Jacek Kornak
Department of Social and Moral
Philosophy
University of Helsinki, Finland
My
paper offers a proposition of reading pornography in the
context of mass culture. My investigation tries to
distance from the moral evaluation and search for an inner
meanings of porno. To analyse the phenomena of pornography
I use tools from Queer Theory, especially authors such as
Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. On the ground of the
Queer Theory I will show the political aspects on
pornography.
In
my presentation I will focus on queer reading of
pornography. Porno is here an imaginary realm. If we apply
to this realm queer theories like e.g. Foucaultian or
Butlerian, we can see how porno is not only the effect of
sexual fantasises but how it is fact shape the fantasy.
Porno creates and directs particular force of fantasy,
which subsequently constructs the domain of sexuality.
We
are used to think that sexuality is a realm of nature. We
think that it only needs some liberation from the
boundaries of culture. If we apply Foucaultian reading to
pornography we can notice that there is no distinction
between nature and culture. There is nothing which can be
liberated, for the reason that beyond culture images which
give shape to our sexual fantasies does not lay any pre
given, natural sexuality. Sexuality is always shaped and
it works through the images given within the culture.
Therefore pornography is very important phenomena for the
task of analysing the formation and function of sexual
fantasy and the sexuality itself.
In
the gay’s world pornography has a very interesting role.
In my paper I do not intend to analyse any particular
films, I want to concentrate on the particular
phenomenological relation between the porno film and the
audience. Gay porno films intend to show the pure sex;
sex, which is not limited by the social. The vision of
purity porno aims to achieve by different visual effects.
Nevertheless at some point it is always about the
relations of power. When we analyse the gay identity we
cannot avoid the phenomena of pornography. In XX century
Western culture pornography was of a crucial meaning to
the formation of gay identity and gay culture. It is
important to try to depict the problems of gay identity
from the pornography as the formation of particular shape
of the sexual fantasy.
