User:Dyi1234/Queer pornography

Queer pornography is the portrayal of sexual activity between people of various gender identities and sexual orientations for the purpose of sexual arousal. It seeks to subvert heteronormative and homonormative standards that are common within the industry. Scholar Chauntelle Tibbals writes, "queer porn... [explores] genres in ways infrequently seen in other sexually explicit content." As such, it challenges gender and sexual binaries while still aiming to sexually arouse the viewer. Participants commonly define queer pornography not through the sexual acts performed, but rather the sexual and gender identities of the actors and producers.

This form of pornography is distinct from other forms of porn, such as gay pornography, as it attempts to operate outside the span of traditional porn categories and normalized standards regarding gender and sexuality. Elements of homonormativity in gay pornography include establishing clear binary gender identities with a masculine performer contrasted against an effeminate performer. Heteronormative standards include how pornography is often depicted through the male gaze and emphasizes pleasure from the perspective of a male; according to scholar Niels van Doom, a masculine, heteronormative "pornoscript" is adhered to within pornography, and this paradigm establishes how sexual pleasure is visualized. In addition, trans people, especially women, are often fetishized within the pornography industry due to it being seen as taboo; the coming of mass video accessibility made pornography that specifically fetishizes trans people and women more available to the mainstream. Queer pornography seeks to challenge these norms through the means by which it is produced and through the queer identities of the performers and producers.

Queer pornography is a relatively new phenomenon but has gained traction within the pornography industry through studios such as Pink and White Productions and Trouble Films.

Objectives

As an alternative to mainstream porn, queer pornography seeks to subvert common tropes within mainstream pornography such as gender binaries by giving greater representation to sexual minorities. This has been credited with creating a more inclusive scope within the space of pornography. Experts in the fields of media studies, queer studies, and gender studies have recognized the role of pornography in molding the sexuality of both heterosexual and queer individuals. Pornography is a means of learning about sex and encompasses gender, sexual aesthetics, and sexual identities. As such, pornography acts as an important point of reference for sex-related subjects and reinforces understanding of the aforementioned, such as how sexuality is viewed. Consumers of queer pornography are thus able to create or reinforce a "queer imagination" and derive erotic pleasure from queer spaces that are not normally sexualized. This is most commonly done by including and portraying the diversity of queer bodies inherent in queer spaces that are given little to no representation in other forms of pornography.

Academic Shira Tarrant states, "The emphasis in queer porn is authentic desire and sexual representation; thus there tends to be diversity in body size, abilities, sex acts, kink, people of color, as well as the level of performers’ experience—meaning there is professional and amateur crossover."

Production

Queer pornography is commonly produced with greater collaboration between the producer and participants than other forms of pornography. With other forms of pornography, the producer and director have the majority of creative control of pornos, such as what happens in each scene, and who and what type of bodies are showcased within the film. Queer pornography allows for greater freedom and collaboration between the producer, director, and the performers directly involved in each scene.

Trans auteurs are also given greater representation within the queer pornography space as producers and directors. They are allowed to create pornographic media while being given greater forms of autonomy to experiment with aesthetics and genre that challenge the existing pornography landscape, such as addressing the exploitative nature of the porn industry's fetishization of trans people.

Challenges

Although queer pornography attempts to go against the norm with regards to standards set within the porn industry, struggles still continue. Heteronormative elements of standard pornography may still be depicted and normalized; elements of submission and dominance are still common, which can metaphorize gender binary stereotypes. However, the action of introducing heteronormative elements into queer pornography also acts as a means of challenging gender norms inherent within mainstream pornography through subversive repetition.

Due to the ubiquity of free adult content online, queer pornography studios have struggled. Aggregator sites such as PornHub and YouPorn host free and pirated adult content, and online communities often direct one another to pirated forms of pornography, leaving sex workers and studios with little to no monetary gain for their work. This has caused studios such as Pink and White Studios to receive little revenue while still paying performers working for them.

Queer pornography also continues to face challenges due to its limited reach for global audiences. This is in part due to the inability to find queer pornography online, as queer productions of adult content are easily outnumbered and marginalized on most search engines and aggregator sites. However, queer pornography is based on a now globalized LGBTQ+ identity that originates from the Euro-American experience with limited room for other audiences. As a result, for audiences with limited exposure to gender and sexual politics and activism regarding LGBTQ+ issues due to issues such as societal standards or a lack of sex education, the concept of queer or "feminist" pornography for such audiences is not known and novel to them. Instead, queer pornography is almost entirely foreign and inaccessible. Mainstream and mostly heterosexual pornography is consumed instead, which further shapes one's understanding of their identity with regards to sexuality and navigating queer spaces.

Notable people and films

Buck Angel - American pornographic film actor and producer

Jiz Lee - American pornographic performer

Dylan Ryan - American pornographic actress

Allanah Starr - American pornographic actress

Drew Deveaux - Canadian pornography actor and transgender activist

Mirha-Soleil Ross - Canadian transsexual videographer, sex worker and activist

April Flores - American pornographic actress and director

Tristan Taormino - American adult film director and activist

Richard Dyer - British academic, queer theorist, and film critic

Dirty Diaries - collection of thirteen short films of feminist pornography made by Swedish activists

Further reading and information

Queer theory

Gender studies

Burke, Nathaniel B. (2016-07-02). "Straight-acting: gay pornography, heterosexuality, and hegemonic masculinity". Porn Studies. 3 (3): 238–254.

Koller, Veronika (2015-01-01). "The subversive potential of queer pornography: A systemic-functional analysis of a written online text". Journal of Language and Sexuality. 4 (2): 254–271.

Lee, Byron (2014-01-01). "It's a question of breeding: Visualizing queer masculinity in bareback pornography". Sexualities. 17 (1–2): 100–120.

Milani, T.M. (Ed.). (2014). Language and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations (1st ed.). Routledge.