This research will explore feminism and Porngraphy, looking at how porn links to feminist politics and thus, shows gender equality. The study will explore the sociological context of pornography and how various feminist theories interlink. The study aims to analyse pornography as something which is created and interpreted within the need of both gender in such a capitalist society and gender equality-advocated era.
Why is the mainstream porn so popular among men but not among women?
Is man and woman having an equal right and choice on sexual enjoyment in the society? (sexual enjoyment includes visual materials ie. Porn, magazine; service ie. Prostitution )
Girls watch porn= slutty or lame;
guys watch porn= normal
1. Why is porn so popular among men but not among women?
2. Why are most porn filmed in male gaze?
3. How is girls role represented in porn?
Additionally, it will employ feminist analysis of the work of Foucault to deconstruct the primary research findings and understand how sexuality as a discourse is constructed through power relations
II. Aim of research
According to the first national study of teen masturbation, there is study claims three out of every 10 men (between the ages of 18 and 30) are daily viewers of porn; three percent of women in the same age group purportedly access pornography daily. Clearly, this shows that the need of porn-viewing of man is way bigger than woman. The research will make use of this phenomenon to investigate the gender equality in terms of this field. And the following hypotheses will be proven in this research.
1. Different biological structure of male and female. Due to different biological structure of male and female, they have different hormone, thus vary needs of sex respectively, which leads their different demand on porn-viewing. Taking man as example, they might have greater need for masturbation thus need more amount of sexual stimulation. Gender inequality leads to female see porn-viewing as some man thing and its not good for them to view.
2. According to what Judith argued, gender is social constructed. Under the construction of society, both man and woman has a their stereotype. Man should be playing a strong role while women is weak and victimised; man watching porn is view as a norm while woman watching porn is such a slutty move.
3. The supply of porn are mostly in male gaze, lowering their interest. Thanks to the stereotype of gender constructed by the society aforementioned, the target audience of most porn are aiming at male, which makes women have no choice.
III. Outline of topic and research
In this research, the porn industry will be analysed as a site where cultural issues relating to gender and representation exist and are critically challenged, through particularly the discourse of feminism. Thus, discourse analysis of existing literature on feminism and the porn industry will be included in the primary research.
This study explores what has been explained and understood within this field of feminism and link the collected data with existing theory in order to support, critique and contrast it with a number of academics views. These texts are useful as they provide various academic perspectives which will be utilised when considering the data collected from in depth interviews.
From Mary Wollstonecraft announcing chastity as a universal rather than a female virtue in A vindication of the rights of woman (1792), through 19th century writings on the commodification of women in marriage and prostitution and campaigns for rational dress, to fights for women’s reproductive rights and sexual liberation in the 1960s and 1970s, women bodies and their female sexuality as sites of oppression and empowerment have always been a central place of concern in feminist practice.
Today, pornography is often defined as a discourse about male domination and a site of oppression for women, in which some feminists strongly condemn seeing it as a disrespect to women’s bodies. In this study, this very preconceived idea of porngraphy as some erotic media that are disrespectful and explore feminist arguments which view erotic media as a way of celebrating both gender’s sexual need will be challenged. The study will take a closer look to examine whether porngraphy could land gender equality. To do this, feminist analysis of Foucault’s work will be employed into the study to deconstruct the primary research findings and to understand how sexuality as a discourse is constructed through power relations.
Moreover, by explore what has already been explained and understood within this field of feminism, it will consider how issues of class and race intersect when considering representations within porn. In this sense, it will critique the politics of anti-porn feminism, focusing on the lack of intersectionality involved in this movement. Additionally, linking the collected data with existing theory in order to support or critique it with a number of academic materials. These texts are useful as they provide various academic perspectives which will be utilised when considering the data collected from in depth interviews.
Besides, it is important to cover the history of feminism and erotic media to understand how different feminist views on pornography have been formed. For example, 'Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and Politics' uses qualitative research interviews and covering theory to explore women views on pornography us (Ciclitira, 2004). Her analysis uses feminist theory to deconstruct the data collected from her interviews. Her choice of method and research subject are similar to the proposed study. Therefore, it served as a useful example of how to approach researching feminist views on pornography and using interviews. In addition, the study uses research specially on the porn industry.
1. Is porn popular among men than among women?
2. Why are mainstream porn seemingly filmed in male gaze?
3. How is man and women's role represented in porn respectively?
4. Can different gender share an equal right and choice on sexual enjoyment in the society?
IV. Research methods and approach
The project aims to use qualitative primary research gain a wider understanding of how contemporary feminists view the medium of pornography; thus a quantitative secondary research.
1. Primary research
a. Online questionnaire
A semi structure online questionnaire with 40-70 people will be conducted in order to know about different opinion in the society over this topic. These participants will be recruited through online social media and snowballing (word of mouth). Both open ended and closed questions will be used in the questionnaire to see if the participants will be well suited to the topic of research. For those who suited the topic will be invited to the interview.
b. Interview
Interview will be conducted with both the porn viewer and the porn director. In order to have a better knowledge about how and why the porn is being direct and film in its way, 2-3 interview with the porn director will be held. Throughout the 50-70 people interview, 5-10 appropriate respondents will be selected for the face to face individual interview and to have a porn diary As written by Johnson (2009)cited in Marvastis ‘ Qualitative Research’, In-depth interviewing begins with common sense perceptions, explanations, and understandings of some lived cultural experience. And interviewer’s job is to aim to explore the contextual boundaries of the interviewee’s experience or perception by uncover what is usually hidden from ordinary view or reaction or to penetrate to more reactive understandings about the nature of such experience.(2002:106) The sex field is considered as a complex topic within feminist, therefore, employ in-depth interview is needed to absorb rich and sensitive material. The interviewee differ in age, ethnicity and occupation. The participants will be chosen to write a porn diary in the following month, in which anything about their feeling after porn-viewing could be included inside.
Secondary research
c. Literature review Moreover, different source of data will be used, including existing statistic, interview with porn producer, database.
d. Additionally, publications from semi-government statistics organizations will be used to support the primary data.
e. Reports submitted by research scholars, universities as well as the various research institutions shall be used as well.
V. Ethical issue/ issue of self-reflexivity
There are many research limits due to limited time and resource:
Firstly, the area of study might be something very sensitive or personal to some people, so recruiting people for survey might be a difficult work. Therefore, respondents are allowed to do online in a anonymous way in order to protect their identity.
Secondly, face to face interviews are time consuming, they involve an extensive amount of fieldwork and analysis and due to the unpredictable nature of instructed interview, it takes time to accurately transcribe the whole interview. For instance, one hour of recording can take 5-10 hours to fully transcribe. Therefore, only a small number of interviews could be carried out in oder to stick to the schedule and produce an analysis of finding on time.
Thirdly, interviewee’s quality is a concern. Not all interviewees are willing to cooperate, nor they have appropriate content to be used in the study, around 4-7 interviews are expected to be useful.
Despite of the fact that the result is not representative of all feminist due to the constraints of the research limits. Yet, it represent a multiplicity of perspectives. As there are restrictions put on how extensive the project can be, it seems appropriate to take only a small sample size of people to interview.
VI. Projected dissertation outline
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VII. Bibliography
Ciclitira, K., 2004. Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and Politics. 1 8, 7(3), p. 1.
Voss, G., 2012. ‘Treating it as a normal business’: Researching the pornography industry. SAGE Journals, 15(3-4), p. 1.
VIII. Timetable
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Dissertation proposal
Literature review
Dissertation methodology
Design questionnaire
Questionnaire
Interview
Data collection & analysis
Data insight
Finding
Referencing
Review & finalize
Dissertation submission
