Challenges and discoveries when interpreting adult comtemporary cinematography

This pilot study explores three feminist perspectives on pornography and the various themes described by social science researchers that differentiate women-centered pornography from pornography produced for heterosexual men. Four themes are developed as possible indicators of woman-centered pornography. These themes are "woman-constructed", "egalitarian", "authentic", and "political". Content analysis is performed on both plot and sex scenes of four adult films, two that are directed by women and two that are directed by men, in order to determine if the presence of these themes exist in pornographic film. A discussion of tentative statistical implications is provided alongside an in-depth discussion of the coding process and the multi-layered meanings and interpretations possible for a number of scenes in the sample. Implications are that these themes are present in adult film but a larger sample size is necessary in order to determine if the themes differentiate women-centered film from film produced for heterosexual men. Suggestions for future research include, performing the study with a larger sample size, further qualitative analysis of how these themes are depicted (regardless of the gender of the director), and possible cross-sectional research that attempts to examine the changing trends of theme depiction over time. Keywords: Feminism, human sexuality, pornography, performativity, sexual agency.