Skip to main content

‘It’s Like Being Paid to Fuck My Girlfriend’: Alternative Pornographies and Unalienated Labour

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Bodies of Work

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

  • 625 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter turns to alternative pornographies, an increasingly essential aspect of digital porn culture. It identifies the major, unifying aspects of alternative pornographies in order to demonstrate how their aesthetic, political and ethical elements all revolve around the desire to reject the multiple modes of exploitative productivity in which both the porn user and performer are embedded. Drawing on the work of directors and companies such as Belladonna, Erika Lust and Kink.com, this chapter interrogates the way in which alternative pornography discourse revolves around the disavowal of labour. It therefore establishes alternative pornography’s embeddedness within the creative industries and its notion of the compensatory pleasures and fulfilment of creative work. It analyses, too, specific ways in which alternative pornography is interpolated into this neoliberal ideology, considering the relationship between queer sexualities and economic precarity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Almodovar, N 2006, ‘Porn Stars, Radical Feminists, Cops and Outlaw Whores: The Battle Between Feminist Theory and Reality, Free Speech and Free Spirits,’ in Prostitution and Pornography, Philosophical Debate About the Sex Industry, ed. Jessica Spector, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 149–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arvidsson, A 2007 ‘Netporn: The Work of Fantasy in the Information Society,’ in C’lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, eds. Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 69–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Attwood, F 2007, ‘No Money Shot? Pornography and New Sex Taste Cultures,’ Sexualities, 10, 441–456.

    Google Scholar 

  • Attwood, F 2010, ‘“Younger, Paler, Decidedly Less Straight”: The New Porn Professionals,’ in Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography, ed. Feona Attwood, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 88–104.

  • Barthes, R 1993, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, London: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, D 2013 ‘Aestheticizing Pornography for the 21st-century Academy: Pedagogy as Ars Erotica or Scientia Sexualis?’ in Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography, ed. Hans Maes, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 193–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berardi, F 2009, The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy, trans. Francesca Cadel, Los Angeles, CA: Semiotexte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg, H 2016, ‘A scene is just a marketing tool’: alternative income streams in porn’s gig economy, Porn Studies, 3:2, 160–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, E 2007, Sex Work for the Middle Classes, Sexualities, 104, 473–488.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biasin, E, Maina, G and Zecca, F 2014, ‘Introduction,’ in Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, eds. Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina and Federico Zecca, Milan: Mimesis International, pp. 15–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, C 2012, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogard, W 1996, The Simulation of Surveillance: Hyper-control in Telematic Societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonik, M and Schaale, A 2007, ‘The Naked Truth: Internet Eroticism and the Search,’ in C’lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, eds. Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 77–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, K 2010, ‘Introduction: Everyday Pornography,’ in Everyday Pornography, ed. Karen Boyle, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, K 2017, ‘The Implications of Pornification: Pornography, the Mainstream, and False Equivalences,’ in The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Violence, ed. Nancy Lombard, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 85–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M E 1996, ‘Desperately Seeking Strategies: Reading in the Postmodern,’ in Constructing the Self in a Mediated World, eds. Debra Grodin and Thomas R. Lindlof, London: Sage, pp. 55–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J 2006, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York: Routledge Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronin, B and Davenport, E 2001, ‘E-Rogenous Zones: Positioning Pornography in the Digital Economy,’ The Information Society, 17, 33–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeAndrea, D 2010, ‘Online Language: The Role of Culture in Self-Expression and Self-Construal on Facebook,’ Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 425–442.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, J 2002, Publicity’s Secret: How Technoculture Capitalizes on Democracy, London: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, B 2015, ‘The Romance of Work: Gender and Aspirational Labour in the Digital Culture Industries,’ International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19, 441–457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duggan, L 2003, The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elwes, C 1985, ‘Floating Femininity: A Look at Performance Art by Women,’ in Women’s Images of Men, eds. Sarah Kent and Jacqueline Morreau, London: Writers and Readers Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, A and Riley, S 2015, Technologies of Sexiness, Sex, Identity, and Consumer Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, E 2010, Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age: The Spirit of Networks, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, E 2012, ‘How Less Alienation Creates More Exploitation? Audience Labour on Social Network Sites,’ tripleC 10:2, 171–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R 2004, The Rise of the Creative Class, New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Floyd, K 2009, The Reification of Desire: Toward a Queer Marxism, London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fotopoulou, A 2013, ‘Remediating Politics: Branded New Sexualities and Real Bodies Online,’ Journal of Lesbian Studies, 17:3–4, 253–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, S 2015, Control: Digitality as Cultural Logic, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuss, D 1989, Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature & Difference, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R and Pratt, A 2008, ‘Precarity and Cultural Work in the Social Factory? Immaterial Labour, Precariousness and Cultural Work,’ Theory, Culture & Society, 25: 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilmour, P 2019, ‘Why Paying for Porn Makes You a Better Feminist,’ accessed 12 May 2019, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/sex/a26554563/ethicalporn/.

  • Glick, E 2000, ‘Sex Positive: Feminism, Queer Theory, and the Politics of Transgression,’ Feminist Review, 64, 19–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosz, E 2001, Architectures form the Outside, Essays on Virtual and Real Space, London: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D 1990, The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D 2005, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatch, O 2012, ‘Fighting the Pornification of America by Enforcing Obscenity Laws’, Stanford Law & Policy Review, 23: 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennessy, R 2000, Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hetland, G and Goodwin, J 2013, ‘The Strange Disappearance of Capitalism from Social Movement Studies,’ in Marxism and Social Movements, eds. Colin Barker, Laurence Cox, John Krinsky and Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Leiden: Brill, pp. 82–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, F and Lapenta, F 2010, ‘Introduction: Autonomy and Creative Labour,’ Journal for Cultural Research, 14, 223–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, K 2007, Netporn: D.I.Y. Web Culture and Sexual Politics, Toronto: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, K 2014, ‘Netporn: The Promise of Radical Obscenities,’ in Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, eds. Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina and Federico Zecca, Milan: Mimesis International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, M 2002, Against the Romance of Community, London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, G 2005, American Independent Cinema, London: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klaus, E and Lünenborg, M 2012, ‘Cultural Citizenship. Participation by and through Media,’ in Feminist Media, eds. Elke Zobl and Ricard Drüeke, Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 197–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazzarato, M 1996, ‘Immaterial Labor,’ in Radical Thought in Italy, A Potential Politics, ed. Paulo Virno and Michael Hardt, London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 133–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lust, E 2019, ‘We are Lust: a Female Perspective on Working in Adult Cinema,’ accessed 12 May 2019, https://erikalust.com/lust-female-perspective-working-adult-cinema/.

  • Mac, J and Smith, M 2018, Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights, London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maes, H 2013, ‘Introduction,’ in Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography, ed. Hans Maes, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnet, S 2007, ‘Feminist Sexualities, Race and the Internet: An Investigation of Suicidegirls.com,’ New Media and Society, 9, 577–602.

  • Mahmood, S 2001, ‘Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival,’ Cultural Anthropology, 16, 202–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maina, G 2014, ‘Grotesque Empowerment: Belladonna’s Strapped Sykes Between Mainstream and Queer,’ in Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, eds. Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina and Federico Zecca, Milan: Mimesis International, pp. 83–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcuse, H 1974, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, Part One, Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K and Engels, F 2011, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Wilder Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKenzie, J 2001, Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNay, L 2009, ‘Self as Enterprise: Dilemmas of Control and Resistance in Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics’, Theory, Culture & Society, 26: 55–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A 2011, ‘Reflections on Feminism, Immaterial Labour and the Post-Fordist Regime,’ New Formations, 70, 60–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mey, K 2007, ‘Making Porn into Art,’ in Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture, eds. Susanna Paasonen, Kaarina Nikunen and Laura Saarenmaa, Oxford: Berg, pp. 87–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milne, C 2005, Naked Ambition: Women Who Are Changing Porn, New York: Avalon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mowlabocus, S 2004, ‘Porn 2.0? Technology, Social Practice, and the New Online Porn Industry,’ in Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography, ed. Feona Attwood, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 69–87.

  • Mulholland, M 2013, Young People and Pornography: Negotiating Pornification, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikunen, K 2007, ‘Cosmo Girls Talk: Blurring Boundaries of Porn and Sex,’ Pornification, Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture, eds. Susanna Paasonen, Kaarina Nikunen and Laura Saarenmaa, New York: Berg, pp. 73–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paasonen, S 2010a, ‘Good Amateurs: Erotica Writing and Notions of Quality,’ in Porn.com: Making Sense of Online Pornography, ed. Feona Attwood, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 138–154.

  • Paasonen, S 2010b, ‘Labors of Love: Netporn, Web 2.0, and the Meanings of Amateurism,’ New Media & Society, 12, 1297–1312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paasonen, S and Spišák, S 2018, ‘Malleable Identities, Leaky Taxonomies: The Matter of Sexual Fluidity,’ Sexualities, 218, 1374–1378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasquinelli, M, 2007, ‘Warporn! Warpunk: Autonomous Videopoiesis in Wartime,’ in C’lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, eds. Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 149–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portwood-Stacer, L 2013, Lifestyle Politics and Radical Activism, New York: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, N 2009, One-Dimensional Woman, Winchester: O Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridout, N 2013, Passionate Amateurs: Theatre, Communism, and Love, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A 2008, ‘The New Geography of Work: Power to the Precarious?’ Theory, Culture Society, 25, 31–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruberg, B 2015, ‘Doing It for Free: Digital Labour and the Fantasy of Amateur Online Pornography,’ Porn Studies, 3:2, 147–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryberg, I 2014, ‘Affirmation and Critique, Political and Aesthetic Legacies of Queer, Feminist and Lesbian Pornography,’ in Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, eds. Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina and Federico Zecca, Milan: Mimesis International, pp. 223–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, K 2016, ‘Performing Labour: Ethical Spectatorship and the Communication of Labour Conditions in Pornography,’ Porn Studies, 32: 120–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidman, S 2001, ‘From Identity to Queer Politics: Shifts in the Social Logic of Normative Heterosexuality in Contemporary America,’ Social Thoughts and Research, 24:1–2, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siouxsie, Q 2016, Truth, Justice and the American Whore, Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C 2014, ‘“It’s Important That You Don’t Smell a Suit on This Stuff”: Aesthetics and Politics in alt.porn,’ in Porn After Porn: Contemporary Alternative Pornographies, eds. Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina and Federico Zecca, Milan: Mimesis International, pp. 52–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J 2009, ‘Preface,’ in The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy, trans. Francesca Cadel and Giuseppina Mecchia, Los Angeles: Semiotexte, pp. 9–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S 2002, On Photography, London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strub, W 2015, ‘Queer Smut, Queer Rights,’ in New Views on Pornography: Sexuality, Politics, and the Law, eds. L. Comella and S. Tarrant, Santa Barbara: Praeger, pp. 147–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Doorn, N 2010, ‘Keeping it Real, User-Generated Pornography, Gender Reification, and Visual Pleasure,’ Convergence, 16, 411–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virno, P 2004, A Grammar of the Multitude, London: Semiotexte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, K 2011, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Websites

Films

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Saunders, R. (2020). ‘It’s Like Being Paid to Fuck My Girlfriend’: Alternative Pornographies and Unalienated Labour. In: Bodies of Work. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49016-4_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49016-4_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-49015-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-49016-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics