Pornography and porn literacy 1

Abstract

We reviewed articles addressing the relationship between pornography use and porn literacy. We found few articles that present empirical data to discuss porn literacies, and those we found commonly frame young people’s porn literacy as their ability to read pornography as negative and comprising ‘unrealistic’ portrayals of sex. This model of porn literacy tends to be normative, where only conservative ideals of ‘good’, coupled and vanilla sex are deemed ‘realistic’. Data from the literature we reviewed shows that young people make sophisticated distinctions between different kinds of pornography, some of which could be called ‘realistic’, as per do-it-yourself and amateur pornography. We extend this discussion to young people’s understandings of ‘authenticity’ across their broader digital and social media practices. From this focus, we propose the need to incorporate young people’s existing porn literacies into future education and research approaches. This includes engaging with their understandings and experiences of pornography genres, digital media practice and representations of authenticity.