Susanna Paasonen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262016315
- eISBN:
- 9780262298810
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262016315.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Digital production tools and online networks have dramatically increased the general visibility, accessibility, and diversity of pornography, which can be accessed for free, anonymously, and in a ...
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Digital production tools and online networks have dramatically increased the general visibility, accessibility, and diversity of pornography, which can be accessed for free, anonymously, and in a seemingly endless range of niches, styles, and formats. This book moves beyond the usual debates over the legal, political, and moral aspects of pornography to address online pornography in a media historical framework, investigating its modalities, its affect, and its visceral and disturbing qualities. Countering theorizations of pornography as emotionless, affectless, detached, and cold, it addresses experiences of pornography, largely through the notion of affect as gut reactions, intensities of experience, bodily sensations, resonances, and ambiguous feelings. The author links these investigations to considerations of methodology (ways of theorizing and analyzing online pornography and affect), questions of materiality (bodies, technologies, and inscriptions), and the evolution of online pornography. She discusses the development of online pornography, focusing on the figure of the pornography consumer, and considers user-generated content and amateur pornography. The author maps out the modality of online pornography as hyperbolic, excessive, stylized, and repetitive, arguing that literal readings of the genre misunderstand its dynamics and appeal. She also analyzes viral videos and extreme and shock pornography, arguing for the centrality of disgust and shame in the affective dynamics of pornography. The book’s analysis makes clear the crucial role of media technologies—digital production tools and networked communications in particular—in the forms that pornography takes, the resonances it stirs, and the experiences it makes possible.Less
Digital production tools and online networks have dramatically increased the general visibility, accessibility, and diversity of pornography, which can be accessed for free, anonymously, and in a seemingly endless range of niches, styles, and formats. This book moves beyond the usual debates over the legal, political, and moral aspects of pornography to address online pornography in a media historical framework, investigating its modalities, its affect, and its visceral and disturbing qualities. Countering theorizations of pornography as emotionless, affectless, detached, and cold, it addresses experiences of pornography, largely through the notion of affect as gut reactions, intensities of experience, bodily sensations, resonances, and ambiguous feelings. The author links these investigations to considerations of methodology (ways of theorizing and analyzing online pornography and affect), questions of materiality (bodies, technologies, and inscriptions), and the evolution of online pornography. She discusses the development of online pornography, focusing on the figure of the pornography consumer, and considers user-generated content and amateur pornography. The author maps out the modality of online pornography as hyperbolic, excessive, stylized, and repetitive, arguing that literal readings of the genre misunderstand its dynamics and appeal. She also analyzes viral videos and extreme and shock pornography, arguing for the centrality of disgust and shame in the affective dynamics of pornography. The book’s analysis makes clear the crucial role of media technologies—digital production tools and networked communications in particular—in the forms that pornography takes, the resonances it stirs, and the experiences it makes possible.
Lindsay Farmer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199592814
- eISBN:
- 9780191729034
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592814.003.0016
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
One of the central issues in theories of criminalisation has been the question of whether or not offensive conduct should be criminalised and, if so, how this should be done. How should society ...
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One of the central issues in theories of criminalisation has been the question of whether or not offensive conduct should be criminalised and, if so, how this should be done. How should society respond to conduct that is insulting, boorish, immoral, disrespectful, or just plain disgusting? In liberal criminal law theory this has tended to be addressed, under the heading of the ‘offense principle’, as a question of how to deal with a residual area of social concern where there may be no identifiable harms. This chapter argues that the offense principle, and the conceptual framework that it relies on, can only be of limited use in understanding this area. It groups together reactions or forms or conduct that are very diverse, and its narrow focus on the question of prohibition leads to a neglect of the way in which regulation in particular areas is about enabling or permitting certain forms of behaviour. This is illustrated through a more detailed examination of the areas of obscenity law (disgust) and regulation of public forms of incivility (respect) to begin to open up a different and more critical analysis of theories of criminalisation in this area.Less
One of the central issues in theories of criminalisation has been the question of whether or not offensive conduct should be criminalised and, if so, how this should be done. How should society respond to conduct that is insulting, boorish, immoral, disrespectful, or just plain disgusting? In liberal criminal law theory this has tended to be addressed, under the heading of the ‘offense principle’, as a question of how to deal with a residual area of social concern where there may be no identifiable harms. This chapter argues that the offense principle, and the conceptual framework that it relies on, can only be of limited use in understanding this area. It groups together reactions or forms or conduct that are very diverse, and its narrow focus on the question of prohibition leads to a neglect of the way in which regulation in particular areas is about enabling or permitting certain forms of behaviour. This is illustrated through a more detailed examination of the areas of obscenity law (disgust) and regulation of public forms of incivility (respect) to begin to open up a different and more critical analysis of theories of criminalisation in this area.
Julian Petley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625383
- eISBN:
- 9780748670871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625383.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter states that the Video Recordings Act and the ‘extreme pornography’ provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 need to be understood as measures that transcend matters of ...
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This chapter states that the Video Recordings Act and the ‘extreme pornography’ provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 need to be understood as measures that transcend matters of narrow party policy. It then elaborates what kinds of material are still likely to find themselves cut from films, and more particularly DVDs, in contemporary Britain, even in the adults-only ‘18’ and ‘R18’ categories, and, more importantly, explain the reasons behind such acts of censorship. Sexual violence is a theme that has continued to preoccupy the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and is one of the most common reasons for cuts at the ‘18’ and ‘R18’ levels. 2009 saw the passing of the Coroners and Justice Act, sections 62 to 68 of which criminalise possession of what is termed a ‘prohibited image of a child’.Less
This chapter states that the Video Recordings Act and the ‘extreme pornography’ provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 need to be understood as measures that transcend matters of narrow party policy. It then elaborates what kinds of material are still likely to find themselves cut from films, and more particularly DVDs, in contemporary Britain, even in the adults-only ‘18’ and ‘R18’ categories, and, more importantly, explain the reasons behind such acts of censorship. Sexual violence is a theme that has continued to preoccupy the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and is one of the most common reasons for cuts at the ‘18’ and ‘R18’ levels. 2009 saw the passing of the Coroners and Justice Act, sections 62 to 68 of which criminalise possession of what is termed a ‘prohibited image of a child’.
