Autopornography and the struggle for the recognition of a sexual subjectivity: a theoretical analysis from Loree Erickson’s testimony in The Feminist Porn Book

Abstract

The present article aims to reach an understanding of the recognition process at work in autopornography through the analysis of Loree Erickson’s testimony of her own production of pornography in which she performs. I want to especially address the issues of sexual agency and recognition of a positive erotic potential for women living with disabilities. Paradoxically, if mainstream pornography can be a tool of oppression—i.e., the fetishization of differences and the exclusion of the sexual sphere according to racist, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist criteria—it can also be subverted into an emancipation or empowerment tool in order to enlarge the scope of available sexual scripts and of sexual subjectivities.

KEYWORDS:

• Autopornography
• sexual agency
• recognition
• disabilities
• queer pornography

Acknowledgements

This article was translated by Geneviève Leblanc and reviewed by Léa Séguin, whom I thank very much. I would also like to thank Martin Blanchard for his rigorous reading of this text and for his rich and judicious commentary. My thanks also go to Myriam Le Blanc Élie and Sabrina Maiorano for their invaluable readings of this text. Lastly, I would like to emphasize the fruitful contribution of the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

The author did not have any financial interest or benefit arising from the direct applications of her research. This research is free of any conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project called Pornographie critique, féministe, queer et post-pornographie: contours d’une pratique émergente, under Grant 430–2013-0137.

Notes on contributor

Julie Lavigne is an art historian and professor in the Department of Sexology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has published the book La traversée de la pornographie. Politique et érotisme dans l’art féministe (Montréal, Éditions du Remue-ménage) in 2014. She also edited a special issue on representations of sexuality in Quebec for Globe. Revue internationale d’études québécoises. She has published several articles on the representation of sexuality, pornography, ethics, contemporary art, feminist theory, and gender. E-mail: [email protected]

Notes

1. In Peirce’s theory, the indexical image is a sign that is contiguous to the object that is represented. The imprint is a typical example. Barthes and Dubois added photography and videography as indexical media, where “ça a été” is necessary to the production of a photograph or video.

2. According to Martha Nussbaum, there are seven types of objectification of others: instrumentality, denial of autonomy, inertness, fungibility, violability, ownership, and denial of subjectivity (Nussbaum 1999).

3. “To the concept of objectification (to reduce to an object), Cahill prefers that of derivatization (to reduce to a derivative). Derivatization can be understood as the act of forming a personal representation of the other, to reduce them or understand them solely and unilaterally through one’s own framework of interpretation of reality. It consists in apprehending the other through one’s own standards, expectations and desires. Derivatization can also be understood as the reductive rapport to another through the egocentric and narcissistic projection that one constructs about the other. It is apprehending the other as a derivative of oneself” (Julie Lavigne and Sabrina Maiorano 2014, 210, free translation).

4. For their respective declarations, see: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/sexual_health/sh_definitions/en/ (accessed July 8, 2015) and http://www.worldsexology.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/declaration_of_sexual_rights_sep03_2014.pdf (accessed July 8, 2015).