Linda Williams: Porn Studies Pioneer
Pioneer of Porn Studies is without doubt the American Film Studies professor Linda Williams. When I met her at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, she gave a speech at an Event called „Feminist Idols“. President of the University, Andrea Braidt, introduced her as the „Mother of Porn Studies“. Linda Williams countered jokingly: „The grandmother maybe“. We sat down for a chat later on.
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Linda Williams is a Film Studies professor at the University of Berkeley and originally worked on the topic of musicals and melodramas. One day she decided to start an article about pornography. She started with the assumption that there are certain „body genres“, genres that move us so to say. It is films that give us physical reactions, make us laugh, cry, or in the case of porn, arouse us sexually. She then tried to apply her theories from musicals to pornography. In both of these genres, there are narrative scenes, but also the „numbers“: in musicals; the songs, in porn; the sexual sequences.
What should have been one article became an entire book called „Hard Core“. Also her edition of „Porn Studies“ should be on every bookshelf of people interested in Porn Studies. Ironically, she also gave the name „Porn Studies“ to the field, but still, years later and with an established academic field and even a journal with the same name, she still objects to the term. In her opinion it expresses too much affection and a too casual perspective on the matter, to be suitable for academic endeavors, which she explains in my interview.
The roots of Porn Studies lie in Cultural Studies. It’s the roots of all the „… Studies“ that have risen in the last decades like Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Postcolonial Studies and such. It’s a critical analysis which is not bound that much to scientific canon like classic sociology for instance. They pick the theories, methods and so on, which suit the best to get a better understanding of the respective object of study.
The heart of it was the Contemporary Centre for Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham, founded in 1964 by Richart Hoggart. An important figure in developing it was Stuart Hall. It was a cocktail of sociology, culture and media theory. It broke with the widespread assumptions of active producer/sender and passive consumer/receiver. Unlike the understanding of old propaganda theories, they started thinking that people are not merely manipulated by media. In the contrary they use it, appropriate it, sometimes even oppositional.
The centre was also responsible for developing the first research on subcultures and youth culture and were successful in establishing these as acknowledged fields of study. That also means, that these movements or popcultures, like the hippies, punks or hip-hop cultures, were not seen any more as rubbish by a mislead youth. They were seen as a motor for change in society, but also realized how most of these movements got sucked up and appropriated by capitalist structures.
Originally split from classic sociology and lost in a never ending animosity, the centre was closed in 2002 despite world wide protests.
The history of Porn Studies is bound to the history of Cultural Studies. After it has become more acknowledged to study films or certain genres of music, studying porn is another academic occupation that struggles for recognition. There are already countless publications, conferences and even a scientific journal out, but there are still some obstacles.