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The Ethical, Relational and Pedagogical Possibilities of Talking with Young People About Pornography

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The Ethical, Relational and Pedagogical Possibilities of Talking with Young People About Pornography MORE THAN AN “UNHAPPY OBJECT”: THE ETHICAL, RELATIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL POSSIBILITIES OF TALKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY ALANNA CAROLINE GOLDSTEIN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATION YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO June 2018 © Alanna Goldstein, 2018 Abstract Despite its ubiquity, online pornography has retained its status as an “unhappy object” (Ahmed, 2008) that is taken-for-granted as uniquely and inherently harmful for viewers, for participants, and for society in general. This is considered particularly true for young people, who are constructed as incapable of engaging with pornography in critical or nuanced ways; assumptions that have resulted in pornography’s continued omission as a topic in contemporary sexual health education curricula. But what happens when we actually talk to young people about their relationship to pornography? What do we learn about how young people engage with pornography, and how might these conversations challenge the things we think we know about youth, sexuality, pornography, and about the point and purpose of education altogether? This dissertation draws on data from four focus groups undertaken with undergraduate students at a Canadian university around the topics of online pornography and sex education to consider the value of addressing pornography in our pedagogies. Using narrative thematic analysis and case-centred analysis methodologies (Riessman, 2008), this dissertation argues that discussions around pornography provide insights into young people’s “thick desires” (Fine & McLelland, 2006)—their desires for relations and conditions of equity, dignity, justice and care. At the same time, these discussions also point to the complexity and opacity of young people’s “psychosocial subjectivities” (Jefferson & Hollway, 2013) in that pornography often emerged as a “limit object” in terms of what participants could or would say about it in relation to their sexualities, identifications, needs and desires. This limit suggests the impossibility of developing a traditional curriculum around concepts such as ‘sexuality’ or ‘pornography’ at all, but rather indicates the need to embrace ambivalence, uncertainty and vulnerability in our pedagogies; a move that might better enable young people to engage in more compassionate and hopefully more ethical relations with themselves, with others and with the world. To that end, the focus groups discussed in this dissertation serve as a potential model for thinking about and educating around difficult and complex topics of all kinds. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation project has been a labour of love and stress six years in the making. I want to first thank and acknowledge the 27 participants who took part in this study—their courage in showing up to ‘Porn Club’ and their willingness to share is what made this entire project possible. I must also express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Chlöe Brushwood Rose, for her kindness, patience, guidance and insights, and for always knowing exactly what to say to get me where I needed to go. Working with her was akin to bobbing gently in a warm sea that nevertheless persistently brought me to shore. Additionally, I want to thank my committee: Dr. Jen Gilbert, for her daunting brilliance and feedback, delivered always with the gentlest of hands, as well as for her support and confidence in me throughout the years; and Dr. Bobby Noble, for always pushing me to think differently and to find and interrogate my own blind-spots, biases and assumptions. I want to thank my friend and colleague, Jennifer Bethune, for working with me, feeding me, learning and laughing with me—this dissertation could not have been written without her kindness, openness, support and dining room table. I must also thank my partner, Eric, and his unwavering, perhaps even naïve belief in me—he is the rock upon which this project was built, and I hope to one day balance the scales with something other than my deepest love and devotion. My love and thanks must also go out to my parents, Mark and Sherry Goldstein, for their love, support, pride (and, let’s be honest, money), and their willingness to always go above and beyond to help me achieve my goals. I also want to acknowledge my beloved daughter, Matilda—being inspired by her determination and will as she has struggled to overcome the many challenges of coming into and being a part of this world has been the most wonderful and unexpected part of motherhood. Lastly, I must thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for taking a risk in funding a study with the word “porn” in its title. Doing this work wasn’t very sexy, I promise. iii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1. Context of the Study ..................................................................................................................... 4 2. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................................. 10 3. Chapter Summaries .................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature ................................................................................................. 26 1. Pornography as an Unhappy Object ........................................................................................... 28 2. Media-effects Research and Pornography .................................................................................. 30 3. Media-practices Research and Pornography .............................................................................. 41 Chapter 3: Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 51 1. Research Procedure .................................................................................................................... 57 2. Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................. 67 3. Reflections and Limitations ........................................................................................................ 73 Chapter 4: Pornography, Problematizing Discourses and Psychosocial Anxieties ...................... 80 1. Theme 1: Pornography is Unrealistic ......................................................................................... 82 2. Theme 2: Pornography Leads to Extreme or Risky Desires/Behaviours ................................... 94 3. Theme 3: Pornography is Exploitative ..................................................................................... 102 4. Pornography, Anxiety and Pedagogy ....................................................................................... 107 Chapter 5: Pornography, Pleasure and the Pedagogical Value of Ambivalence ........................ 112 1. Theme 1: Porn as Education ..................................................................................................... 114 2. Theme 2: Porn as Exploration .................................................................................................. 121 3. Theme 3: Porn as a Release ...................................................................................................... 126 4. Theme 4: Porn as a Facilitator of Relations ............................................................................. 127 5. Pornography, Ambivalence and Pedagogy ............................................................................... 132 Chapter 6: Pornography, Group Encounters and Ethical Relating ............................................ 142 1. An Ethical Response to the Other............................................................................................. 144 2. Case Study: Daria, Sara and ‘Disgust’ ..................................................................................... 146 3. Case Study: Tim, Abdi, Omar and ‘Male Sex Toys’ ................................................................ 156 iv 4. Ethical Relating in Practice ...................................................................................................... 153 5. Ethical Practice and Pedagogy ................................................................................................. 165 Chapter 7: Conclusions: Embracing the Limits of Porn and Pedagogy ...................................... 175 References ......................................................................................................................................... 188 Appendices ........................................................................................................................................ 202 v CHAPTER 1 Introduction Several years ago, in a moment of between-degree
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