Book „Feminist Porn Studies“
Editors: Constance Penley (University of California, Santa Barbara), Celine Parreñas Shimizu (University of California, Santa Barbara), Mireille Miller-Young (University of California, Santa Barbara), Tristan Taormino (author, columnist, editor, sex educator, and feminist pornographer)

Deadline: April 1, 2011
Submission guidelines: see below
Details CfP (web)

A new generation of women in the porn industry openly identify as feminist and own their own companies, direct and produce their own material, and/or take on politicized identities as sex worker performers. In addition to “porn for women,” a new wave of porn genres emerges today including alt porn, feminist porn, queer porn, amateur porn, and genderqueer and transgender porn.

Given the transformations of feminism, sexual politics, pornography and popular culture over the last decade or more, our book, Feminist Porn Studies, moves past the pro/anti porn debate to address multiple productive questions:  Does feminist porn exist? What does it look like? What does it mean to be a feminist/woman who performs in, makes, distributes, and/or consumes porn? Are women and feminists working within or against the status quo? How have representations of the female body, gender, and sexuality shifted as a result of feminists and women making porn? How are marginalized women—including women of color, queer and trans women, disabled women, lower and working class women, fat women, and older women—imagined, represented, or treated in feminist or non feminist pornography? How do sex workers address misogyny, racism, and inequality in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry? How do women create new languages and practices that account for the complex politics of pleasure and power in pornography?

Taking up the torch from classic texts like „Whores and Other Feminists“ by Jill Nagle (1997) and Drucilla Cornell’s „Feminism and Pornography“ (2000), we’d like to explore the intersections between feminism, pornography, and sex work. We’d also like to respond to the recent resurgence of anti-pornography feminist scholarship in texts by Sheila Jeffries, Gail Dines, Karen Boyle, Pamela Paul, and Robert Jensen, anti-porn conferences, and films like Chyng Sun’s „The Price of Pleasure“ and Jane Caputi’s „The Pornography of Everyday Life“. There has not been an adequate response to this tremendous production by anti-porn feminists. It’s time we hear from anti-censorship, sex positive, liberal, and sex worker feminist voices.

We seek essays by academics from different disciplines (including feminist studies, gender and sexuality studies, ethnic studies, film and media studies, sociology, history), cultural critics, activists, as well as people who work/ed in the adult entertainment industry (performers, producers, directors, company owners), especially those who identify as feminists. Here are some of the themes we hope
submissions will address:

·      feminist and post feminist approaches to porn
·      representations of female pleasure and desire
·      gender, race, class, culture, and ability differences
·      feminist porn as political, free speech, or sexual dissent
·      readings of women/gender in historical porn film/media
·      feminist consumption/spectatorship of porn
·      sexual authenticity vs. fantasy
·      LGBT/queer/genderqueer/transgender porn
·      men in feminist porn
·      technology and feminist porn practices
·      BDSM, fetish, and rough sex vs. romance, plot-driven porn
·      analysis of hardcore or softcore feminist porn
·      debates about snuff, gang bangs, and violence against women in porn
·      notions of beauty, ability, body size, or age
·      HIV/AIDS, STIs, and safer sex
·      sex education in porn
·      the “pornification” of U.S. popular culture and everyday life
·      porn addiction or porn and “family values”
·      teaching pornography in feminist classrooms
·      porn workers and feminist politics
·      working in feminist vs. non-feminist pornography sets/environments
·      sex work, labor rights, and equality in the porn industry

Submission Guidelines:
We are only accepting electronic submissions (doc, docx). We will consider unpublished and previously published work. Word count should be 5000-7000 words, but we will also consider shorter pieces.
Include: name, contact information, brief bio or CV, publication information if piece has been previously published.
Send queries and submissions to: feministpornstudies@gmail.com