PornSexual Orientation: Porn Dependent Sexuality in the Digital Age: Porn is the new sexuality: 1

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Mansell, R. (1999). New media competition and access the scarcity-abundance dialectic. New Media & Society, 1(2), 155–182.

One heavily contested potential risk is that of pornography addiction. One study observing problematic pornography use (PPU) found that brain activation in people with PPU was accompanied by increased behavioral motivation to view erotic images. In other words, those with PPU subjects had a higher ‘want’ for viewing cues related to erotic pictures. The gaze is discussed theoretically in both art and cinema, in European art, the nude woman is often looking out of the painting. The gaze that she is seducing with her naked body is assumed, male. As John Berger explains “she is not naked as she is, she is naked as the spectator sees her” (Berger, 2008:44) therefore suggesting her body is not her own instead it is a “spectacle” (Stratton, 1996:109) of male desire and affection. Women are not only watched through the camera lens, but it is also through the media and to be gazed continuously at on the street. The male gaze sees women like they are an animal in a circus, to not just be visible, but also experienced and displayed (Stratton, 1996:109) like a trophy. But women are not just watched by others, they are also constructed to survey themselves. This is similar to Michel Foucault who described the increased social control of society developing from bio-power. He suggests individuals “voluntarily control themselves by self-imposing conformity to cultural norms through self-surveillance and self-disciplinary practices” (Pylypa, 1998:22) meaning people have a desire to conform to what society says is normal and therefore end up surveying themselves. Female director Jill Solloway argues women “don’t write culture, we are written by it” ( TIFF Talks, 2016), women are therefore constructed to survey themselves and as a result, become an object of their gaze and the gaze of others. Another reason why women are limited to the object and men are the ones holding the gaze is that “we don’t learn to see beauty in men’ that men are never even placed in that category” (Redfern & Aune, 2010:69). Lazzarato, M. (1996). Immaterial labour. In S. Makdidi, C. Casarino, & R. Karl (Eds.), Marxism beyond Marxism. London: Routledge. Sometimes it can take lots of experimenting by yourself ( masturbation) or with your partner to become comfortable and familiar with the different parts of your anatomy and what feels good for you. The Labia Library has a diagram that provides a basic breakdown of female genitals External Link .Consent is about communication and it should happen every time you engage in sexual activity with another person. Lewis, R. (1994). Dis-graceful images: Della Grace and lesbian sado-masochism. Feminist Review, 46 (Sexualities: Challenge & Change (Spring, 1994)), 76–91. Likewise, frequent exposure to pornography changes the brain’s reward center. It incites a person to watch more porn but produces less pleasure. The effect is exactly the same as that of addictions. That is, a person needs to consume more of a substance to obtain a level of pleasure similar to the one they previously obtained. Mccabe, J. (2005). Suicide girls’ exodus. F-Word [blog]. 23 November. http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2005/11/suicide_girls_e. Accessed 3 August 2011.

My recent research reveals the way in which pornography can come to dominate heterosexual men's sexual encounters with women. Pornography is generally thought of as a solitary activity yet our research shows the more frequent viewing of the pornography is associated with greater reliance on and preference for the pornographic script during interpersonal sexual encounters. Our research shows, among college-aged heterosexual men, 51 percent masturbated to pornography several times per week, 19 percent use it several times per month and 13.5 percent use it daily. Men who watched more pornography deliberately conjured up pornographic images to maintain arousal during sex and preferred pornography over real-life sexual encounters. In other words, pornography is not mere fantasy for men; instead, it shapes how they engage in intimate behaviors. Lury, C. (2006). ‘Contemplating a self-portrait as a pharmacist’ a trade mark style of doing art and science. In M. Fraser, S. Kember, & C. Lury (Eds.), Inventive life: Approaches to the new vitalism (pp. 93–110). London: Sage.

Bey, H. (1991). The temporary autonomous zone, ontological anarchy, poetic terrorism, the hermetic library at hermetic.com. http://hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html. Accessed 29 July 2009. Ryan, E. G. (2013). Selfies aren’t empowering: They’re a cry for help. Jezebel November 21. http://jezebel.com/selfies-arent-empowering-theyre-a-cry-for-help-1468965365. Accessed 25 March 2014. Movies and pornography can show men being dominant or aggressive during sex, whereas women may be shown as submissive or passive. Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to my supervisor/tutor Bev, you were so incredibly supportive, kind, encouraging and never failed to make me laugh. I’m so glad I retook the year just purely for having the honour to work with you. The three critical areas of focus I explore are the views of anti-pornography feminist activists and questioning their strategies on how to stop the objectification of women in Porn. I explore societies perceptions of female sexuality and question if Feminist Pornography could make a significant impact on social attitudes to Porn, female sexuality and sex. Lastly, I have explored what defines the Female gaze, the benefits of it, and if there is a gender difference in the gaze used.

The fundamental question surrounding porn – which resurfaces every time a violent crime involves the perpetrator’s porn use – is whether it has the power to encourage, normalise or even trigger acts of rape and sexual violence. Pasquinelli, M. (2010). The masochism of the commodity form: Queer porn and the fine art of paradox. In ICI, Desiring Just Economies conference, Berlin, 26–26 June 2010. http://matteopasquinelli.com/docs/Pasquinelli_Commodity_Masochism.pdf. Accessed 1 August 2011.Everything about the sex scene is discussed in advance and agreed-upon with the performers in the pre-production process. They tell us their boundaries, the type of sex that they like to have, what they would like to try, what they don’t like to do during sex, who they want to work with, who they don’t want to work with… Everything in the sex scene comes from the performers” (Kear, 2020: Interview with Erika Lust). Jacobs, K. (2010). No Title. Interviewed by Aristea Fotopoulou [Skype Voip recording] Brighton – Hong Kong, 7 February 2010. Marlene Dumas (b1953) has been called ‘the world’s most interesting figure painter’. Her beautifully painted works, which can be seen in museums worldwide, explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, while borrowing from popular culture, art history and current affairs. She draws from her extensive archive of images collected over the years, as well as photographs she has taken. ‘Second-hand images,’ she has said, ‘can generate first-hand emotions.’ Third-wave feminism of the 1990s acted as a continuation of the second wave, questioning the media’s opinions on beauty, womanhood, sexuality, femininity and masculinity and how it influences young women. There is more of a focus on diversity and seeing women’s lives as intersectional, incorporating race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, and nationality and the importance of being a feminist. Our next article, currently out for review, explores the cognitive dissonance embedded in women's relationship to pornography. Results indicate that while a majority of women have seen pornography (87 percent), most (52 percent) reported no current consumption. Among those who did report current pornography use, consumption was associated with increased incorporation of and reliance on pornographic sexual scripts during dyadic sexual encounters as well as increased concerns over sexual performance and body image. We conclude pornographic scripts create a heuristic model of sexuality most women avoid but, among those who do engage with the script, the impact was very similar to that of men.