Abstract
This paper adds to recent discussions of young people’s porn literacy and argues that researchers must address porn users’ engagements with, and understandings of, different porn genres and practices. As part of a larger interdisciplinary project which consisted of a series of systematic reviews of literature on the relationship between pornography use and healthy sexual development, we reviewed articles addressing the relationship between pornography use and 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 critically read porn as negative and comprising ‘unrealistic’ portrayals of sex. This model of porn literacy tends to be heteronormative, 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 porn. 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 porn genres, digital media practice, and representations of authenticity.
Highlights
As part of a series of interdisciplinary systematic literature reviews of the relationship between pornography use and aspects of healthy sexual development (McKee et al 2010), we reviewed literature on the relationship between pornography use and Extended author information available on the last page of the article1 3 Vol:.(1234567890)Reading for Realness: Porn Literacies, Digital Media, and...literacy
We propose a different way of thinking about porn literacy that engages with digital cultures of media use, production, and circulation, and how this more clearly aligns with young people’s expertise, needs, and media literacies
When we pay attention to the data gathered in the articles reviewed, we find that young people have a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of how pornography works—perhaps a greater sense of porn literacy than many researchers
Summary
As part of a series of interdisciplinary systematic literature reviews of the relationship between pornography use and aspects of healthy sexual development (McKee et al 2010), we reviewed literature on the relationship between pornography use and. The articles focusing on young people (presumed heterosexual) take a different approach whereby porn literacy is conceptualised as consumers’ ability to understand that pornography gives bad lessons about sex and, following this, their recognition that such lessons must be rejected.4 In this model of media literacy as rejection (Albury and McKee 2013), pornography is presented as an object to be avoided, not engaged with, and conceptualised primarily in terms of the risks it carries to healthy sexual development. Some participants reflected on it and had a criticalanalytical approach towards these messages, whereas others did not give it much attention (Mattebo et al 2012, 46) This extract represents a common discussion of gender across these articles, underscoring shared concerns about the risks of young people’s perceived reality resulting in their acceptance of female objectification, the desire for unrealistic bodies, and male dominance and sexual violence. Such an engagement offers a useful elaboration for pornography researchers and sexuality educators who want to better understand, and build upon, young people’s porn literacies
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