The Violence of Authenticity: Feminist Pornography and the Fetishization of ‘Real’ Pleasure

• In Event: Deviant Leisure: Demand, Desire and the Harmful Marketplace

Abstract

Over the past decade, feminist pornography has become a palpably growing market. Feminist pornographers argue that their products are different from mainstream pornography because they represent ‘authentic’ pleasure and ‘real’ sex. Many claim that is achieved through sexual encounters that are unscripted, and unencumbered otherwise by individuals, such as producers or directors, that are not participating in the sexual performance. Relying on an ethnographic approach to methods and analysis (Wolcott 2001), data were collected from in-depth interviews with award-winning pornography performers and producers in North America to assess how agency (Barad 2003) and affective management (Fisher 2009) are approached and accomplished throughout the production process. The findings contradicted both assertions made by feminist pornographers. First, consistent with the literature on sex workers, such as prostitutes and strippers (e.g., Abel 2011; Sanders 2005, 2008; Weseley 2003), role-playing was integral to managing pleasure in the sexual encounter – the use of narratives and characters for the sexual performance not only did not hinder pleasure, it was positively associated with achieving it. Second, notwithstanding its unavoidability, interaction with – and sometimes interventions by – others not engaging in the sexual encounter also facilitated pleasure. In both cases, those practices go beyond matters of pleasure, they often prevent or reduce harm to the performers. A critique of the political stakes of those findings, among others, is offered. Based on a deviant leisure criminological perspective (Smith and Raymen 2016), and a psychosocial approach, this paper asserts that the fetishization of authenticity by feminist pornographers is a dubious political strategy and, by and large, a form of subjective and objective violence (Žižek 1997, 2005, 2007, 2008).

Author

• Corina Medley, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth