qsa workshop #8: smut, erotica, pornography and more

qsa workshop #8: smut, erotica, pornography and more
designed by talia young, talia@sccs.swarthmore.edu, fall 2000

objectives:

to familiarize people with vocabulary and examples of:

pornography
hard-porn
soft-porn
smut
erotica
"vanilla"
"leather"

to discuss some of the arguments for and against porn
to talk about differences between straight and queer porn

materials needed:

examples of (but not limited to):

straight erotica - words
straight porn - pictures
gay male erotical - words
gay male porn - pictures
lesbian erotical - words
lesbian porn - pictures

preparation:

arrange all of the materials

icebreaker:

secret enemy & secret bodyguard? 3-legged race? crawl through legs relay?

name game:

go around, do names and your favorite artificial flavor

ground rules:

confidentiality: not that you can't talk about what goes on here (on the contrary, please do continue discussions outside of the workshop) but don't go around saying "so-and-so was at the workshop and said such-and-such"
respect: there are probably a lot of us coming from different places; please respect each other. feel free to disagree with each other but please use "i" statements
no stupid questions: on a similar note, there are no stupid questions here; you should feel free to ask everything. i realize this can sometimes be a risky position to take, but i think it's important. if you think a question is offensive, you should say so, but that doesn't mean that it was stupid. anyway, we'll see how this one works.
any others?

activity:

go over some definitions - porn, erotica, smut
let people look at the stuff for a while, thinking about:

how does it make your feel?
are there differences between straight and queer porn, and their ramifications?
what are some of the arguments for and against the porn industry?

follow up/wrap up/conclusion:

go around and say something you learned.

1: what is queer? | 2: queer & family | 3: (trans)gender | 4: queer sex | 5: gay marriage | 6: queer athletics
7: queer literature | 8: erotica, smut & pornography | 9: queer religion | 10: culturally mediated (a)sexuality?
icebreakers | name games

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contact me! last updated 22 january 2001.