There still is reluctance to integrate Porn Studies into the syllabus. Once not too long ago a president of a University tried to shut down my presentation because I was showing explicit material. Some irritation even comes from within Cultural Studies. I myself had an intense argument with a widely recognized Cultural Studies professor when I was still in my first steps in the field. He was explaining that if I was to see anything more in pornography than blunt entertainment, then I would be (quote!) falling into the marketing traps of a billion dollar industry. And this was a professor who had to defend his own studies of Hip Hop Culture against likewise accusations.
But that’s not the whole picture.
Today an occupation in the field of pornography is more widely recognized, for instance there has been a Porn Studies section at the Filmforum Udine/Gorizia for years now. And there’s an Academic Journal even named Porn Studies founded by Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith, whose interviews you can also watch in this series.
Let me get you some more to follow up to in the next section.