From the FLP Mailbox:
Invitation to contribute to EVERYDAY PORNOGRAPHIES
Edited by Karen Boyle (University of Glasgow, Scotland)In recent years, the boundary between the pornographic and the mainstream has been a recurrent concern in academic and popular writing about pornography. At the same time, studies of unambiguously pornographic texts have veered away from commercial pornography for heterosexual men to consider alternative representations and there has been a methodological shift towards textual analyses of pornographic texts (and the mainstream texts that mimic them) in academic writing. As a result, some of the questions that characterised earlier academic engagements with pornography – questions about the politics of pornographies, their regulation, and production and consumption practices – have become marginalised. Yet, there is something of a disconnect here between much of the academy and public debate, where, in a number of countries, there has been a shift towards thinking about the demand for commercial sexual exploitation more generally. This is also the context in which resistance to the mainstreaming of pornography has continued to flourish, including within a newly re-energised feminist anti-pornography movement. The time is therefore ripe for an academic collection that positions the textual study of pornography within a broader political frame in order to reconnect text, context and consumer. This is the central aim of this collection.
This is a collection about contemporary pornography (material made, bought and sold as such). It is a collection that emphasises the”typical”and, as such, is particularly interested in pornographies aimed at a heterosexual male audience. With this in mind, proposals addressing the following topics and areas are particularly welcomed, though other areas of work will be considered:
- The representation and/or marginalisation of race, class and nation in pornography
- Heterosexuality
- Genre
- The marketing of pornography – how the industry talks about itself
- The production of commercial pornographies, including debates about choice and harm
- The”star”system in contemporary pornography
- The US porn industry in other national markets
- “National”pornographies
- The legacy and development of anti-pornography feminism
- Porn’s audience(s)
- The consumption and use of pornography by specific groups and/or in specific contexts
- Relationships between pornography consumption and production and other aspects of the commercial sex industry
- Case studies of porn companies, their organisation, methods, markets and/or products
Representations of hard-core pornography, pornographers, porn stars and consumers in mainstream texts- Approaches to legislation and regulation of pornography locally, nationally, internationally
- The pornographic continuum (aka the”pornification”or”pornographisation”of culture) and the implications of boundary-blurring between the pornographic and mainstream for teaching, research and activism
- The disciplinary and/or political position of”porn studies”within the academy
- Activist strategies
Proposals of up to 250 words (for articles of 6000-8000 words), accompanied by a brief biography, should be sent to Karen Boyle (K.Boyle@tfts.arts.gla.ac.uk) by December 14th 2007.
-Bridget Crawford
