hero rescue story. And because arousal is complicated, it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they like the rescue. Maybe there's a "we have to fuck to hide from the Bad Guys" bit and they like that forced into fucking part. Maybe there's a hate fuck element to it. I dunno. So there's not just one kink you're trying to avoid shaming, there's several, and you may not even be aware of some of them.
OP said "it's not bother to me if someone else gets their rocks off to that" but I don't think it's going to be that simple while we're in a (US) culture of identifying with media and not talking about arousal. I think a lot of people will read "this porn is definitely US military propaganda" and go "I know military propaganda is Bad -> I got off on that story so I must like it -> they are saying I am a Bad Person for liking a Bad Thing" but like, not on a conscious level, because they don't have practice thinking and talking about any of it. That is to say, they will process that critique as kink-shaming. I think if we want to have nuanced critique of porn and erotica like other works of art, it would help to first get comfy talking and thinking about what gets you off, even if what gets you off is radically different from your idea of who you are as a person.
Side note: I appreciate the military propaganda framing here, because the example that I had running through my mind was the extensive genre of a white woman getting plowed by a Black man while her white husband watches. That is a Whole Thing and it is absolutely rooted in racist tropes. A critique that evades kink-shaming might be possible, but it sounds really hard!
To be very clear, I don't think this means that people should not critique porn as they would any other art form. I think that's cool and useful and would be fascinating to read! I'm just trying to describe why I think it's hard to find the nuance and care OP is looking for. But just because I don't have the skills to do it well doesn't mean it can't be done. And just because something is hard doesn't mean it isn't worth doing, right? 😏
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