Fetishizing Southern Brutality: An Intersectional Analysis of Animalistic Dehumanization in Interracial Pornography

<p>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. By using these historical tropes with the work of Judith Butler and Patricia Hill Collins as a lens to examine contemporary mainstream pornography, this thesis addresses the violent humiliation and dehumanization of oppressed bodies that have become standard in porn. My first and second chapters work to analyze the films of DogFart Productions, a company specializing in interracial pornography, often with neoconfederate themes. Each uses Patricia Hill Collins’ “matrix of domination” to do an intersectional, comparative analysis of performers. My third chapter attempts an analysis of “ethical” pornography, seeking sites of possible subversion within a medium that has historically been deployed by women to explore sexual fantasies: erotica.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in Southern Studies

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Southern Studies

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Felkins, Shawna Faye

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jaime L. Harker
• Jessica Wilkerson
• Kirsten Dellinger

• BDSM
• interracial pornography
• intersectional
• performativity
• southern tropes
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1229

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2228