Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/University of Illinois/Queer Lives, Queer Politics (Fall 2014)

Mhayashi95 (talk) 03:49, 9 November 2014 (UTC)The Relationship of “Passionate Attachment” for Pornography With Sexual Compulsivity, Frequency Of Use, and Craving For Pornography is an article written by Harold Rosenberg and Shane Kraus. The article is about how these two researchers sampled 221 undergraduate students who were males that used pornography regularly, and asked them to complete questionnaires that assessed their “passionate attachment” to pornography, their pornography use history, sexual compulsivity, subjective craving to use pornography, compulsive internet use, social desirability, and non-sexual sensation seeking (Rosenberg & Kraus, 2014). The article compares how these topics effect one another and how they relate, or how they do not. They include a passion scale measuring how many times a week they use porn, and the reason they use porn. The scale included reasons such as using porn to expose them to new and different experiences, watching porn because they almost feel obsessed with using porn, and they have a tough time controlling my need to use porn. Another big chart they included was sexual and pornography history. They split this chart into two categories, characteristics and the % of the sample. An example would be- Have you ever masturbated to pornography in lifetime: 50% or less, 51-75%, and 76-100%. Then next to each option it had the percentage of the sample that fell into each category. The chart ranged from questions such as typical weekly pornography use, length of typical pornography use session, method to view pornography, and number of lifetime sex partners. They compared all of these personal information to why one watches porn. They concluded that although men who use porn do so in a compulsively manner that causes negative effects, frequent but non-obsessive users reflects passion and a healthy use. This article shows the relationship between passionate attachment to potentially addictive behaviors.

This article is very informative on the relationship between attachment and negative behaviors, but only in regards to college men. This article does not imply that women engage in porn, and it does not discuss whether these men are heterosexual or homosexual. We as a group would address all the types of people who use porn because these facts and statistics would be interesting to compare to one another and see if these behaviors such as compulsivity or passion are higher among a certain group of people, gender or racially. Another change we would add to this article is the positive effects of porn. They are implicitly trying to get that a lot of porn users have an addictive behavior and it leads to negative consequences and distress. Porn is seen as an act of deviance and in our articles we will address all effects pornography can have whether it is positive or negative. We want readers too see all sides of porn, and not feel bad or wrong if they enjoy or have interest in pornography.

Porn is the Theory: Pornography, Obscenity and the Politics of Affect in the American Sexual Revolution by Gillian P. Mason. This article looks at the report of the 1970 Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Attorney General Edwin Meese condemned pornography as a “catalyst of violence toward women and insisted on increased national regulation of obscenity” (Mason, 2012). The article looks at the public discourse and compares how it represented porn’s impact on its audience. It showed many people viewed porn as sexually transgressive and liberating. There was a lot of disagreement on the rulings of obscenity and they say pornography as a playful challenge to traditional cultural hierarchies. Overall, this article covers government policy and women’s rights.

This article is definitely informative and leaves out a lot of bias, which is important. It talks about people who agree with pornography and its relationship to obscenity, but also those who disagree with the government policies, and the see positives that carry on to porn. Another point that it brought up in this article, that is a point that we as a group feel it is important to include in articles about porn, is its relationship to women. There is a belief that pornography creates an image that leads to sexual violence against women. Women are always seen as submissive in pornographic films, and feminists have tried to fight against this. The policy on pornography and obscenity was made in 1970, and feminist groups in relation to porn started form in late 1970s. There were arguments about different views such as anti-porn feminists and sex positive feminist groups. This article covers the surface about women’s right, however, our group would like articles to be more detailed about what women fought for and how they feel in regards to pornography. As many different opinions that could be heard, the more well-rounded and informed people will be. This article also goes into cultural differences, but still leaves out girl-on-girl pornography or gay pornography. Pornography is watched by everybody, and it is important that we address everybody.

Pornography Consumption and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality: A National Longitudinal Study is an article written by Paul J. Wright and Soyoung Bae. They analyze a General Social Survey of 412 black and white participants, who were inquired about their porn-watching habits and their attitudes toward homosexuality. Wright and Bae discuss the various endogenous factors that affect one’s likelihood to accept homosexuality through the viewing of homosexual acts in porn. They argue that through socialization and mainstream media, there is a sexual script instilled into viewers that heternormative sexual relationships are the norm, and are therefore inherently better and more moral. However, through the medium of porn, and pornographic sexual scripts, Wright and Bae argue that viewers see deviant acts such as man-on-man porn, girl-on-girl porn, anal sex, adolescent sex, and group sex through a lens that glorifies homosexual sex acts, making them seem pleasurable, which therefore lends merit to homosexuality as a whole. Write and Bae argue that one’s morality may affect their likeliness to accept homosexual sex acts in porn, and therefore homosexuality itself. They state that morally individualistic people are more likely to be open-minded because they see sexuality as a fluid, social construct. If the viewer is a moral absolutist, they are less likely to accept deviant sex-acts as legitimate. They argue that moral absolutists see sexuality as an absolute, non-changing identity. Wright and Bae also cite ethnicity as another characteristic that may change the likeliness of the viewer to accept homosexuality. The claim is that black people are less likely to accept homosexual sex acts, and therefore homosexuality because they have less exposure to pornography, and more exposure to interpersonal sexual connections. On the other hand, white people have more exposure to porn, and less interpersonal sexual connections. Because on average, white people view porn more frequently, they have more exposure to deviant sex acts and are therefore more likely to see them as increasingly “normal” acts. Wright and Bae also argue that gender is a factor that affects one’s tendency to accept homosexual acts. Men show a ceiling effect, in which they are able to see homosexual act only through the very limited scope of the pornographic lens, and not as a legitimate choice of sexual orientation. Women, on average, do not possess this same mentality.

While this article is somewhat informative, there are clearly problems. First and foremost, the authors make an enormous assumption that sex acts = sexual orientation. This is essentially what their entire argument is based around. There seems to be a huge gap between homosexual sex acts and homosexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation. Additionally, the authors repeatedly use the word “accept” as if homosexual acts are not legitimate unless heterosexual people tolerate them. Wright and Bae also disregard the fact that porn is depicted through a narrow lens of reinforced norms of what pleasure is supposed to look like. Girl-on-girl porn, for example, is intended to titillate men’s preconceived notions of what real lesbian sex entails. The authenticity of most porn is quite questionable, so it is a big assumption to make the link between deviant sex acts performed in porn, to how homosexual acts play out in real life. Also, they seem to belittle the sexual experiences of homosexual people, or people who practice non-normative sex, by implying that more exposure to it will somehow normalize it and make it more legitimate, instead of appreciating sexual difference as they are. As a group, we would acknowledge these issues, and change these assumptions. Some of the sources we would use include Valerie Webber and Shannon Weber’s articles.

Putting Hypersexuality to Work: Black Women and Illicit Eroticism in Pornography is an article written by Mereille Miller-Young. Miller-Young explores the racial and sexual hierarchy within pornography. She analyzes the racism and sexism within an industry that at face value, appears to glorify black women as exotic sex goddesses. Miller-Young delves into the realities of the porn industry where black women are marginalized and expected to be incredibly hypersexual, but are still treated by production and viewers as the lowest of the low on the totem pole of pornography. This translates to behind the screen, where black porn actors are paid less, hired less, and are less of a liability. Miller-Young analyzes how white hegemonic rule within porn production and white privilege within operate. Miller-Young argues that while many white female porn actors have the privilege of stating that pornography is a way they can channel unapologetic self-expression against institutions that sexualize women, but expect women to not have sexual urges, black women do not have the same privileges. Black women are seen as desperate, dirty sex workers that are only in the business for means of survival. Even at national porn conventions that are essentially the Oscars for porn, Miller-Young observes a general disgust toward black porn stars, and praise for the young, blonde, busty porn star. Black porn stars, much like Asian porn stars and Latina porn stars, are seen as disposable fetishes, that are not only exotified for the pure fact that they work in porn, but also because of the color of their skin. This stigmatization and oppression of black women in porn, both on and off screen, creates an immense pressure for black porn stars to conform to “whiteness”. They are either pressured to conform to white standards of beauty, or are forced to become hyper-ghettofied. As a result of the racial economy that porn operates in, there is a systemic demand away from porn featuring black women.

This article provides great insight into the off-screen operations of porn. Intersectionality are clearly displayed in this article. What this article is missing, however, is any focus on other races such as Asian or Latina women. Just as black women are fetishized, Asian women are portrayed as docile and submissive sex objects. Latina women are portrayed as unfeminine, hypersexual, and unable to control sexual urges. . It is important to address how while sexual acts portrayed in porn are non-normative, as are actors of color, porn is not truly transgressive or queer since it exploits women of color, both on and off-screen.

Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography By Jeffrey Escoffier

Summary: This article looks at straight men who work as gay porn actors. Gay porn in this article refers to cis man-on-man traditional top and bottom porn. Escoffier estimates that straight-identifying men compose about 60% of gay porn actors. He describes the sociocultural script that is created by and for these men in their careers. They benefit from working in gay porn because the pay is better and they become more well-known than they would in straight porn, where the female actors are more heavily featured. On the downside for them, there is some social stigma attached to being in gay porn, including people denying the legitimacy of their identity as straight. The article also dissects the significance of the roles of top and bottom, saying some straight men prefer top because the act of penetrating is congruous with straight sex in mainstream straight porn. Some straight men prefer bottom because arousal is not essential to bottom, meaning bottoms do not need to act or be attracted to their same-sex co-actor, so this is more congruous with their straight identity.

What is missing: This article speaks a little about how gay men do not like working with straight men as much as gay men because they face discrimination, but it does not go into it as much as it should. The article should tell the entire story as it relates to the gay porn actors. The article explains how gay porn advances straight porn actors’ careers, but it needs to also explain how gay porn advances gay actors’ careers. It also should dismantle the cisnormativity of the traditional gay porn roles that are assumed in almost all gay porn i.e the idea that gay porn involves two men with penises; one top and one bottom. I’d like to see information about straight women in the lesbian porn industry juxtaposed with this article for a good comparison of the two homosexual porn industries.

Shades of Gay: Performance of Girl-on-Girl Pornography and Mobile Authenticities By Valerie Webber

Summary: This article questions what constitutes authentic pornography, with a focus on the sexuality and sexual performances of the porn actors in lesbian porn. Webber describes the lesbian porn industry as run by heterosexual men and made for heterosexual men. This shapes lesbian porn, putting emphasis on penetration and on the portrayal of the women as only having sex with each other as a way of turning men on. A large number of the women in lesbian porn actually identify as straight in their personal lives. Webber questions the authenticity of lesbian porn when one or more of the actors are not lesbians.

What is missing: In her conclusion, Webber admits to entering this study with bias against the authenticity, or any other positive aspects for that matter, of mainstream lesbian porn. She seems to conclude that the presence/amount of authenticity is too nuanced to accurately determine. However, in her discussion of authenticity, she should have included the opinions of lesbian actors in lesbian porn. Their absence from this article seems to imply that it is inherently authentic but that is not necessarily true.

Girl meets boy: Cross-gender queer sex and the promise of pornography by Amalia Ziv looks at queer pornography and specifically the rise of lesbian porn. By discussing this, she looks further into women as writers and creators of porn, both textually and for recorded porn. This presence of females in the position of directing has allowed for women to actually express their opinions in an industry that has prominently been dominated by men, for men. The arrival of lesbian porn largely resulted from the feminist movement involving porn, which occurred in the 1980s. The author examines three literary works that constitute as erotic literature involving queer characters. A lot of these works stemmed from public awareness of a lot of queer identities in the 80s and 90s, including bisexuality, transgender, and the emerging identity of queer. The graphic novels she examines explore various queer sexual encounters, including gay men having sex with gay women. This allows for more gender-fluid expression and the ability to see into worlds that were not previously examined or even considered. It also addresses the topic of dominant/submissive relationships and the role those play in pornography, but more specifically graphic novels. After this, Ziv points out that lesbian women tend to display a fascination with gay male porn. Despite this, gay men tend not to reciprocate this curiosity and desire to understand girl on girl sex. There could be a correlation between this and the emergence of gay male sexual practices into the lesbian life, such as fisting, the use of dildos, and “finger-fucking”. This argument leads the author to believe that various gay sex has influences on other gay sex, more-so than heterosexual sex and porn.

This article gives a clear background of lesbian and gay porn and its formation through time. Her work is thorough and comprehensive, following the guidelines she set up for her work and topic. I would like to add more examples of queer sex other than lesbian and gay sex. The author consistently uses the term queer, yet mostly refers to gay and lesbian sex. Adding more information on trans sex and other queer categories in pornography would add more depth and variation to the article. Another addition that would help would be discussing recorded pornography opposed to mostly graphic novels. The author spends much more time discussing graphic literature and not as much energy went into recorded porn and how those roles have been influenced by lesbianism and queer sex in general.

Psychological, Relational, and Sexual Correlates of Pornography Use on Young Adult Heterosexual Men in Romantic Relationships by Dawn M. Szymanski and Destin N. Stewart-Richardson conducts a study that looks at the effects of pornography viewed by men, aged 18 to 29 years old, in their romantic relationships as well as theorized antecedents of them. The study included 373 men who identified as straight. Men tend to consume more porn due to the fact that it is geared towards them. The two main antecedents that typically arise from male porn use are gender role issues and types of attachment. The way women are portrayed in porn leads to a certain perceived ideal of what women should be, what they want, and how men then think they can treat women in real life. This then ties into a man’s ability to have emotional attachment to a female companion through avoidance, disfunction, and much more. The level of attachment was found to have a correlation to the amount of pornography a man watched. Higher levels of viewed pornography was correlated to a lower quality of a relationship as well as less satisfaction while having sex. Plenty of qualitative studies have been conducted on the correlation between marriage quality and pornography use, but only four quantitative studies have been conducted in the United States looking at this. They show that increased uses of porn while in a committed relationship show a decrease in sexual satisfaction as well as overall happiness with the female partner.

This article is well done in that it examines exactly what it said it would example. They examine the effects of pornography use on heterosexual relationships and the quality of them. I would like to look at the same issue of porn use, but maybe from the perspective of women in either heterosexual or queer relationships, or just queer relationships in general. The article also refers to the use of porn in the U.S. as normative, which I do not necessarily agree with. I would like to add work arguing that although the content of porn is heteronormative, the act of watching pornography is not considered normative but rather taboo. This would involve possibly finding more queer articles about porn.

Lufuno Nevondwe and Kola O. Odeku’s article “Protecting Children from Exposure to Pornography in South Africa” examines children’s access to pornography with little to no parental supervision. In the era of rapidly developing technology, children have access to the Internet almost anywhere they go with the use of cellphones, laptops, and tablets. This makes it easier for children to find, create, and share sexually explicit content of themselves and others. Usually, their parents are not aware of this activity online. The debate surrounding whether or not children exploring sexuality via the Internet as being positive is difficult to analyze. As the class discussed before, the ability to discover and produce pornography is a form of exploration of sexuality that allows them to engage in sexuality without physical sexual contact, which may have consequences.

One proposed solution to the spread of child pornography is that Internet Service Providers (ISP) report the addresses containing such content to law enforcement. I would like to explore this more thoroughly. If ISPs are mandated to report presumed child pornography, this places legal responsibility on the creator of the content instead of the individuals who download it. This seems a lot like how women are shamed when their private photos are leaked, but not the people viewing them. While the production and sharing of child pornography is problematic, especially in South Africa, placing children in legal responsibility for their private sexual exploration seems to be as well.

Jae Woong Shim conducted a study titled “The Role of Anonymity in the Effects of Inadvertent Exposure to Online Pornography Among Young Adult Males” consisting of 84 male university students and the effect inadvertent exposure to pornography made on their attitude towards women. Also, the idea of remaining anonymous played a role in men’s pursuits of extreme pornography. Results showed that men were more likely to look out more hardcore pornography when they believed their identity remained anonymous. When this happens, men’s sexist attitudes were amplified. Due to deindividuation, men would be less self-aware, more impulsive, and have less regard to their effect on others.

This was a really interesting study, but the whole time I was wondering how similar results would be when testing women. I got the feeling that (mostly heterosexual) men were the only consumers of pornography. This study produced results specific to this narrow population. I believe the results would be slightly altered in regards to women viewers of pornography and their attitude towards men. Also, this study would come to some interesting results when tested on queer individuals. Since gay and lesbian viewers of porn are more interested in same-sex interactions, they would not have altered attitudes towards the opposite sex. Furthermore, it may have some insight on changed attitudes that may occur towards themselves holding queer identities.