Everyday Pornography

Book excerpt: Public and academic debate about ‘porn culture’ is proliferating. Ironically, what is often lost in these debates is a sense of what is specific about pornography. By focusing on pornography’s mainstream – contemporary commercial products for a heterosexual male audience – Everyday Pornography offers the opportunity to reconsider what it is that makes pornography a specific form of industrial practice and genre of representation. Everyday Pornography presents original work from scholars from a range of academic disciplines (Media Studies, Law, Sociology, Psychology, Women’s Studies, Political Science), introducing new methodologies and approaches whilst reflecting on the ongoing value of older approaches. Among the topics explored are: the porn industry’s marketing practices (spam emails, reviews) and online organisation commercial sex in Second Life the pornographic narratives of phone sex and amateur videos the content of best-selling porn videos how the male consumer is addressed by pornography, represented within the mainstream, understood by academics and contained by legislation. This collection places a particular emphasis on anti-pornography feminism, a movement which has been experiencing a revival since the mid-2000s. Drawing on the experiences of activists alongside academics, Everyday Pornography offers an opportunity to explore the intellectual and political challenges of anti-pornography feminism and consider its relevance for contemporary academic debate.