Media Archaeology

I'll be presenting at PCA/ACA 2006

"The Real Thing": Reframing Queer Pornography for Virtual Spaces /for/ The Art and Politics of Netporn /in/ C'Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader

porn studies syllabus // porn blog

original abstract

In the introductory FAQ for the CyberDyke network of lesbian-oriented porn sites, the webmistresses advertise their service by writing: “You can’t get any more authentic than real women’s real fantasies!” The idea that pornography offers privileged access to the “real” of sex is equally central to the arguments of those who advocate its censorship, often basing their objections on the conviction that porn is too directly linked with this very domain of “real women” and (oxymoronically) “real fantasies.”

Theoretical work in porn studies has alternately critiqued and reinscribed this pervasive reliance on pornography’s “realness,” situating its object at the heart of capitalist modernity: its regimes of power and knowledge (Linda Williams), its circuits of representation and commodification (Jennifer Wicke), its strategies for regulating the social body (Carolyn Dean). Cyberspace, however, is entwined with postmodern, late capitalist culture, and I will argue that in this context the discourse of “realness” is no longer adequate to either an intellectual or a popular understanding of the project of alternative pornography.

This paper is animated by a genuine urge, inspired by my own experiences as a consumer and participant, to provide theoretical support for the development of queer pornography indigenous to the technological, commercial, and interpersonal possibilities of the internet. Grounding my argument in models from the porn studies canon, I will interrogate CyberDyke’s impulse to frame their sites as “the real thing”, a schema that seems ill-suited to either describe or validate their endeavor. I propose that it is crucial to cultivate an alternative model for conceptualizing the mission and legitimacy of queer netporn, one based on porn (and the net’s) uniquely productive relationship to desire, identity, and collectivity, rather than on their ability to reflect the real.

Last semester is squared away, and this one is shaping up to be quite exciting! If insane (as usual). I'm writing weekly reading responses for Information, Discourse, Networks, and blogging about the study of pornography at scopophile. Stay tuned...

I just turned in my last paper from my first year as a PhD student. Halleluia! All of my work thus far is available for download here. The catalogue of term papers, for year one: