Porn and Power: An Exploration of Sexual Identity, Literacy, and Internalized Scripts Among College Women
Location
PANEL: Sociology Honors Pt. I
King 341
Moderator: Christie Parris
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
5-1-2026 11:00 AM
End Date
5-1-2026 12:00 PM
Abstract
This research investigates how internet pornography functions as a formative cultural institution that significantly shapes the sexual subjectivities of college-aged women. Far from just a form of entertainment, pornography operates as an informal curriculum that conveys normative scripts of performance, consent, intimacy, and gendered power. Drawing on feminist theoretical frameworks, including Bernadette Barton’s critique of raunch culture, Cathy Park Hong’s theorization of minor feelings, and Angela Jones’s analysis of pleasure as a socially constructed phenomenon, this study situates pornography within broader discourses of gender, sexuality, and inequality. Through in-depth interviews, I demonstrate how women internalize, negotiate, and sometimes resist the expectations embedded in pornographic media, revealing the ambivalent interplay of empowerment, shame, vulnerability, and agency. Ultimately, data suggests that pornography must be understood as a central and understudied force in the production of sexual literacies and identities in contemporary higher education contexts.
Keywords:
Pornography, Sexual identity, Feminism
Recommended Citation
Sipress, Natalie, "Porn and Power: An Exploration of Sexual Identity, Literacy, and Internalized Scripts Among College Women" (2026). Research Symposium. 40.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2026/presentations/40
Major
Sociology; Dance
Award
Jerome Davis Research Fund
Project Mentor(s)
Christie Parris, Sociology
2026
Porn and Power: An Exploration of Sexual Identity, Literacy, and Internalized Scripts Among College Women
PANEL: Sociology Honors Pt. I
King 341
Moderator: Christie Parris
This research investigates how internet pornography functions as a formative cultural institution that significantly shapes the sexual subjectivities of college-aged women. Far from just a form of entertainment, pornography operates as an informal curriculum that conveys normative scripts of performance, consent, intimacy, and gendered power. Drawing on feminist theoretical frameworks, including Bernadette Barton’s critique of raunch culture, Cathy Park Hong’s theorization of minor feelings, and Angela Jones’s analysis of pleasure as a socially constructed phenomenon, this study situates pornography within broader discourses of gender, sexuality, and inequality. Through in-depth interviews, I demonstrate how women internalize, negotiate, and sometimes resist the expectations embedded in pornographic media, revealing the ambivalent interplay of empowerment, shame, vulnerability, and agency. Ultimately, data suggests that pornography must be understood as a central and understudied force in the production of sexual literacies and identities in contemporary higher education contexts.
