Psychology

A Comparison of Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes, Self-Esteem, Quality of Life, and Drug Use Among Pornography Actors and a Matched Sample
http://hn3zr6vl7l.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=A+Comparison+of+Sexual+Behaviors+and+Attitudes%2C+Self-Esteem%2C+Quality+of+Life%2C+and+Drug+Use+Among+Pornography+Actors+and+a+Matched+Sample&rft.jtitle=International+Journal+of+Sexual+Health&rft.au=James+D+Griffith&rft.au=Sharon+Mitchell&rft.au=Brian+Hammond&rft.au=Lucy+L+Gu&rft.date=2012-10-01&rft.pub=Taylor+%26+Francis+Group&rft.issn=1931-7611&rft.eissn=1931-762X&rft.volume=24&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=254&rft.externalDocID=2832178211&paramdict=en-US

- 105 porn actors (male)
- comparisons with sample group on sexual behaviours, attitudes, self-esteem, quality of ilfe, drug use.
- first sex at an earlier age, more sexual partners, higher enjoyment of sex, more concerned about catching sti, less likely to use condom during first sex encounter, no differences in childhood sexual abuse
- higher levels of self esteem, quality of life
- more likely to have used 5 different types of drugs, more likely to have used marijuana in the past 6 months
- data supporting or refuting claims that actresses are more likely to have been sexually abused, struggling with drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, being pimped has not been found
- rate of condom use in heterosexual films: 17%.
- only 2 of 200 adult film production companies require use of condoms
- reported 18 positive HIV tests + thousands of other STIs in pornography industry since 2004
- one of the few occupations in which women make more than men.  actresses make nearly twice as much as male coworkers per scene, but actors work on more projects due to smaller pool
- 5 primary reasons for choosing a porn career: money, fame/glamour, freedom/independance, opportunity/socialiblity, having sex.
- requirement of being tested once a month keeps STIs at the forefront of their mind
- unclear if drug usage frequency related to industry


Watching Pornographic Pictures on the Internet: Role of Sexual Arousal Ratings and Psychological-Psychiatric Symptoms for Using Internet Sex Sites Excessively.
http://hn3zr6vl7l.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Watching+Pornographic+Pictures+on+the+Internet%3A+Role+of+Sexual+Arousal+Ratings+and+Psychological%E2%80%93Psychiatric+Symptoms+for+Using+Internet+Sex+Sites+Excessively&rft.jtitle=Cyberpsychology%2C+Behavior%2C+and+Social+Networking&rft.au=Brand%2C+Matthias&rft.au=Laier%2C+Christian&rft.au=Pawlikowski%2C+Mirko&rft.au=Sch%C3%A4chtle%2C+Ulrich&rft.date=2011-06-01&rft.issn=2152-2715&rft.eissn=2152-2723&rft.volume=14&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=371&rft.epage=377&rft_id=info:doi/10.1089%2Fcyber.2010.0222&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1089_cyber_2010_0222&paramdict=en-US

- form of internet addiction: cybersex, some claim it is the highest potential for developing internet addiction.
- negative consequences: use of online porn in workplace, increased risk of acquiring stis in individuals who seek sexual partners through internet, potential link between pornography consumption and aggression.

Results indicate that self-reported problems in daily life linked to online sexual activities were predicted by subjective sexual arousal ratings of the pornographic material, global severity of psychological symptoms, and the number of sex applications used when being on Internet sex sites in daily life, while the time spent on Internet sex sites (minutes per day) did not significantly contribute to explanation of variance in IATsex score. Personality facets were not significantly correlated with the IATsex score. The study demonstrates the important role of subjective arousal and psychological symptoms as potential correlates of development or maintenance of excessive online sexual activity.

Blog Posts

Pornography Is Not a Major Industry (via Opposing Viewpoints)
http://ic.galegroup.com.ezproxy-library.ocad.ca/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&u=toro37158&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010456235

Susannah Breslin (They Shoot Pornstars Don’t They)
- argues pornography has never been the $10 billion industry claimed, likely $1-$2 billion eaten up by piracy, amateurs, small players producing a little content
- porn business is like no other
- nobody knows how much americans spend on porn
- federal obscenity indictments imposed by bus administration chilled porn valley
- performers do not use condoms, tested for hiv every 30 days.  some fake tests. every few years a performer is positive.

cause & effect: sex industry -- burton broadcast
http://burtonbroadcast.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/cause-effect-sex-industry/
- abused teens escape home
- no self respect
- pimp for protection like an abusive husband (security, comfort)
- effects on women: drug usage, mental instability, death
- drug usage occurs after entering into prostitution
- dilute the mind with narcotics
- alter ego + stigma results in ptsd, depression, schizophrenia
FROM COMMENTS…
- laws against brothers prevent women from working together/forming a network
- laws force prostitutes into unfamiliar territory
- drug-taking survival streetworkers do so to fund their habit (formed before working)
- survial street sex workers represent 1/5 workers
- visibility + vulnerability of street workers results in violence
- violence to street workers correlates with homelessness, inability access drug treatment, servicing in cars or public spaces, prior assault by police, displacement
- half factors correlating with increased violence are caused by police intervention
- 70% in study experienced no violence in 18 months despite having several clients a day
- among the 30% the violence most reported was verbal
- majority of sex workers as addicted = myth
- most workers consider themselves to be exploiting rather than exploited, taking advantage of people’s loneliness, expecting them to pay more than they could reasonably afford.




Is swinging (not) part of the sex industry?
Laura Agustin (Border Thinking on Migration, Trafficking and Commercial Sex.
http://sexgenderbody.com/content/swinging-not-part-sex-industry#ixzz3DGHk3aom

- people assume swinging / polyamory has nothing to do with sex work despite visitation of sex clubs / swinging parties
- what is the differentiating factor of commercial sex vs non commercial sex




No, Virginia, This is not a study of The Underground Commercial Sex Economy
(laura agustin)
http://www.lauraagustin.com/no-virginia-this-is-not-a-study-of-the-underground-commercial-sex-economy

- research piece funded by US National Institute of Justice - Estimating the Size + Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major US Cities
- research relied on interviews with pimps, traffickers, sex workers, child pornographers, police
- findings reported: Pimps claimed inaccuracy in media portrayals. Pimps manipulate women into sex work. Women, family, and friends facilitate entry into sex work. Unexpected parties benefit from the commercial sex economy. The Internet is changing the limitations of the trade. Child pornography is escalating. The underground sex economy is perceived as low risk.
- not a study about sex workers -- an attempt to view particular sex economies through a lens offered by convicted pimps.  designed to assure bias.
- pimps that were interviewed were incarcerated, black men highest population of prisons, perpetuates the idea that black men pimp white women
- why did the researchers accept prisoner’s stories as fact?
- researchers were funded by crime orientated agency to confirm everything the IS government already does

Liberal Conspiracy

Contrary to the media, the sex industry doesn’t empower women
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/07/25/contrary-to-the-media-the-sex-industry-doesnt-empower-women/

- real story of sex industry: ptsd, sexual assault, drug abuse, trafficking
- sex industry as a class issue
- recent application to open lap-dancing club: upon inappropriate touching would reject client not report to police for a crime.
- women in sex industry 60-100 times more likely to be murdered
- trans women at higher risk
- 68% of women working in industry suffer ptsd
- those who promote sex industry deny women voices


Betraying sex workers
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2009/01/11/betraying-sex-workers/

- International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) branch of GMB, one of Britian’s Biggest Trade Unions
- Douglas Fox works as a male sex worker.
- Douglas Fox + John Dockerty run large agencies + advocate for sex workers rights.  Is this for concern of the rights of the women or for their profit margins?
- Campaigning to “punters” to donate to the IUSW
- anyone can join IUSW
- How can a trade union represent the interests of workers and employers at the same time?
- Has Douglas Fox abused the rights of any women in his employment, or abused his position as a union spokesperson?

They Shoot Pornstars Don’t They

They Shoot Pornstars Don’t They
Susannah Breslin
http://theyshootstars.com/

- Jim and Artie Mitchell produced Behind the Green Door (1970s porno chic), jim shot artie

- DVD doesn’t take the place of VHS

- Online - Reality Kings, Brazzers, Bang Brothers (“content”).  Tube sites, free.

- John Ashcroft (attorney general) planned attack on adult movie business, foiled by 9/11

- Stunt sex - world’s biggest gang bang, Greg Dark, Rob Black, Max Hardcore (simulated rape, feigned pedophilia, wholesale degradation)

- $10 - $14 billion dismissed by forbes.com

- 1973 - Marvin Miller v. State of California: Miller test of obscenity: a) the work, judged by the average American using community standards, appeals to the prurient interest, b) depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and c) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (aka the “SLAPS test”), it is obscene, and, therefore, not protected by the First Amendment.

- Mike Norton (JM Productions) Adam Glasser (Seymore Butts).

- Alberto Gonzales (2005 attorney general) - 10-count federal obscenity indictment vs Robert Zicari (Robert Black), Janet Romana (Lizzy Borden).. Extreme Associates.

- Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, Adult Obscenity Squad

- Ira Isaacs, distributor of scat + beastaility videos

- Max Hardcore (Paul Little)

- Porn star tested for HIV

- why do men do porn / bukkake? they were lonely. They were horny. This was their fantasy. They wanted to be porn stars. They were fresh out of jail. They were social outcasts. They longed to be somebody, if only for a few minutes. “I'm not involved with anyone right now.”

- extreme porn: casting couch

- interactive movies: viewers “control” action through scene selection etc (purchase dvd for interactive experience)

Sex Industry - Encyclopedia of Urban Studies

Sex Industry - Encyclopedia of Urban Studies
Phil Hubbard
http://knowledge.sagepub.com.ezproxy-library.ocad.ca/view/urbanstudies/n249.xml

- most visible in towns / cities
- female prostitution, off-street work: adult orientated businesses, sex clubs, cinemas, sex shops, peep shows.
- migrant women poorly served by social security systems
- zone in transition -- high numbers of immigrants, houses in multiple occupation

HISTORICALLY
- medieval cities: forbade prostitutes from living/working within city walls. religious authorities argued female prostitutes fulfill service by providing outlet for male sexual energy + help maintain sancity of family life. officially sanctioned brothers, bawds, stews.  regulation / legal control.

- modern period (1800’s): wedge between feminized suburbs + masculine city centre. concern that sight of prostitutes on street would corrupt women + children.  undermine moral values of heterosexual family unit.  subject to surveillence + containment, restrict visibility of sex work. anxieties about disease = demeaning medical inspections.

REGULATION

- changing geographies reveal distinctive spatial formations of control + policing (confinement, surveillance, exlusion).  pushing of prostitution to twilight areas where citizens lack motivation or power to resist their presence.  areas also associated with drug dealing, deprivation, criminality, media representation of sex work w/ sexual immorality, violence, disease, poverty.  moral geography, “streets of shame”.  some sexual behaviours only acceptable in certain places.

- regulating diverse sites of sexual exchange (bars, restaurants, cabarets, clubs, brothels, discotheques, saunas, massage parlors, sex shops w/ private booths, hotels, flats, dungeons, internet sites, cinemas, etc) = legal + logistical challenges.
- most nations laws + policies attempt to confine nudity to specific private spaces.

- most important consideration in the regulation of sexual goods + services is to protect those deemed vulnerable to corruption

- mid-victorian period, 1857 Obscene Publications Act (England + Wales) - potential “deadly” impact of pornography on working classes + working class women.

- now: protection of children = justification

- limit sale / display of pornographic material to spaces not part of the public realm but accessible to the public

- command+control techniques, obscentiy laws, licensing, zoning + planning powers.  zoning laws prevent sexually orientated businesses from operating close to residences, schools, religious facilities = push adult businesses to fringes of the city + away from middle class.  prevent sexually orientated businesses from operating close to one another (basis = such businesses associated with nuisance + criminality… evidence??)

- separation between “family friendly” spaces + spaces of commercial sex help construct divid between “good” + “bad” feminity.

- protecting women from danger … “conceptually + semiologically separates women from experiencing parts of the city that remain open to exploration by men” (Stephanie Lasker)

- reproduces gendered assuptioms, containment + isolation of spaces enhances commercial value of erotic goods (scarcity). restricted economy = capitalist values.

- association of commercial sex w/ immorality + neighbourhood nuisance = effective strategy for asserting sexual values + displacing sex work from city centre sites

- possible to interpret ongoing attempts to regulate commercial sex as strategies of capital accumulation (enhancing value of specific tracts of land) + social reproduction (normalizing assumptions that porn should not be consumed by minors / visible in public).

- zero tolerance approaches to commercial sex = lucrative in real estate locations.  zoning laws + police power used to displace sex work to “protect local communities” … but really for gentrication

- “upmarket” lapdancing + gentalmen’s clubs = totally okay?

Lewis Questions

Hi Lewis,

After much deliberation (and thanks to your feedback + talking to others about it) I have decided comfortable enough with pursuing sex work and the sex industry as my topic of exploration.  I do not think I will become too inhibited (although I might start that way).

I have done some reading and tried accumulate some thoughts on what aspects of sex work I find interesting, however I am still having difficulty formulating a core question.

Here is a list of topics within sex work I have found most interesting:

- anti-porn vs pro-porn feminism

- relationship between sex work research and corporate interests

- the rescue industry -- especially regarding things such as: “fallen women”, migrant workers + sex trafficking, magdalene laundries

- academic research vs common sense / emotional intelligence in sex work criticism

- polarization in sex work research

- sex work as a form of labour / sex worker’s rights

- relationship between free/stolen content and content aggregators (porn hub etc)

- manipulated sex work statistics to serve a cause

- personal experiences + needs of sex workers / importance of sex worker voices

And a list of questions I have written down while reading:

is pornography good for us

how does pornography effect us

how does the sex industry effect us

how does sex work impact society

how do anti and pro stances impact the sex industry

what is the “problem” with pornography

is there a threat to “healthy sexual development” in pornography

what is the effect of polarization in sex industry research

is porn harmful?

why do we need to research the sex industry?

is an unbiased approach to researching the sex industry possible?

why should sexual material be “offensive”

Out of these I feel the question that speaks most to what I am interested in exploring and provides the most opportunity for broad exploration is “Why do we need to research the sex industry?”

Does this question make sense as a starting point, should I try to pull it back a bit?  I am definitely open to going many directions in my exploration and could make a much longer list of areas of interest if I wasn’t trying to be reasonable.

In my pecha kucha, when introducing my topic, should I spend time defining what I mean by sex work and specify what aspects of it I am interested in?

Thanks again for your feedback, I am looking forward to starting class on Tuesday.

Cheers,

Josephine

sex industry questions

is pornography good for us
how does pornography effect us
how does the sex industry effect us
how does sex work impact society
how do anti and pro stances impact the sex industry
what is the “problem” with pornography
is there a threat to “healthy sexual development” in pornography
what is the effect of polarization in sex industry research
is porn harmful? is it linked to other things? what is porn?
why do we need to research the sex industry?
is an unbiased approach to researching the sex industry possible?
why should sexual material be “offensive”?



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?

‘Did we respond to the film the way you thought we might?’, ‘Did you?’, or ‘What did you notice about what we said?’ or ‘How did we respond as a group to the film?’ ‘What was it like for you, Bobby, to be in the space with us through that performance?’.



 It just asks the same questions. Is porn harmful? Is it linked to other things? Then it doesn't define what porn is and, if it finds the link, it doesn't really explain anything. There's a lot written and very little known."


academic research vs common sense and emotional intelligence in sex work criticsm
polarization in porn studies
sex wars in sex work
exceptionality of sex


gender fundamentalism

even though many anti-pornography critiques cite gender justice, protection of children
and sexual equality as their goals, their operation through the harm frame and calls
for increased government regulation can reinforce gender, class and sexual
inequalities.

Gilbert recently observed in an
introduction to a New Formations’ special issue, the pornography industry’s:
promotion of modes of sexuality … might be regarded as wholly consistent with
neoliberal culture, treating sex itself as a consumptive rather than a relational act, and
participating in the general commodification of sex which

Yet there are still areas in which there is remarkably little work. In
particular (and ironically given the frequent condemnation of the industry for its
sheer size), the industry has received little detailed attention (Voss 2012).

How has amateur production impacted the labour conditions of professionals? How might
we rethink categories of labour and work and, crucially, ideas of creativity in the
pornography industries? What are the changes in the pornosphere and how can we
trace and map them over time?

van Doorn, Niels. 2010. ‘Keeping it Real: User-generated Pornography, Gender Reification,
and Visual Pleasure.’ Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media
Technologies 16 (4): 411–430.

 It just asks the same questions. Is porn harmful? Is it linked to other things? Then it doesn't define what porn is and, if it finds the link, it doesn't really explain anything. There's a lot written and very little known."


http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/is-one-of-the-most-cited-statistics-about-sex-work-wrong/379662/


anti porn documentaries as porn (as in they cause the same kind of exploitative violence as, in their minds, porn does to serve their message)

The fourth look is the imagined social scene of the looking. To frame this
differently, Willemen writes:
[T]he fourth look gains in force when the viewer is looking at something she or he is not
supposed to look at, either according to an internalized censorship (superego) or an
external, legal one (as in clandestine viewings) or, as in most cases, according to both
censorships combined. In this way, that fourth look problematizes the social dimension,
the field of the other of the system of looking at work. (1992, 174)

that the administrative bodies anxiously scrutinizing Porn Studies
course proposals function in the shadow of an imagined fourth look (a public outside
itself that may critique the school); but they also become that fourth gaze, creating
an institutional quasi-censorial backdrop against which students and porn studies
scholars alike shape an additional pedagogical and epistemological network of
looking.

what kinds of porn-y practices
emerge when we de-centralize teacher-as-hero and consider instead the space of the
classroom and its multiple pedagogical bodies as context, scene and text? And
second, mindful of the argument by Williams, that porn itself as an object is always
already deeply embedded in a threesome between truth, power and knowledge, what
might happen pedagogically if we defer viewing the object of porn (i.e. films and/or
clips) until after a deconstruction of the talk of porn-y–ness where we deconstruct the
terms by which we think we encounter a self-evident object in the first place?

‘Did we respond to the film the way you thought we might?’, ‘Did you?’, or ‘What did you notice about what we said?’ or ‘How did we respond as a group to the film?’ ‘What was it like for you, Bobby, to be in the space with us through that performance?’.

Taormino especially interesting is the way that she is located precisely at the
overlapping pedagogical functions flagged by Johnson in the opening epigraph of
this paper: Taormino as producer of her own work but also self-made pedagogue in
her work. As such, ‘Tristan Taormino’ as text signals that complex performative
tension between ‘the teachers of the text and the teacher in the text’ (Johnson, 76).

This strategy of poaching images to recontextualize their meanings is evident in many antipornography
feminist documentaries. Recent anti-pornography films follow a disturbingly
similar formula: The Price of Pleasure (directed by Miguel Picker and Chyng Sun, 2008) is
especially troublesome on two fronts. It is without a doubt very questionable to see it as a‘feminist’ text claiming harm done against women, especially when that text itself does
harm to recognizable feminist porn workers with public profiles by including their images
in a documentary without their consent and against their own political articulation of
feminist self-location. But not only are such recognitions problematic, they lead one to askabout the ethics of such projects that use footage under the Fair Use provisions of the
Copyright Act of 1976, which states that the use of copyrighted work ‘for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use),scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.’ While perhaps ‘legal,’ suchan alibi of ‘fair use’ continues to raise questions about feminist ethics and best practice, thelikes of which I raise here about Tracey’s condemnation of Not a Love Story. See ‘The Price of Pleasure Feedback’ (accessed October 12, 2013; http://thepriceofpleasure.com/feedback_qa.html)