The exercise of female sexuality between fantasy and discourse in the consumption of online pornography.
| Autor | Mesquit, Mayte Cabral |
| Cargo | Consumption of online pornography |
Introduction
According to the evolutionary line of consumption studies proposed by Ostergaard and Jantzen (2000), consumption currently takes on a profile that goes beyond a field related to productive forces, toward an act of maximization of utilities or an acquisition process. In a broader way, consumption became a term that seems to permeate the relationships between the society and the individual, whether in classification and social communication systems--such as in processes of identity formation--in ritualistic processes or in the creation of communities (Askegaard and Linnet, 2011). In such effort, it is possible to affirm that understanding the several types of consumption existing in the current social life enables the exhibition of individual and group characteristics, especially when it comes to noticing stigmas, prejudices, taboos and tensions present in social relations.
This way, the expansion of the concept of consumption ends up interweaving it with several processes and practices of the daily life, such as our relationship with objects, with food, with leisure and with entertainment moments; consumption becomes, therefore, also interwoven with the way through which we relate to our bodies and to other individuals regarding issues associated with gender, ethnics, economic classes and even with sexuality. Taking into account the latter information, there seems to be a wide spectrum of sexuality that is omnipresent in the daily life, which is strictly involved with consumption (Gould, 1991). Gould (1991) affirms that it is possible to realize a connection between sexuality and consumption in several different levels: in the sexual act per se and in the consumption of sex-related objects, as well as in exchanges among sexual partners; in the ritualistic use of consumption objects used to attract sexual partners; and in the development of sex drive in symbolic acts or simulations of the sexual act in dances, erotic and pornographic movies.
In the context of the symbolical act of the sexual intercourse, especially in the field of eroticism and pornography, it is important to emphasize that pornography is a way used to classify cultural productions within representations of sexuality as a mediatized business considered inferior and/or vulgar. Such characteristics are different from the ones related to the concept of erotic art, which indicates more elite and culturally valued products (Leite, 2012). This way, pornography can be related to materials (images, writings, objects, among others) that--when profit-geared and market-driven--are related to something vulgar, commercialized and massified (Gregori, 2012).
The issue that seems to emerge from such discussion is related to the statement that the consumption of pornographic material exposes and registers tensions, redefinitions and fissures of the normativeness related to gender and sexuality (Gregori, 2012). When transposing the reality of pornography consumption into the virtual or online world, the discussion becomes even more complex because, due to the current phenomenon of popularization of the Internet, the pornographic content is accessible to anyone, becoming part of the daily contemporary life.
Some market data confirm such statements. According to the Associacao Brasileira das Empresas do Mercado Erotico e Sensual1 (ABEME, 2018), in Brazil, there are currently 11,000 points of sale that generate, directly and indirectly, more than 100,000 job positions and present revenues of more than R$ 1 billion annually. Regarding online pornography, Pornhub, one of the largest and most visited adult websites, developed a database dedicated to the consumption statistics of their and their partners' websites (Redtube and Youporn). According to data presented by Pornhub, the website presents an average of 92 billion video views per year, that is, around 12.5 pornographic videos watched by one person on earth. There are more than 75 million accesses to Pornhub and over 27 billion visits per year; additionally, there are 10 million users registered at Pornhub. On the other hand, the Pornhub network, which includes the websites YouPorn and Redtube, has more than 115 million daily visits. It is worth mentioning that 72% of the accesses are accomplished through smartphones and tablets (Pornhub, 2017).
Regarding the significant volume of pornography consumption, it is curious that marketing literature--and even researches related to consumptions studies--does not approach such issue, which is a wide field of discoveries to understand some phenomena of the contemporary society. In Brazil, studies that address pornography consumption are still incipient.
Another issue that deserves attention is the one mentioned by Gregori (2012), which refers to the feminization of the pornography consumption market. Such movement, which is noted both in the commercialization and consumption fields, seems to indicate, according to the author, a modification in the control of female sexuality through greater appreciation of sex-related products. Such notion seems to be in line with several assumptions that are related to a more free female sexuality, considering that the sexual activity for women also presents some elegant elements; while being source of physical pleasure, sex is a way to create an identity, a way for self-expression, a search for individual accomplishment (Attwood, 2006). It is specifically in the issue referring to the consumption of pornographic products in the online environment by the female audience that we identified the opportunity to conduct an empirical research in order to understand how the consumption of online pornography runs through fantasy, discourse and the exercise of female sexuality.
The choice of the subject was justified by the lack of theoretical development between the fields of sexuality and consumption; one can find a literature gap in this sense. Besides, themes related to pornography consumption by women can be still considered a taboo in the current society, despite the evident cultural progress over the past years. This study, such as other studies that deal with delicate themes, can contribute to the discussion involved in taboo subjects in order to defy narrow or conformist worldviews (Ger & Sandikci, 2006). In the same sense and emphasizing the above-mentioned argument, sexuality--while a socially constructed category--is an essential source for the construction of subjectivities in the contemporary society (Bozon, 2004). In other words, the purpose of this paper is to fill a gap regarding the lack of research in which women that consume pornography can be heard in order to understand the way through which they realize and interpret the concept of pornography. This way, the importance of the phenomena that stem from the union between sexuality and consumption to investigate the construction of identities is evident (Walther, 2012), as well as issues related to the consumption of pornography and exercise of women's sexuality.
Pornography and consumption
The term pornography is hard to be conceptualized because there are several definitions of pornography given by several researchers, considering that the term is associated with historical and cultural beliefs permeated by moral issues, values and significances inherent to the individual.
Despite the difficulty in conceptualizing the term, Hald (2006) defined pornography as any sort of material used in order to create or increase sexual feelings or thoughts in the receptor while containing explicit exposure and/or descriptions of genital organs and clear and explicit sexual acts. In this sense, pornography refers to any sort of material related to the exposure of sexual behavior related to arousal.
From a historical perspective, the pornography known today was born during the last 30 years of the 19th century, and can be defined as the sexual representation that aims at the erotic arousal of the audience while being strictly related to the standardized production for an established market (Leite Jr, 2009).
A few decades ago, the consumption of pornography occurred in newsagent's shops, movies and video rental shops, where the privacy of the individual could not always be maintained; such places were also socially stereotyped spaces, considering that in our society, pornography is considered a morally reprehensible act (dirty and obscene) (Ribeiro Neto & Ceccarelli, 2015). Such statement is also supported by Diaz-Benitez (2010), who affirms that pornography still remains between discourses and value judgment, between truth games and regulations, still emphasizing the tension between the named and the unnamed, being placed in unstable borders between what is considered good and bad.
In the current society, in addition to cultural changes, technology innovation has promoted the access to every and any sort of content which enabled several sorts of consumption, that is, the consumption of pornography, which became very accessible, thanks to the use of smartphones and tablets.
The Internet is just another way to disseminate pornographic contents, such as photos, videos and literature (amateur and professional). However, the Internet became a privileged spot for this sort of content because it provides the consumer an ease of access, privacy protection, anonymity, ease of looking for specific genders and styles within the pornographic content and gratuity, taking into consideration that most adult websites usually do not charge any fees from users (Ribeiro Neto & Ceccarelli, 2015).
According to Flood & Hamilton (2003), the pornography which is popular online presents a few specific characteristics: (1) it is available through several technologies and sources, and it is presented in the form of texts and narratives, photographs, video clips available for download and web cameras with live transmissions--such features can be offered on one single website, (2) the...
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