User:Mhayashi95/sandbox

Ethnic Pornography

Controversy in American Pornography

Some scholars claim that African American women are especially subject to this racial fetishism within pornography. Mireille Miller-Young, professor of feminist studies at University of California in Santa-Barbara argues that while the porn industry hypersexualizes African American porn actresses, they are often paid less, hired less, and given less attention during health checks, than their white counterparts . Some scholars also argue that white women are upheld as the most-prized commodity in the industry, while black women are often devalued for their sex work, regardless of their perceived erotic abilities.

Interracial Pornography

Some scholars have written about porn actors’ interviews, in which the actors express their view that interracial pornography is a non-normative and transgressive form of overcoming racism . In Chapter 3 of her book Porn Studies, Linda Williams, professor in film, media and rhetoric at UC Berkeley, references the porn film Crossing the Color Line starring Sean Michaels and Christi Lakes. In the interview of this porn film, Michaels, an African American actor, and Lakes, a white actress, express their “color-blind” approach to interracial porn . However, scholars have identified a contradiction between these interviews and the subsequent performance, in which both actors make several references to the differences in skin color between them. For example, Lakes refers to Michael’s private parts as “big and black” . The argument presented by these scholars is that by advertently pointing out racial differences, these actors are making race the main point of intrigue for the audience, which perpetuates the idea that white women and black men are inherently unfit for each other, which is embedded in American history of slavery . Scholars argue that this eroticized sexual tension in such interracial pornography dates back to slavery of African Americans in which white owners kept white women and black men separate . This discourse is extended by scholars today, who argue that fear may be intermingled with sexual desires . There is a rhetoric that even argues that black men have an engrained fear of white women due to white women’s power over black men throughout American history . Linda Williams analyses this tension between fear and sexual desire in the 1984 porn video, Let Me Tell Ya ‘Bout White Chicks, which features three black men who appear sexually desperate . In this video that became universally famous, two of the black men tell of their sexual experiences with white women, while the third black male remains resistant, and eventually admits his fear of white women . Williams argues that this video marked an inception of a new genre of pornography that “reworks the phobic white fear of he black man’s sex, and the related fear of the white woman’s animalistic preference for that sex, in a pornographic fantasy that may have originated but is no longer ‘owned’ by the white man” . The argument she presents is that while this porn video could be interpreted as a white supremacist fantasy of a black man’s inherent animalistic nature and a white woman’s promiscuous nature for having intercourse with him, the video can also have a new interpretation – simply a black man’s fantasy of having sex with a white woman .

Gay Pornography

Bareback

There is a difference in the significance of the terms “barebacking” and “unprotected anal intercourse” . According to the academic journal What We Can’t See? Understanding the Representations and Meanings of UAI, Barebacking, and Semen Exchange in Gay Male Pornography by Mowlabocus et al., “barebacking” and “UAI” technically the mean the same thing, but have different connotations. With increased use of the term “barebacking” in media, the term has been taken on for marketing purposes because the fact that unprotected anal sex directly subjects one to HIV/AIDS is not explicitly implied as it is in the term UAI (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). Barebacking implies sexual liberation for those who practice anal sex because it is not directly connected to the risks that come with it. A sample size of 95 pornographic films was analyzed in a study and the results showed that a little under half of the sample featured UAI (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). In a study where participants were shown two different scenes featuring anal sex, the significance of the words bareback and UAI became apparent (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). The first scene featured group sex in which several men were on top engaging in intercourse with one man on the bottom (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). The men on top were in their mid-30’s and of varying ethnicities while the man on the bottom was around 18 years old (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). The second scene featured two men both in their 20’s in a living room setting. During the interview, the participants were much more reluctant to classify the second scene as bareback than they were for the first scene (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). Participants readily used “bareback” to describe the first scene in which there was a clear power difference and ethnicity difference. The participants described the second scene as being more “meaningful and romantic” and hence more likely to use a condom to protect the other (Mowlabocus et al., 1469, 2014). The implication of this study is that the term bareback ultimately does have a dark meaning as it relates to HIV/AIDS, regardless if it does not mention protection in its name (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). Thus, studies have shown that barebacking is decreasing in popularity within the gay subculture (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). Bareback pornography does not necessarily cause more UAI in reality, nor do all men who participate in anal sex necessarily want to have UAI (Mowlabocus et al., 2014). What is clear is that there is still a sense of risk among participants who engage in anal sex (Mowlabocus et al., 2014).

References

Mowlabocus, S., Harbottle, J., & Witzel, C. (2014). What We Can’t See? Understanding the Representations and Meanings of UAI, Barebacking, and Semen Exchange in Gay Male Pornography. Journal of Homosexuality.