ABSTRACT
In this chapter Lynn Comella make a case for why the university classroom should be a place for the study of pornography. Customers were fascinated to learn that there were feminist directors making pornography with women in mind, lesbian directors making pornography for lesbians, and a nascent queer porn movement that was challenging normative assumptions about sex and gender. Students reported, almost unanimously, that taking the course had not only broadened their understanding of pornography, but it challenged many of their preconceived assumptions. That a course on pornography could mimic the effects of a feminist conscious-raising group, and cognitively shift how some young women thought of themselves as sexual agents, was completely unexpected and profoundly meaningful. The author teaches pornography to encourage her students to develop skills for analyzing public dimensions of sexuality, the politics of sexual representation, and the role of the marketplace in creating conditions that produce and proliferate sexual discourse and values.
