Pornography and Pop Culture: Reframing Theory, Re-thinking Activism
March 23-25
Wheelock College
Boston, MA
Registration is free
The so-called “porn wars” that were fought over the feminist critique of contemporary mass-marketed pornography derailed important academic and activist work. It is time to move on by reframing our thinking on pornography, especially in light of the important changes that have occurred in both technology and pop culture over the past two decades.
In the world of the internet, cell phone porn, shock jocks and sexually degrading reality TV, the central insights of the critical feminist perspective are more important than ever. What was once called soft-core pornography has become the norm in mainstream pop culture, while hard-core porn has become increasingly accepted and increasingly misogynistic. What do such economic and cultural shifts mean for feminist theory and activism, and how can we rebuild a vibrant feminist movement that addresses the harms of misogynist images that help define our culture, our visual landscape and our sexuality?
These issues will be addressed at a national conference on March 23-25, 2007, at Wheelock College in Boston. Titled “Pornography and Pop Culture: Reframing Theory, Rethinking Activism,” this conference will
- feature recent feminist theory and research on pornography, prostitution and pop culture, and
- provide space for collaborative discussion on how we can prepare the ground for building a broad-based, energized and vibrant feminist movement that can address the harms of pornographic images in the context of a more general political and cultural crisis.
THE AGENDA INCLUDES:
Friday, March 23: Opening Conference Event
7:30-9:30 p.m.–Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture
Screening and Discussion with Beyond Beats and Rhymes filmmaker, Byron Hurt.
Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Rap Music–a 2006 Sundance Film Festival selection–is a riveting PBS documentary that examines representations of manhood, sexism and homophobia in Hip-Hop culture. Through interviews with influential artists, producers and fans, Hurt challenges both the sexism of Hip-Hop and the historical and contemporary racist impulse to displace the sexism of the entire society onto black men.
Saturday, March 24: Pornography and Pop Culture: Reframing Theory
9:00-9:15 a.m.: Welcome
9:15-10:00 a.m.: Not Your Father’s Playboy and Not Your Mother’s Feminist Movement: Contemporary Feminism in a Porn Culture
Rebecca Whisnant, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Dayton
Rebecca Whisnant compares second-wave analyses of pornography to responses that have been common in self-described third-wave feminism. She argues that although there are ways in which second-wave radical feminist analyses need updating to address a new generation with different experiences of, and relationships to, pornography, the second-wave radical feminists provided the most compelling ways to understand pornography. She suggests ways of articulating these second-wave insights that can speak to girls and women of all ages (as well as to their male counterparts). To fail in this effort, she suggests, is to abandon young women to a worldview that leaves them vulnerable to exploitation while depriving feminism of its revolutionary moral core.
10:00-11:00 a.m.: Real Men, Real Choices
Robert Jensen, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin
Scholars defending pornography often analyze texts in ways disconnected from the reality of how male consumers use the material–as a masturbation facilitator in which there is little “interrogation” of the “transgressive” possibilities of images of women objectified and degraded sexually. Such scholars also often assert that because the women choose to perform, any criticism of the industry is implicitly criticism of those women. These simplistic defenses must be challenged by investigating the conditions under which women choose and then focusing on the real question of choice: Why do men choose to seek sexual satisfaction in images of women being dominated and humiliated in sexual contexts?
11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Pornography and Pop Culture: Putting the Text in Context
Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and American Studies, Wheelock College
Porn and pop culture have, over the years, increasingly become more entwined, financially and discursively. However, during this same period, much of academic theory and research on pornography has isolated and decontextualized the pornographic text by ignoring the politics of production and consumption. In this presentation, Dines develops a framework, drawing from radical feminism ,Cultural Studies and Black Studies, for understanding pornography as both an industry and a discourse that constructs identity within an image-based society characterized by gender, race and class inequality.
2:00-3:15 p.m.: Pornography, Prostitution, and Sex Trafficking: How Do You Tell the Difference?
Melissa Farley, Director, Prostitution Research and Education, San Francisco
Rachel Lloyd, Director, Girls’ Educational and Mentoring Services
Lloyd and Farley will discuss the evidence for pornography as harm to women, as educational material for men, and as sex trafficking. Documenting the sexual exploitation and abuse of women in prostitution, pornography can’t be separated from prostitution and trafficking. Pornography teaches incest perps, rapists, and johns, how to treat women. Mainstreaming prostitution to younger and younger men, pimps advertise to johns via the Internet. As pimps turn them out, pornography teaches girls what acts to perform with johns. Today, pornography is one way that women are trafficked.
3:30-5:00 p.m.: Analyzing the Pornographic Text: Charting and Mapping Pornography through Content Analysis
Ana Bridges, University of Arkansas
Erica Scharrer, UMass Amherst
Robert Wosnitzer, New York University
One of the limitations of the discussion of the content of hardcore pornography has been the lack of large-scale content analyses. An extensive new study of mainstream hardcore pornography–the most important content analysis in more than a decade–will provide an important base from which to evaluate the messages in pornography. The researchers…have created a sophisticated coding protocol that was applied to 50 of the most popular hardcore films, and the results reveal much about the deep misogyny of the industry. Members of the research team will give the conference a preview of some of the key findings that will be appearing in future publications. The panel will also include a discussion of the issues encountered by the coding team who spent many hours viewing pornography.
7:00-9:00 p.m.: ‘Fantasies’ Matter: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships. Screening and Discussion with filmmaker Chyng Sun
This provocative new film–which includes interviews with pornography producers, performers, and consumers, as well as with scholars, critics, and activists–takes an honest look at the increasingly important role of pornography in contemporary culture. Industry insiders explain what making pornography is really like, while those who use it talk honestly about its effects on their lives. In a culture that either celebrates pornography as liberation or condemns it as immoral, never has it been more important to assess honestly the role of sexually explicit material in our everyday lives without fear of where that exploration takes us. “Fantasies’ Matter” offers viewers a route into these crucial questions.
Sunday March 25: Pornography and Pop Culture: Rethinking Activism
9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon: Talking about Pornography in a “Pornified” Culture
Many feminist critics of pornography were originally drawn to the issue through exposure to the early anti-pornography slideshows. Few methods have proved as effective in introducing people to a critical feminist analysis of pornography. However, the last decade or so has seen massive changes in the pornography industry–its content, its technologies, and its relationship to mainstream pop culture–which render those early slideshows inadequate tools for contemporary anti-pornography education and activism.
To help build a movement that speaks to the realities of our contemporary Internet-based, “pornified” society, Gail Dines, Rebecca Whisnant and Robert Jensen have developed a new anti-porn slide presentation consisting of Powerpoint images, an accompanying script, and a Q+A guide. This show is now being distributed to organizations and individuals involved in feminist activism, anti-violence work and educational outreach.
The morning workshop will begin with a presentation of the slideshow by Rebecca Whisnant and a feedback session from the audience. This will be followed by a “Q+A” practice session where the conference participants will take the lead in answering the typical questions that such shows generate. The goal is to collaboratively develop a language for talking about pornography in settings such as colleges, community centers, PTAs and anti-violence organizations. Copies of the script and Powerpoint will be available to those who have participated in this session and who wish to begin presenting the slideshow in their own communities.
1:00-3:00 p.m.: Building a new Feminist Anti-pornography Movement for the Twenty First Century: Goals, Coalitions, and Strategies to Aim for and Pitfalls to Avoid
Facilitated by the leadership team of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault
From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, the feminist anti-pornography movement put the issue of men’s sexual exploitation of women and children on the political map in dramatic fashion. But for more than a decade there has been little organized activism on the issue. How do we regain that momentum and move forward the work of changing the culture? Organizers from the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault will lead a workshop in which we will evaluate the resources available and strategize about the next steps. What is the role of existing institutions, such as rape crisis centers? How do we most effectively reach community groups? What kind of coalition building is possible? The ICASA staff will bring their experience in building an impressive statewide network on the issue of violence to the question of pornography.
3:30 p.m.: And now time to relax and talk informally
Party hosted by the conference organizing committee