Pornophobia
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Porn, PWP, smut, sexually explicit fanwork |
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The term Pornophobia for an intense and persistent fear of pornography seems to have been invented in 1995, in a journal article, The perils of pornophobia.[1][2] The author is Nadine Strossen, a lawyer and then-president of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).[3] The article disputes claims of damage from pornography from both radical feminists and religious conservatives.
Scientific studies before and after 1995 have found no causal or correlative relationship between watching or reading sexually explicit material and violence.[4][5]
Pornophobia and Fan Works
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Pornophobia appears when people discover that many fanworks are erotic in nature. Authors encountering fanfiction presenting sexually explicit views of their characters are often offended by the fans changing their authorial intent. Robin Hobb's Fan Fiction Rant includes this statement: "At the extreme low end of the spectrum, fan fiction becomes personal masturbation fantasy in which the fan reader is interacting with the writer’s character."[6]
A noticeable divide in fandom attitudes, even among fans of explicit fanfic/slash, can be found between different fanart styles and media. Manips are still squicky to many, even if the same fans might enjoy realistic, explicit fanart of the same characters if they're presented via more traditional (or traditional-looking) media—say, a pencil drawing. A similar divide can be seen between explicit het vs. explicit slash fanworks. Fanartists who work in both traditional media and photomanips have pointed out that this is quite likely due to fangirl trauma from male-produced porn and its exploitation and objectification of female bodies in Western culture. Following from that, the same fans have also called for other fans to question their responses so that the trauma can be overcome and that the photographic medium can be reclaimed for character-intensive, de-objectifying purposes—just as media narratives and characterisations have been poached and reclaimed for fanfiction stories, rewritten so that they speak to the transformative fandom fans and respond to their needs.[7]
Podfic is another fanwork medium where fans who otherwise like sexually explicit fanworks sometimes balk.[8][9]
References
- ^ The perils of pornophobia The Humanist, May–June, 1995 (volume 55, pp. 7-9); accessed 2010-5-17
- ^ Wikipedia Pornophobia page, accessed 2010-5-17
- ^ Becoming Nadine Strossen, Law and Politics magazine, approx. 2008, accessed 2010-5-17
- ^ Porn: Good for us? March 1, 2010 in The Scientist, v. 24, issue 3, p. 29
- ^ Pornography, Public Acceptance and Sex Related Crime: A Review by Milton Diamond, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 32 (2009) 304-314
- ^ Robin Hobb's (anti) fan fiction rant, approx. 2005-06, found at archive.org, accessed 2010-5-17
- ^ Why I Photoshop, Draw and Write Extremely Explicit Stuff, by Snowgrouse, Age 36 LiveJournal Oct. 10th, 2015, accessed 2017-09-05
- ^ In her 2012 roundup post of negative attitudes toward podfic, klb noted the trend in people thinking that "[t]he idea of reading porn aloud is inherently gross/creepy/laughable/mockable", but remarked that the situation had actually improved; "where once I couldn't go two days without seeing someone, somewhere, calling podfic gross, creepy, disgusting, laughable, I now go months at a time without encountering a single instance of that." klb. Negative Attitudes About Podfic: A Guided Tour. Posted to podficmeta 8 July 2012. (Accessed 7 April 2013.)
- ^ One commenter in a Fail Fandomanon thread offered an explanation for why they didn't want to listen to porny podfic: "For approximately the same reason I wouldn't go watch a live version of a porn movie being put on at the local community theater, I think. :) I might run into that person at the grocery store! I need some separation!" Re: Podfic's validity as a genre, and AO3's problems as an archive for all fanwork, posted 19 September 2012. (Accessed 8 April 2013.)