Porn Culture Research Articles

Morphology of Pornography: Magical and Fairy-Tale Roots of Modern Porn Discourse

In this article, the author analyzes visual discourses of physicality in modern porn discourse through the prism of structuralist theory proposed by Russian researcher Vladimir Propp. The article is one of the first attempts in modern historiography to transplant the methods and principles proposed by Vladimir Propp to analyze the current state of porn in popular culture. The purpose of the article is to analyze the relationships and interdependencies between modern porn culture, presented in visual forms, and its historical predecessors. It is assumed that the origins of pornographic discourse, which operates in visual forms, can be localized in folk traditional culture. Forms and dimensions of physicality and actions of the heroes of modern pornographic discourse are perceived as structural elements of mass culture. The results of the study can be summarized in the following way: 1) the visual structure of modern porn has lost its uniqueness and originality in the consumer society; 2) the plots and sequence of actions of the heroes of modern pornographic discourse can be compared with similar plots and behavioral strategies of folk discourse; 3) porn in modern society plays roles that are similar to ones played by fairy tales in the traditional culture of pre-modern societies. The author believes that modern porn discourse imitates reality, although initially the behavior of the characters and the plots are fantastic and unrealistic in their nature. It is shown that the development of porn became a reaction to the demand of consumer society for visualized narrative constructions based on the archetypes of traditional folk culture.

DIY pornography and the deepfake coup

ABSTRACT This article investigates a transforming zeitgeist around DIY pornography, which is defined as diverse online pornographies and erotica that are made and distributed by amateurs or independent producers. DIY pornography embraces, according to Attwood, ‘an ethos that extends across new and alternative sexual cultures, subcultural sexualities, kink communities, and the amateur pornographies that are part of a broader contemporary and participatory culture’. Since there has been an upsurge of deepfake porn and other hate media on digital platforms, how can we understand these porn cultures and how are they appropriating the ethos of DIY porn?

Faking Orgasms

Abstract The phenomenon of faking orgasms has been the subject of extensive feminist inquiry, but in contemporary Iran, where sex and sexuality remain sensitive and controversial topics, the topic has not received much scholarly attention. This exploratory pilot study uses qualitative methods to explore the prevalence and the reasons for faking orgasms among a group of women living in urban Iran. The study addresses the possible consequences and implications of faking orgasms for women’s sexual life. Eleven female participants took part in the study. The data revealed that the topic was considered taboo even among highly educated working women. It also showed that faking orgasms were related to perceived female moral responsibilities and marital self-sacrifice and the lack of sexual education and knowledge, machismo, male infidelity, porn culture, and sexual performance ideals.

Playbird superstar: Mary Millington and Come Play With Me (1977) as a national box-office sensation

ABSTRACT This article examines the record-breaking box-office performance of pornography mogul David Sullivan’s 1977 film production Come Play with Me in substantial detail. This film was so successful that it remained on release at one London cinema for nearly four years and went on general release at around 1,000 cinemas across the UK. The article also considers the role that Mary Millington had in generating this ongoing box-office success and her associated capacity as a pornography superstar, who was fashioned as such by her patron David Sullivan. It then more briefly examines the box-office performance of the follow-up films made through the Millington-Sullivan combination. Finally, it considers the hypothesized notion of national porn culture by comparing some popular UK (Come Play with Me), US (Deep Throat), and French (Emmanuelle) pornography films from the 1970s, and then some porn/sex star actresses from the 1970s – Millington (British), Linda Lovelace (American) and Sylvia Kristel (Dutch/European) – as part of wider cinema trends and national film cultures.

Морфология тела и телесности в порно: идеологизация телесности, или как тела заговорили по-русски

Автор анализирует проблемы изменений представленности тела и метаморфозы телесности в порно как сегменте современной массовой культуры общества потребления. Анализ социальных мутаций и культурных трансформаций тела и телесности в порнодискурсе поп-культуры является основой целью статьи. Методологически автор, с одной стороны, использует положения сравнительно-типологического метода, предложенного Владимиром Проппом. C другой стороны, текст восходит к структуралистским концепциям Петра Богатырёва, предложенные им для изучения фольклора. Поэтому порно определяется и анализируется как проявление и форма фольклора общества потребления и массовой культуры. Автор проецирует четыре особенности волшебной сказки, сформулированные Владимиром Проппом, в те культурные пространства, где порнодискурс доминирует в современном обществе потребления. Автор анализирует как «немая» телесность в порно-культуре мутировала, став «говорящей». Анализируются проблемы сочетания и сосуществования телесности и вербальности в современном российском порнодискурсе. Автор изучает, как «тело» в порно-сегменте массовой культуры начало говорить по-русски, анализируя почему политический «месседж» неизбежно мутирует до телесности, постоянно возвращаясь к ней. Автор анализирует также культурные контексты и основания репрезентативности тела в современном российском порнодискурсе. Анализируются проблемы взаимозависимости телесности и политического языка, который использует «тело» в индивидуальном и коллективном контекстах.

Reflection of Sexual Morality in Literature and Art

Tocqueville, in his book “Democracy in America”, talked about the concept of sexual morality, introduced it into his newpolitical science, and reflected on the situation of social morality before and after the French Revolution with the help of hisinvestigation of American social morality. From the end of the 19th century to late 20th century, the development of sexualmorality in the US and France has undergone different changes. In France before and after the Revolution, sexual ethicsshowed a very different picture, from palace porn culture and pornography before the Revolution to revolutionary moralethics during the revolutionary period and to sexual ethics after the revolution. The US turned from the Puritans' sexualmorality in the early 18th century to the sexual liberation movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. From the historicalexperience of the US and France, we can see three basic forms of sexual morality: the state of greed, the state of politics, andthe state of holy love. The revolutions were not only initiating the construction of democracy, but also changed the definitionof its most basic figure that is the individual. This paper places sexual morality in the three dimensions of reality, politics andreligion. Taking The United States and France as examples, with the help of textual analysis and comparison, thedevelopment course, different forms and contemporary values of sexual morality will be explored.

Reflections on researching pornography across Asia: voices from the region

ABSTRACT This article introduces the special issue on East Asian Pornographies and Online Porn Cultures. It considers the logistical and theoretical challenges faced by researchers within the region who wish to investigate Asian producers and consumers. It introduces trends and scholars working within the emerging field of Asian porn studies and explores what their experiences reveal about the study of pornography more broadly. The introduction argues for an approach grounded in ‘Asia as method' within the context of the increasing systematization of porn studies within the Western academy and the development of a Western-oriented ‘porn studies' theoretical canon.

Visual seduction: Eroticism in surrealistic art photography and postmodern fashion photography

Surrealistic art photography reveals eroticism and nudity as something that both fascinates and agitates, compelling the audience to pay attention, willingly or reluctantly. Undoubtedly, for surrealistic artists the sphere of fantasy and sexual sensation emerge as a source of pleasure and aesthetic sensation. Surrealistic fantasies, dreams and human sexuality have merged with elements of art and porn culture to create hybrid visual forms and postmodern fashion photography is certainly among them. Unlike surrealistic art photography that serves as an emancipatory tactic or as a transgressive act of provoking the public, postmodern fashion photography utilizes eroticism as an expression or vestige of perverse enjoyment. Perversion in the eroticized postmodern context holds somewhat particular meaning. Desire is operationalized without restrictions, appears everywhere while losing its imaginary. Hence, visual seduction is a never-ending game between seducers and the seduced. In light of a growing interest in understanding photography, and visual culture, this article examines how eroticism is constructed through surrealistic photographed content, and it explores the implication of this for further study of postmodern fashion photography. Conceptually, and methodologically, this article draws on semiotics (Roland Barthes), and discursive analysis, including psychoanalytic (Sigmund Freud), and representational theory and practice (Laura Mulvey, Stuart Hall and Jean Baudrillard).

Porn culture, embodied experiences and knowledge of sexual practices

Much research has been conducted to date on the online pornography consumption of young people and adults. Very little has been done, however, to investigate its fallout on the sexual knowledge and attitudes (acceptance or rejection) of individuals who are online pornography consumers from early adolescence. In an exploratory study on Online Sexual Activities conducted with a sample of 301 students attending Padua University (between 20 and 25 years old), participants were asked to judge 24 sexual practices based on five options: ‘arousing’, ‘arousing but immoral’, ‘disgusting’, ‘unappealing’ or ‘no idea what it means’. The results showed that online pornography consumption enables individuals to accumulate an encyclopedic personal ‘erudition’, while it also tends to confirm their orientation towards ‘normal’ sexual practices, and to reproduce gender stereotypes, albeit in a setting where more ‘moral’ attention is paid to socially less acceptable online content.

Porn fans as sex tourists? Broadening meanings of sexual consumption among adult entertainment expo attendees in Las Vegas, Nevada

ABSTRACTThis article centralizes the importance of studying touristic aspects of ‘porn cultures’ and expanding the meanings of ‘sex tourism’ to include porn culture. We do so by drawing from a survey of 481 individuals attending the 2009 Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, NV, USA. Using multivariate analyses and logistic regression, we examine how two dimensions of a relationship – relationship status (monogamous, open, or single) and travelling with your partner – affect attendees’ interests in engaging in sexualized activities outside the event: visiting a strip club, visiting a swingers club, meeting someone for sex, and paying someone for sex. Respondents who indicated they were in a non-traditional open relationship or simply not in a committed relationship were more likely to show interest in these activities. We conclude that fans’ sexualized consumption both inside and outside the expo highlights the intersections of porn and tourism.

Sociologia da carne eletrónica. Cultura digital e o imaginário do obsceno

Ao contrário da ênfase inicial que tem sido dado a aspetos relacionados com a inteligência e o conhecimento, conclui-se que a web está a transformar-se progressivamente numa plataforma que convida formas estéticas e éticas marcadas por sentidos, emoções e voluptuosidades do prazer, perspetivadas até a partir de um lado negro. Noutras épocas, a pornografia era escondida, obscurecida, pertencendo a uma dimensão marginal da vida coletiva. Hoje, a cultura digital favorece o advento da cultura porno, onde a pornografia assume uma matriz simbólica, um código comum, uma atmosfera. Neste contexto visual e sensitivo, o obsceno fica mais perto da verdade e a verdade apresenta-se como obscenidade. Que imaginário preside a esta constante mutação?

The ‘comfort women’ issue and the embedded culture of sexual violence in contemporary Japan

For over two decades, survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery during the Asia-Pacific War, euphemistically called ‘comfort women’ ( ianfu), have been demanding the Japanese government take responsibility for past atrocities to restore their dignity. They have yet to obtain a satisfactory response; indeed, their demands have frequently been met with verbal attacks from the right-wing, including influential politicians. This article seeks to identify and explain some of the reasons why the problem has remained a highly controversial, but stubbornly unresolved issue. It begins by offering a brief history of the issue and then maps out the contemporary controversy. It shows that right-wing attacks should be understood as stemming from a systemic and deeply embedded bifurcation of women in Japanese society that allows the adoration of some women to comfortably coexist with misogyny, powerful rape myths, and a porn culture. These deeply permeate many areas of society, including its courts.

Giffing a fuck: non-narrative pleasures in participatory porn cultures and female fandom

Pornography has long been associated with the development of leading-edge technologies and new media forms, so it should be of little surprise that adult entertainment now circulates online in the form of moving-image GIFs – the 256-colour compressed image files ubiquitous within digital culture. Several critics and cultural commentators have picked up on the rise of this so-called ‘microporn', linking sexually explicit GIFs with supposedly diminished attention spans in the internet age. These discussions emerging around microporn can be somewhat problematic in that they risk replicating and intensifying many of our culture's uncritical assumptions about porn's consumers – that their engagement with the image is passive, thoughtless, and wholly receptive. In this article we argue that microporn is in fact a key indicator of the centrality of participatory practices to twenty-first-century female porn fandom. We undertake an analysis of audience engagement with microporn to ask: what are GIFs and how do they function within the realm of porn and microporn? What are their distinctive pleasures? In what ways do GIFs augment or displace long-form hardcore? In what ways might this emergence challenge conventional scholarly theorizing of the role of narrative within the genre and what might it tell us about female fan culture and pleasure? Existing understandings of the porn consumer, we suggest, are complicated by the proliferation of pornographic GIFs, and new understandings of consumption and pleasure practices can emerge through a consideration of microporn fan cultures.

HIV risk and sense of community: French gay male discourses on barebacking

This paper analyses the use of the concept of ‘barebacking’ as a risk category in the discourses of French gay men. It discusses how the rise and spread of the term barebacking contributes to reframing gay men’s personal experiences of HIV prevention and their sense of belonging (or a lack thereof) to a gay community. The study is based on 30 qualitative interviews with French gay men conducted between 2005 and 2008. An import from the USA, the term barebacking emerged publicly in France in the late-1990s and was first used to describe intentionally unprotected sexual practices. Debates surrounding this risk category were marked by violent controversy over its use and its definition among HIV prevention actors. There remains a general lack of consensus on the definition of the term, despite its use by activists, in porn culture and in the daily discourses of gay men. By focusing on the relational roots of risk perception, I consider how uses of the term barebacking invoke a moral framework around risk taking.

Exploiting Childhood: How fast food, material obsession and porn culture are creating new forms of child abuse

Exploiting Childhood: How fast food, material obsession and porn culture are creating new forms of child abuse

Studying porn cultures

This article uses the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas as a lens through which to examine the business and culture of pornography. I argue that adult-industry trade shows are data-rich field sites that allow pornography scholars to move beyond a focus on the pornographic text and examine the wider industry context that gives rise to contemporary porn cultures. These events are also occasions to practice ‘porn studies-in-action,’ a research approach that involves scholars spending time in those places where pornography is made, distributed, and consumed in an effort to better understand how cultural discourses and practices are organized in specific institutional and organizational contexts. Porn studies-in-action is a form of engaged scholarship that can take as its focus any number of cultural sites, from erotic film festivals to feminist porn sets to adult video stores, with the aim of empirically deepening our porn studies archives.

Porn's pedagogies: teaching porn studies in the academic–corporate complex

The explicit study of porn in university Sexuality Studies programs poses challenges to the classroom as framework for pedagogy. Mid-way through a federally funded study of feminist porn and porn cultures, this paper begins to interrogate the challenging and difficult knowledges, methods and pedagogies that can be put into motion in the undergraduate classroom as porn. Detailing the work of one such undergraduate course, this paper argues that porn as a pedagogical method raises but also reconfigures the spectre of embodied learning as it occurs in two other places: the 1981 anti-pornography feminism documentary Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography; and, conversely, through the pedagogical work of sex educator Tristan Taormino. Such differently configured bodies of knowledge work against the desiring-to-know ‘bad’ bodies put on display in anti-pornography feminist films such as Not a Love Story, still taught in many undergraduate classrooms as the feminist anti-porn text exemplar. This project asks can the body caught looking and, indeed, caught wanting – that is, the body desiring-to-know and desiring-to-unknow through porn – exceed both the pedagogical body and the body subjected by the imagined affect of ‘anti-woman’ violence? Of what kind of public might such an edgy body be generative?

The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go From Here

The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go From Here

The porning of America: the rise of porn culture, what it means, and where we go from here

The porning of America: the rise of porn culture, what it means, and where we go from here

The Amateur Pornographer and the Glib Voyeur

The Amateur Pornographer and the Glib Voyeur