Abstract
This article focuses on women’s use of pornography in modern Taiwan, with an eye to making sense their “claimed” preference for American pornography. Our research shows that men and women display vast differences in pornography use and pornography preference with men tending to identify with Japanese adult videos and women with American pornography. Such gendered use of pornography has been substantially documented and examined through multiple disciplinary lenses. While illuminating, these studies tend not to examine further how such gender differences come about. It fosters an impression that gender can be used to explain away the reasons that men and women will differ in pornography use and sex. Gender is thus seen as universally applicable and able to explain everything without providing any concrete explanations. From this vantage, the specific, concrete gender norms that gave rise to the differences in pornography use in different cultures are dismissed as just manifestations of their genders. This article therefore aims to recover the specific gender norms and politics in Taiwan, which are often lumped together and explained away as gender inclinations and see how these specific contents gave rise to gender differences in pornography use. To understand how these gender differences ultimately come about, one needs to first explore how and why men and women consume pornography, respectively. Elsewhere, we have explored Taiwanese men’s use of, and preference for, pornography. This article therefore aims to examine Taiwanese women’s use of pornography with reference to gender norms in Taiwan.
Highlights
This article focuses on women’s use of pornography in modern Taiwan, with an eye to making sense their “claimed preference” for American pornography
It started with the premise that the lack of technological skills barred Taiwanese women from accessing pornography, what seem more crucial are the local gender norms and configurations of sexual beings
We showed that under the sexual script women showing an interest in pornography still carried a stigma that worked very well to stop women from accessing pornography
Summary
This article focuses on women’s use of pornography in modern Taiwan, with an eye to making sense their “claimed preference” for American pornography. All of these studies point to an important observation: Men and women differ greatly in the use of, and taste for, pornography Informative as they might be, these studies fail to explore the more fundamental issue as to how and why these gender differences in pornography use and consumption pattern come about. The universal gender in turn is used to explain away the reasons that men and women will differ in pornography use and perhaps sex. The objective of this article is to explore why Taiwanese female informants lacked interest in pornography; why they would view pornography despite lacking interest in it and why such access was often mediated by their male partners; and why they would “claim” that they preferred American pornography to Japanese AVs, if they were asked to choose. The frustrations arising from their simultaneous failure to reject such pornography viewing and failure to enjoy pornography made them see American pornography as a weapon to express their resentment toward the male domination in sex
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
