Thematic Section

Feminist Gazes in Virtual Reality: The POV Aesthetics of Pornography

Author(s)
Keywords
  • virtual reality
  • pornography
  • POV
  • male gaze
  • feminist aesthetics
Abstract

This paper proposes a feminist analysis of VR pornography focusing on POV as its most recurrent stylistic model. To grasp the aesthetic complexity of POV porn, the analysis shows the diffraction of this subgenre from traditional audiovisual 2D technology through virtual reality, claiming that media discontinuity can be matched by some continuity of theoretical issues within a feminist framework. The first part of the analysis argues for the inadequacy of feminist readings crossed by reverberations of the Mulveyan theory of the male gaze, thus clearing the field for a different feminist canon able to shift theory beyond the binary opposition of an active subject facing passive objects of vision. The second part examines content and formal features of POV porn by focusing on the affective encounters between the organic and inorganic bodies of users, images and technologies within a neo-materialist framework. Finally, the paper highlights some relevant issues related to the effects of POV in VR porn that could constitute productive theoretical avenues for a feminist understanding of the aesthetic dynamics ongoing between human subjectivities, environmental images and VR material devices.

References
  1. Attwood, Feona, and Clarissa Smith. 2014. “Porn Studies: an Introduction.” Porn Studies, 1 (1-2): 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2014.887308.
  2. Attwood, Feona. 2018. Sex Media. Polity.
  3. Barad, Karen. 1996. “Meeting the Universe Halfway: Realism and Social Constructivism without Contradiction.” In Feminism, Science, and the Philosophy of Science, edited by Lynn Hankinson Nelson and Jack Nelson, 161–194. Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1742-2_9.
  4. Biasin, Enrico, and Federico Zecca. 2009. “Contemporary Audiovisual Pornography: Branding Strategy and Gonzo Film Style.” Cinéma & Cie: International Film Studies Journal 10 (12): 139–145. https://doi.org/10.7372/71093.
  5. Biasin, Enrico, and Federico Zecca. 2016. “Introduction: Inside Gonzo Porn.” Porn Studies, 3 (4): 332–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2016.1259178.
  6. Biasin, Enrico, Giovanna Maina, Federico Zecca. 2011. “Introduzione.” In Il porno espanso. Dal cinema ai nuovi media, edited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, Federico Zecca, 9–20. Mimesis.
  7. Braidotti, Rosi. 1991. Patterns of Dissonance: A Study of Women in Contemporary Philosophy. Routledge.
  8. Braidotti, Rosi. 2021. “Introduzione.” In Manifesto cyborg. Donne, tecnologie e biopolitiche del corpo, edited by Liana Borghi, 9–38. Feltrinelli.
  9. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 2007.
  10. Chaudhuri, Shohini. 2006. Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed (1st ed.). Routledge.
  11. Cometa, Michele. 2020. Cultura visuale. Una genealogia. Raffaello Cortina.
  12. Crary, Jonathan. 1990. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. MIT Press.
  13. Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989 (1–8): 139–167. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8.
  14. DeGenevieve, Barbara. 2014. “The Emergence of Non-Standard Bodies and Sexualities.” Porn Studies 1 (1–2): 193–196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2014.888253.
  15. Elsey, James W. B., Katja van Andel, Regina B. Kater, Ilya M. Reints, and Mark Spiering. 2019. “The Impact of Virtual Reality versus 2D Pornography on Sexual Arousal and Presence.” Computers in Human Behavior 97: 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.02.031.
  16. Eugeni, Ruggero. 2015. La condizione postmediale. Media, linguaggi e narrazioni. La Scuola.
  17. Evans, Leighton. 2020. “‘The Embodied Empathy Revolution …’: Pornography and the Contemporary State of Consumer Virtual Reality.” Porn Studies, 8 (1): 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2020.1777894.
  18. Evans, Leighton. 2023. “Virtual Reality Pornography: a Review of Health‑Related Opportunities and Challenges.” Current Sexual Health Reports 15: 26–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-022-00352-9.
  19. Foucault, Michel. 1976. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Penguin.
  20. Genette, Gérard. 1986. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Basil Blackwell.
  21. Halberstam, Jack. 2005. In a queer time and place: Transgender bodies, subcultural lives. NYU Press.
  22. Haraway, Donna. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
  23. Keilty, Patrick. 2016. “Embodied engagements with online pornography.” The Information Society 32 (1): 64–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2015.1107162.
  24. Kyrölä, Katariina. 2010. The Weight of Images: Affective Engagements with Fat Corporeality in the Media. University of Turku.
  25. Lane, Riki. 2009. “Trans as bodily becoming: rethinking the biological as diversity, not dichotomy.” Hypatia 24 (3): 136–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01049.x.
  26. Maina, Giovanna, and Federico Zecca. 2016. “Harder than fiction: the stylistic model of gonzo pornography.” Porn Studies 3 (4): 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2016.1241161.
  27. Malaspina, Roberto Paolo. 2024. “The head-set as a lover: Pornography and the eroticism of immersive devices,” New Techno-Humanities 4 (1), 5-13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techum.2024.09.001.
  28. Marks, Laura U. 2000. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Duke University Press.
  29. Mason-Grant, Joan. 2004. Pornography Embodied: From Speech to Sexual Practice. Rowman & Littlefield.
  30. Mikkola, Mary. 2022. “Pornography and the sex wars.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality, edited by Brian D. Earp, Clare Chambers, and Lori Watson, 513–526. Routledge.
  31. Milani, Sonia, Faith Jabs, Natalie B. Brown, Bozena Zdaniuk, Alan Kingstone, and Lori A. Brotto. 2022. “Virtual reality erotica: exploring general presence, sexual presence, sexual arousal, and sexual desire in women.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 51 (1): 565–576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02111-8.
  32. Mulvey, Laura. 1975. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In Feminism and Film Theory, edited by Constance Penley, 57–68. Routledge and BFI, 1988.
  33. Paasonen, Susanna, Feona Attwood, Alan McKee, John Mercer, and Clarissa Smith. 2020. Objectification: On the Difference between Sex and Sexism. Routledge.
  34. Paasonen, Susanna. 2014. “Between meaning and mattering: on affect and porn studies.” Porn Studies 1 (1-2): 136–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2014.880225.
  35. Paré, Dylan, Pratim Sengupta, Scout Windsor, John Craig, and Matthew Thompson. 2019. “Queering Virtual Reality: A Prolegomenon.” In Critical, Transdisciplinary and Embodied Approaches in STEM Education, edited by Pratim Sengupta, Marie-Claire Shanahan, and Beaumie Kim, 307–328. Springer.
  36. Pinotti, Andrea. 2020. “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment”. Screen 61 (4): 594–603. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060.
  37. Preciado, Paul B. 2019. Countersexual Manifesto. Translated by Kevin Gerry Dunn. Columbia University Press.
  38. Purcell, Natalie. 2012. Violence and the Pornographic Imaginary: The Politics of Sex, Gender, and Aggression in Hardcore Pornography. Routledge.
  39. Rubin, Peter. 2018. Future Presence: How Virtual Reality is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life. HarperOne.
  40. Saito, Yuriko. 2007. Everyday Aesthetics. Oxford University Press.
  41. Simmel, Georg. 1902. “The Picture Frame: An Aesthetic Study.” Theory, Culture and Society 11 (11): 11–17, 1994. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327694011001003.
  42. Silverman, Kaja. 1980. “Masochism and Subjectivity.” Framework 12: 2–9.
  43. Silverman, Kaja. 1992. Male Subjectivity at the Margins. Routledge.
  44. Slater, Mel, Bernhard Spanlang, Maria V. Sanchez-Vives, and Olaf Blanke. 2010. “First Person Experience of Body Transfer in Virtual Reality.” PLOS ONE 5 (5): e10564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010564.
  45. Sobchack, Vivian. 2004. Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. University of California Press.
  46. Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. 1991. Photography at the Dock: Essays on Photographic History, Institutions, and Practices. University of Minnesota Press.
  47. Spinoza, Benedictus [1677] 2006. The Essential Spinoza: Ethics and Related Writings. Edited and with an introduction by Michael L. Morgan. Hackett Publishing Company.
  48. Tacikowski, Pawel, Jens Fust, and H. Henrik Ehrsson. 2020. “Fluidity of gender identity induced by Illusory Body-Sex Change.” Sci Rep 10 (1): 14385. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71467-z.
  49. Taormino, Tristan, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Constance Penley and Mireille Miller-young. 2013. The Feminist Porn Book. Feminist Press.
  50. Tibbals, Chauntelle Anne. 2014. “Gonzo, Trannys, and Teens – Current Trends in US Adult Content Production, Distribution, and Consumption.” Porn Studies 1 (1–2): 127–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2013.863659.
  51. Wang, Chenyang. 2021. “The Passivity of Seeing: A Lacanian Perspective on Pornographic Spectatorship in Virtual Reality.” Psychoanalisis, Culture & Society 26 (2): 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00215-7.
  52. Williams, Linda. 1989. Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the “Frenzy of the Visible”. University of California Press.
  53. Williams, Linda. 2004. Porn Studies. Duke University Press.
  54. Zecca, Federico. 2011. “Porn in transition. Per una storia della pornografia americana.” In Il porno espanso. Dal cinema ai nuovi media, edited by Enrico Biasin, Giovanna Maina, Federico Zecca, 27–77. Mimesis.
  55. Zhang, J., and Joshua Juvrud. 2024. “Gender Expression and Gender Identity in Virtual Reality: Avatars, Role-Adoption, and Social Interaction in VRChat.” Frontiers in Virtual Reality 5: 1305758. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2024.1305758.
PDF
Published

17 June 2026

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/28720
How to Cite
Zilioli, P. (2026). Feminist Gazes in Virtual Reality: The POV Aesthetics of Pornography. AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433], 4(I), 11–29. https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/28720
Copy

Issue
Vol. 4 No. I (2025): Virtual Sex: Pornography, Immersion, and Erotic Environments

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
License
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.