LOS ANGELES — Siri Dahl spoke on Thursday at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as a guest of a film and media studies class on pornography.
Dahl, who will deliver a keynote address at the XBIZ Miami conference this month, is featured in the Netflix documentary “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story.”
The documentary was ranked among the top ten most-watched movies worldwide on Netflix for several weeks after its initial release on March 15, and continues to drive conversations around online censorship of adult content.
Dahl spoke to UCSB professor Constance Penley’s class following a screening of “Money Shot.”
Penley is past chair of UCSB's film and media studies department, founding director of the Carsey-Wolf Center for media research and a noted scholar who pioneered researching and teaching in academic porn studies.
“My students had the chance to interview her about the tough economic, ethical, and political issues raised in that film and her lively writing across social media and mainstream publications,” Penley explained, praising how Dahl vividly characterized the scope of sex worker shaming in her Daily Beast article “‘Get a Real Job, Whore’: The Dark Reality of Sex Worker Hate.”
“Sex workers actually have a lot of power, and people are afraid of that,” Penley added. “You listen to Siri Dahl's words because she conveys her insights with abundant humor, warmth, and generosity.”
Dahl said that she has admired Penley’s work for years and was honored to be invited to speak to her class.
“Her students were incredibly well-informed and open-minded,” Dahl continued. “Some of the students shared their thoughts on the ‘Money Shot’ documentary with me, and I was thrilled to hear how impactful the film has already been, especially with regard to contextualizing the current iteration of the War on Porn. They asked me questions which were empathetic, creative and thoughtful, and it was an absolute pleasure to share some of my career and personal experiences with them.”
For more from Siri Dahl, follow her on Twitter.
Main Image: Siri Dahl (Photo: Gustavo Turner)
