Porn, Pleasure and Power: Boys, Girls and Masturbation
摘要
This chapter examines young people’s entanglement with porn as a dynamic assemblage. Through the use of photo-elicitation, drawings, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with young people (aged 16 to 19), this study finds that young people’s intra-actions with porn produce capacities to affect; that is, the potential for enhancing sexual pleasure where porn is used as a masturbatory aid. Such capacities for sexual pleasure challenge dominant narratives of porn which tend to portray it exclusively as a realm of danger. However, gender norms surrounding pornographic representation of young people’s bodies, in particular those of young girls, act as territorialising forces that curtail and subordinate their sexual becomings. This chapter advocates for a perspective that views young people’s intra-action with porn as fluid and transformative, constantly evolving and enmeshed with human and more-than-human elements. This perspective provides insights that can shape and inform how we might address and promote the ongoing fluidity in young people’s sexual cultures and practices.