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Data collection
The study will employ the method of questionnaires and in depth interviews. A
screening questionnaire will first be designed and sent out to ensure the
researcher can select participants who have some prior knowledge of
described and analysed thoroughly in her article. Her choice of methods and
research subject are similar to the proposed study. Therefore, it served as a
useful example of how to approach researching feminist views on pornography
and using interviews. Additionally, the study will utilise research specifically on
the porn industry. For example, Treating it as a normal business: Researching the
pornography industry ( G. Voss 2012) uses ethnographic observations to
highlight the limitations which exist within a lot of research on pornography. The
study takes on a contemporary critique of existing research and provides insiders
accounts of the adult entertainment industry. It is important that the proposed
study takes into consideration existing research which has been carried out on
the porn industry and it will use this research to support or critique various
viewpoints.
The study aims to use Michel Foucaults analysis to understand how sexualities
are constructed through power relations. It will then relate this to pornography
and the data collected. Books such as Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some
Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism (1993) will be useful in exploring
Foucault from a feminist standpoint. Moreover, the study will utilise Foucaults
The History of Sexuality Vol 1 (year) to discuss the historical emergence of
knowledge about sex and how this has always been related to power. Foucault
shows how the nineteenth century, contrary to popular belief, constituted a
period where there was an explosion in sexual discourse. This was an age when
the human sciences developed a whole host of categories and ideas about sex
and sexual behaviour e.g. the homosexual, Sadist, the frigid woman, pervert,
the hysteric etc. These were used to distinguish between the normal and the
abnormal in discussions about sex and sexuality. Thus, producing not only
categories of knowledge but power relations that began to define and condition
the everyday sexual practices of people.
Data analysis
The interviews will be analysed qualitatively. Using thematic analysis, coding of
the transcribed interviews will be carried out. This will ensure that the data is
categorised into a number of themes which will then make it easier to analyse.
For example, grouping certain parts of all of the interviews under a category
such as anti-sex work stances will simplify the process of searching through a
large amount of information. Relevant material can then be selected quickly.
Although qualitative research methods such as unstructured interviews are often
deemed less reliable than quantitative methods, the study will ensure it
emphasises authenticity. The analysis will make sure that the participants
perspectives have been authentically represented and interpreted. Moreover,
power relations between the researcher and the researched will be considered. In
order to minimise distance between the researcher and participant, a welcoming
and nonthreatening safe space will be created. This will hopefully remove the
power imbalance and encourage a rapport. Thus, the empirical data produced
will be rich, detailed and valid.
The research aims to politicise personal accounts and opinions of pornography.
As the research will be carried out from a feminist standpoint, the researcher will
avoid taking on an objective stance. The study will make clear from the
beginning the feminist position it intends to take. As Smith states:
Womens perspective ... discredits sociology's claim to constitute an objective
knowledge independent of the sociologist's situation. ... This critical disclosure
becomes, then, the basis for an alternative way of thinking sociology. If sociology
cannot avoid being situated, then sociology should take that as its beginning and
build it into its methodological and theoretical strategies. (Smith, 1974, pages
33 and 34).
Thus, although the researcher will plan to remain as objective as possible when
collecting information from the interviewees, it will prove impossible to remain
completely unbiased and neutral when interpreting the data.
The following timetable details a rough timescale of how the proposed project
will be carried out over the space of 2 terms:
Date
Activity
Late September
Early-Mid October
Mid October-Early
November
Late November
Christmas break
End of January
Early Feb
Mid Feb
Late Feb/Early March Transcribe interviews and code data using thematic analysis.
Late March
Early April/Easter
April
April 30th
References
Dworkin, A. And Mackinnon, C. (1993) Questions and Answers, in Russell, D. E.
H. (ed.) Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
Kipnis, L. (1993) (Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,
in Ecstasy Unlimited: On Sex, Capital, Gender, and Aesthetics. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press. (Also in Grossberg et al (1992) Cultural
Studies New York & London: Routledge.)
Ciclitira, K. (2004) Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and
Politics, Sexualities
P. Blake 2015 Dont ask if porn empowers women- instead, ask if your feminism
does (Online) Available from: News Statesman
http://www.newstatesman.com/voices/2015/03/dont-ask-if-porn-empowerswomen-instead-ask-if-your-feminism-does (Accessed 23/03/2015)
A. Marvasti (2004) Qualitative Research in Sociology Sage
B. Hooks (1984) Feminist Theory From Margin to Centre South End Press
W. McElroy XXX A Womans Right to Pornography (1997) St Martins Press
Ciclitera Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and Politics
from Sexualities Vol 7(3): 281301 DOI: 10.1177/1363460704040143 SAGE
Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
www.sagepublications.com
C. Wekesser Opposing Viewpoints in Pornography (1997) Greenhaven Press
G. Voss Treating it as a normal business: Researching the pornography industry
(2012) SagePub
Jackson, S. And Scott, S. Sexual Antinomies in Late Modernity, (2004)
Sexualities
Foucault, M. (1978/1997) The History of Sexuality: Vol.1: The Will to Knowledge.
Annotated Bibliography
Dworkin, A. And Mackinnon, C. (1993) Questions and Answers, in
Russell, D. E. H. (ed.) Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on
Pornography. Buckingham: Open University Press.
This particular text is relevant to my chosen research topic as it details the
viewpoints of leading anti porn academics Catherine Mackinnon and Angela
Dworkin. Both women fought to employ the use of legislation in order to set up a
support system for women harmed by pornography.
Kipnis, L. (1993) (Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,
in Ecstasy Unlimited: On Sex, Capital, Gender, and Aesthetics.