The Cultural Motion of Pornography Thesis20191003 49784 op5lno (original) (raw)
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The Cultural Motion of Pornography Thesis20191003 27304 cpie2d
From the early days of the Internet, online pornography was an immensely successful industry, with a consequent phenomenal increase in both production and consumption of cyber porn. Prior to 1995, Anti-porn feminists were working to legally censor violent pornography. They received considerable resistance internally from pro-porn feminists arguing from the perspective of rights and free speech.
Commodified Gender Performance and Influence in Pornography
Pornography is a reflection of a collective fantasy. Pornography can be subtle and nuanced or it may be graphic and direct. Regardless of the form it takes, most pornography reflects a collective fantasy that interacts with societal definitions of gender. The interaction with gender is at the center of the socially objectionable aspects of pornography. It is through gender identity that it is possible for pornography to become violent, to objectify and to become an oppressive force. Pornography's power to do these things is powered by the demands of a capitalist system and supported by the societal structures that create and consume the pornographic commodities. This paper will proceed with the assumption that sexuality in itself is not a shameful occurrence and that it is a central part of the human experience. The potential for societal taboos in regard to the viewing of sexual imagery are set aside so that attention may be given to the gendered systems at work in pornography.
Social Philosophy Today, 2012
This paper is a critique of pornography from within the framework of Heideggerian phenomenology. I contend that pornography is a pernicious form of technological discourse in which women are reduced to spectral and anonymous figures fulfilling a universal role, namely that of sexual subordination. Further, the danger of pornography is covered over in the public sphere as a result of the pervasive appeal to its status as mere fantasy. I argue that relegating the problem to the domain of fantasy is superficial and specious at best, inasmuch as fantasy itself is ultimately grounded in everyday reality. When not concealed as innocuous "fantasy," pornography has been defended under the rubric of "free speech." One of my aims is to repudiate this approach by revealing it as grounded in a highly suspect and self-contradictory phallocentric view of language. Rae Langton's (2009) recently published collection of essays on pornography attacks the problem largely in terms of "objectification" and the Austinian notion of "illocutionary disablement" from a position of authority. In this paper, I too confront the issues of language, objectification, and authority, but as articulated by means of Heidegger's critique of technology.
In this paper I focus on what has been called a paradigm shift in pornography research, driven by the development of particular theoretical and political concerns and by changing material conditions, and on the academic work that has emerged from this. I describe the current situation where studies in the area are more diverse than ever before, while public debate continues to draw on a relatively limited approach based on a concern with what media 'does' to behaviour. I outline two areas in particular which currently dominate public and political discussions; namely the sexualization of mainstream media and 'extreme' imagery on the fringes of culture, and suggest ways in which these present new challenges and opportunities for developing pornography research.
Hegemonic Masculinity and Pornography: Young people's attitudes toward and relations to pornography
The Journal of Men's Studies, 2007
This article explores young people's attitudes toward pornographic material. How do young people in general relate to and view pornography? Are there any clear gender differences? On the basis of empirical results from an extensive Swedish survey study, we discuss and analyze how gender differences are articulated. We are specifically interested in what kinds of attitudes young men and young women develop. A common conception of gender and the consumption of pornography is that men and boys are generally the consumers, whereas women dislike pornography. Results from the present study partly support these claims. However, we argue that it is important to analyze differences within the categories "men" and "women." Here, we find that many young men are actually hold negative attitudes toward pornography, whereas some young women are positively disposed toward and enjoy pornography. These findings are discussed within the framework of gender theory and theories of masculinity.
Womens Studies International Forum, 2000
Synopsis -This article examines the limitations of the effects model for feminist anti-pornography work. As a contribution to the on-going debate about the nature of pornography and its relationship to violence against women, this article aims firstly to identify why traditional effects research, which attempts to establish a causal relationship between pornography and violent behaviour, is a dubious ally for anti-pornography feminism. Secondly, the enduring implications of the effects model for feminist anti-pornography politics are explored. It is argued that anti-pornography feminists need to reject the effects model and return to the crucial question of how some pornographies are produced and consumed in ways that are abusive to women.
The cultural position of pornography has gone through evident and drastic transformations during the past decades. These transformations involve an increase in the public visibility of all kinds of pornographies that have, since the 1990s, been increasingly distributed through online platforms, as well as a wave of academic and popular titles diagnosing the mainstreaming of porn and sex in contemporary culture characterized as " pornified, " " porned, " and " raunchy. " 1 This chapter addresses these recent developments within the pornographic, as well as diagnoses thereof, from two intertwining perspectives. It starts by asking whether the term " pornification " can be put into productive analytical use that would not efface the complexity of the cultural tendencies involved, or truncate the potential meaning of the term " pornography " itself. This is followed by a brief discussion of the binary legacy of porn studies as it connects to diagnoses of pornification. The second part of the article investigates how the genre of porn has been transformed in the course of its digital production and distribution, and what challenges contemporary porn poses for scholarly analysis that still remains largely rooted in studies of print media, film, and video productions distributed as material commodities (such as magazines and DVDs). In sum, this chapter asks how transformations in the visibility and ubiquity of pornography have been diagnosed, how the genre itself has been transformed, and what kinds of modifications within scholarly investigation all this may necessitate.
Digital media are an important part of the lives of young people, who use these resources to access sexual materials such as pornography. This kind of consumption can reveal important aspects of their social lives. Starting from the viewpoint of consumers, this paper is a reflection on girls’ consumption of pornography and on the meanings they give to their practices and choices in the continuum between online and offline experiences. The research involved boys and girls from the ages of 16 to 18 using different techniques: six ‘co-construction groups’, 48 face-to-face interviews, and two online focus groups. The article describes girls’ experiences with internet pornography, underlining the symbolic use of pornographic material as exploration and definition of gender performance. According to girls, using internet pornography means to ‘play’ with gender borders: defining and redefining them, experiencing them, passing through them. These borders are connecting to the meaning of being a girl or a boy, but also to the common idea of ‘normality’ within the peer group.