Porn Empowerment: Negotiating Sex Work and Third Wave Feminism

Authors

  • Nina K. Martin Emory University, Georgia, has written on the relationship between hard-core pornography, comedy, and feminism for Peter Lehman's edited volume Pornography: Film and Culture, and her book Sexy Thrills: Undressing the Erotic Thriller, which examines the relationship between soft-core pornography, sex work, and feminism, is forthcoming.

Abstract

This article examines the ubiquitousness of sexy female bodies in popular culture, and assesses what impact the mainstreaming of porn and sex work has on feminism and female empowerment, exploring the ironic tension between the feminist struggle to freely express oneself sexually through sex work and its co-optation and selling by pop culture to young women as a sexy, empowered lifestyle choice. Résumé Cet article examine l'omniprésence des corps de femmes sexy dans la culture populaire, et évalue l'impact qu'ont l'intégration de la porno et de l'industrie du sexe sur le féminisme et l'émancipation de la femme, en explorant la tension ironique entre la lutte féministe pour pouvoir s'exprimer sexuellement librement par l'entremise de l'industrie du sexe et sa cooptation, et sa vente par la culture populaire aux jeunes femmes comme étant un choix de style de vie sexy, émancipé.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Downloads

Published

2007-09-09

Issue

Vol. 31 No. 2 (2007): "Sexy Feminisms"

Section

Original Research

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors are aware that articles published in Atlantis are indexed and made available through various scholarly and professional search tools, including but not limited to Erudit.

3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to preprint their work, that is, post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Read more on preprints here.