Opening Pandora's Box: pleasure, consent and consequence in the production and circulation of celebrity sex videos

Abstract

The celebrity sex video is now a well-established part of contemporary audiovisual culture, although it attracts little attention as a phenomenon in itself. Any attention is primarily generated by the profile of the individuals involved, in terms of their relative degrees of celebrity and previously established public persona. Despite the increasing ubiquity of the phenomenon, issues concerning the production and dissemination of these videos are more complex than may first appear. Indeed, celebrity sex video production and distribution constitutes a contemporary media practice with distinct ethical and legal implications. This article provides an analysis of celebrity sex video production as a subset of personal sexual representation and attempts to characterize some of the ethical issues involved. A range of examples is used to illustrate the intertextual and broader contextual issues arising from the material's production and circulation.

Keywords:

• celebrity sex videos
• consent
• ethics
• personal sex videos

Notes

1. Subsequent to ‘Kate's’ experience, a further group of ADFA personnel, including officers, who operated under the name of ‘The Jedi Council’ (in reference to the film Star Wars) were also subject to disciplinary action after having been found guilty of disseminating similar material via email. In reaction to this continuing activity, Lieutenant General David Morrison (2013), Chief of the Australian Army, posted a strongly phrased statement on YouTube condemning such practices and urging enlisted members of the military who condoned such practices to leave the force (and receiving over 1.5 million hits as a result).

2. Particularly in the case of videos that may have been the subject of extortion attempts in which the tapes were not subsequently distributed on video and/or posted online.

3. Monroe appeared in several films in late 1946/early 1947 that later resurfaced in the early 1980s.

4. She has also commented that Salomon should give his profits ‘to some charity for the sexually abused or something’ (Morgan 2010).

5. Such as appearing as a prostitute in Ken Russell's (1984) sexually explicit film Crimes of Passion.

6. See, for instance, ‘7 Best Sex Tape Parodies.’ Accessed May 1, 2014. http://www.craveonline.com.au/lifestyle/articles/177329-7-best-sex-tape-parodies

7. See, for instance, the humorous promotional video for the Smartwater brand that was released online with the title ‘Jennifer Aniston SEX Tape’ in a specific attempt to go viral, despite the fact that it did not feature Aniston in any sexual scenarios. Accessed May 1, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByFxn98wkVQ

8. See, for instance, ‘Celebrities and their Pornstar Dopplegangers.’ e-Baum's World. Accessed May 1, 2014. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/83543611/

9. See online report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhqbVfzILqo. Accessed May 5, 2014.

10. See http://www.break.com/video/sex-video-sarah-palin-sex-tape-leaked-582221. Accessed May 1, 2014.