Television, Sex and Society by Beth Johnson James Aston Basil Glynn

Author:Beth Johnson, James Aston, Basil Glynn [Beth Johnson, James Aston, Basil Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Television, Direction & Production, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
ISBN: 9781441141316
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

The notion of a lack of interactivity in watching pornography on television contradicts the aim of pornography which situates itself as a substitute for interaction with the ‘real’ thing. As such it returns us back to Williams’ ‘frenzy of the visible’ and the continual, but inaccessible, quest for authenticity and the ‘real’ in representations of sexual intercourse. In the case of Television X the real is circumvented in favour of the artificial. That is, the production, content and reception of pornography on Television X resolutely returns the sex back to representation. Firstly, the restricted hardcore of the programmes deny viewers access to the ‘real’ of sexual intercourse; secondly the action takes place away from visible spaces existing instead on topographical margins such as derelict warehouses, disused industrial factories and secluded rural locations; thirdly, the example of class in Television X’s output, which forms a significant proportion of the schedule, delineates the woman as Other, as an ultimately unknowable figure relegated to symbol and stereotype and thus as a representational facsimile of the real; lastly, the technology of television acts as a screen rather than an interface further removing the viewer from the real in that they forgo choice and interactivity in favour of safety and regulated content decided by someone other than themselves.

The reverse directional flow of the real back to representation, which resists the advance of the ‘mainstreaming of sex’ on television that hardcore pornography has to an extent facilitated, can perhaps be framed as a confrontation between Luddites and Technophiles. This is not to say that advancements, such as the internet, should be considered in an anti-technological and anti-progressive manner, but that in the ever increasing quest for capturing the real and the authentic in representations of sex, boundaries between public and private, regulated and uncontrolled, safe and illicit have become porous and undefined. What Neil Postman (1993, p. 5), author of Technopoly astutely points out is that ‘people who are very enthusiastic about technology are always telling us what it will do for us. They almost never address the question of what it will undo’. Therefore, Television X’s undoing of the ‘frenzy of the visible’ and move back toward the secure domain of representation can be seen to address Luddite fears over technological innovation and the ramifications uncensored and limitless (internet) pornography can have on issues such as taste, identity and reception. Television X’s antiquated and unsophisticated programming emphatically excludes a younger audience who are more likely to seek out unexpurgated hardcore pornography on the internet anyway, therefore suggesting that subscribers are older male viewers who have a longer standing connection to the television and are anxious about the seemingly infinite size of the internet, its unregulated and uncontrollable content and what consequences this may have for watching pornography. It is with this last point that ultimately situates Television X as a male orientated and phallocentric producer of pornography. Even though the restricted hardcore of the channel does afford some space for women to direct the action,

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