A New Journal On Porn Reflects A Growing Academic Interest In The Adult Industry (Forbes)

Read the full article by Franki Cookney at Forbes.com 

An academic journal has realeased a special issue dedicated to pornography. The editors of AG About Gender, a peer-reviewed international journal based in Genoa, say the decision points to growing academic interest in the adult industry.

Its articles examine pornography, not just in terms of its impact on viewers, but as a cultural and social phenomenon in its own right. “Academic research on pornography has the potential to expand our understanding about an extremely popular and profitable, yet often stigmatized, segment of popular culture,” said said University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Lynn Comella, who co-edited the issue with Italian scholar Mariella Popolla.

Porn sites get an estimated 450 millions views a month. In 2019 Pornhub reported an average of 115 million visits per day. And yet, as the Atlantic reported, the majority of Americans say looking at porn is "wrong."

The cognitive dissonance around the consumption of pornography alone is enough to provoke some research-worthy questions. But rather than simply focus on consumer behavior, the issue, entitled “Rethinking Gender and Agency in Pornography: Producers, Consumers, Workers and Contexts,” also looks at the industry itself. Articles examine the nature of the work, and the business of porn—from marketing and branding to the ways in which the internet has opened up opportunities for online entrepreneurship for porn performers.