Porn Studies (book)

Porn Studies is a 2004 academic book edited by Linda Williams and published by Duke University Press. The book features a selection of articles from various academics dealing with historic, contemporary, aesthetic and philosophical aspects of pornography. Porn Studies is an early work in the study of pornography as its own distinct field, as opposed to a branch of film theory, feminist critical studies, medicine and public health or one of several other branches of academics that would write about porn previously. Williams noted the emergence of this field in the second printing of her previous book Hard Core.

Sections

The Book is divided into thematic sections.

Part 1 Contemporary Pornographies

• How to do things with the Starr Report: Pornography, Performance, and the President's Penis, by Maria St. John
• Sex in the Suburban: Porn, Home Movies, and the Live Action Performance of Love in Pam and Tommy Lee: Harcore and Uncensored, by Minette Hillyer
• Office Sluts and Rebel Flowers: The Pleasures of Japanese Pornographic Comics for Women, by Deborah Shamoon
• Going On-Line: Consuming Pornography in the Digital Era, by Zabet Patterson

Part 2 Gay, Lesbian and Homosocial Pornographies

• Homosociality in the Classic American Stag Film: Off-Screen, On-Screen, by Thomas Waugh
• The Cultural-Aesthetic Specificities of All-male Moving Image Pornography, by Rich Cante and Angelo Restivo
• What Do You Call a Lesbian with Long Fingers? The Development of Lesbian and Dyke Pornography, by Heather Butler
• The Gay Sex Clerk: Chuck Vincent's Straight Pornography, by Jake Gerli

Part 3 Pornography, Race, and Class

• The Resurrection of Brandon Lee: The Making of a Gay Asian American Porn Star, by Nguyen Tan Hoang
• Skin Flicks on the Racial Border: Pornography, Exploitation, an Interracial Lust, by Linda Williams
• Crackers and Whackers: The White Trashing of Porn, by Constance Penley

Part 4 Soft Core, Hard Core, and the Pornographic Sublime

• Pinup: The American Secret Weapon in World War II, by Despina Kakoudaki
• Gauging a Revolution: 16 mm Film and the Rise of the Pornographic Feature, by Eric Schaefer
• Video Pornography, Visual Pleasure, and the Return of the Sublime, by Franklin Melendez

Part 5 Pornography and/as Avant-Garde

• Andy Wharhol's Blow Job: Toward the Recognition of a Pornographic Avant-garde, by Ara Osterweil
• Unbracketing Motion Study: Scott Stark's NOEMA, by Michael Sicinski