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PN 240
Power and Disgust: Representations of the Aging Body in Contemporary Pornography
F. Attwood
1
, F. Zecca
2
1
Middlesex University, Media, London, United Kingdom
2
University of Udine, Udine, Italy
This paper aims at exploring the uses of the aging body in contemporary pornography. The generic assumption about pornography is that it represents
a world only inhabited by young, beautiful, “permatanned, waxed, bleached, artificially enhanced with silicon” bodies (Härmä and Stolpe 2010, 113). At
a closer glance, however, it is easy to see that the “variety of age, race, body type, and range of features in regards to cultural norms of beauty” (Lehman
2006, 13) encompassed by pornography is much wider than that. In particular, the aging body is widely represented in several pornographic genres and
niches, although in different forms and with different meanings and purposes. On the one hand, in fact, the aging body has always been employed by
distinct pornographic niches in order to cater to specific fetishes. This particular use of the aging body – which I define fetishistic – has grown exponentially
in the contemporary pornosphere, where the aging body has been appropriated by so-called mainstream pornography in a sort of categorizing “frenzy”
(granny porn, mature, older women, etc.), presenting it “via strategies of ‘enfreakment’, exposure or novelty rather than ‘inclusivity’” (Smith 2014, 66). On
the other, the proliferation of pornographies (Williams 2004) “exploded” after the digital turn has permitted to different body types (including the aging
body) to reach full discursive, political, and (sometimes) commercial visibility within the broad arena of pornography and adult entertainment. In specific
pornographic sub-genres and styles, such as amateur and queer pornography, the representation of the aging body – which I define inclusive – becomes
means of sexual self-expression and community building, also profiting from a widespread sharing culture and drawing on the new possibilities offered
by the most recent forms of digital production and distribution. Through the analysis of some distinguishing case studies, this paper will map the different
uses of the aging pornographic body, also considering it as a key to understand the power dynamics and dialectics at play in contemporary “pornographic
field”(Hunter, Saunders, andWilliamson 1993). References Härmä, Sanna, and Joakim Stolpe. 2010.“Behind the Scenes of Straight Pleasures.”In Porn.com:
Making Sense of Online Pornography, edited by Feona Attwood, 107–122. NewYork: Peter Lang. Hunter Ian, David Saunders, and DugaldWilliamson. 1993.
On Pornography: Literature, Sexuality, and Obscenity Law. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Lehman, Peter. 2006. “Introduction: ‘A Dirty Little Secret’ – Why Teach
and Study Pornography?”In Pornography: Film and Culture, edited by Peter Lehman, 1–21. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Smith, Clarissa. 2014.
“‘Its important that you don’t smell a suit on this stuff’: Aesthetics and Politics in Alt Porn.”In Porn after Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, ed‑
ited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, and Federico Zecca, 57–81. London-Milan: Mimesis International. Williams, Linda. 2004.“Porn Studies: Proliferating
Pornographies On/ Scene: An Introduction.”In Porn Studies, edited by LindaWilliams, 1–23. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
PN 241
So Mainstream, So Queer: Migrations of Identities, Representations, and Industrial Strategies in Contemporary US Pornography
F. Attwood
1
, G. Maina
2
1
Middlesex University, Media, London, United Kingdom
2
University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
After the so-called digital revolution, audio-visual pornography has been pushed towards a multiplication of production strategies, delivery channels,
and consumption practices that has been described by Linda Williams through the notion of “proliferating pornographies”(2004, 1–23). This proliferation
has undoubtedly enhanced the possibility of access to (and interaction with) the pornosphere for previously marginalized subjectivities and subcultures.
The quantitative expansion of pornography has therefore brought to a simultaneous process of qualitative differentiation in terms of representational
styles, aesthetics, identities and politics (Biasin et al. 2011, 13). A generation of “new porn professionals” (Attwood 2010) between independent and cor‑
porate production (Smith 2014), as well as an array of artists and activists (Stüttgen 2009; Ryberg 2012), has started to create ground-breaking explicit
representations that cater to new pornographic audiences, characterized by non-normative gender identifications, subcultural tastes, and a strong need
for participation and“authenticity”(Attwood 2012). These“alternative”pornographies (such as alt/indie porn, queer porn, post porn, and feminist porn) –
though extremely different from one another for their commercial positioning, aesthetics, and political drive – shape their cultural identity against the idea
of standardized mainstream-corporate pornography, placing themselves“after”and“beyond”porn itself (Biasin et al. 2014). In this paper I will briefly map
the constellation of alternative pornographies born after the digital turn, focusing on the ways in which these pornographic forms construct“oppositional”
representations of sexualities, genders, and bodies, at the same time intersecting, appropriating, re-signifying – and even influencing and changing – a se‑
ries of representational strategies and production/distribution practices typical of mainstream-corporate porn. References Attwood, Feona 2010.“‘Younger,
paler, decidedly less straight:’The New Porn Professionals.” In Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornogra- phy, edited by Feona Attwood, 88–104. New
York: Peter Lang. Attwood, Feona. 2012. “Art School Sluts: Authenticity and the Aesthet- ics of Alt Porn.” In Hard to Swallow: Hard-Core Pornography on
Screen, edited by Claire Hines and Darren Kerr, 42–56. London: Wallflower Press. Biasin, Enrico, Giovanna Maina, and Federico Zecca. 2011. “Introduzione.”
In Il porno espanso. Dal cinema ai nuovi media, edited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, and Federico Zecca, 9–20. Milan: Mimesis. Biasin, Enrico, Giovanna
Maina, and Federico Zecca. 2014.“Introduction.”In Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, edited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, and
Federico Zecca, 15–20. Milan: Mimesis International. Ryberg, Ingrid. 2012. Imagining Safe Space: The Politics of Queer, Feminist and Lesbian Pornography.
Stockholm: Acta. Smith, Clarissa. 2014. “‘Its important that you don’t smell a suit on this stuff:’Aesthetics and Politics in Alt Porn.” In Porn After Porn: Con‑
temporary Alternative Pornographies, edited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, and Federico Zecca, 57–81. Milan: Mimesis International. Stüttgen, Tim,
ed. 2009. Post / Porn / Politics. Queer_Feminist Perspectives on the Politics of Porn Performance and Sex_Work as Culture Production. Berlin: b_books.
Williams, Linda. 2004.“Porn Studies: Proliferating Pornographies On/ Scene: An Introduction.”In Porn Studies, edited by LindaWilliams, 1–23. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press.