Digital spaces and sexual/erotic intimacies (original) (raw)
Related papers
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.
MA Thesis: Wired Fingers, Sticky Keyboards: Techno-Embodiment in Online Pornography
In my thesis “Wired Fingers, Sticky Keyboards: Techno-Embodiment in Online Pornography” I present an analysis of embodiment in online pornography by weaving together pornography studies, media theories of body-technology relation and posthumanist thought. Taking a step back from the analysis of the content of pornography and focusing on media-specific practices around it, I claim that phenomenon of online pornography invites to re-think the pro/anti and speech/discourse versus practice debates in pornography studies. Through the lens of phenomenological approaches to new media and a theoretical framework of "dispositif", I look at the free pornographic tube-websites and argue that through the complex intertwining of bodies and technologies in the consumption of online pornography, embodiment gets re-defined as techno-embodiment. Finally, I ask what kind of implications does this have to the kinds of modes of power that operate in the realm of online pornography, and what kind of spaces of constraint and potential do they open up for consumers and producers.
Between the Image and the Act: Interactive Sex Entertainment on the Internet
Sexualities, 2001
An analysis of participation in adult video-conferencing on the internet reveals a subversion of traditional relations between the image and the act in pornography, providing an `interactive' sex entertainment which is both representation (or image) and presentation (or act). CU-SeeMe offers an experience that is at the same time both image and act, creating a space that accommodates multiple and fluid roles, allowing the positions of spectator and spectacle to be freely exchanged, and rewriting active/passive gender relations. In proposing that interactive CU-SeeMe sex entertainment blurs the boundaries between image and act, this article suggests that online interactive sex entertainment allows for the possibility of rewriting codes of sexuality.
Towards a Pragmatics of Sexual Media/Networking Devices
In the era of smartphones and hookup apps, pornography can no longer be confined to the straightforward production of sexual arousal through representational practices, (though this objective certainly remains significant). Rather, digital pictures have accrued additional functions in the interpersonal exchanges and self-publicizing activities that characterise communication on these media. In other words, the selfie of self-pornography often comes to operate as part of the grammar of sexual arrangement. This paper seeks to contribute to pragmatist conceptions of sexual media , selfie studies and digital pornography by situating the communication that takes place via these media, not as mere representations of the sexual self or of 'actual' sexual practices, but forms of practical action that propel some version of the self into one or more of the variously networked and formatted arena of digital culture. They can be situated in this respect as technical constituents of sexual network assemblages that solicit, collect, process, store, publicise and convey certain kinds of information according to the affordances perceived in them, enabling their recipients to recalibrate their activities and respond on the basis of specific calculations. Once the grammar of digital sex is grasped in pragmatic terms as a performative element in specifically assembled, multi-dimensional platforms, then all sorts of material objects and technical processes can be understood to enter into the labour of sexual self-formation (see Race, 2018). What once might have been read as a two-dimensional form of visual representation elevated to the status of detached self-portraiture can now be grasped as a vehicle for self-articulation, an experiment that seeks to participate in the creation of new attachments, and a potential source of practical (self)transformation.
The Cultural Motion of Pornography Thesis20191003 49784 op5lno
2015
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. The exponential increase in pornography consumption has inspired significant psychological research on the possible implications of cyber porn consumption on gendered expectations and attitudes. This research adds a theoretical and historical component to research exploring cyber porn as cultural contributor to social and sexual gendered beliefs that may result in violent behaviors such as cyber harassment. Using Greg Urban’s theory of cultural motion and Michel Foucault’s theories on sexuality and disciplinary practices, this thesis analyzes discourses surrounding the motion of pornography—before and after the Internet—investigating potential consequences of pornography on the social construction of gender and misogynistic social behaviors. According to Urban, the internalization of cultural beliefs is directly proportional to exposure and frequency of contact with a sensibly tangible form he calls an object. Objects are conductors of social beliefs, myths, and messages. According to Foucault sexuality has become an instrument of oppression (rather than liberation). This thesis argues that pro-porn feminists underestimated the impact of pornography on the social construction of gender, and traces the cultural motion of pornography from 1981-2015 analyzing forces influencing cultural motion. Urban asserts we are now in an age of modern culture that focuses on newness and mass dissemination. Objects of traditional culture can adapt by cleverly reforming with new technology. As a historical object that has existed for centuries, pornography contains traditional culture that has transitioned with remarkable success into modern culture. The Internet is a space that has revolutionized dissemination as mass production and consumption. Consumer statistics support the hypothesis that present day pornography consumption in Western culture is normalized among young people and particularly men. This theoretical discourse analysis supports the hypothesis that pornography directly influences gender role construction that negatively impacts both men and women. This research was limited to the theoretical realm and relied on qualitative data from other studies. Further research is required on how the proliferation, anonymity, and accessibility of pornography is currently contributing toward a radical social construction of gender, unanticipated by the earlier feminist theorists.
This chapter explores the tentative line between erotic spectacle and horror; a judgement that is problematic given that is based on an axis of moral or ideological normality. The contexts of viewing impact on the status of ‘obscene’ images, both in terms of the communities that view them and their motivation for viewing; for sexual arousal, out of morbid curiosity or malevolence, or perhaps all three simultaneously. The reception of an obscene image is largely based upon the issue of viewer consent, but this itself comes at the expense of the reality of bodies depicted, that are pushed to (and beyond) their limits. The chapter examines the moral and philosophical implications of desires that place the body in extreme states of sexualized deconstruction - both real and faked – and how these apply to images and communities in cyberspace.