Pornographication

Exploring the ‘porn’ in ‘inspiration porn’

Bibliographic Data

ID13086124
AuthorsR Thorneycroft (0000-0003-2986-2694, Western Sydney University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume12
Issue2
Pages328-341
Publication date2023-09-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePorn Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2326-8743 • E-ISSN: 2326-8751
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23268743.2023.2251493
OpenAlexW4386621246
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

This article brings aspects of disability and pornography studies together by exploring the phenomenon of 'inspiration porn'. Inspiration porn broadly refers to problematic and ableist representations of disabled people, and it has been suggested within disability studies that this term has resonance given its objectifying and dehumanizing qualities. Engaging more critically with porn studies, however, I interrogate the resonances between inspiration porn and pornography, and question what is at stake in the construction of non-pornographic material with the descriptive suffix 'porn'. Building and extending Hester's work in Beyond Explicit, I find that inspiration porn likewise contains attributes associated with pornography, namely prurience, the real, authenticity, intensity, and transgression. The findings suggest that there are significant overlaps between inspiration porn and pornography, and ones that go beyond reductive notions of objectification and dehumanization. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings, particularly in relation to the displacement of sex within conventional understandings of pornography and broader pornographication trends

Aesthetics · Art · Dehumanization · Epistemology · Objectification · Phenomenon · Pornography · Psychoanalysis · Shame · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Philosophy · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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