Sexual consumption within sexual labour: producing and consuming erotic texts and sexual commodities

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Porn Studies on 7-9-2015, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1051308This paper explores the various connections between two particularly feminized fields of sexual culture – erotic fiction and sex toys – through an examination of the accounts of five UK women who are both readers and writers (or producers) of erotic fiction. The qualitative data evidence, first, a network of production and consumption across the fields of erotica and sex toys, and, second, the formulation of erotica writing/producing as a form of implicit sex work in which sexual commodities are mobilized. Analysis is divided into three themes: ‘informing sexual knowledge’, in which the educative function of erotica is examined, particularly around sex-toy use; ‘mobilizing sexual experiences’, in which I argue that writing erotica involves mobilizing one's body and sexual experience to add value to the product; and ‘managing emotional risks’, in which the emotion, identity and boundary management strategies particular to this form of implicit sexual labour are examined

Fashion and passion: marketing sex to women

Against a backdrop of a ‘pornographication’ of mainstream media and the emergence of a more heavily sexualized culture, women are increasingly targeted as sexual consumers. In the UK, the success of TV shows like Sex and the City and the ‘fashion ‘n’ passion’ of sex emporia like Ann Summers suggests that late twentieth century discourses which foregrounded female pleasure have crystallised in a new form of sexual address to women. This article examines how sex products are being marketed for female consumers, focussing on the websites of sex businesses such as Myla, Babes n Horny, Beecourse, tabooboo and Ann Summers. It asks how a variety of existing discourses – of fashion, consumerism, bodily pleasure and sexuality - are drawn on in the construction of this new market, how they negotiate the dangers and pleasures of sexuality for women, and what they show about the construction of ‘new’ female sexualities.</p

Sexed up: theorizing the sexualization of culture

This paper reviews and examines emerging academic approaches to the study of ‘sexualized culture’; an examination made necessary by contemporary preoccupations with sexual values, practices and identities, the emergence of new forms of sexual experience and the apparent breakdown of rules, categories and regulations designed to keep the obscene at bay. The paper maps out some key themes and preoccupations in recent academic writing on sex and sexuality, especially those relating to the contemporary or emerging characteristics of sexual discourse. The key issues of pornographication and democratization, taste formations, postmodern sex and intimacy, and sexual citizenship are explored in detail. </p

Who's the man? : Sammy Sosa, Latinos, and televisual redefinitions of the ''American'' pastime

Les joueurs de baseball originaires d'Amérique Latine sont de plus en plus nombreux dans la Ligue professionnelle américaine, revendiquant leur identité nationale tout en étant acceptés comme représentants du sport le plus étroitement lié avec l'identité de la blanche Amérique. Cette redéfinition s'opère en partie par les technologies du câble et du satellite faisant naître la possibilité de voir le baseball réduire le racisme. Mais la couverture médiatique est parfois nostalgique d'une conception plus limitée de la patrie et de la nation et met souvent l'accent sur la mobilité individuelle des joueurs, en taisant les raisons économiques et politiques qui ont conduit les joueurs latino-américains aux Etats-Unis. Etude de cas pour le joueur des Cubs de Chicago Sammy Sosa, devenu à la fois un héros national aux USA et en République dominicaine

The Pornographic Home: Women, Sex, and Everyday Life

343 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.I map connections between literary erotica and other technologies, including the computer, cable, and video. Women have had a longer, more productive history writing and reading erotica than they have in producing or watching visual porn; however, I also show how women as producers and consumers are increasingly entering and slowly redefining the traditionally male domain of pornography.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

The Pornographic Home: Women, Sex, and Everyday Life

343 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.I map connections between literary erotica and other technologies, including the computer, cable, and video. Women have had a longer, more productive history writing and reading erotica than they have in producing or watching visual porn; however, I also show how women as producers and consumers are increasingly entering and slowly redefining the traditionally male domain of pornography.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD