Pedagogy of the Repressed

Abstract

The city of Los Angeles is used to it: the red carpet, the limousines, the skimpily dressed stars, the hot, bright lights, the air heavy with the pungent aroma of competing perfumes, the crush of paparazzi jostling each other for the best locations to take pictures, a sea of flashing cameras, journalists seeking interviews, and fawning fans straining shoulder-to-shoulder at the edge of the roped-off red carpet to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars with the hope of getting autographs. The scene could have come out of any entertainment-industry awards ceremony. However, this event was different. The stars, starlets, directors, “creators,” and leading men and women were not from traditional Hollywood studios and movies; they were from the nerve center of sexual capitalism: the pornography industry in Hollywood, California. They were participating in the Twelfth Annual XBiz Awards, the “Academy Awards” of the pornography industry, which Miller (2014) described as a “mixture of red-carpet propriety and porno prurience.” The sponsors and participants of the event included everyone from online pornography “retailers” to pornography product designers. As Miller (2014) put it, the XBiz Awards “celebrate the performances and infrastructure that have made the adult entertainment a $10 billion industry.” Pornography performers were competing for awards, like “Girl-Girl Performer of the Year” and the rather objectified “Male Sex Toy of the Year,” and for recognition by their peers that they were the best in the pornography business (Miller, 2014).