The diverse economies of online pornography: From paranoid readings to post-capitalist futures

Abstract

Anti-pornography campaigners have frequently claimed that porn studies need to take the economics of pornography seriously, yet often this amounts to little more than the idea that pornography is a capitalist product. This article brings together J.K Gibson-Graham's work on post-capitalism and Eve Sedgwick's notion of 'paranoid' and 'reparative' reading in order to think about the performative effects of the narratives we use to talk about the pornography industry. It proposes a move away from a capitalocentric understanding of online pornography towards a 'diverse economies' approach: one that demonstrates the multitude of ways in which pornography exists outside of the rubric of capitalism. This helps to avoid the affective state of paranoia and helplessness that narratives of the all-powerful global porn industry so often create, whilst also allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the legal regulation of pornography. The article concludes with some thoughts as to how a diverse economies approach might better enable us to assess recent attempts to regulate online pornography within Britain, noting attempts at regulation may have an adverse effect on not-for-profit, amateur, or peer-to-peer pornography, whilst benefiting mainstream corporate pornography producers.

The Potential Associations of Pornography Use with Sexual Dysfunctions: An Integrative Literature Review of Observational Studies

“…According to the Final Report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, it can be defined as any material that is predominantly sexually explicit and intended primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal [1]. Currently, pornography represents an important economic venture [2,3]. Its greatest development has occurred along with the emergence of computer technologies and the expansion of the Internet [4,5].…”

Prevalence, Patterns and Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption in Polish University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The online pornography industry has been developing at a fast pace due to a global increase of Internet accessibility and technological progress, particularly in streaming media that allow users to continuously watch content, usually a video, without the need to download it [1]. It is, thus, no surprise that explicit material is now ubiquitously and readily available on the Internet while intended and unintended exposure to it may sometimes be difficult to avoid [2,3].…”

EXPOsing Men's Gender Role Attitudes as Porn Superfans

“…). Instead of writing off pornography as violence writ large, contemporary “sexademics” analyze the sociopolitics of the porn industry and explore issues such as racism among performers (Landes and Neilsen ), consent (Brennan ; Groeneveld ; Kleinig ; Scott ), porn tourism (Jackson, Sahl, and Brents ; Mars, Yeoman, and McMahon‐Beattie ), porn politics and economics (Wilkinson ), and moral panics around porn (Keilty ; Ley ).…”

“…Additionally, the creation and consumption of feminist porn and queer porn revels in diverse representations of LGBTQ+ people, race/ethnicity, disabilities, body types/sizes, and a wide range of sexual acts, desires, and fantasies (Attwood 2007;Jackson and McCubbin 2016;Stewart 2018;Taormino et al 2013). Instead of writing off pornography as violence writ large, contemporary "sexademics" analyze the sociopolitics of the porn industry and explore issues such as racism among performers (Landes and Neilsen 2018), consent (Brennan 2018;Groeneveld 2018;Kleinig 2009;Scott 2016), porn tourism (Jackson, Sahl, and Brents 2018;Mars, Yeoman, and McMahon-Beattie 2017), porn politics and economics (Wilkinson 2017), and moral panics around porn (Keilty 2018;Ley 2018).…”