The 21st century has witnessed a growth in academic interest in what has come to be understood as the pornographication of culture. The purpose of this conference is to gather a group of scholars together whose approach provides a critical counter point to the current academic trend to analyse pornography as sexually liberating for women (and men).
The conference addresses whether pornography as an emblem of sexual freedom in a democratic society needs rethinking. It aims to do so through analysing the complex inter-relation of pornography with branches of medicine (for example, sexology and psycho-therapy, and the pharmaceutical industry that helps support these latter) which afford pornography considerable legitimacy and even authority with regard to sexuality. The conference provides the opportunity to explore the relationship between pornography and medicine within the context of larger social structures and neo-liberal government.
The organising committee specifically invites you to offer a paper which critically examines the increasing medical authority of pornography in the light firstly of feminist ideas and, secondly, of the rapidly changing conditions of neo-liberalism, global capitalism and digital-technologies. We are particularly interested in submissions on the following themes although these are not exhaustive:
- The body and bio-politics
- The history of sexuality and medicine in the construction of the female and male body
- Pornography and the discursive production of a ‘natural’ sexuality
- The sexual imaginary, the pornography industry and capitalism
- Patriarchy and the social construction of gender
- Post-humanist analyses of the body
- The use of internet pornography in sexology and sex therapy.
- Racialized pornographic identities
- Heteronormativity and ‘alt’ porn
- Foucauldian ethics and the care of the self
- Governmentality, neo-liberalism and medicine
- The pharmaceutical industry and the pornification of the body
Proposals on other themes related to the subject of the conference are also very welcome.
The intention is for a publication to arise out of the conference.
TO ACCEPT THIS INVITATION
Please send confirmation of your acceptance and a brief synopsis of the paper you wish to present via email to Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans, and Monica O’Brien by 19th May.
Travel expenses will be paid for invited speakers.