Hard-core Intimate. Performative Sexual Transgression in the Amateur Porn Industry

Actress Rashida Jones premiered her documentary ‘Hot Girls Wanted’ during this year’s Sundance Festival. The movie has since May 29th of 2015 been available on Netflix. Jones reported on the recent surge in amateur porn production on the Internet, by following a number of young girls employed by the porn industry. Audiences of pornography seem to prefer the performances of young ‘real girls’, instead of more sophisticated productions with professional actors and elaborate film crew. The porn industry capitalized on this market demand with the increase in ‘amateur’ material available on the Internet. The recent rise in amateur porn on the Internet shows a decisive turn in what we want to see, but also in the way we experience sexuality in general.

For the documentary Rashida Jones, daughter of the legendary Quincy Jones and actress best known for her role as Ann Perkins on TV-series ‘Parks and Recreation’, followed 5 girls in the amateur porn industry. The movie followed a Miami based production company that employs young girls between the ages of 18 and 21, who were approached by adds on Craigslist (hence the title). In relation to the article ‘Studying Porn Cultures’ by Lynn Comella , we will answer Comella’s proposal for ‘Porn Studies-in-action’. In ‘Porn Studies-in-action’ the scope of pornography research is broadened by taking into account all aspects and agents involved in pornography production, distribution and consumption, to see how porn cultures are involved in the production of cultural meaning (Comella 2014). Following Comella we will look at how the Internet affects both popular culture and the porn industries, which both are involved in a dual development of sexualisation and transgression. Jones’ documentary on amateur pornography will be used as an introduction to the field of pornography production, a field that may seem rather opaque and feel unfamiliar. In this essay we’ll be digging into the culture that brings forth the market for amateur porn; moreover we will expound how this relates to the general experience of sexuality.

The invention of new technologies in the media has always brought new dimensions of public life into the private sphere. Through the invention of radio the voices of politicians entered into our living rooms, and television enabled us to gaze at people from far-flung corners of the world. For both news and the entertainment industries, the arrival of the Internet has heralded significant changes in what enters our private lives.

The Internet diffuses the borders between public and private; one of the results of this development is celebrity gossip news. The Internet has opened up opportunities for the even more continuous and graphic depiction of celebrities’ private lives; paparazzi photographers and gossip blogs monitor their every move. Celebrity life is on public display on the world wide web, in all their formerly intimate engagements. Personal hardship, family life, and even sex: all are online for the world to see.

Celebrity culture has become the epitome of the fusing of public and private life, and the entertainment industry capitalizes in this development. The entertainment industry depends on the ‘star status’ of their actors and musicians, but celebrity culture is in need of visual transgression in order to exist in its present form. The probing behind the public celebrity image, looking for titillating images of celebrities in their private lives, takes an act of transgression on behalf of the producers of these visuals and of its consumers.

One of the main topics in the fascination for the celebrity private life is that for nudity and sexuality. The significance of transgressing the boundaries of private sex, is emphasized by the remarkable career of Kim Kardashian, reality-TV star extraordinaire. Back in the 2000s Kardashian was a Los Angeles socialite of modest notoriety of which she had most to thank to her father, defense attorney Robert Kardashian, and a rather famous group of friends. Kardashian and her click of befriended it-girls, played into public demand for nudity when (among others) Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears were photographed ‘going commando’ when stepping out of their low-rise sports cars. In doing so, these women ‘accidentally’ exposed their private parts. Kardashian was one of the first in a series of celebrity sex tapes, of whom video material became widely available engaged in sexual intercourse. Kardashian’s private material was stolen, of her and her boyfriend Ray-J back in 2007. Un-expectantly (because of business savvy of her mother/agent Kris Kardashian), her career rocketed when the leaked material lead to a successful reality-TV-series.

The ongoing push towards transgressing the borders of celebrities’ private lives, transformed popular culture. Stars are obliged to reveal aspects of themselves, even if preferably kept private. However, the development is growing more violent. The severity of the violation of privacy became even clear with the recent hacks of celebrities’ telephones, including that of Ariana Grande, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, and model Cara Delevinge. The telephone hacks led to naked images involuntarily posted online. This clear violation of bodily integrity was described as a “sex crime”, and rightly so.

Through popular culture we see an aggressive and forced-upon sexualisation of young female celebrities that has become the norm rather than the exception. The complete breaching of the borders of private and public life, takes an act of transgression; society is obsessed with transgression. In pornography too, transgression has become on of the main fascinations of the public, leading to the recent surge in amateur porn.

The question if porn is good for women is asked since the Anti-Pornography Movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Feminist scholars Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon addressed the issue, and attempted to change legal postures towards porn. Feminist Porn Studies shows that sexualisation and de-subjectification of women is central in pornography. The pornographic performance of sex is based on a male fantasy; women are dehumanized and presented as sexual objects, things or commodities, based on the graphic depiction of subordination of women (MacKinnon and MacKinnon, 1988). There is little to no porn that departures from women’s fantasies and desires, and in which women take the position of the subject that around it the narrative is build. Even more, as Jones’ documentary points out, in ‘amateur porn’ the young girl-next-door fantasy resonates with objectified femininity. The girls are presented as naïve and gullible, sometimes dumb even, not acting out of their own desire but being seduced and dominated by their male co-stars.

The growing market for amateur porn shows a growing demand for transgressive sexualization of women, and this is worrisome in the following ways. Humans are sexual beings, this goes without question. Online pornography is a multibillion-dollar industry, often reaching people on a daily basis. Moreover porn has seeped into mainstream culture. But it is not just sexuality, but the fusing of sexuality and violence that makes up for the success of amateur porn. What differentiates amateur pornography is not the images of nudity or sex, because sex has already become a widespread commodity in our society. What makes amateur porn different is the performance of transgression: the actresses are presented as real girls, ie. non-professional, and as Jones’ documentary points out the actresses often have similar stories to the girls they portray. Amateur porn tries to capture images of real sex in a lived reality; it is presented as catching the girls ‘in the act’. Because transgression sells, amateur porn has shifted from alternative to mainstream pornography. Because transgression of the private borders is an act of violence, we are therefore speaking of the fusing of sex and violence in the porn industry.

So the recent rise in amateur porn marks the fusion of sex and violence on the Internet, but pornography also influences the general experience of sexuality. Pornographic images pervade society, and the Internet with its little regulation has made it possible to see video material of an ever increasing range divergent sexual practices and fetishes. We have come a long way since Juggs Magazine or Playboy were the main distribution channels. Moreover, ‘real life’ sexuality has more and more become the likeness of Internet pornography, of consumers developing a taste for ‘kink’, becoming dependent on or imitating what is shown on the Internet. Audiences of reality TV and amateur porn, are searching for authenticity in a world that has in a way become more fake than fake. Therefore it is not solely the responsibility of the consumer that demands this kind of material. Internet pornography producers have influenced the experience of sexuality to a degree that is disempowering to the consumer. Porn is omnipresent and although we can look away, it is impossible to hide from the cultural spaces that have been susceptible to ever-present pornofication.

Conclusion:

The rise of amateur porn is due to an increase in the market demand for violent transgression on both television and the Internet. Pornofication of popular culture has even led to realistic paths to fame, an expectation that the girls in amateur porn seem to play into even though their careers in the industry are usually short-lived. The question could be asked if there is something wrong with sex work, and if there should be put a stop to this? We do not wish to impose morale on anyone’s sexual conduct or the industry at large. The sex industry is in the top 3 of most influential 'companies' in world economy, next to the weapon and drugs industries. Prohibiting porn would induce crises to national economies of which there will be almost no recovering. But as we have shown, the amateur porn industry is not just representing sex. More importantly amateur porn is representing violence towards women. In light of this reconceptualization, it becomes clear that the amateur porn industry has to answer to a new whole new set of responsibilities.

Tweet: Violating the bodies of ‘hot girls’ isn’t sexy. Make love, not porn. #hotgirlswanted @IamRashidaJones

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Bibliography:

Comella, Lynn (2014), ‘Studying Porn Cultures’, in Porn Studies 1 (1-2), pp. 64-70.

Dworkin, Andrea and Catherine MacKinnon (1988), Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women’s Equality, Minneapolis: Organizing Against Pornography.

http://news.yahoo.com/rashida-jones-talks-amateur-porn-industry-documentary-with-katie-couric-203552949.html (accessed on 11-6-2015).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/celebrities-go-commando-stars-underwear_n_1971411.html (accessed on 11-6-2015).