http://media.wix.com/ugd/d96dce_d7126844eedb449aadb4c47126a8adf2.pdf
via whit strub
" It is very easy to dismiss a female porn scholar’s findings—my ten years of research can be outmatched by one man’s lifetime of casual pornhub browsing. If the threat of the female scholar of porn is the threat of inverting the social controls of porn, then pornsplaining is the effort to wrestle back this control and re-insert male mastery of the subject, thereby reducing the female scholar back to her object status."
--Laura Helen Marks
“What people want to know is how does pornography make me feel, or more to the point, does it turn me on? The leap from my study of sex to the study of me studying sex seems automatic and reflexive”
"These people, in their desire to be reassured of my lack of sexual arousal when watching pornography, do not recognize that they are in fact asking about my sex life, my masturbatory habits, and just what exactly goes on when someone like me watches films like that."
antiporn documentary - The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships
" It is very easy to dismiss a female porn scholar’s findings—my ten years of research can be outmatched by one man’s lifetime of casual pornhub browsing. If the threat of the female scholar of porn is the threat of inverting the social controls of porn, then pornsplaining is the effort to wrestle back this control and re-insert male mastery of the subject, thereby reducing the female scholar back to her object status."
--Laura Helen Marks
“What people want to know is how does pornography make me feel, or more to the point, does it turn me on? The leap from my study of sex to the study of me studying sex seems automatic and reflexive”
"These people, in their desire to be reassured of my lack of sexual arousal when watching pornography, do not recognize that they are in fact asking about my sex life, my masturbatory habits, and just what exactly goes on when someone like me watches films like that."
antiporn documentary - The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships
"Reactions to and preparations for offense not only perpetuate the idea that sex and sexual representation should offend, but also validate the notion that “offense” is a reason not to learn. "
" Furthermore, are we really warning students, and anyone else who attends talks like this one, to guard them from being offended? Or is the real threat the possibility of sexual arousal? "
"“To them, pornography was much more interesting as a springboard for discussion and demystification of the sex acts and sexualities we always seem to talk around in other contexts” (“Porn Studies” 20). This last reflection points toward the need for porn literacy in an age of increased accessibility but decreased open discussion of pornographic convention and sexual representation"
More disconcertingly, following a series of high profile publications on erotic labor, UCSB graduate student Heather Berg found herself on the receiving end of radical feminists’ wrath: “I got lots of emails from self-identified anti-porn feminists demanding that I self-disclose 1) am I or had I been a sex worker 2) was I sexually abused and 3) how do I feel about being a scab to fellow women by using looks to get by?” Berg remarks, “the prurience and sense of entitlement I see in anti-porn feminists is far greater than the average sex work consumer. And the latter are better at respecting boundaries.”48
“Have you ever been in porn?” or “Do you plan to be in porn?” Porn scholar Sarah Stevens regards this line of inquiry in two ways: “It's different depending on where it is said, who says it, [and] what they intend to do by saying it. Sometimes, from people in the Feminist Porn Community it's a way of saying, "Hey, your intervention in our body of work would be welcomed," [and] sometimes I think it's a way for people to dismiss the idea of porn being a legitimate or relevant object of study. Other times it's said with disgust, contempt, or dismissal, and sometimes, with fascination and a way to demand my sexual availability to them.”49
"“To them, pornography was much more interesting as a springboard for discussion and demystification of the sex acts and sexualities we always seem to talk around in other contexts” (“Porn Studies” 20). This last reflection points toward the need for porn literacy in an age of increased accessibility but decreased open discussion of pornographic convention and sexual representation"
More disconcertingly, following a series of high profile publications on erotic labor, UCSB graduate student Heather Berg found herself on the receiving end of radical feminists’ wrath: “I got lots of emails from self-identified anti-porn feminists demanding that I self-disclose 1) am I or had I been a sex worker 2) was I sexually abused and 3) how do I feel about being a scab to fellow women by using looks to get by?” Berg remarks, “the prurience and sense of entitlement I see in anti-porn feminists is far greater than the average sex work consumer. And the latter are better at respecting boundaries.”48
“Have you ever been in porn?” or “Do you plan to be in porn?” Porn scholar Sarah Stevens regards this line of inquiry in two ways: “It's different depending on where it is said, who says it, [and] what they intend to do by saying it. Sometimes, from people in the Feminist Porn Community it's a way of saying, "Hey, your intervention in our body of work would be welcomed," [and] sometimes I think it's a way for people to dismiss the idea of porn being a legitimate or relevant object of study. Other times it's said with disgust, contempt, or dismissal, and sometimes, with fascination and a way to demand my sexual availability to them.”49
Even when rooted in genuine curiosity, the outpouring of relieved and open dialogue about porn and sex can often feel like an uninvited assault, highlighting the need for multifaceted research and pedagogy, not one-sided condemnation or celebration, that the specifics of this diverse and problematic genre can be deconstructed and defanged.
How does a scholar of pornography establish her boundaries in social, academic, and networking environments?
How does the scholar of pornography maintain critical distance in their research without ignoring the critical issue of arousal?
How does the teacher and scholar of pornography avoid becoming unwitting sexual object, subject, and disseminator of pornography, and why precisely is this a problem?
How can educators turn problematic situations and experiences into teachable moments? How can the way gender and age problematically factor into these experiences create new avenues of research?
While these questions may seem to highlight the problems and drawbacks of researching and teaching pornographies, they should rather be taken as a reemphasis of the dire need for porn literacy and diverse porn pedagogies.
How does a scholar of pornography establish her boundaries in social, academic, and networking environments?
How does the scholar of pornography maintain critical distance in their research without ignoring the critical issue of arousal?
How does the teacher and scholar of pornography avoid becoming unwitting sexual object, subject, and disseminator of pornography, and why precisely is this a problem?
How can educators turn problematic situations and experiences into teachable moments? How can the way gender and age problematically factor into these experiences create new avenues of research?
While these questions may seem to highlight the problems and drawbacks of researching and teaching pornographies, they should rather be taken as a reemphasis of the dire need for porn literacy and diverse porn pedagogies.
No comments:
Post a Comment