In Quest of Better Porn

Since the apparition of home computers and the Internet in the early nineties, pornography has become significantly more accessible. From seemingly infinite numbers of websites providing free pornographic content, to the various platforms on which they can be viewed, pornography is no longer exclusive to magazines or restricted television channels. With regard to pornographic portrayals of ethnicity, body type, fetishes, and sexual practices, the same can be said: with a simple search using a few key words, every pornographic desire imaginable can be met online. Yet, we should not be so easily fooled by this imagined inclusivity. By studying online pornographic video providers and the protocols in which they operate, this essay will illustrate how members of the LGBTIQ community and racialized minorities are portrayed as fetishes and accessories to the pleasure of the cis-gender white male. Websites offering free and pirated videos uploaded by their users —Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube among others— will be the focus of this analysis. Despite efforts to infiltrate this exclusive domain on the part of artists, the independent porn industry, and female porn producers alike, these mainstream networks fail to represent a range of gender and sexualities.

The interfaces of online pornographic video-sharing websites are often particularly exclusionary to women, racial minorities and Queer individuals. Moreover, both the use of slurs to label the performers and evidence of hostile content further validates this exclusion. Many websites will display all sorts of visual content and links on their main pages—lesbian, hardcore and BDSM, among many— yet will separate content like male-on-male porn, and sometimes redirect the user entirely to a separate website featuring gay sex. Lesbian and feminist poet Adrienne Rich defines compulsory heterosexuality as a pillar of society, whereby non-heterosexual practices are marginalized.[1] The display methods and content strategies behind porn websites reinforce Queer relationships as viewed and conceptualized as marginal through a heteronormative lens.

Assuming audiences are heterosexual men as the norm affects non-binary and trans individuals. Pornhub, for example, not only features offensive “tranny” and “she-male” slurs on its main page, but numerous sexual acts portrayed on the network are automatically categorized under homosexual practices, demonstrating the website’s lack of understanding of gender and sexualities. An inclusion of imagery of trans-women in the straight section of the website, for example, would appropriately recognize trans women-as-women, regardless of their genitalia. Moreover, scholar and blogger M.W. Bychowski argues that by using titles like “tranny chasers” to identify viewers, the consumers of such content are identified in distinction from genuine partners of trans persons.[2] In these examples, the use of slurs to label performers is more than an insult, but rather demonstrates an ignorance toward the genders and sexualities of viewers and performers alike, excluding a wider range of people from these porn-sharing networks.[3]

This offensive labelling is not exclusive to trans women: many porn-hosting websites neglect Queer realities by reducing complex identities to mere fetishes. Though Queer theories no doubt ascribe many fluid definitions to “Queerness,” sadly the blatant mis-gendering and misunderstanding of Queer sexualities on online pornographic spaces only reinforces normative binaries of gender and sexuality. On the main page of Xtube, for example, the visitor is first asked if they are a man or a woman, then which sex they prefer, leaving little room for gender or sexual fluidity and certainly leaving no room for those who do not identify accordingly. This ignorance of Queer identities by porn-sharing websites is not limited to online spaces; at a 2009 adult entertainment award ceremony, genderqueer performer Jiz Lee won in the category of “Best New Web Starlet,” though this category was intended for female performers.[4]

Porn-sharing platforms further discriminate against non-Caucasian, Queer individuals by using racist signifiers and derogatory titling to organize content. Categories titled: “Ebony,” “Arab,” “Latina,” and “Asian” are common, yet no “White” category exists, assuming the majority of viewership is Caucasian as well. Most primarily-Asian content is classified under the umbrella term of  “Oriental,” hinting at what Post-Colonial theorist Edward Said would criticize as a discriminating over-simplification of race.[5] Self-proclaimed Black Feminist pornographer Sinnamon Love argues that Black performers are often separated into two opposing categories, either “…assimilated to appear as close to white as possible […] or completely ghettoized to reflect debased images of Black culture…”[6] Such a statement recognizes that pornographic content is often tailored to a white male-centered viewership, reinforcing the power of the white male through the domination of marginalized subjects.[7]

Another example of discriminatory content is the disturbing occurrence of “revenge porn” on many sites, proof of blatant misogyny online. This type of self-produced sexually-explicit video or image, originally produced within the private constraints of a consensual relationship, is shared with third parties to shame a sexual partner when that sexual relationship has ended. Here, women have been largely victimized in relation to men, pointing to what authors Michael Salter and Thomas Crofts address as “gender-based coercion.”[8] The phenomenon has gained such popularity that entire websites, such as My Ex and Ex GF Pics, were created accordingly.[9] While this type of content continues to circulate on porn-sharing websites, it is now possible for victims to report users and have content removed.[10] Whether this is an active effort to make online spaces safer for women or a strategy for hosting sites to avoid legal prosecutions, we cannot be sure. Nevertheless, by making gender-biased content readily accessible, women who want to be invested in the porn industry are constantly facing non-consensual settings. These same women are made to feel unwelcome by misogynist porn industry standards.

Though the current state of online porn-sharing spaces might alienate several groups, independent and Queer pornographic productions should be recognized for their efforts of inclusion in opposition to mainstream porn media. Many visual artists have used their artworks to critique the mainstream porn industry, and offer an alternative space to consider sexuality. Multimedia artist Faith Holland’s online project titled Porn Interventions (2014) infiltrate the online porn sphere by imitating the visual codes commonly found there. Her videos are uploaded to RedTube and draw viewers in using common tags like “solo girl,” “BBW,” and “amateur,” among others, but are then confronted with what the artist describes as “something critical, strange, and not very sexy.”[11] In another vein, artist Courtney Trouble’s independent porn websites Queerporn and The Crash Pad Series showcase erotic material across genders, body types and sexualities, and are particularly Queer and trans-friendly.[12] These examples demonstrate that it is entirely possible to advocate for individuals commonly left out of online networks, and integrate them into these platforms in a respectful manner that subverts mainstream porn-sharing practices.

My analysis of the treatment of trans and cis women, Queer individuals, and various racial minorities in online porn networks, bears the simple conclusion that such spaces are not welcoming. Derogatory categorization and labels used by Pornhub and Xtube further reinforce this exclusion. The tendency for pornographic videos to replicate and abide by heterosexual norms completely negates LGBTIQ sexualities. Trans women are also victims of this phenomenon, their identities simplified to mere fetish through mis-gendering and slurs. Racial minorities are also often labelled under racist terms, a phenomenon from which Caucasians —assumedly the norm— are safe from. In addition to all of these examples, the circulation of revenge porn on porn-sharing websites contributes to the online climate of hostility towards women. In response to such exclusions, independent porn producers and artists have attempted to challenge mainstream-porn platforms by advocating for Queer groups, racial minorities and women’s realities. Though the websites mentioned in this essay do not offer a desirable space for marginalized groups, the Internet as a medium certainly offers potentials for self-representation, networking and the creation of new spaces more exciting, respectful and inclusive of women, Queer individuals, and racial minorities.

 

Notes:

[1]Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” in Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism vol. 2, Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew, eds. (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005): 124.

[2] “Shemales: Desiring Transgender through the Porn Industry,” Transliterature: Things Transform, posted September 2015, accessed October 2, 2015, [thingstransform.com/2015/09/shemales-desiring-transgender-through.html].

[3] Ibid.

[4] Cherie Seise, “Fucking Utopia: Queer Porn and Queer Liberation,” Sprinkle: A Journal of Sexual Diveristy Studies 3 (2010):20.

[5] Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979)

[6] “Transforming Pornography: Black Porn for Black Women,” Guernica, posted on February 15, 2013, accessed October 12, 2015, [guernicamag.com/features/transforming-pornography-black-porn-for-black-women/].

[7] “Adult Star Janice Griffith Reveals the Racist Secrets of Porn Marketing,” Fusion, posted on July 18, 2015, accessed October 15, 2015, [fusion.net/story/168714/janice-griffith-interracial-porn-racism/].

[8] Micheal Salter and Thomas Croft, “Responding to Revenge Porn: Challenges To Online Legal Impunity,” in New Views On Pornography, Sexuality, Politics and The Law (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2005): 237.

[9] My Ex [myex.com]; Ex GF Pics [exgfpics.com].

[10] “Pornhub Makes It Easier To Report Revenge Porn,” The Verge, accessed November 2, 2015, [theverge.com/2015/10/13/9518029/pornhub-revenge-porn-reporting-page].

[11] Faith Holland [faithholland.com/portfolio_page/porn-interventions].

[12] Seise, “Fucking Utopia: Queer Porn and Queer Liberation,” 22-23.

 

Bibliography