‘It’s just a penis’: the politics of publishing photos in research about sexuality

Abstract

This paper explores some of the challenges of publishing photographs generated as part of sexuality research. It aims to initiate discussion of these issues to enable sexuality researchers to consider and navigate the use of images in their work. Examples highlighting these difficulties are employed from a photo-method project which examined young people, sexuality and schooling. It is argued that existing child-sex-panics rendered these images risky and intensified their scrutiny by gatekeeping forces. The discussion contributes to a broader conversation within the field of sexualities about the constitution of sexuality research as dirty work. Specifically, the paper investigates how some publishing and editing practices might be conceptualised as constituting techniques that construct sexuality research as dirty work. By not publishing photos which form part of sexuality research, the knowledge it is possible for sexuality researchers to generate and circulate is subsequently curtailed.