LONDON — “Porn Studies,” a Routledge-published scholarly journal studying the effects of cultural and historical porn, quietly debuted today and is now available for free online.
Two British academics, Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith, edited the work that they initially described as “the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal to critically explore those cultural products and services designated as pornographic and their cultural, economic, historical, institutional, legal and social contexts,” with particular attention to “the intersection of sexuality, gender, race, class, age and ability.”
Despite pre-launching to immense media hype, the journal’s actual release has been met with a more tempered response, receiving positive nods from both Time magazine and The Atlantic.
Why? Based on the critical response so far, it seems to reflect the legitimacy of the publication, which is so frill-less (think: abstracts, 12-point font and absolutely no pictures) it’s hard to misconstrue into a media ploy.
Prefaced by an introduction from Smith and Attwood, the following titles include “Porn's pedagogies: teaching porn studies in the academic–corporate complex,” “Humanities and social scientific research methods in porn studies,” “Deep tags: toward a quantitative analysis of online pornography,” and “Postionality and pornography.”
Besides a slew of book reviews, there is also an interview with Tristan Taormina by Georgina Voss, and contributions from performers Stoya and Courtney Trouble.
For now, the journal can be viewed for free in its entirety here on Taylor&FrancisOnline. According to the site, "Porn Studies" will be released four times a year.
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