MEDIATED SEX Pornography and Postmodern Culture BRIAN McNAIR Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, University of Stirling A member of the Hodder Headline Group LONDON + NEW YORK * SYDNEY + AUCKLANDuse published wn Great Bexain 1996 by Aenold 2 member of the Hodder Headline Groop 338 Enston Ruad, Lundan NW1 ABH US Fut Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Distributed exclosively am the USA by St Marnin's Press Ins, 175 Filth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 1996 Brian MeNaie All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may he reproduced or transmitted im anv form or by aay means, electronically o€ mezhamealiy, including photacopving, eecording or anv information storage or cettieval system, sthour entice prior permission 19 writing vom the publisher ox 3 licence permatine resteited copying, In the United Kingdom such licences are insued by the Copyright Licensing Agencv: 90 Tottenham Couct Road, London WP (P SHE Brush Library Cataloguing m Publication Data Acataliguc record tor thus hook is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-en-Publication Data MeNair, Buse. 1953- Medisted sex pornogeaphy and postmodern culate / Brian MeNanr Pan. Includes bblivgeaphiical elerences and index. 1. Posnogsaphy. 2. Ses in mass media. — 3. Mass media and sex. 4, Sexualay in popelae collare.§-Postmodeensse. 1. Tithe HQa7i Maas” 1996 363.4720 36-543 cp ISBN! 0 340 61428 5 (Pb) ISBN 0 340 66293 X (Hb) Tepeser in 10/12 pr Sabon by Phoenix Phuorerting, Lardswond, Chathars, Kea Prinwed and bound tn Geeat Britain by JX Accowsmich, Brocol Contents Preface Acknowledgements Sex, society and the medi [A brief socio-sexual history of the late twentieth century ‘Let's talk about sex, babce ..." sex and the public sphere Sexual representation, from antiquity to the [atemner: history, definition, regulation ‘The harms pornography does: causes and effects Consuming pornography: uses, gratifications and meanings Pornography today Art to porn to pop: the pornagraphication of the mainstream Mediated sex: backlash or progress? Bibliography Index xi 22 Al 60 89 108 137 170 176 189The central issue is not to determine whether one says yes oF not to sex, whether one formulaces prohibitions or permissions, whether one assercs its importance or denies its effects, or whether one refines the words one uses to designate it; but to account for che fact chat it is spo: ken about, to discover who does the speaking, the positions and view- points from which they speak, the institutions which prompt people to speak about it and which store and distribuce the things that are said. (Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1) Preface ‘The sexualization of mass media is a universally recognized feature of con- temporary capitalist culture. Since the 1960s sex in the media ~ mediated sex ~ has increased quantitatively as, in qualitative terms, it has become more explicit, As this book went to press, Channel Four television in the United Kingdom was broadcasting something called Dyke TV ~a series of documentaries and feature films by and about lesbians ~ having not long before transmitted the Red Light Zone, 2 42 programme series which dealt in hitherto unseen (on British television) depth and fcankness with a diverse range of sexual issues. This book is about these programmes, and che many other manifestations of mediated sex which have become $0 visible a part of western culture, in Britain and the United States in pasticular, in recenc years, It discusses their content, their meaning, and thei impact in the con- text of a social environment characterized by a ‘postmodern’ sexual politics of communicative play and subversion, in which the media play a central tole, and in which the meaning of nothing can be assumed co be quite what itseems, nor quite what it used to be. My subtitle, Pornography and Postmodern Culture, was chosen not just because of its pleasingly alliterative quality, bur also because it seems so neatly to encapsulate one of the main themes of what follows. Pornography has emerged in recent years as a cultural category of significance extending, beyond the connotations of ‘dirty raincoatedness’ with which it was tradi- tionally associated, to become a recurring cultural motif found in all man- ner of media representations, creative contexts, and channels of discourse. Pornography, and the pornographic, has become che focus of the wide-rang- ing debate about the cole of mediated sex in our society, and the direction in which sexual culture is going. The debate has moral, political and sociolog- ical dimensions, and has increased in intensity as che conflicting trends of sexual liberalism, feminism, and (reinforced by the discovery of HIV/AIDS) moral conservatism and retrenchment compete for space in the public sphere. It is supported by millions of words of conflicting evidence and