Business, porn, and morality: What morality do feminist pornographers construct for their practice?

Abstract

Feminist porn can be defined as pornography that is infused with feminist values and ideals when it comes to what the product looks like, how it is produced, and also consumed. Still, as a segment of the pornography industry, feminist porn is a cultural product made for profit. In this paper, focusing on feminist pornographers, we expand on limited discussions of pornography in management and organization studies by exploring how the inclusion of feminist ideals in pornography practices might be reconciled with the constraints of operating in a for-profit market. At the intersection of business ethics and the sociology of morality we ask: What morality do feminist pornographers construct for their practice? To answer this question, we analyze a media data corpus consisting of articles, podcasts, and videos where feminist pornographers are interviewed, alongside supplementary interviews and archival data. On this basis, we reconstruct three evaluative norms that constitute a morality of feminist porn: (1) Enabling diversity and difference; (2) Ensuring quality and care; and (3) Connecting values and valuation. We show the variations and tensions in these and discuss the implications for a feminist (re)organizing of pornography.