Feminist P0rn Studies: Writing by Academics and S3x Industry Workers
A new generation of women in the p0rn industry openly identify as feminist and own their own companies, direct and produce their own material, and/or take on politicized identities as s3x worker performers. In addition to “p0rn for women,” a new wave of p0rn genres emerges today including alt p0rn, feminist p0rn, queer p0rn, amateur p0rn, and genderqueer and transgender p0rn.
Given the transformations of feminism, s3xual politics, p0rnography and popular culture over the last decade or more, our book, Feminist P0rn Studies, moves past the pro/anti p0rn debate to address multiple productive questions: Does feminist p0rn exist? What does it look like? What does it mean to be a feminist/woman who performs in, makes, distributes, and/or consumes p0rn? Are women and feminists working within or against the status quo? How have representations of the female body, gender, and s3xuality shifted as a result of feminists and women making p0rn? How are marginalized women—including women of color, queer and trans women, disabled women, lower and working class women, fat women, and older women—imagined, represented, or treated in feminist or non feminist p0rnography? How do s3x workers address misogyny, racism, and inequality in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry? How do women create new languages and practices that account for the complex politics of pleasure and power in p0rnography?
Taking up the torch from classic texts like Whores and Other Feminists by Jill Nagle (1997) and Drucilla Cornell’s Feminism and P0rnography (2000), we’d like to explore the intersections between feminism, p0rnography, and s3x work. We’d also like to respond to the recent resurgence of anti-p0rnography feminist scholarship in texts by Sheila Jeffries, Gail Dines, Karen Boyle, Pamela Paul, and Robert Jensen, anti-p0rn conferences, and films like Chyng Sun’s The Price of Pleasure and Jane Caputi’s The P0rnography of Everyday Life. There has not been an adequate response to this tremendous production by anti-p0rn feminists. It’s time we hear from anti-censorship, s3x positive, liberal, and s3x worker feminist voices.
We seek essays by academics from different disciplines (including feminist studies, gender and s3xuality studies, ethnic studies, film and media studies, sociology, history), cultural critics, activists, as well as people who work/ed in the adult entertainment industry (performers, producers, directors, company owners), especially those who identify as feminists. Here are some of the themes we hope submissions will address:
• feminist and post feminist approaches to p0rn
• representations of female pl3asure and d3sire
• gender, race, class, culture, and ability differences
• feminist p0rn as political, free speech, or s3xual dissent
• readings of women/gender in historical p0rn film/media
• feminist consumption/spectatorship of p0rn
• s3xual authenticity vs. fantasy
• LGBT/queer/genderqueer/transgender p0rn
• men in feminist p0rn
• technology and feminist p0rn practices
• BDSM, fetish, and rough s3x vs. romance, plot-driven p0rn
• analysis of hardcore or softcore feminist p0rn
• notions of beauty, ability, body size, or age
• HIV/AIDS, STIs, and safer s3x
• s3x education in p0rn
• the “p0rnification” of U.S. popular culture and everyday life
• p0rn addiction or p0rn and “family values”
• teaching p0rnography in feminist classrooms
• p0rn workers and feminist politics
• working in feminist vs. non-feminist p0rnography sets/environments
• s3x work, labor rights, and equality in the p0rn industry
Deadline: April 1, 2011
Submission Guidelines:
We are only accepting electronic submissions. Please submit one piece for consideration. We will consider unpublished and previously published work. Word count should be 5000-7000 words, but we will also consider shorter pieces.
Submissions should be in MS Word .doc or docx format. We will accept .pdf files for submission purposes, but will eventually need it in Word for publication.
Include with submissions: name, contact information, brief bio or CV, publication information if piece has been previously published.
Send queries and submissions to: feministp0rnstudies@gmail.com
More information here.
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