Off/Scene Representation: on the Construction of Sexuality in Pornographic Cinema

Abstract

Various manifestations of pornography have been emphatically addressed by feminist studies and critique. In that context, the pornographic movie genre and erotic cinema are often considered part of a phallogocentric universe of meaning. Some dissonant views exist, however, relative to the conception of pornography as a clear reproducer of women’s sexual oppression. Bearing in mind the aforementioned debates, this work analyzes the representational dimension of pornographic films from a socio-cultural standpoint, focusing on the rhetoric of pornography and on its effects on the construction of the contemporary socio-sexual universe.