Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses Studies 8-7-2018 Bringing Sex To Theory: Sensational Affinity, Pleasure, and Sexual Pedagogy Andreanna Nattiel Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses Recommended Citation Nattiel, Andreanna, "Bringing Sex To Theory: Sensational Affinity, Pleasure, and Sexual Pedagogy." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2018. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses/68 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BRINGING SEX TO THEORY: SENSATIONAL AFFINITY, PLEASURE AND SEXUAL PEDAGOGY by ADREANNA NATTIEL Under the Direction of Susan Talburt, PhD ABSTRACT This project is about theorizing black queer women’s sexualities and experiences with sexual pleasure outside the lens of traditional identitarian frameworks. Drawing on queer pornography and pleasure-based sex education, I analyze how these various forms of sex education conceptualize and deploy sexual pedagogy. Further, my project maps the ways in which black queer women’s sexual pleasure can be read through the lens of sensational affinity, which can serve as a form of queer world making. INDEX WORDS: Black feminist thought, Affect theory, Sexual pedagogy, Black queer women, Pleasure, Sensational affinity BRINGING SEX TO THEORY: SENSATIONAL AFFINITY, PLEASURE AND SEXUAL PEDAGOGY by ADREANNA NATTIEL A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2018 Copyright by Adreanna Nattiel 2018 BRINGING SEX TO THEORY: SENSATIONAL AFFINITY, PLEASURE AND SEXUAL PEDAGOGY by ADREANNA NATTIEL Committee Chair: Susan Talburt Committee: Julie Kubala Tiffany King Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2018 iv DEDICATION This thesis dedicated to Mad Dworschak, who has been my loyal proofreader, constant support, and number one fan throughout the ups and downs of graduate life. This thesis is also dedicated to my mother, Sheila Nattiel, who has also celebrated my independence, admired my strength, and lifted me up during the hard times. Finally, this thesis is also dedicated to black queer women, who are my community, my raison d’etre, and constant inspiration. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Susan Talburt for her unrelenting support of my Master’s research. Her patience, guidance, and immense knowledge helped make this project possible. I would also like to thank Dr. Tiffany King for all the reading recommendations, probing questions, and inspiration to explore my unconventional academic interests. I would also like to thank Dr. Julie Kubala for sharing her books, knowledge of Queer Theory, encouragement to take my ideas as far as possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... VIII 1 CHAPTER ONE: FOREPLAY ............................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................. 5 1.2.1 Queer of Color Critique ................................................................................. 5 1.2.2 Black Sexuality Studies ................................................................................ 10 1.2.3 Affective Sexuality and Sociality Theory .................................................... 13 1.3 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 18 1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................... 19 1.5 Methods ............................................................................................................ 21 1.6 What I Learned ............................................................................................... 25 2 CHAPTER TWO: GETTING IT ON ................................................................... 26 2.1 Bodies Without Organs, Conversations Without Taboos ........................... 31 2.2 The Political Work of Sex............................................................................... 35 2.3 SeXEducation Pedagogy ................................................................................. 38 2.4 Centering the Experiential ............................................................................. 41 2.5 Rules and Relationality................................................................................... 45 vi 2.6 Centering People of Color .............................................................................. 47 2.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 49 3 CHAPTER THREE: PILLOW TALK ................................................................. 51 3.1 Creating Visual Space..................................................................................... 51 3.2 Heterosexual Design vs. Same-sex Desire ..................................................... 52 3.2.1 The Sex Wars ............................................................................................... 53 3.2.2 Sex and the Subversive Phallus ................................................................... 55 3.3 Porn as Black Queer Pedagogy ...................................................................... 63 3.3.1 Oozing Affects .............................................................................................. 65 3.4 Sex as Black Lesbian Sociality ....................................................................... 66 4 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 70 4.1 Afterglow .............................................................. 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REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 73 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 76 Appendix A .................................................................................................................. 76 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Papí Coxxx performs oral sex on Stud Slayer. ............................................................ 58 Figure 3.2 Papi Coxx straddles Stud Slayer.................................................................................. 61 Figure 3.3 Papí Coxxx pleasures Stud Slayer. .............................................................................. 68 Figure 3.4 Stud Slayer dominates Papí Coxxx. ............................................................................ 68 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Explanation STI Sexually Transmitted Infection PIV Penis-in-Vagina sexual intercourse 1 1 CHAPTER ONE: FOREPLAY It is an embodied, queer methodological practice that questions the normative assumptions of the everyday and invites us to resignify our fleshy encasements on our own terms. (122) —Juana María Rodríguez, Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings 1.1 Introduction In writing this thesis, I wanted to get past the idea that sex is what we do and identity is who we are. Rather, I argue that sensation is what we seek and in that seeking lies the possibility of becoming connected. Initially, my endeavor with this project was to move beyond identity, which I viewed (in an admittedly myopic way) as a stumbling block to more radical imaginings of black lesbian sexuality; however, this work became a way for me to explore the tensions that exist between essentialized identity and collective experience. Using pleasure as an analytic, I was able to understand the ways in which identity informs our experiences of pleasure and how those sensations help to form connections between bodies. To facilitate this research, I observed a sex education workshop, interviewed a queer black sex educator, and explored two pornographic films created by and for black lesbians. My goal was to analyze the ways in which the erotic facilitates and informs the formation of both subjectivity and community. My proposition is informed by a recent development in black feminism and Black Sexuality Studies: a renewed focus on the potentiality of pleasure for black women. While black feminist theorists have written extensively on the black female body’s legacy of pain, our pleasure has not been explored with the same voracity. I believe that political and sexual connections between black women have an unmatched potentiality for liberation and 2 I wanted to probe this fertile