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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Investigating the Intertwined Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics of Queer Feminist Desires in Pornographic Media
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Projects & Abstracts
2015-10-01
2021-09-21
2015-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Alessandra Mondin
2015/10/01
University of Sunderland
2036-461X
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Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Investigating the Intertwined Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics of Queer Feminist Desires in Pornographic Media
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/16436/16791
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Investigating the Intertwined Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics of
Queer Feminist Desires in Pornographic Media
Alessandra Mondin / Ph.D. Thesis Project1
University of Sunderland




   In the early 1980s feminist porn emerged with the intention of differentiating
itself from mainstream pornography and its representations of gender and sexu-
ality. A key feature of such differentiation has been the focus on representing
female pleasure and through the definition of women’s sexuality from a woman’s
point of view. Especially from the early 2000s the productions of feminist porn
have been more and more diverse, shaping the field through the challenge of
‘dominant representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, age,
body type, and other identity markers.’2 The varied output of the recent years
have provided with an array of material that could be labelled ‘queer feminist
porn’.
   My project focuses specifically on this porn niche since its aims are to trouble,
question, and complicate the hegemonic (hetero- and homo-) normative repre-
sentations of identities, pleasures and desires present in society and mainstream
pornography. The project explores how these texts go beyond the female/wom-
an production-point of view-desire-viewership narratives found in some earlier
examples of feminist porn. In addition, the research attempts to gauge how this
audiovisual material might also queer the production, distribution, and recep-
tion of porn and assess how new forms of pornographies aspire to transform this
cultural practice.
   The research uses mixed-methods and an interdisciplinary approach in order
to give a more exhaustive account of queer feminist pornographies, their pro-
duction and consumption. In the first instance, the research proceeds with tex-
tual and media analyses of various pornographic audiovisual texts produced by
feminists or with feminist intent, assessing them in terms of content and repre-
sentation, media coverage, critique, production, distribution, funding and recep-
tion. These texts seem to trouble the boundaries between identity categories; art,
erotica and porn; amateur, pro-am and professional realms; indie/alt and main-

1
  Ph.D. dissertation supervised by Professor Clarissa Smith. For information: alessandra.mon-
din@research.sunderland.ac.uk and www.feministdesires.com.
2
  The Feminist Porn Book. The Politics of Producing Pleasure, ed. by Tristan Taormino and others
(New York: The Feminist Press, 2013), p. 9.

                                                        Cinéma & Cie, vol. XV, no. 25, Fall 2015
                                      Alessandra Mondin


stream; the public and the private realms of new pornographic homemade digital
productions and the aesthetic boundaries of art house productions; art and activ-
ism; and the borders of the national and the transnational. In addition, keeping
in mind the recent developments of queer methodologies,3 the texts open for
analysis could also be some that have not been created with a feminist or a queer
framework in mind, but that have been ‘queered’ by the audience’s readings.4
Some of the texts analysed have also circulated, gained attention through and
been acknowledged by feminist porn events, like the Canadian Good For Her
Feminist Porn Awards (2006–present) and the Berliner PorYes (2009–present),
whose manifestos and awards reshape discourses on pornography and set the
criteria for feminist porn. Moreover, since feminist porn makers wish to inter-
vene in the field of porn and the representation of women and queer sexualities,
the project seeks to investigate if and how this type of pornographic material
helps to give more visibility to what it means to be queer, and provide a sense of
community and identity. Some of my example texts were state funded, where-
as others have partnership deals with mainstream porn companies and others
are funded independently. Thus, another aspect of the research is to appraise
what role funding plays in the production of feminist pornography and what
outcomes might it have in terms of representation and reception. Since its birth
feminist porn could be seen as a reaction to the mainstream, it would be useful
to consider where individual productions are now positioned in relation to main-
stream pornography and in relation to feminist pornography. Furthermore, the
different aesthetics of queer feminist pornographies and their visual genealogies
and repertoires are examined to see how representations of women and queer’s
sexualities are shaped in the texts.
   At the heart of the investigation also stands what ‘ethical’, ‘feminist’ or ‘queer’
porn mean for those who produce under those labels and for those who choose
to consume, and how queer feminist pornography stands in terms of ethics, aes-
thetic and politics. To address these questions, semi-structured interviews will
be held with producers, directors, performers, and other key players. Moreo-
ver, a web-based questionnaire (www.feministdesires.com) intends to assess the
experience of viewers of queer feminist pornographies. The responses will be
examined to trace patterns and understandings of the politics, ethics and impor-
tance of pornography produced with an explicitly feminist politics. In addition,
the participants of the questionnaire are invited to engage in follow-up semi-
structured interviews. This exploration aims to explore discourses and practices
around feminist desires.
   My research applies phenomenology to the area of porn studies through the
analyses of the lived experiences of their viewers with their interpretation and


3
  Queer Methods and Methodologies. Intersecting Queer Theories and Social Science Research, ed. by
Kath Browne and Catherine J. Nash (Ashgate: Farnham and Burlington, 2010).
4
  Janet Ward, ‘Queer Feminist Pigs: A Spectator’s Manifesta’, in The Feminist Porn Book. The
Politics of Producing Pleasure, ed. by Taormino and others, pp. 130–39.

134
                Investigating the Intertwined Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics


use of the texts. The importance of having an aesthetic that is connected with
embodiment is crucial to convey the political and ethical aims of this feminist en-
terprise, because, as Sobchack argues, a sense of embodiment is fundamental in
order to invoke a sense of ethics.5 The research investigates how queer feminist
pornographic audiovisuals are able to engage with different lived experiences
and embodiments through their aesthetics, but also how they create a feminist
ethics regarding porn and representation, which appeals to authenticity and in-
clusivity while, at the same time, expanding the boundaries of representations of
lived experience. Sobchack argues that spectatorship works by rebounding off
the sensual experience represented on screen and returning to the spectator’s
own body.6 Hence, it is also the aesthetic itself that helps to convey the politi-
cal aims of avowedly feminist pornography. From this perspective, it becomes
crucial to analyse audiences’ experiences of queer feminist porn. In doing so,
Ahmed’s queer phenomenology is pivotal particularly because it engages with
the matter of sexual orientation through the question: ‘What difference does
it make “what” or “who” we are orientated toward in the very direction of our
desire?’7 Following Ahmed, the focus is on how the body is orientated in space
and time, how bodies are shaped through what and how they desire, how queer
feminist porn and its politics, ethics and aesthetics dislocate and relocate lived
experiences, and how politics of disorientation can put pleasure and desire with-
in reach.
   Ultimately, the research’s main goal is to put in conversation these methods
to assess what is queer feminist porn, what kind of relationship this audiovisual
material has with feminist desires, how it interprets and constructs those desires,
and how the aesthetics, ethics and politics of feminist desires are performed and
are interconnected.




5
  Vivian Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2004).
6
  Ibidem.
7
  Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Durham, London: Duke
University Press, 2006), p. 1.

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