View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi) University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1-1-2015 Fetishizing Southern Brutality: An Intersectional Analysis of Animalistic Dehumanization in Interracial Pornography Shawna Faye Felkins University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Felkins, Shawna Faye, "Fetishizing Southern Brutality: An Intersectional Analysis of Animalistic Dehumanization in Interracial Pornography" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1229. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1229 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FETISHIZING SOUTHERN BRUTALITY: AN INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS OF ANIMALISTIC DEHUMANIZATION IN INTERRACIAL PORNOGRAPHY A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Southern Studies The University of Mississippi Shawna Felkins May 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Shawna Felkins ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Pornography has been a widely debated issue within the feminist movement since the sex wars of the 1970’s. The conversation has shifted to a sex radical position within the third movement, seeking to be “sex positive” in representations of pornography as a potential site of empowerment. This work, however, seeks to complicate the idea that all depictions of sex are empowering by examining the popular genre of interracial pornography through the lens of the southern tropes that are often enacted within them: the jezebel, southern belle, and black brute.