Overview

Hardcore pornographic films combine fantasy and real sex to create a unique genre of entertainment. Pornographic films are also historical documents that give us access to the sexual behavior and eroticism of different historical periods. This book shows how the making of pornographic films is a social process that draws on the fantasies, sexual scripts, and sexual identities of performers, writers, directors, and editors to produce sexually exciting videos and movies. Yet hardcore pornographic films have also created a body of knowledge that constitutes, in this digital age, an enormous archive of sexual fantasies that serve as both a form of sex education and self-help guides. Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography focuses on sex and what can be learned about it from pornographic representations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeffrey Escoffier
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9781978820142

ISBN 10:   1978820143
Pages:   238
Publication Date:   12 February 2021
Recommended Age:   From 18 to 99 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Pornography and the History of Sexuality Chapter One - Pornography, Perversity and Sexual Revolution Chapter Two - Beefcake to Hardcore: Gay Pornography and Sexual Revolution Chapter Three - Sex in the Seventies: Gay Porn Cinema as an Archive for the History of Sexuality Chapter Four - Porn's Historical Unconscious: Sex, Identity and Everyday Life in the Films of Jack Deveau and Joe Gage Part II: Producing Sex: Sexual Scripts, Work and the Making of Pornography Chapter Five - Scripting the Sex: Fantasy, Narrative and Sexual Scripts in Pornographic Films Chapter Six - Gay-for-Pay: Straight Men and the Making of Gay Pornography Chapter Seven - The Wages for Wood: Do Female Performers in the Adult Film Industry Earn More than Male Performers Chapter Eight - Porn Star/Stripper/Escort: Economic and Sexual Dynamics in a Sex Work Career Chapter Nine - Trans Porn, Heterosexuality and Sexual Identity Epilogue: From the Secret Museum to the Digital Archives: Constructing the Sexual Imaginary Acknowledgements About the Author  

Reviews

With Bigger than Life Jeffrey Escoffier had already proved himself the most informative and lively chronicler of the history of gay pornography. Now, against the background of this history, he turns his attention to the making of gay sexual fantasies to convincingly explain how the unfaked realities of sexual acts work to connect with fantasmatic sexual scripts to sell alluring performances. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about gay pornography. --Linda Williams author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible

"“With Bigger than Life Jeffrey Escoffier had already proved himself the most informative and lively chronicler of the history of gay pornography. Now, against the background of this history, he turns his attention to the making of gay sexual fantasies to convincingly explain how the unfaked realities of sexual acts work to connect with fantasmatic sexual scripts to sell alluring performances.”— Linda Williams, author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the ""Frenzy of the Visible"" ""Jeffrey Escoffier brilliantly lays bare what really drives pornography: less the pumping bodies than the underlying sexual scripts, which draw on historical conditions to shape individual desires. No scholar has tracked this process so comprehensively, from the labor arrangements of production to the evolving sites of consumption. Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography offers pointed observations on everything from 1970s 'homo-realism' to contemporary gay-for-pay performance, as well as comprehensive theorization that reshapes porn studies.""— Whitney Strub, author of Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right ""The study investigates several aspects of the porn industry, including straight and, later, transgender porn, focusing on pay disparity (men get less than women) the rise and fall of 'narrative' stories in features, the persistence of the fictive 'story' told via sex acts, and even a chapter on 'gay-for-pay' among the likes of Jeff Stryker and Ryan Idol. With a focus primarily on the rise and fall of studio porn and its related scenarios and economics, toward the end, Escoffier touches on other forms of porn; actors' cam-shows, nightclub appearances, strip acts and escorting.""— Bay Area Reporter ""Published as a collection in February, Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography reflects some 25 years’ worth of interviewing on-and behind-camera talent.""— BLOOP ""A key point for Escoffier...is that porn’s supply creates its own demand, restructuring and expanding viewers’ desires: someone might not be into or even know about a particular kink until they see it. And porn is obliged to endlessly introduce new content since viewers bore easily.""— Boston Review ""Escoffier returns to the topic of gay pornography that made his previous book Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema From Beefcake To Hardcore so notable. This one examines how the sexual imagination and identifies of the performers, writers, directors and editors have shaped the contours of gay porn.""— DNA Magazine ""The GLR talks with the author of Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography: 'In porn there are scripts at various levels.'""— Gay & Lesbian Review ""Engaging and accessible. This volume can serve as an excellent introduction both to Escoffier's work and the broader scholarship on pornography (gay, straight, and trans).""— Gay & Lesbian Review ""While many might think of pornography as only a minor aspect, Escoffier offers a strong argument that hardcore pornography has been integral to the recent historical developments of sex and sexuality. Hardcore, it is claimed, is an archive of desires and the structural conditions that both propagate and constrain them.""— Gotham Center for New York City History ""Enlightening and even affordable.""— Lambda Literary ""Constructing the Pornographic Object of Knowledge: A Conversation between Whitney Strub and Jeffrey Escoffier""— NOTCHES ""Escoffier covers porn’s relation to the sexual revolution, he movement from softcore to hardcore porn, the emergence of gay porn, identity through porn, porn screenplays, gay for pay, female actors in straight porn, porn stars, trans porn and porn and the technological revolution.""— Reviews by Amos Lassen"

Author Information

JEFFREY ESCOFFIER writes on the history of sexuality, pornography, and LGBTQ issues. He is a research associate at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.  

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