Aesthetics of reality:

an analysis of amateur pornography on

Pornhub

Annabel Burger
11042249
Master Thesis
20927
Supervisor: Michael Stevenson
Second examiner: Guillén Torres Sepulveda
University of Amsterdam
Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3

1 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................. 6

1.1 Reality and authenticity............................................................................................................. 6
1.1.1 Reality TV .......................................................................................................................... 7
1.1.2 Voyeurism in Reality TV .................................................................................................... 7
1.1.3 Mediated Reality ................................................................................................................ 9
1.1.4 Reality fetish in contemporary media culture ................................................................... 11
1.1.5 Construction of authenticity on social networking sites and social media. ...................... 13
1.1.7 Voyeurism in social media and social networking sites ................................................... 15
1.1.8 User-generated content ................................................................................................... 16
1.2 Pornography and sexual scripting .......................................................................................... 18
1.2.1 History of amateur pornography ...................................................................................... 19
1.2.2 Amateur content .............................................................................................................. 22

2. Method ......................................................................................................................................... 28
2.1 Object of study ........................................................................................................................ 29
2.2 Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 29
2.2.1 Visual analysis ................................................................................................................. 30

3. Pornhub description................................................................................................................... 34

4. Visual analysis ............................................................................................................................ 36

5. Results ......................................................................................................................................... 38

6. Discussion................................................................................................................................... 41

7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 45

Appendix ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Individual video checklists ............................................................................................................ 48

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 64

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Introduction
A reality fetish in contemporary media culture has been well described in a number of different
areas (Van Doorn, 2010) such as, for instance, user-generated content on various social media
platforms or daily vlogging (Garcia-Rapp, 2017). To date, however, little is known about how a
reality fetish manifests itself in the world of amateur pornography. This lack of investigation of a
reality fetish in amateur pornography may be something of a missed academic opportunity. Despite
its potentially embarrassing subject matter - or perhaps because of it - as an aspect of
contemporary media culture amateur pornography offers a unique combination of realism,
voyeurism and not unimportantly for research – a huge volume of freely available user-generated
content producing a novel hybrid which enjoys a leading position.
The reason for performing qualitative research into a branch of pornography is that this topic
does not receive enough attention due to the prejudices surrounding the seedier side of the subject
matter. The topic is rarely discussed in a neutral manner despite the fact that pornography
represents a large part of many people’s internet consumption.

The research object is amateur pornography on Pornhub. In researching amateur porn from the
angle of a reality fetish in contemporary media culture this thesis will answer the research question
how voyeurism and ‘reality’ are constructed in amateur pornography. It will also answer four sub
questions:
- What are aspects viewers use to register ‘reality’ and authenticity?
- How has voyeurism become an aspect of the contemporary media landscape?
- What drives the production and sharing of user-generated content?
- How different is amateur pornography from mainstream pornography?

Still a growing phenomenon in the world of pornography, amateur pornography is mostly to be

found on pornography platforms, such as Pornhub, and is even categorized as such for easy
searching. The idea of amateur pornography is that ‘amateurs’, i.e. ordinary people, record and
share video recordings of themselves having sex (user-generated content) onto a pornography
website. This genre of pornography is very popular on platforms such as Pornhub: so popular, in
fact, that professional porn actors have started making pornography in which they act as if they are
amateurs and categorising the content produced as amateur pornography – in a sense, art imitating
life. This is called Pro Am and on a practical level it is very difficult to figure out if the pornography is
really made by amateurs or professional porn actors. This distinction is hard to make because
professionals now work with amateur aesthetics to construct this idea of ‘reality’ and authenticity.

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The theoretical framework will outline the picture that emerges from the literature regarding the
concepts that underlie the topic of this thesis. It will outline the reality fetish and examine what
constructs reality and authenticity in a number of different mediated contexts (Reality TV, social
media, social networking sites and platforms). It will explore the relationship of reality and
authenticity with voyeurism and the relationship of voyeurism with user-generated content, as well
as the dynamic between the watcher and the watched. Via the concept of user-generated content
and some historic background the link will be made with amateur pornography in the wider context
of pornography and sexual scripting. Amateur pornography will be examined in different contexts
and how ‘real’ it needs to be for the user will be explored.

Applying the concepts defined and explored in the theoretical framework, the thesis examines a
sample of the most popular amateur pornography videos on Pornhub, which is the most popular
category on one of the most popular platforms. These videos will be deconstructed and described
using a rigorous checklist (see Method) originally designed for examining socially and situationally
constructed aesthetic strategies in advertising. The context of the Pornhub platform will also be
briefly sketched.

Authenticity is constructed in a variety of ways. An example is Reality TV, with participants who
know they are being filmed, a fact the audience is aware of but tends to forget. Reality TV is
perceived as authentic to a certain extent, especially looking at Big Brother and the fly-on-the-wall
type of filming style (Roscoe, 2001). Reality TV can be considered a voyeuristic pleasure, a delight
in being allowed to observe how a ‘real’ person interacts and behaves. Contemporary media culture
seems especially constructed for this form of voyeurism, enabled by elements of exhibitionism.
Social media for a large part consists of people sharing personal information: youtubers who vlog
their lives every day, or even live-streaming content of people eating on camera for hours on end.
This is all extensively consumed in contemporary media culture because it satisfies a certain reality
fetish.
At the time of writing this thesis, during the eruption of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic,
people have been advised to stay inside as much as possible. The platform Pornhub issued a
statement (The Next Web, 2020) that to help flatten the pandemic infection curve they were
encouraging people to stay inside by temporarily making their premium feature free.
Simultaneously, live streaming became increasingly popular. According to The Verge (2020), it
increased by 45%. This indicates that in the middle of a global pandemic during which people are
forced to stay indoors, people may find some solace in the semblance of human, real time contact,
even in live streaming the content of someone else’s meal. This illustrates how an element of
voyeurism in society is one of the drivers for the popularity of consuming this type of ‘exhibitionistic’
content.

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Niels van Doorn (2010) explored the term fetishation of ‘reality’. This theory is relevant for this study
as it clearly sets out a concept that is central to this thesis. Van Doorn also discusses amateur
pornography in this context, namely the aspect of sexual scripting. Users have a certain awareness
of the fact that media such as pornography, social media and reality TV contain an element of
performativity. Consumers have adapted to this fact and register this aspect. Of course, enjoying
this type of content relies on a form of suspension of disbelief and the content can still feel real,
even if the awareness is nevertheless there. Users also understand that there is an element of
scripting; depending on how interpretable the script is, the user is given a sense of reality and
authenticity in the depicted scenes.
This awareness of performativity may not yet be fully present with amateur pornography,
which is branded as completely authentic and the closest one could come to being an actual
voyeur, albeit online. As mentioned above, that makes amateur pornography an interesting
research object. Are amateur pornography videos freer and more emancipated? Are they a true
record of ‘couples caught in the act’? Or are the aesthetics of the ‘real’ enough to scratch the
voyeuristic itch?
This thesis will summarise how these still relatively new genres of pornography configure
‘reality’ as a source of sexual pleasure, using a mix of aesthetic strategies to give the impression of
immediacy and authenticity, the realer the better.

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1 Theoretical framework
1.1 Reality and authenticity
To understand in what way reality is constructed in contemporary media, the relationship between
reality and authenticity must be reviewed. What do users of online pornography do? A broader
context is formed by the subjects of reality, authenticity, reality online and social networking. As
stated earlier, it is important to consider how users experience authenticity in the online realm.
There is academic literature which argues that authenticity is vital for general, emotional and
psychological subjective well-being (Kernis and Goldman, 2006).
According to Van Leeuwen (2001), there are different ways to explore and describe the
concept of authenticity. First, when someone perceives something as authentic, they register it as
genuine. Van Leeuwen goes on to say that this is on the basis that the origin and authorship are not
in question. Van Leeuwen argues that this can become problematic due to copying, imitation and
adapting which may call the authority and authenticity into question. The second form which Van
Leeuwen describes is when something is a faithful representation or reconstruction. This highlights
the problems mentioned above because it becomes harder to register the core authenticity when it
is a faithful reconstruction. There would be no reason to believe it is not authentic and genuine.
Thirdly, van Leeuwen discusses authenticity as something that can also mean authorized. He
argues this with the bearing of a stamp, a genuine signature or seal of approval. Van Leeuwen goes
on to say that something is authentic “because it is declared authentic by an authority” (P. 393). Yet,
these elements of authority can still be imitated and adapted as was the problem in the first sense of
authenticity. Lastly, Van Leeuwen argues that spontaneity, as opposed to prepared and planned
actions, is believed as being more truthful. Van Leeuwen does not leave performance out of this:
“regardless of whether it is a spontaneous performance or, for instance, a performance by an actor”
(P. 394). Performances can still be regarded in measurements of authentic or inauthentic, even
when the awareness of the performance is there. Van Leeuwen states that authenticity is something
that is centred more around “the moral or artistic authority of the representation than with its truth or
reality” (P. 396).
This, in essence, means that the perception of truth is just as valuable as actual truth.
Authenticity seems to be in the eyes of the beholder and realism seems to be more important than
reality. As part of what this thesis intends to demonstrate, this mechanism is also at work in the
production and consumption of amateur pornography.

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1.1.1 Reality TV
Similar to social media, Reality TV also claims authenticity in its presentation of a version of reality,
one difference being that Reality TV is not peer-to-peer or interactive but a one-way broadcast.
Compared to regular TV, however, Reality TV is a hybrid form of reality and television. “In essence,
reality programs are marked by ordinary people engaging in unscripted action and interaction” (Nabi
2007, P. 373). “To categorize reality programs into sub-genres, scholars provided classification
based on range of reality programs, viewing frequency of reality-based programs, or concept
mapping […] the range of reality programming and identified six sub-genres: gamedocs (e.g.
Survivor), dating programs (e.g. Joe Millionaire), makeover and lifestyle (e.g. A Wedding Story),
docusoaps (e.g. The Real World), court programs (e.g. Judge Judy), and reality sitcoms (e.g. The
Osbournes).” (Bagdasarov et al. 2010, P. 301).
Audiences are already aware that television is not ‘real’, so reality TV that is positioned as a
genuine look inside people’s lives presents a hybrid form, also because the participants are aware
of the viewing audience. In the article Keeping it Real? Social Class, Young People and
‘Authenticity’ in Reality TV (2012) by Kim Allen and Heather Mendick, the continuous ongoing
judgement of authenticity by audiences of Reality TV is examined. Audiences take into account
three interlocking elements: identification, situation and production. They weigh up whether the
people on screen are identifiable; if it is a common and recognizable or uncommon environment;
and a certain element of scriptedness. The classic example of Big Brother’s fly on the wall
technique to present Reality TV is set out in the article Big Brother Australia: Performing the ‘real’
twenty-four-seven (2001) by Roscoe. The Big Brother house is like a public site that audiences can
watch and peer into. In the case of the Big Brother format, however, the participants know that they
are being watched, the whole idea of the show contains a performing aspect for the cameras. The
performative aspect has an effect on both sides of the screen: Reality TV participants know they are
being filmed, which affects their behaviour, and audiences ‘know’- in theory at least - that what they
are watching is to a certain extent a performance, which affects their viewing experience.
This voyeuristic dynamic between watchers and the watched combined with the uncertainty
regarding the level of performativity is examined in the next section: voyeurism in Reality TV.

1.1.2 Voyeurism in Reality TV

Voyeurism is a central concept in this research and how voyeurism and pornography build on each
other will be discussed later on in this thesis. The basic language definition of voyeurism (Wikipedia)
is that voyeurism is “getting sexual pleasure from viewing intimate behaviour that would otherwise
be private and hidden from the viewer”. Wider aspects of voyeurism also deal with psychoanalysis
and sexual perversion or even medical disorders which are outside the scope of this thesis.
Relevant to the topic at hand, however, there is literature that describes that voyeurism does not

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have to be specifically sexual. Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture
(2004) by Calvert for example describes that we have become a nation of voyeurs “obsessed with
the mass consumption of information about others' apparently real and unguarded lives.” The mere
“viewing of intimate behaviour that would otherwise be private or hidden” is enough to stir up
people’s voyeuristic tendencies. Sexual content merely raises the stakes but is not essential to the
mechanism.
As mentioned earlier, Reality TV is inherently voyeuristic. To quote from Reel Pleasures:
Exploring the Historical Roots of Media Voyeurism and exhibitionism by Bilge Yesil (2001) “The
voyeuristic and exhibitionist culture is a strange yet potent mix of authenticity and contrivance,
pleasure and repulsion. The desire for the real is bound up with a repulsion from what is not normal
or safe. Audiences usually moan about the ’freaks’ they see on daytime talk shows or a participant
eating a rat on Survivor. The paradox of voyeurism is contained in the coexistence of revulsion” (P.
4) This is a very interesting quote since it pairs voyeurism with social identification. Watching other
people’s intimate behaviours also presents a mirror which asks the viewer to consider how they
relate to the people on TV, producing feelings on a spectrum from ‘I’m not alone’ to ‘thank goodness
that’s not me’ – or shifting between the two as they watch.
In Lemi Baruh’s article, Mediated Voyeurism and the Guilty Pleasure of Consuming Reality
Television (2010), Baruh discusses the concept of the “curtains-left-slightly-open”, a concept which
according to Baruh contains a certain ambiguity of the authentic. Because if the curtains are fully
open there is no secret or mystery. The curtains-left-slightly-open appears to be unintentional and
adds to the guilty pleasure when engaging in voyeuristic behaviour. In this same way, Reality TV
uses the fly-on-the-wall technique: the candid camera. Even though people on reality TV know they
are being watched, the ‘candid camera’ approach lends the mystery of authenticity to the scenes
playing out and an ambiguity in viewing it. “To examine media content, the authors operationalized
voyeurism consistent with Calvert’s (2004, P. 23) definition of ‘mediated voyeurism' as the
consumption of revealing images of and information about others’ apparently real and unguarded
lives, often yet not always for purposes of entertainment but frequently at the expense of privacy
and discourse, through the means of the mass media and Internet.” (Bagdasarov et al. 2010, P.
301) “Kavka (2004) observed that Reality TV programs were dependent on voyeuristic elements
such as the performance of intimate elements in public, and the transformation of ordinary events
from unwatchable to something worth watching, suggesting that voyeurism was one key
programming content that distinguished Reality TV from fictional television programs.” (Bagdasarov
et al. 2010, P. 301)
Reality TV relies on a similar type of audience engagement as does amateur pornography
(as will be shown later), with viewers constantly weighing whether scenes are ‘real enough’,
checking identification and production and suspending their disbelief regarding scriptedness and
elements of performativity.

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1.1.3 Mediated Reality
How does reality relate to media in contemporary media culture? As Mark Deuze states in Media
Life and Media Work (2017) “We live in media. Media are to us as water is to fish. The ubiquitous
and pervasive nature of contemporary media does not mean people’s lives are determined by
technology, but it certainly should suggest that our understanding of society […] must start with an
appreciation of the profound mediatization of everyday life and the lifeworld (the world we
experience) (Deuze, 2014). This is all the more important as the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of
media in everyday life is a direct function of their disappearance from our active awareness of
them.” (Deuze 2017, P. 17) This means that contemporary culture is mediated, and media are
entrenched and converged. Reality is mediated in ways that are so pervasive that reality and media
can barely be viewed as separate from each other, one could argue it would not be helpful to look at
it in that way. Media therefore become invisible and embedded in human life and daily activity. “The
invisibility of media, coupled with their connectivity and persistency, forms the human condition of
experiencing and acting in the world. Media and life are mutually implicated physical and emotional
infrastructures – in that people’s lived experience with media has become so intertwined, ritualistic
and natural, to draw distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ seems fruitless.” (Deuze 2017, P. 18) The
relationships people have with media are very personal. All the aspects of daily life are structured by
and in media. While simultaneously, media in people’s daily life are shaped by the way they fit into
their own environment (Deuze 2017). Deuze further states what all industry and scholarly
approaches such as ‘Martini’ media, convergence culture, media as ensemble, polymedia, manifold
and practices, mediation and mediatization, have in common is that the understanding and
construction of everyday life cannot be separated from the formative role media play. People create,
as much as they consume the world.
Deuze goes on with this explanation, sketching that because of this perception a person can
transform from a mere worker, ‘homo faber’, into an information processor, a player with
information: ‘homo ludens’. “As our media are anytime, anyplace, and anywhere, so are we. In
media, we witness crucially intimate occurrences in people’s lives from around the world. […] Our
media use turns us – at times – from people who listen to and watch stories about people’s lives to
people who witness other people lives” (Deuze 2017, P. 22). This describes the gradual shift from
the mere sharing and subsequent consuming of user-generated content to something that is more
akin to participation, either way something that is intimate and a dynamic that may be produced by
an unspoken and implicit pact between voyeurism and exhibitionism.
As Deuze says, people have become witnesses of other peoples’ lives. This even extends to
peoples’ sex lives, as shown by the popularity of amateur pornography. A low-quality standstill
camera propped on top of a piece of furniture somewhere in the domestic sphere suffices to capture
in real time one of the most intimate acts between two people. In this straight-forward way people

9
produce videos classified as user-generated content, upload this content for free to a free
pornography platform for other users to consume, making it also part of the gift economy. Jenkins
and Deuze (2008) talk about this connection between user-generated content and participatory
culture in terms of convergence culture: “Look around the edges of the happy talk about ‘user-
generated content’, and one will see growing surges of audience activism as the public objects to
the commodification of the gift economy which has grown up around the participatory culture of the
web. The phrase ‘harnessing collective intelligence’ seems emblematic of the contradictory relations
between consumers and producers during this transitional moment in the history of the media
ecology.”
Jenkins and Deuze discuss the meaning of user-generated content and how that could be
commodified. This phenomenon is present in amateur pornography in the form of the genre of
‘professional amateurism’ or Pro Am. This genre consists of professional (paid) porn actors
emulating amateur aesthetics because the demand for that is so high, as will be discussed below.
This illustrates that also in pornography, participatory culture and the gift economy can be eroded
and commodified, with sharing ultimately replaced with selling. It means that reality and authenticity
aspects of ‘amateurism’ and user generated content are even more difficult to ascertain.
In another text, Media Life (2011), Deuze discusses the concepts of reality and media and
how they interplay; how it seems that reality is malleable, that it can be manipulated, fast-forwarded,
panned, scanned and zoomed in. “Media become the playground for a search for meaning and
belonging – not just by consumption or what […] calls ‘flexible accumulation’ of artifacts and ideas
that would make up and reconstitute one’s sense of self-identity, but also by producing, co-creating,
assembling and remixing ‘a whole series of simulacra as milieux of escape, fantasy, and distraction’
(1990: 302). […] in this context has argued for an emerging culture of ‘real virtuality’ (1996: 364ff),
where reality itself is entirely captured by mediated communication.” (Deuze 2011, P. 138). Deuze
goes on to give his own perspective on the arguments by the two authors he mentions stating with
regards to media studies that he believes it is important not to see people as hapless victims of this
seemingly fragmented worldview, nor to assume that this shift towards a media life inevitably makes
people’s experience of society somehow less ‘real’ or ‘true’. The potential power of people to shape
their lives and identities can be found in the assumption that people produce themselves, and
therefore each other, in media. And how this may additionally explain why people do not recognize
their media habits because they are a constitutive part of them. (Deuze, 2011) “In other words:
people in media life inevitably engage with reality on the basis of a constant moving in between
idealism (what we perceive) and materialism (what is apparent), using the tools and techniques of
contemporary digital and net-worked media to edit and remix both their perceptions and the
appearance of that reality.” (Deuze 2011, P. 142). What these quotes and this explanation illustrate
is that the relationship between media and reality and how they are perceived are in constant
conversation with each other while also mutually shaping each other.

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1.1.4 Reality fetish in contemporary media culture
Moving on from the subject of mediated reality, how does this idea of the fetish of ‘reality’ connect to
contemporary media culture? Take for example the platform YouTube: certain “youtubers” (e.g.
Casey Neistat, Zoe Sugg or Alfie Deyes) publish daily vlogs, video diaries of their daily lives and
they may attract many followers. In the opinion of the followers, the more authentic, real and
unfiltered the content is, the better. This is explored by Garcia-Rapp (2017) in her article ‘My Friend
Bubz’: Building intimacy on YouTube's beauty community. She states that for online celebrities,
there is a strong expectation of authenticity. Garcia-Rapp argues this is due to social media’s
implicit values of immediacy and spontaneity, as well as the inherent image of grassroots, amateur
and DIY culture. This is something that, according to Garcia-Rapp, the YouTube platform started
and seeks to maintain. She further states that being a successful online celebrity implies building
intimacy through disclosure and connection-seeking. She states that this legitimises celebrity
practitioners’ positions and reputations as renowned personalities. Garcia-Rapp follows Cohen
(2001) as he argues that self-disclosure is ‘the engine that drives new relationships’ and ‘disclosing
intimacy acts as a marker that defines authentic friendship’. The article meticulously analyses the
viewing behaviour of the audience of a beauty vlogger or guru named Bubz. She argues that
“viewing and commenting imply an interest in the person behind the channel – the guru, herself.
Bubz turns from a stranger to a skilled guru […], to a friend who shares her daily life and stories. At
the same time, viewers turn from random viewers to loyal subscribers and fans”. Garcia-Rapp
illustrates that the shift from general informative content to intimate and more personal content
creates the simultaneous shift from spectator to partaker; viewer to fan; stranger to secret-sharing
friend with an emotional connection. The feeling of authenticity is the device which encourages
viewers to develop sustained interest and loyalty. Significantly, intimate vlogs become the most
sought-after content on this channel.
The phenomenon of building intimacy through disclosure and authenticity combined with the
fetish around voyeuristically watching daily activity and the capturing of ‘real life’ in a more extreme
form than just YouTube vlogs, is also evident in live streaming. According to Wang and Chou (2019)
the motivation for watching live streams can be divided into four categories: leisure, celebrity
worship, social connection, and voyeurism. They then posit that these four categories can be
divided into eight “motives”, including passing time, entertainment, relaxation, celebrity identification,
vicarious participation, companionship, social interaction, and voyeurism. There are many
contemporary live streaming services, including regularly used social media platforms such as
Instagram and Facebook, which now offer a live streaming function. According to Wang and Chou,
through live video streaming, people can broadcast their own lives and share their daily activities in
real time. “By viewing live video streaming, audiences are privy to broadcasters’ personal activities

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and private affairs. Live video streaming attracts audiences’ attention.” (Wang and Chou, 2019). It is
also significant to mention that live streams can go on for a significant amount of time. For hours on
end viewers can stay entertained by just watching someone’s private sphere and activities. What
Wang and Chou show is that three of the ‘motives’ for viewing live streams: vicarious participation,
social connection and voyeurism can be viewed as the main aspects of the reality fetish that
contemporary media culture holds today.
This thesis discusses how voyeurism is tied in to almost every aspect of contemporary
media culture. In contemporary media, what counts as ‘real’ or authentic and how are the aesthetics
of reality and authenticity constructed? A key part of this is formed by the aesthetic strategies that
are chosen and the norms that develop. This is interesting in Reality TV, in social media and also
even in older forms of media such as photography. When photography was first invented in the
early 1800s people were stunned by the fact that it was an actual snapshot of reality. An image held
authority because it was tangible visual proof that the event depicted in a specific picture had
actually happened at the moment in time the picture was taken (Marien, 2006).
On a more contemporary note, take for example the Vietnam war, which was intensively
televised for a broad audience. This content of the war that would be viewed by many people in
their own safe environments and domestic spheres, was also very voyeuristic. Television viewers
watched people who were in incredibly fearful and high-stakes situations and sometimes the viewer
even witnessed people dying (Steinman, 2002).
Voyeurism has been at play long before contemporary media ever existed, an example
being the 13th century story of Peeping Tom, who alone among the townsfolk spied on the Lady
Godiva's naked horse ride (Wikipedia). This illustrates the dynamic between exhibitionist, Lady
Godiva (Countess of Mercia, died approx. 1066) riding naked on a horse, and the voyeur, the
peeping Tom.
As mentioned earlier, the dynamic between exhibitionist and voyeur lies at the heart of
Reality TV, where contestants are the willing exhibitionists and the audience the semi-aware
voyeurs. This is evident in the Big Brother format, which employs a 24/7 camera set up as ‘fly-on-
the-wall’, recording everything the contestants do (Roscoe, 2001). What this means for audiences is
that they get the illusion that nothing is filtered or edited and that this show is capturing reality in real
time, turning it into a voyeuristic dream. A similar program to Big Brother is Temptation Island, in
which young couples test the strength of their relationships by living in a house with other young
attractive singles of the opposite sex. The goal for the singles is to seduce the person who has a
relationship and eventually have sex with them on camera. This makes this show voyeuristic in a
more sexual way: the audience is mostly rooting for these people to eventually have sex on camera
(Vandenbosch and Eggermount, 2010). What Temptation Island also breeds, is a feeling of relief
expressed in the idea ‘thank goodness it’s them and not me’, generating emotional distancing, or
even ‘hate watching’ (Yesil, 2001). Reality TV breeds a feeling of superiority: the viewers tell

12
themselves that they would never act the way these contestants act and can therefore feel better
about their own choices or their own life.
Voyeurism with regard to Reality TV is one-sided. In the case of social media, however, it
may become bilateral. Social media is also a voyeuristic medium, in essence it is an online place
where personal, intimate and private information is shared. Social media, as opposed to Reality TV,
is two-sided because a user can simultaneously take the role of an exhibitionist and a voyeur.
User-generated content in general is the carrier of contemporary media culture, examples
are not only to be found on YouTube in the form of daily vlogging and live streaming, but on many
other platforms. Prime examples of voyeuristic content and therefore voyeuristic satisfaction are
extensively consumed. There is clearly a longing for the authentic and the ‘real’: a reality fetish in
contemporary media culture. This is also an important driver in amateur pornography. Pornography
in itself is voyeuristic because it is content of people engaging in sexual activity. Yet, mainstream
pornography can feel inauthentic and is therefore not registered as real (Hardy, 2008). Amateur
pornography constructs that feeling of authenticity by means of aesthetics. Even in the context of
the hybrid form of Pro Am - professionals enacting amateur aesthetics - the pleasurable feeling of
the authentic and therefore the voyeuristic element is constructed.

1.1.5 Construction of authenticity on social networking sites and social media.

How does this construction of authenticity work for and on specific social networking sites? A user
must in a way navigate the online realm between the ‘real’ and the ‘fake’. In examining authenticity
and online reality, social networking sites are eminently interesting, especially because of the
affordance of posting and the concept of sharing. The concept of sharing is explored by Nicholas
John, Sharing and Web 2.0: The emergence of a keyword (2013). The idea is explained that in
semiotic terms sharing one’s feelings or emotions is also an act of communication. Social
networking sites prompt the user to share their personal information with terms such as: ‘share your
world’ and ‘share your life’. This appeals to the user to share their life, telling everyone what is going
on, how they are feeling and what they are doing. This type of communication, because it takes
place in the context of a community, creates the expectation of reciprocity: a user can expect the
same from other users.
The question may be raised how real and authentic what is shared is experienced. Natalya
N. Bazarova (2012) explores the idea of authenticity, and also intimacy is further discussed in her
article Public Intimacy: Disclosure Interpretation and Social Judgments on Facebook: Public
Intimacy. Bazarova discusses how the disclosure of personal information is perceived as adding a
feeling of intimacy, while Van Leeuwen and Garcia-Rapp in earlier sections of this thesis showed
that it also adds to a sense of authenticity. According to Bazarova, however, not any sharing will do:
sharing on Facebook is considered so easy and casual that it is valued and appreciated less,

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reducing the sense of intimacy. Creating a feeling of relational intimacy and bonding is more difficult
in the public Facebook sphere. Crucially, Bazarova also states that people experience more
intimacy when information is unique and unavailable to others. The study concluded that in line with
their hypothesis, intimacy is indeed harder to attain through Facebook public communication
because intimate disclosures in public interactions are viewed as less intimate and less appropriate
than intimate disclosures in private interactions on Facebook.
The above information paints a picture of a rising scale of perceived authenticity and
intimacy that relies on sharing, disclosure, relationship orientation and reciprocity, with intimacy
most enhanced when sharing, though potentially public, feels private. These are constituents of the
concept of voyeurism and the reality fetish, both vital elements of the appreciation of amateur
pornography.
A brief historic overview by José van Dijck on the evolution from social networking sites to
more social media platforms is set out in her book Culture of Connectivity (2013). Van Dijck states
there are no hard lines between these two objects: platforms usually adding more ways of using
creativity and user-generated content, whereas social networking sites primarily promote
interpersonal contact. Nowadays, however, many social networking sites implement user-generated
content and many platforms also promote interpersonal contact. This is also because, as Van Dijck
states, media have co-evolved with the public using them. Furthermore, Van Dijck discusses that
everyday things such as talking to friends, gossiping and showing pictures used to be contained
within a selective group of people. In the case of social media, however, these aspects are
formalised inscriptions and can take on a different value once spread to the wider public on these
platforms.
Providing an insightful observation regarding the term ‘social’ in social media, an article by
Taina Bucher Networking, or What the Social Means in Social Media (2015) states: “the social is not
a thing or domain of reality; it does not explain, it is precisely what needs explaining.” This
perspective is remarkably easy to forget, as social media platforms constantly suggest the opposite:
take the social for granted, naturalize it, make the social equal happiness, inclusion, the good life:
‘Sharing is caring’, ‘All that happens must be known’. In this way it becomes one huge network of
‘friends’ whereby the amount of content to consume only keeps growing as the network does, this
gives users a look into other users personal lives and a way for users to show and share their own.
All in all, there is a certain aspect of agency connected to social media usage, the user is aware. As
Bucher and Helmond state in their article The affordances of social media platforms (2017) the
platform’s own affordances call for different actions form the users. Also, these affordances extend
beyond the boundaries of the platform itself, implying that different platform contexts call for different
social behaviour. Therefore, there is an element of active participation and also agency.
How is authenticity constructed on social media? According to Hall (2015) it is constructed
by employing aesthetics of the everyday. In her article, Hall discusses a youtuber named

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lonelygirl15 who was created by an actress named Jessica Rose playing the character Bree on the
channel who was the subject of these vlogs. Hall states, that the precarity of everyday life manifests
in an aesthetic mode. This means that the aesthetic of the everyday, the mundane, can be
constructed and this construction is enough to be registered as real. Further, Hall suggests that it is
less important in this research to look at individual authenticity but rather “that authenticity is merely
one affect of the personal branding required by social media performance, which, by extension,
works to simultaneously brand social media.” (Hall 2015, P. 130) What Hall means here is that a
construction of aesthetics of the everyday and shared intimacy online is enough to sustain this
personal connection between the character Bree and her viewers. Hall states at the end of her
article that “These vlogs utilize the same amateur aesthetic to create personas that exceed the
definition of reality and fiction, and blend the two in the performance of a highly consumable
personal brand.” (Hall 2015, P. 140) She connects this YouTube social media presence and
performance to amateur aesthetics, branding them as the same. This construction, Hall states,
exceeds the idea of reality or fiction: it becomes something that is constructed by how it is perceived
and believed by the viewers with the help of aesthetics. This could also be the case for amateur
pornography, which is what this thesis sets out to research.

1.1.7 Voyeurism in social media and social networking sites

Some aspects of social media are a voyeuristic dream. Its content is based on sharing, often of
intimate details, by its users. There is simultaneous voyeurism - consuming other people’s content,
seeing how they live their everyday lives - and exhibitionism - people sharing their own content and
parts of their own private life. Mantymaki performed an empirical study on this, described in
Voyeurism and Exhibitionism as Gratifications from Prosuming Social Networking Sites (2014). Key
findings were that gratification is achieved from the voyeurism that consuming social networking
sites afford, but also that there is a strong link to be found between this gratification from consuming
and the gratification in giving up this private information for the voyeuristic pleasure of others.
Voyeurism and exhibitionism are two sides of the same gratifying coin.
As an aside, it is worth mentioning that this thesis uses contemporary examples for a
contemporary concept (online amateur pornography) but it does not hold a technologically
deterministic view. As Yesil (2001), mentioned earlier, points out: “Technologies and the media are
new, but the choices are as old as human history. People have always liked to watch other people.
Technology has only made it simpler to do so.” This quote illustrates that it is not in a sense of
technological determinism that technology increased the voyeuristic need. Voyeurism is ancient,
there are now just different tools that make it a different and interesting idea to research.
Picking up and extending the theme of voyeurism on social media, in a different article by
Keppler and Querol Is there anybody out there? – Social Media as a new social fetish (2011) social

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media interaction is analysed from the perspective of fetishized experience. They propose that for
social media to have a guaranteed function they require some level of interactive and “interpassive”
behaviour. Interpassivity is a state of passivity in the presence of the potential of interactivity. The
term was coined by Robert Pfaller in the book Interpassivity: The Aesthetics of Delegated
Enjoyment (2017) and combines the words "interactivity" and "passivity". In the article mentioned
directly above, Keppler and Querol use this term to connect it to contemporary social media usage:
“In this sense, Social Media can be understood as a medium generating both interactivity and
interpassivity, which converts them into a new social fetish and communicative commodity. They
act, disguised by their ‘social’ name, as catalysts of the hypermodern age, promoted by the
premises of capitalism and technology and strengthening the cultural axioms of individualism and
consumption. According to Žižek (1998), the interpassive mode is characterized by the fact that “we
are active all the time to make sure that nothing will really change. The first truly critical step is to
withdraw into passivity and to refuse to participate” (P. 19). The latter is their advice on how to
overcome interpassivity and the fake realities produced by it. The title of the article by Keppler and
Querol (referring to the Pink Floyd song “Is there anybody out there?” The Wall, 1979) seems to
illustrate this paradox of the so-called attention industry: “although we live in the most
(inter)connected, social and interactive era ever known to man, most of this attention is only
experienced interpassively, creating fetishes, fake realities and the illusion of connectedness and
attention.” Keppler and Querol criticise these realities as ‘fake’.
Earlier on in this thesis, mention was made of some of Mark Deuze’s texts which also
discuss reality. He examines how reality can be considered as constructed by different factors that
interplay with each other, rather than in terms such as ‘real’ or ‘true’. What Keppler and Querol
interestingly highlight is how this ‘reality’ that to a certain extent is constructed and created and even
mediated can become a fetish in itself.

1.1.8 User-generated content

User-Generated Content (UGC) forms the heart of both social media and amateur pornography.
How pornography and UGC interrelate forms an important part of this thesis and will be discussed
later on, but a definition of UGC is appropriate here. User-generated content can be defined as
content that is produced and voluntarily shared by users, which can be content such as video,
audio, text and images (Wikipedia). UGC has been a growing source of content on the internet,
partly because it is inexpensive as users mostly produce and contribute it free of charge. Some
unpaid labour aspects of amateur pornography in particular are addressed in a later section of this
thesis, Amateur Content, but is not the main focus of this thesis. David Corteau, in The Growth of
Self-Produced Media Content and the Challenge to Media Studies (2006) mentions that at that time
user-generated content was largely evaded by media scholars: “We know next to nothing about the

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range or frequency of content on these Web sites, nor do we understand much about who produces
them, why, and to what effect.” User-generated content has of course grown even more since 2006.
In an article by Bird, Are we All Produsers now? (2011), she states: “Convergent media can and
have transformed the traditional ‘audience’ experience, especially in the West, where even many
people who are not really produsers are still taking advantage of multiple media platforms to extend
their mediated practices.” The article shows that there are exceedingly active content ‘produsers’
online that take their user-generated content deeply seriously and that there are also ‘normal’ users
who take advantage of these affordances and opportunities. The term ‘produser’ is coined to explain
the shift from a passive consumer society to active users who want their experience tailored to their
specific needs regarding consuming and producing.
In a study by Terry Daugherty, Matthew S. Eastin & Laura Bright Exploring Consumer
Motivations for Creating User-Generated Content (2008) they set out to research the motivations
behind creating user-generated content. What they found in their study is that “Specifically, ego-
defensive and social functional sources are serving as strong contributors toward attitudes
formulated for creating UGC. The ego-defensive function recognizes that people have self-doubts
that they seek to minimize. Likewise, the social-function drives people to spend time with others and
experience a sense of community.” (P. 23) This illustrates that there are strong emotional rewards
for the user, connected to generating and sharing content. These two aspects work hand in hand in
stimulating user-generated content: the ego-defensive act of trying to minimise self-doubt can partly
be achieved by the social-function of the sense of community. The emotional reward generated by
these two interlocking mechanisms keep the wheel of user-generated content spinning and the
faster it spins the more reward is generated.
The idea of social status across user-generated content platforms is further explored by
Levina and Arriaga in Distinction and Status Production on User-Generated Content Platforms:
Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Cultural Production to Understand Social Dynamics in Online Fields
(2014) The authors explain that a platform, specifically, has an overwhelming interest or genre of
content, but that the practices vary across different platforms. “The online is constructed in a way,
through the practices of contribution and evaluation of content, agents generate a unique set of
power relations. The producers therefore try to gain the recognition for their content from their
consumers. These producers and consumers are held together by shared interest. The interaction
among agents pursuing a given interest in a particular social setting determines what will count as
status and how it may be achieved even though status and power are not the explicit motives
behind usages for many users.” (P. 485) So, all in all user-generated content is a matter of active
participation from both sides, consumer and producer, and these roles may be flipped and changed.
Producing and contributing user-generated content sets up power dynamics in producers
aiming for recognition from consumers. Agents with higher authority may be experienced as more
authentic, as was suggested by Garcia-Rapp (2017).

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1.2 Pornography and sexual scripting
To understand how reality is fetishized in amateur and other pornography, this chapter briefly
introduces the topic of pornography. Pornography has always been a controversial topic and even
within the academic world there is no clear consensus about the role it plays in society. Some
articles and books such as Katharine Jenkins (2017) state that porn is unhealthy and could even be
ruining lives; even more specifically it could lead to “desensitization”, a theme explored by Pamela
Paul’s book Pornified (2007), which squarely takes this position. As part of her conclusion she
states: “Whatever one’s personal use of pornography, we as a society need to confront and
understand its broader effects and make efforts to contain them. As with alcohol, cigarettes and
even fast food, pornography can and should be discouraged.” Precisely because of its
pervasiveness, which is a form of acceptance if only by acquiescence, she believes pornography
has a negative role in society. On the other side of the debate, there are academics such as
Williams, Paasonen and Attwood and Smith, who treat pornography just like any other media
embedded in society and examine what it is and what it means for individuals and society. Either
way, the topic of pornography is divisive and depending on where we stand regarding the
acceptability of it, we will think differently about consuming it, let alone actively producing it, as is
common in amateur pornography.
As discussed above in the context of Reality TV, consumers are aware that there is a level of
performativity present because the contestants of the reality show know they are being filmed
(Roscoe, 2001). This element of performativity is explored by Judith Butler (2009) in the context of
gender, which is germane to the topic of pornography: “The theory of gender performativity
presupposes that norms are acting on us before we have a chance to act at all, and that when we
do act, we recapitulate the norms that act upon us, perhaps in new or unexpected ways, but still in
relation to norms that precede us and exceed us. In other words, norms act on us, work upon us,
and this kind of ‘being worked on’ makes its way into our own action” (P. 11). What Butler illustrates
is that to a certain extent everyone ‘acts’ in their daily life and specifically to conform to the norms of
a specific situation. Societal or situational norms even apply to what people do in their own
bedrooms, when being intimate with others. A variety of sources, including pornography, have
provided people with examples, ways to act and norms to uphold. In societies or families where sex
is not a topic which may be openly discussed, pornography may act as the only source for how to
act in a sexual situation.
A normative societal framework regarding sexuality combined with a lack of direct sources and
with pornography acting as a stand-in teacher leads to sexual scripting. Another research of
pornographic videos also discusses the element of sexual scripting, in the article Rasmussen (2018)
follows Gagnon and Smith (1973): “Sexual script theory (Gagnon and Smith 1973) posits that sex
and relationships are informed by sexual scripts — cultural and interpersonal cues about normative

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sexual behavior (e.g., what one should be turned on by or what sexual positions one should try).
Pornography is a ready source of such cues. Researchers have found well-supported links between
exposure to pornography and a number of relational outcomes, including one-night stands […], the
number of sexual partners […], extradyadic flirting […], extramarital sex […], and divorce […].
Despite these findings, some see pornography’s influence on sexual scripts as positive for
relationship health, providing individuals with healthy sexual and relational scripts that would
improve sexual communication and satisfaction […].” The script theory illuminates the cultural
construction of sexual life. It posits that sexual scenarios by mutually shared conventions help
actors to enact a sexual situation interdependently (Kimmel, 2007). These scripts are gendered and
in the case of amateur pornography on Pornhub they are mostly heteronormative.
Both these concepts, performativity and sexual scripting are at the root of the fact that
knowledge of being filmed while having sex has influence. The question of how to represent sex
authentically depends on performers and viewers sharing the same sexual script.

1.2.1 History of amateur pornography

Amateur media production is often considered synonymous with ‘home movies’ (Fox, 2004), as is
also discussed by Zimmermann (1995) which Fox also discusses in his text. Zimmermann’s
argument relies heavily on the level of technical equipment used in a production. As an effect of
major equipment and stock manufacturing, what was considered ‘professional’ and what was
considered ‘amateur’ became standardised, as defined by technical aesthetics. Eventually, the gap
in the level of technology was too large to be bridged by amateur film makers: “Add into the
equation an increase and diversification in leisure time and with this a progressive, intractable
hardening of the line between the public and private domains. Public time became characterized as
methodical, controllable, and regulated. This became akin to ’professional time’, the time of
professional media production (an industrial product). Placing amateur production into the realm of
private time allowed for an association with illusions of spontaneity and freedom, individuality and
personal fulfilment. Amateur media practice became a hobby, not the activity of producing a viable
or an important product to be shared with others beyond the immediate family.” (Fox, 2004) In the
year when this was written (2004), Fox saw amateur filmmaking as private play, a hobby.
Amateur filmmaking eventually also evolved into amateur pornography, but there is a longer
history to consider. In visual art, pornography dates back to prehistoric times (Wikipedia). Skipping a
few thousand years, however, when photography was invented (1826), it was also used to produce
photographic pornography. Around the 1800s, there were a variety of bans and regulations in place
regarding ‘the pornographic’, mostly based on the claim of obscenity even though that was never
specifically defined. The private possession and viewing of (some forms of) pornography was not
made an offence until the twentieth century, however.

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Pornographic film emerged practically immediately after the invention of the motion picture in
1895. This was not considered acceptable and led to producers and distributors being prosecuted.
Distribution and production were done by amateurs and illicitly, with the added difficulty of the ban in
place. Later, various countries gradually lifted the ban on commercial pornography, thereby
decriminalising it. In the United States for example, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol (1969), was the first
adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release.

Internet pornography on the World Wide Web started in the late 1990s, now mostly being viewed on
commercial platforms such as Pornhub (2007) or YouPorn (2006). The first academic journal
dedicated to the study of pornography, Porn Studies was first published in 2014, which is very late
considering pornography’s pervasiveness.
The brief historical overview above shows that pornography (and erotica) have been around
for a long time, but how it is consumed keeps changing along with constant shifts in the media
landscape. As one of these shifts, this thesis examines the emergence of a reality fetish driving the
popularity of amateur pornography distributed via commercial platforms.
With the eruption of the internet and specifically Web 2.0, pornographic imagery distribution
became much easier and grew strongly. This was also because of the user-friendliness and low
cost of digital technology (including cameras) and also taking the anonymity of the internet into
consideration (Chase, n.d). Pornography was an ‘early adopter’ of digital technologies, as it had
been an early adopter of VCR. It was able to benefit from greater possibilities for interactivity and
platforms for user-generated content, including amateur pornography. Online amateur pornography
is a descendent of amateur video pornography, a phenomenon from the mid-1980s. This consisted
of couples recording their ‘private’ sexual encounters and distributing this content through swapping
services. (Chase, n.d).
After the amateur genre received such popularity also through easily accessible free
platforms, like for instance Pornhub, the genre of Pro Am - ‘professional amateur’ - came to the fore.
Pro Am is pornography which just like mainstream pornography is made in a professional studio,
but with settings mimicking the aesthetics of authentic amateur work by means of low production
value such as using only a single camera or even a handheld (Chase, n.d).
To elaborate on this, the idea of the ‘Pornification’ of society a term discussed by Paasonen
in her book section Diagnosis of Transformation (2014) “Pornography has become a pervasive
element of contemporary culture and is increasingly accessible (and diverse) in its hard-core
variants and ubiquitous in its soft-core forms.” (P. 4) So, with this part of the quote that mentions
ubiquitous soft-core forms, Paasonen alludes to the onscenity of pornography in society. Onscenity
means the increased public visibility of pornography. This means that a culture is constantly
exposed to pornified images and texts without people even noticing it anymore. An example of this
would be a highly erotic perfume commercial, that just gets registered by the person as a perfume

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commercial while its highly erotic content is not even consciously registered (Paasonen, 2014). In
western societies, pornography and pornification are embedded and have become ubiquitous in
daily life.
These days, pornography consumption is often quite a soloistic affair, but that was not
always the case. Take for example The Stag, a genre of film that was prevalent during 1915 to
about 1968 (Waugh, 2004). These films were made mostly by amateurs, were not always legal and
in Europe they were mostly screened in brothels. These where viewings for male audiences only, of
films that where about 12 minutes long. Men would gather and watch these films together and
usually also masturbate. Afterwards they would discuss the films and share their opinions about it. It
served as a very collective experience for these men even though the level of sexual closeness is
very high (Waugh, 2004).
Pornography, as we define it now, was scarce then; these men would not know when the
next viewing would be or if the place showing the film would be shut down and criminal charges of
conduct against public decency brought against them. Without knowing the precise motivation of
each and every participant it would appear on the surface as if the need for sexual gratification
outweighed the risk of shame and embarrassment from collectively orgasming in a room with other
masturbating men. That said, if you look at this from another perspective on sex in history, the
communal gratification ceremony could be re-categorized as very “open” and “forward”. Think of the
classic History of Sexuality by Foucault (1978). Foucault writes that our thinking of sexuality is
mainly made up by our ‘repressive hypothesis’ which therefore means that the history of sex is a
history of repression. Sex without the purpose of reproduction is taboo and for us to overcome this
form of repression sex needs to be talked about, integrated in society and enjoyed. From this point
of view, The Stag film viewing may be considered a perfect example of this openness.

When first developing, amateur pornography relied heavily on the technical innovation of electronic
video-recording. Nowadays there are more contemporary technologies that can be used such as
the use of webcams, mobile phones, tables etc. However, even with these newer technologies
amateur pornography still aims to exude the same aesthetics of authenticity and immediacy. (Stella,
2016) The most important element of authenticity of amateur porn lies in the signs of intimacy that
actors and actresses involved in mainstream pornography cannot reproduce (Sarracino and Scott
2008). “These features are ‘inimitable’, they cannot be ‘enacted’, and they can only be seen in
people capable of expressing them spontaneously. The ‘real-life’ impression generated by such
films goes beyond the power of representation of the images or of any abstract debate around what
is ‘real’ and what is ‘authentic’ in pornography […] There is a point beyond which pretending is no
longer possible; what counts is not establishing rules and languages in order to distinguish what is
‘real’ and ‘authentic’ from what is simulated. When it comes to amateur and industrial porn, the
difference […] has to do more with the personal, intimate dimension that the protagonists succeed

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in conveying naturally during the action. In the end, the fact that there is no screenplay […] is
irrelevant, because what makes a porn video more authentic is the personal story of the individuals
and couples – told through gestures, postures, and expressions. This story is always more ‘real’ and
authentic than any possible expedient invented to provide a setting for the video’s content, including
the lack of a screenplay.” (Stella 2016, P. 356)
Reality aesthetics have surpassed actual intimacy as the focal point for pleasure. There is a
mutual influence between mainstream pornography and amateur content distributed on
pornography platforms. The awareness of being filmed that the amateurs possess, make them also
to a certain degree follow tacitly or explicitly known sexual or pornography scripts.
Building upon this, Helen Hester in her texts goes through the history of pornography
discussing the arguments for and against by different perspectives. She hereby synthesises how we
can best view and discuss pornography nowadays in the 21st century. She writes in her article
Contemporary understandings of the pornographic: Transgression, affect, and the displacement of
sex (2011) that she attempts to think through the displacement of sex within contemporary
understandings of the pornographic and to theorize the apparent explosion of the pornographic as a
cultural concept. Something valuable for this thesis is that Hester explains what pornography can
look like nowadays and how that adds to the feeling of authenticity, she states: “Certainly, these
texts demonstrate an abiding preoccupation with involuntary bodily responses. We witness flinches
and facial contortions, and hear exclamations of shock and horror. The most spectacular corporeal
reaction to feelings of disgust - the gag or the dry heave - is particularly cherished in these videos;”
(P. 58) she explains that the “fascination with largely uncontrollable bodily experiences such as the
heave or the shudder has strong links with certain characterizations of the pornographic.” (P. 59)
Furthermore Hester explains it as “this focus upon rendering sex visually accessible is problematic
for porn, for 'while it is possible, in a certain limited and reductive way, to "represent" the physical
pleasure of the male by showing erection and ejaculation, this maximum visibility proves elusive in
the parallel confession of female sexual pleasure'”. This shows that female sexual pleasure can be
visualised by facial contortions and physical bodily experiences where the male’s sexual pleasure
can be derived clearly from his erection. Male sexual pleasure is visible from his erection and
ejaculations and as such convincingly authentic on video. Female sexual pleasure is harder to
visualise and ironically, to make it more convincing on video, it needs more “acting”, through
vocalisations or facial expressions. The viewers are left to decide whether they are convinced, not
convinced or whether they care about female pleasure at all.

1.2.2 Amateur content

In discussing amateur pornography, the netporn scholar Katrien Jacobs is important to discuss. In
her artice The New Media Schooling of the Amateur Pornographer: Negotiating Contracts and

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Singing Orgasm (2004) she discusses “a new wave of amateur pornography, where the central
metaphor is that of a mutually developing sexual act, a bodily communication where one party
responds to the other, and language and lust spiral together into a recorded pornographic process.”
(P. 17). She states how amateur pornography centers around mutual pleasure paired with
consumer desire. Jacobs goes on to synthesize three types of contemporary amateur
pornographers. Firstly, she discusses Peer-to-Peer Porn, this entails web-based consumers using
peer-to-peer platforms to exchange products. Secondly, Pride Porn which is made up of sex and
queer activist networks who distribute porn to their sex partners, social circles, or larger groups of
web users and movie audiences. And lastly, Art Porn which refers to the work of artistically inclined
amateurs, who frame their cultural performances as “body art” or their movies as “erotica” and
exhibit sex in (virtual) galleries or arthouse theaters. Web based platforms now also help in the
distribution of this. Jacobs goes on to discuss how all three have a different level and expression of
performance, but how they are all performances none the less. This thesis centers around the
reality fetish and how amateurism is a big part of that and Jacobs states in her article that “Amateur
porn does not always cater to physical arousal or masturbation, but can trigger fulfilling reactions in
audiences. Therefore, the screenings give amateur pornographers an opportunity to interact with
audiences and get immersed in changing feedback loops.” This can be used as an example to show
how the settings of amateur aesthetics can fulfill the consumers need for authenticity in amateurism
and fulfil a voyeuristic need regardless of sexual aspects. This all tied together can feed the reality
fetish.
In Labors of love: netporn, Web 2.0 and the meanings of amateurism (2010) Susanna
Paasonen writes: “Amateur porn, as distributed in self-organizing online networks, has been
identified as a gift economy in which ‘deviance is the norm’ […]. A netporn scholar, […], associates
amateur pornography with peer-to-peer practices based on the principles of pleasure […], another
active agent in the netporn community, has coined the neologism ‘realcore’ to describe the realness
of the sexual acts and desires presented. Being a departure from the familiar pornography
categories of hardcore and softcore, realcore has been quickly picked up as shorthand for self-
made pornography that refuses to confine itself to the generic conventions of mainstream porn, its
distribution, or economy […] To a degree, amateur productions have come to connote a better kind
of porn, more ethical in its principles of production, but also somehow more real, raw and innovative
than commercially produced (i.e. mainstream) pornography.” (P. 1302) Paasonen adds that in a
simple way, the distinction between amateur and professional pornography is, among other things,
just the level of technology used, which Zimmermann and Fox have also argued. Professional
productions exude skill and quality whereas amateur production exude the opposite. Amateur porn
is connoted with spontaneity, truthfulness and authenticity. Another distinction is that it is presumed
that amateurs do this work for the sheer pleasure of it and not for financial gain as is presumed to
be the case for professionals. Amateurs do not keep working hours, they produce their content in

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their own leisure time, adding to the presumption that it operates in their own domestic and private
sphere, representing a slice of life. Amateur porn and its audience have a relationship based on
mutual pleasure. What Paasonen points out is that hybrid forms of amateur porn have evolved,
because of its rise in popularity, such as ‘amateur professional’ or ‘professional amateur’: Pro Am.
These hybrid forms are blurring the boundaries between the produced and the spontaneous; the
working day and pleasurable pastime.
Considering that amateur porn does not have economic gain as its primary goal makes it
‘free’ in practical terms, to both makers and users whereas professional porn involves aspects of
labour irrespective of other aspects involving some form of incidental gratification as a by-product of
that labour. Amateur porn, which still involves effort if not paid labour, could be viewed as a special
form of the gift economy, posting user-generated content online for free, the hosting sites profiting
from advertising, and audiences able to enjoy it for free. The aesthetics of amateurism give the
audience the feeling that what they are watching is real and authentic. Taking another angle, Zabet
Patterson’s book entitled, Going On-line: Consuming Pornography in the Digital Era (2004) further
explores the fact that online amateur pornography significantly engages with the opportunities of
interaction and self-production. Remarkably, it is showing a notably different genre of user-
generated content. Patterson also states that in amateur content the pleasure of the viewer is not
always sexual, as discussed in the section on voyeurism above. This non-sexual element is very
much an aspect of amateur content, but this will be elaborated on in a later chapter.
In the case of certain cases of amateur content made by women, they do not engage in
sexual activity but display a completely different type of private activity. For example, as discussed
earlier when examining live streaming, such content could be someone merely eating sushi on
camera. Many viewers registered this as entertaining. “This further extends the concept of
interpassivity and its relationship to sexual pleasure because, in amateur porn, these secondary
activities become primary — they mark the crucial difference of amateur porn” (Patterson 2004, P.
119). This suggests that the sense of intimacy is created not only by viewing and consuming
content in which another person engages in sexual activity, but also or maybe even more so by
watching content showing other mundane or everyday activities. Having the opportunity to observe
something ‘private’ seems to be an important part of the emotional reward and central to satisfying
the voyeuristic need. The greatest arousal can come from the subjective identification with the
person performing, taking a look or even participating to some extent in their everyday life. The real,
the raw, the unfiltered, the authentic becomes an obscure object of desire.
According to Hardy (2008), amateur content, and in this case a girl live streaming online,
gives the opportunity for interaction with, as Hardy states, a ‘real’ girl as opposed to viewing
professional content whereby one simply is looking at “an inaccessible performer giving an over-
played performance.” (P. 62) Hardy makes an additional interesting aesthetic point regarding
amateur content and its registration of reality and authenticity. He argues that “the grainy images

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provided by the webcam have become a signifier of the real, over the glossy and obvious artifice of
professional pornography.” (P. 62) The aesthetics of the content construct the authenticity of it.
Hardy goes on to argue that providing amateur content “In short the harnessing of gonzo and
amateur sub-genres to new media technologies is now enabling the pornographic representation of
sex to close ever more proximately with whatever ‘reality’ lies beyond it. It is as if, where
pornography once attempted, more or less artfully, to represent sex in a convincing way, it now
simply records and reproduces a slice of the reality of some, indeed many people’s lived sexual
lives.” (P. 62)
What Hardy points out is that the aesthetics of the authentic and the ‘real’ have become vital
to the pleasure of watching amateur pornography. The simplicity and ‘capturing’ nature of amateur
pornography becomes a fetishized element in itself.
As mentioned before, amateur pornography can be viewed as part of the gift economy, as
Paasonen mentions. Another author also writes about the role of labour regarding the subject of
amateur pornography. Ruberg gives compelling arguments on the subject of unpaid DIY (do-it-
yourself) culture and how amateur pornography plays into that. Ruberg (2016) believes that to a
certain extent fantasy operates around online amateur porn, which is frequently touted as ethically
superior to pornography for which performers are paid. She believes that the fantasy surrounding
amateur pornography creates harmful stigmas regarding financially compensated sex-work. As can
be seen later on in thesis, amateur content is indeed highly fetishized and the most popular
category on Pornhub. Ruberg argues that “the rise of amateur porn should not be used to justify the
rejection of erotic labour as a culturally (not to mention economically) legitimate site of value.” (P.
158) Therefore she calls for a disruption of the idealized vision of free online pornography, shining a
light on the labour and the money that make possible the circulation of sexual content supposedly
operating outside of economic concerns. She ends her article with a call to action stating: “Rather
than imagining a utopia in which those who work to produce online content do it for free, why not
daydream about a levelling of the moral high ground? Why not get off on knowing that a dollar spent
to compensate sexual labour is a dollar that, in the best of cases, supports and affirms those who
do the difficult and beautiful job of bringing us pleasure?” (P.158). As mentioned earlier on in this
text the rising genre of Pro Am to a certain extent is starting to breach this gap. It becomes more
apparent that professional pornography actors can also feed the amateur pornography fetish by
operating in amateur aesthetics and still get paid for it. The question that arises is: do pornography
platform users realise or even care about this difference? This will be discussed later on in this
thesis.
Building on the concept of sexual labour in the context of amateurism, the author Heather
Berg also makes compelling arguments regarding this issue. In her article Working for Love, Loving
for Work: Discourses of Labor in Feminist Sex-Work Activism (2014) Berg writes about sex-work
activism and labour and how sex-work can be exploitative. She argues “against sex-work

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exceptionalism. Commercial sex exchange is not exploitative because of anything unique to sex; it
is exploitative because it is labor under capitalism. That sexual labor is for many a better paid, more
fulfilling alternative to other forms of waged work does not unsettle this premise.” (P. 694) This
shows how sex-work is not being treated the same as normal wage work again playing into that
fetishized feeling of working in amateur pornography for the sheer love of it. She synthesises the
three most problematic themes: “the construction of a version of feminist sex-worker agency that is
dependent on the ability to work for noneconomic reasons, reification of normative treatments of
domestic or intimate labor as non-work, and an avoidance of critiques of sex industries as players in
advanced capitalism.” (P. 695) The first two themes are directly connected to the reality fetish and
idealization of amateur pornography and how this can be harmful and eventually exploitative or
bring stigmatisation to professionally paid sex-workers. Throughout the article Berg views
pornography and sex-work as performance and creative work. This is a helpful way of viewing
pornography for this thesis seeing as pornography operating in aesthetics can also be viewed as a
performance. One could even go further to say that sex in general to a certain extent is a
performance, this is where sexual scripting comes in and this will be further discussed later.
In a different article by Heather Berg Porn Work, Feminist Critique, and the Market for
Authenticity (2017) she connects the argument of authenticity to pornography work. She starts her
article discussing anti-porn perspectives on pornography and then introduces her argument “that
their fundamental assumptions about the value of authenticity populate the narratives of those who
make porn, even (and perhaps especially) feminist pornographers.” (P. 669) She goes on to state:
“Authenticity has the status of a Holy Grail throughout the feminist porn community, and, as I will
show, across even those porn genres that have not emerged in response to feminist critique.
Though they disagree on what those constraints are, antiporn feminists appear to agree with porn
management that authentic sexuality can transcend the constraints of the ‘known porn world’ (or in
antiporn feminists’ words, ‘porn culture’” (P. 669) Hereby she connects the antiporn arguments and
the feminist (pro) porn arguments by means of the common ground of authenticity. Both camps
strive for this feeling and expression of authenticity in the work. Berg brings up the argument that by
fetishizing amateur work, and thereby the seeking of authenticity in that work, this can be harmful
for the labour conditions, “Because commodified sexuality is so pervasively posited as the polar
opposite of authentic sexuality in both antiporn and much sex-positive feminism, I close with a
discussion of porn workers’ perspectives on payment as it relates to emotional labor.” (P. 670). Berg
goes on to discuss how she therefore views authenticity as a commodity, “The striking popularity of
amateur-appearing pornography […] is a testament to authenticity’s market value. Though amateur-
style porn is not a new historical artifact, the commodity of authenticity takes on different meanings
in today’s political economic context. […] In the porn context, such aesthetics are ‘coded as truthful,
authentic, and somehow less manufactured than professionally produced images’” (P. 673-674).
What Berg synthesises is that “the drive for authenticity shapes porn’s production practices in

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important ways, determining both the content and form of labor in the industry.” (P. 689). A longing
for authenticity in pornography is part of the greater reality fetish. Berg discussed how this
idealization and fetishation can become harmful to the actualities and practicalities of the actual
people working in pornography.

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2. Method
In answering the research question of how voyeurism and ‘reality’ are constructed in amateur
pornography, this research aims to get a better understanding of the relationship between a culture
of voyeurism and the rise of user-generated content. This thesis specifically studies amateur
pornography on Pornhub, in order to try and pinpoint what that relationship entails and to what
extent reality and authenticity are part of the experience. The first peer-reviewed academic
pornography journal was published in 2014 and it mostly contained quantitative research. The
research in this thesis is qualitative, geared towards an initial exploration of meanings of amateur
pornography.
What has already been analysed in media studies regarding pornography? Attwood and
Smith describe in Porn Studies: an introduction (2014) how the academic conversation about
pornography should be neither antagonistic nor celebratory. Rather, there should be articles
regarding “pornography as texts, productions or performances; as occurring in various kinds of
‘spaces’ with various significances; subject to various kinds of legal and other regulatory
frameworks and with different importances for its participants and for observers of those
participants.” This thesis concurs with this way of looking at the subject which is why this research
will also discuss the element of pornography in this research in this qualitative manner. A number of
studies regarding pornography are quantitative in nature, as mentioned above, measuring the
amounts, time spent, places, maybe even the categories. However, their insights are essentially
limited to flat numbers. Of course, they are to some extent interesting and important to analyse but
they merely allow conclusions about the general usage, remaining on the surface. Pornography is
something consumed by people, who actively click on something because it means something to
them, just as other internet usages also mean something for users. This is why this research is
qualitative.
The questions of how and why users consume a specific genre or type of pornography is
interesting to look at but also difficult. How a user navigates the web is something that media
studies have been studying for years and understand. Therefore, it seems very helpful to do
research into online pornography through the lens of media studies. This is why connecting media
studies to porn studies may be able to create a clearer picture of what online usage means to users.
It is important to note that as the researcher for this thesis, I have certain personal biases.
The videos chosen will be explained and described as the result of my personal viewing experience.
In order to be as objectively descriptive as possible, a systematic checklist is applied to all the
videos equally to deconstruct the viewing experience into separate descriptive elements. For full
disclosure: the researcher is a heterosexual, Dutch, white woman from Amsterdam in her early
twenties.

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2.1 Object of study
The main question of this research is how voyeurism and ‘reality’ are constructed in amateur
pornography. This research will be looking specifically at amateur pornography on Pornhub aiming
to understand how this genre of pornography configures ‘reality’ as a source of sexual pleasure
while using a mix of aesthetic strategies to give the impression of immediacy and authenticity;
constructing and fetishizing an aesthetic of ‘reality’. The relationship of amateur pornography with
an apparent voyeuristic need in society is examined. The issue of ‘amateur’ porn and how
voyeurism is constructed via various forms of reality aesthetics are conceptualised and examined.
The amateur porn tag is a well-known and regularly used category on porn platforms. How does this
genre of pornography construct a sense of ‘reality’ through its aesthetics? There is a popular page
on Pornhub and a most viewed category which are both on the home screen. What is shown here is
what most people watch and what is the easiest to click on, the latter will be discussed later on.
The materials that will be analysed in this research are a sample of explicit pornographic
videos, picked at random from a pushed list on the Pornhub platform. They are all from the most
viewed tab under the amateur category. These are the most popular amateur pornography videos
on Pornhub over the course of two days (May 2020), pushed by Pornhub. The amateur category -
as already researched - is the most popular category or ‘tag’ on Pornhub, and Pornhub itself is one
of the largest, easiest to access and most popular platforms regarding pornography. The reason
why Pornhub as a platform is also (briefly) analysed is because the research question builds on the
idea of the production and consumption of user-generated content. Therefore, it is important to
understand how a user would navigate this pornography platform and most likely consume content.
All the videos used have been browsed in an incognito window. This is used in an attempt to avoid
Pornhub’s personalisation, in the incognito window historically watched videos are not saved so
therefore there is no personalisation algorithm intervening, because it does save viewing history but
it does track where the user is located and therefore does push forward popular videos in the
Netherlands at that moment.
This research also checks for elements of reality and certain ‘sexual scripting’ consensus
around pornography and how they are expressed in amateur pornography. It is for this reason that
this research does not analyse niche videos since they are much harder for users to find and
specifically search for. The most popular videos under the most popular categories, namely amateur
pornography will be used and analysed together with the videos.

2.2 Analysis
This research will use visual analysis. The importance and understanding of visual analysis is
explained in a book by Gillan Rose called Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching
with Visual Materials (2016); a quote from this: “Thus the modern connection between seeing and

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knowledge is stretched to breaking point in postmodernity: […] This is what Jean Baudrillard (1988)
some time ago dubbed the simulacrum. Baudrillard argued that in postmodernity it was no longer
possible to make a distinction between the real and the unreal; images had become detached from
any certain relation to a real world with the result that we now live in a scopic regime dominated by
simulations, or simulacra.” This idea coined by Jean Baudrillard, simulacrum, is something that this
research examines to a certain extent, reviewing the idea of the construction and understanding of
reality and authenticity.
Reality TV consumers have a certain awareness that what they are watching is not
completely authentic. The actual content that appears on television is edited, and that also means
that what does not appear in the show are all the other behind-the-scenes people working there, for
instance the TV crew. Usually there is also an element of scripting in Reality TV, even if that is just a
set up where the contestants are free to improvise, artificial settings are nevertheless created. The
same is the case with user-generated content, people mostly predominantly share the information
they want to be known and seen by others which mostly happens to be the good things in life. Some
users could believe that what is shared is another user’s actual reality, but with more online
experience social media consumers realize that it is not likely that what a person shares online is all
a person experiences in their personal life. As Baudrillard (1988) mentions, since there is no
distinction to be made between real and unreal, media consumers adapted to this and their
judgement about reality became a hybrid form that holds elements of content being real and unreal
simultaneously. This is also the case for pornography. As mentioned earlier, people understand
pornography to have an element of performativity. Is that any different for amateur pornography? It
is touted as being the “realest” thing somebody could consume, but is that truly the case? Viewers
decide on the level of authenticity and ‘reality’ of amateur user generated pornographic content
almost exclusively based on what they see. Their judgement is based on visual cues (with the
possible addition of any dialogue – not a big feature in this type of content – or non-verbal sounds of
a sexual nature), therefore a visual analysis will describe the biggest part of what the user
consumes to construct their total experience.
Since the amateur content studied will be selected from Pornhub, there will be a short
description given of Pornhub as a platform, its affordances and main focus as well as some
statistics, but this will not be a full interface analysis.

2.2.1 Visual analysis

The method that will be used is based in semiology, discussed by Rose (2016) in terms of “laying
bare the prejudices of the beautiful”. Semiology addresses the question of how images make
meaning. It has a range of analytical tools for taking an image apart and tracing how it works in
relation to broader systems of meaning, which will be very relevant for the objects being studied in

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this thesis. Rose discusses further, “As a method, semiology draws upon the work of several major
social theorists. […] Althusser, Barthes, Benjamin, Berger, Brecht, Foucault, Freud, Gramsci,
Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, Marx and Sassure at the end of her book, but this is a roll-call of many of the
twentieth century's most important critical writers. Semiology is thus embedded in a rich and
complex series of ideas whose implications are still actively debated; hence there are different
analytical emphases within semiology”.
The analytical tool chosen is the checklist used by Gillian Dyer's Advertising as
Communication (2008). This checklist is a relevant tool for this research because the main question
of this research is how voyeurism and ‘reality’ are constructed in amateur pornography.
Constructing ‘reality’ - a necessary element to satisfy a voyeuristic need - is about users attaching
meaning to visual clues and aesthetics, against a backdrop of a societal normative framework of
sexual scripting and expectations of authenticity and intimacy. This is a useful way of looking at
advertising, as well as at amateur pornography videos, since both are persuasive types of content
that use visual cues, referring to social scripts, provide the viewer with an emotional shortcut to a
conclusion. They both rely on the notion that the viewer is not trying to establish whether something
is real, but whether they would like it to be real. Identification is an important part of this persuasion.
In advertising the creators want to get a consumer to buy or do something - there is often a certain
call to action – but a lot of advertising is also aimed at slowly changing attitudes towards brands or
products. Pornography videos rely on partially similar responses such as identification, belief,
consumption and repeat ‘purchase’. The sexual script is sold to the consumer, the looks and
pleasure of the woman, the male climax, the positioning of the bodies, the length of time.
This checklist is suitable to be able to systematically look at amateur pornographic content.
In the words of Stella (2016), “because what makes a porn video more authentic is the personal
story of the individuals and couples – told through gestures, postures, and expressions” (P. 356). By
using this checklist, this research can categorise and compare in a systematic way so that the
aesthetics in these videos can be discussed.

Checklist (porn references added for the sake of clarity, other text is by Dyer):
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age. What is the age of the figures in the photograph meant to convey? Innocence?
Wisdom? Senility?
- Gender. Adverts, as well as porn videos, very often rely on stereotyped images of
masculinity and femininity. Men are active and rational, women are passive and emotional;
men go out into the world, women are more associated with the domestic.
- Race. Again, adverts, as well as porn videos, often depend on stereotypes. To what extent
does an advert do this? Or does it normalize whiteness by making it invisible?
- Hair. Women's hair is often used to signify seductive beauty or narcissism.

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- Body. Which bodies are fat (and therefore often represented as undesirable and
unattractive) and which are thin? Are we shown whole bodies, or does the photo show only
parts of bodies (women's bodies are often treated in this way in cosmetic ads)?
- Size. Adverts often indicate what is more important by making it big. Size is a big thing in
porn.
- Looks. Again, adverts, as well as porn videos, often trade on conventional notions of male
and female beauty. There is an excellent discussion of, among other things, how adverts
picture bodies in ways that depend on cultural constructions of race, gender and beauty.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression. Who is shown as happy, haughty, sad and so on? What facial and other
expressions are used to convey this? Porn: as Hester (2011) has it: “flinches and facial
contortion”.
- Eye contact. Who is looking at whom (including you) and how? Are those looks submissive,
coy, confrontational?
- Pose. Who is standing and who is prone?

3. Representations of activity
- Touch. Who is touching what, with what effects?
- Body movement. Who is active and who is passive?
- Positional communication. What is the spatial arrangement of the figures? Who is
positioned as superior and who inferior? Who is intimate with whom and how?
4. Props and settings
- Props. Objects in adverts can be used in a way unique to a particular advert, but many ads
rely on objects that have particular cultural significance. For example, spectacles often
connote intelligence, golden light indicates tranquillity, and so on. Porn videos use similar
signifiers amongst them.
- Settings. Settings range from the apparently ‘normal' to the supposedly ‘exotic’ and can also
seem to be fantasies. What effects does its setting have on an advert or porn video?

As can be seen above, the checklist contains four dimensions: representation of bodies, manner,
activity and props and settings. Each is broken down into a number of attributes.
Representations of bodies are clearly important in examining pornography videos: they
contain acts performed with bodies. The ‘representation of bodies’ dimension is subdivided into
seven attributes: age, gender, race, hair, body, size and looks. These aspects are very telling and
significant in the context of pornography, often they are search categories, and they may readily be
contrasted and compared.

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The ‘representations of manner’ dimension is less about the aesthetics of the videos and
more about what is happening and in what way, about what story is being told. The attributes
examined are expression, eye contacts and pose. Eye contact can be telling especially since
amateur content’s conceit is that it is “filmed intimate sex” and there may be an expectation of not
making eye contact in non-intimate sex. As could be read earlier in this thesis, the suggestion of
intimacy and spontaneity are important signifiers of the ‘real’ for viewers in certain contexts.
The third dimension, ‘representations of activity”, is subdivided into the attributes of touch,
body movement and positional communication. Again, like with ‘representation of manner’, touch
may signify intimacy, whereas body movement and positional communication may derive from
sexual scripting that may or may not be shared by the audience, affecting audience rapport.
Lastly, the dimension of props and settings very much refers to the aesthetics and also the
level of technicality of the videos. The reality fetish mentioned earlier dictates that it needs to feel
real. Too much technicality (camera settings, lights, exotic locations etc.) detract from the sense of
realism.

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3. Pornhub description
What stands out on the home page is the big banner with “Hot porn videos in Netherlands” with
accompanying videos below it. Even though this analysis is done with a private incognito browser
the location is still tracked. Next to the Pornhub logo at the top left-hand corner of the screen there
is a search bar that says, “Search 11,962,994 videos…”. The website does everything it can to
make uploading or finding content easy for the user.
Further in depth into how a user would navigate Pornhub, in relation to the subject in this
thesis, amateur pornography, the affordances that Pornhub provides were analysed using the
amateur category as that is also used to find the videos analysed in this research. The affordances
around every Pornhub video are the same, with a page header that states “Recently Featured
Amateur Porn Videos”.
There is a banner that every Pornhub category has, when a user
chooses a category (Figure 1). A user can choose filters to more
easily find a video that suits their preferences. Interestingly, at the top
of the banner there is a choice of “Production” being either
“Professional” or “Homemade”. This choice of aesthetics is an
affordance of the Pornhub platform which clearly caters to a demand.
A user is given a choice and if they choose ‘homemade’ the
suggestion is that the videos they are going to watch will be in a
homemade setting, preferably by a ‘real’ amateur.
To create a more elaborate picture of how ‘real’ amateurism is
represented on Pornhub, other parts of the banner need to be
highlighted. There is an option on Pornhub of “Verified Amateurs”
which is recognisable by a blue circle with a white check sign in the
middle of it. This is recognisable because this emblem is also shown
under videos. If the amateur video is shot by “Verified Amateurs”, this
is different form actual amateurs seeing as “Verified Amateurs” are
‘professionals’, who get paid for their work. That emblem is shown
next to the uploader’s name. This means that when a user has
chosen the category “Amateur” and chooses the filter “Homemade”
most of the videos that are shown are still with the “Verified
Amateurs” emblem. This means a user cannot rely on tags and Figure 1, Pornhub.com

search alone and still needs to browse the site to find aesthetically
more ‘real’ amateur pornography.
In compiling this brief description, it also becomes quite clear that Pornhub is a huge online
empire with a lot more behind it, e.g. “Modelhub”, “The Sexual Wellness” centre and even

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merchandise. A user would never stumble upon these parts of the website when just watching porn.
There are tabs to click to be redirected but they are not easily found. What can be taken from this is
the observation that a user comes to the site and meets with pornography upon entry and upon
leaving. That is what the site promises and that is what it does.
Another noteworthy observation is that Pornhub is particularly transparent about its own
statistics and user usage. The website does not make it easy for the user to distinguish if an
amateur pornography video is actual done by amateurs or whether it is a Pro Am video. Pornhub
does make this transparent, however, by showing the tab that says that Pro Am videos have a blue
emblem next to it. Even if a user was not specifically interested in this or looking for the authenticity
of the people in the amateur pornography video they are watching, there is an emblem that signifies
this which a user could find. It is clear that Pornhub focuses strongly on the user experience being
that of watching free porn that users will most likely to find enjoyable. All the easy, quick, immediate
videos that can be clicked on, the rankings of “Hottest” and “Most viewed” are ways of not making
the users work for having to find most likely enjoyable videos. Below the video that is being
watched, similar videos are suggested.
What is also notable is that the walled garden aspect does not really seem to play a huge
role on Pornhub as a platform. There are functions that only a logged in user can access, yet it is
only a handful of functions and it is more to do with a user’s curation of their own Pornhub
experience, such as favouriting videos, and not specifically in relation to recreational pornography
usage. This shows that the biggest part of Pornhub’s website traffic is recreational pornography
viewing. Users that spend a short amount of time and leave again, leaving aside questions how
many times a day this is, the same amount of time will on average be used each time there is a
visit.
Pornhub is transparent with its analytics which give good insights. Pornhub is one of the
most popular adult websites, averaging over 100 billion video views a year. That amounts to about
12.5 porn videos per person on earth. There are over 100 million daily visits to Pornhub, and on
average over 36 billion visits per year. In 2019 there were over 42 billion visits to Pornhub, which
means there were an average of 115 million visits per day. Over 125 million daily visits to the
Pornhub Network of sites including YouPorn and Redtube. 20 million registered Pornhub users.
Average visit duration of 9 minutes and 59 seconds.
Regarding gender, 74% of Pornhub visitors are men, 26% are women. The average age of
Pornhub users is 35.3 years, with 60% being under the age of 35. Mobile devices including
smartphones and tablets account for 76% of traffic.
To briefly draw some conclusions from these statistics: as the numbers show there are a lot
of users visiting Pornhub and probably thereby consuming porn. Still to this day, men consume
more porn than woman do. Some argue this is because porn in general is fundamentally
misogynist, abusive and oppressive (Jenkins, 2017), and yet others believe that mainstream porn

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just does not cater enough to most women’s needs and sexual desires, which is why there is now
also feminist porn and feminist porn platforms (Royalle, 2013). Equally, it could represent that
society considers women consuming porn to be ‘non-ladylike’ or morally inappropriate, like female
smoking and drinking in earlier decades. Amateur pornography also promises an emancipation of
the oppressive nature of mainstream pornography that is widely discussed (McGowan, 2009) and
(Langton, 2009). It can be as free, queer and diverse as it pleases there are no productional rules to
be held to and should register as spontaneous and free. But is this really what amateur pornography
is delivering in contemporary media culture or is it just more of the same?

4. Visual analysis
Apart from promising to be more real and intimate, amateur pornography raises expectations of also
being more emancipated, free and diverse (see section above), since it does not have the
limitations of a production or distribution company. Rather than showing two actors who may never
have met before engaging in sexual activity on a set, the set itself becomes obsolete. What amateur
pornography gives to the consumer is a voyeuristic glimpse of the authentic, an illusion of ‘reality’.
In watching and comparing amateur pornography videos on Pornhub by using the checklist
described in Method, many similarities and also some differences emerge. Mainstream pornography
videos may have a storyline which acts as an introduction to the actual sexual intercourse by means
of a setting, placement and character introduction. Amateur pornography does not have this, as the
participants are not inhabiting characters, they do not play a part, they are just being themselves
having sex and they just ‘happen’ to film it. None of the videos analysed have a story line. The act of
penetration is central to the video. This is substantiated by the camera usage because the camera
in amateur pornography is not operated as such, so the place where the penetration takes place is
the static ‘shot’ of the video.
In mainstream pornography there is a high production value with HD cameras from different
points and angles and many edits. In the analysed amateur pornography videos, the only cameras
used are standstill cameras placed somewhere in the domestic space to film the intercourse. The
only other camera usage that occurred in the analysis is the handheld camera ‘point of view’ (POV)
style shooting of the video. This is where one person engaged in intercourse holds the camera and
films the actual penetration. In all videos analysed the man is the one who holds the camera filming
the woman being penetrated in POV style.
Going more in depth into who is performing in these amateur pornography videos,
representations of the body are analysed, aspects such as age, gender, skin tone, hair, body and
general looks are included in the analysis. Common to all videos analysed is that most of the
females performing are young, women around their twenties, and there are no women of 30 or older
in the entire analysis. The men are also mostly on the younger side (around mid-twenties) with
some slightly older looking men – possibly in their early thirties.

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All couples were duos of one male and one female engaging in a heteronormative sex act.
Almost all couples were white except for one video where the woman is slightly darker skinned.
Regarding the body types of duos, the males are mostly an average sized body type. Some
are more muscular, others are more slender and some even have a little bit of overweight around
the stomach area. The females on the other hand are all rather slender, some of them being quite
thin; some slightly curvy but still of a slender body type.
Another interesting observation is the subject of hair in these videos. The men mostly have
trimmed pubes and have a regular amount of body hair on their legs, arms and chest. The women
on the other hand are mostly completely smooth, with shaved or waxed legs and pubic hair
completely removed. This is a consistent observation for all analysed videos. A lot of the men and
women in the videos have tattoos as definable physical attributes. Other than that, there were no
other noteworthy physical appearances.
Furthermore, the videos were examined for representations of manner, such as expression,
eye contact and pose. The expressions are often strained and tense, with very little smiling in
almost all videos. There are expressions of longing and sexual attraction or even excitement. The
men show fewer facial expressions than the women. The women often show facial expressions of
being in slight pain or presenting a ‘moaning’ face. As discussed earlier on in the text by Hester
(2011) these “facial contortions almost of shock, horror or pain” can be ways of showing female
sexual arousal as a counterpoint to the more obvious male erection. In the analysed videos there is
little eye contact between the duos during penetration although sometimes this cannot be easily
detected in case of a POV style of filming.
With regard to poses the men and woman take, in most cases the woman is below the man
while being penetrated by him or being engaged in other sexual activity. In almost all videos the
woman is lying down and the man is upright at some point during the video, or the woman is
bending down while the man is still upright. This is also a consistent for all videos analysed.
For the representations of activity, touch, body movement and positional communications
are examined. Touch in the videos analysed is mostly consistently very firm from the man to the
woman. The man is clearly in charge in most of the videos: touch is hard, sometimes even rough,
including choking and slapping, occasionally tender but rarely so. A notable finding here is that the
woman at no point in the videos takes charge or even touches the man, in almost all cases the man
either touches, grabs, or positions the woman. The woman stays passive in almost all videos. This
is also reflected in body movement, the man is taking the lead, either pushing down, positioning,
grabbing, or touching. The woman stays passive and lets the man take the lead. As for positional
communication, throughout all videos the duos are physically intimate and engage in penetration
and other sexual activity, that is mostly also for the duration of the video.
Lastly, use of props and settings are analysed in the videos. There are not really any
significant props used in most of the videos, except of course the camera that is being used to film

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the action. Significantly, all videos have a setting of the ‘real’ or ‘the authentic’ and maybe even
more so ‘the obtainable’ or ‘accessible’. The settings are mostly mundane, everyday places, a room
in a domestic sphere, such as an ordinary bedroom, bathroom or living room which is the case for
almost all videos. The aesthetics of these settings are very much those of the everyday. The rooms
looked lived in, with for example clothes on the floor, bathrooms have bathroom products and
overall general everyday settings are employed. The videos construct the idea of voyeurism
because of these aesthetics of everyday settings combined with the act of intimacy. Also, the
aesthetics of the low technical level of the camera and camerawork lend a feeling of a personal and
intimate setting as opposed to the HD quality of mainstream pornography.
A full description of each video may be found in the appendix.

5. Results
First of all, the checklist used proved to be a suitable tool for comparing and contrasting the most
salient features of the videos. The picture that emerged was consistent and informative.
The result of the visual analysis is that amateur pornography aesthetics in levels of
technology and equipment used are very ‘low’: one camera, without any edits, different angles, or
extra lighting. A standstill or handheld camera is used to film the entire event in real time, giving the
feeling of ‘exactly what happened’, almost the illusion of being there and watching ‘through a door
left slightly ajar’. Level of technology being low can function as a signifier of the real (Hardy, 2008)
and thereby these aesthetics construct the voyeuristic and authenticity aspects of these amateur
pornography videos. This is the aesthetic of the homemade, an aesthetic now also employed by
professional porn auteurs in Pro Am videos that also often operate in the homemade genre, which
has its own tab on Pornhub, as described earlier. The settings used in amateur pornography
contribute most to the aesthetic of the authentic. This makes these mundane and average, using
settings a viewer can identify with, for example a messy living room, a bathroom with toothbrushes
and a curling iron or a messy bedroom with clothes on the floor, fetishized reality elements of the
video.
In this aesthetics analysis, the content was chosen on what was most prominently ‘pushed’
by Pornhub, the easiest and quickest for a user to click on and view. All videos were from the
category of ‘amateur’. Skin tone and gender were also a part of the checklist. All duos were a man
and a woman engaging in a heteronormative way and almost all duos were white, expect for one
video in which the woman had a slightly darker skin tone. Even though only a small sample of
videos was examined, this is remarkable in how skin tone diversity does not strongly come forward.
This thesis does not discuss these issues, but they merit further study.
Other elements that audiences use to register authenticity are: technical aspects of
production (Zimmermann, 1995); ( Fox, 2004); (Paasonen, 2011), aesthetics of the everyday (Hall,
2015), self-disclosure (Cohen, 2001); (Wang and Chou, 2019), authority as a poster (Garcia-Rapp,

38
2017), the inimitable experience of intimacy (Sarracino and Scott, 2008), spontaneity and/or minimal
scripting (Fox, 2004); (Garcia-Rapp, 2017), or degree of privateness (Wang and Chou 2019) and
identifiability (Kim Allen and Heather Mendick, 2012). All the videos analysed had low technical
production value, using single cameras, with sometimes even grainy or very low quality results. No
edits were used, just a standstill camera propped up or a handheld camera shooting POV style.
Furthermore, the aesthetics of the everyday where created by the domestic settings and almost all
the videos analysed had an element of this. For example, a hairbrush that still has hair on it lying in
shot, two toothbrushes with an almost empty toothpaste tube or simply just clothes lying around.
Looking at the aspect of self-disclosure, just to reiterate self-disclosure entails disclosing
one’s personal information for that sake of creating intimacy. This is less present in amateur
pornography than in for example vloggers (Cohen 2001), but still in amateur pornography nudity can
also be viewed as a certain form of self-disclosure. Performing, filming and uploading what most
people consider the most private act is also a form of self-disclosure and could therefore build a
level of intimacy with the viewer.
The aspect of the authority of a poster is also not really an element in the videos analysed.
Neither is “the inimitable experience of intimacy”, in the videos analysed the act may have been
intimate by definition, intimacy – as in emotional closeness, was neither visible, nor hinted at. With
regard to spontaneity and/or minimal scripting these videos where all very alike. There was no or
very minimal scripting and there was barely any dialogue. The videos do not convey a feeling of
spontaneity in the videos.
What all videos analysed had in common was a reliance on sexual scripting. As mentioned
earlier on by Rasmussen (2018) many pornography videos end up operating with the same sexual
narrative or script. In this study of pornographic videos, it was no different. Every video had the
same elements in them, the way the people acted towards each other, around the same time
between one sexual position or activity or another and even down to the positioning of the man and
the woman. Traditional gender roles were evident in every video at some point. If there would be the
expectation that amateur porn would be more emancipated, free and diverse (Hardy, 2008), during
this analysis it becomes clear that amateur pornography completely conforms to a gendered sexual
script, probably closer to mainstream pornography than to actual sex In the home, which again
implies a relatively high level of performativity. It seems that in an interesting performativity ‘loop’,
Pro Am is imitating amateurs imitating mainstream pornography. In porn there is very little actual
reality, but mostly scripted fantasy.
Despite everything, however, there is still at least the suggestion of a degree of privateness
that helps in registering authenticity and a necessary condition for the gratification of the voyeuristic
need. Although amateur pornography is obviously not private - seeing as one is watching it online
on a free platform - amateur pornography can still make users feel like they are looking through
curtains not fully drawn. Amateur pornography can feel very exclusive, like spying on the most

39
private act. This feeling is created because of these everyday aesthetics of the real, feeding into
that reality fetish.
Lastly, identifiability is an interesting element because if the user can identify with the people
performing porn one can see themselves in it and therefore feel connected. Considering the videos
analysed, these can be strongly identifiable because of the domestic setting (aesthetics), but when
it comes to the people in it, white heterosexuals will find it easiest to identify. In all the videos
analysed it is a male and a female engaging in a heteronormative sex act, oral sex and male to
female penetration.

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6. Discussion
The concept of voyeurism is central to this thesis and deserves a closer look. Voyeurism lies on the
spectrum of xenophobia to scopophilia. Xenophobia comes from the Greek words ‘xenos’ meaning
stranger or foreigner and ‘phobos’ meaning fear. A fear of something foreign. Scopophilia describes
deriving aesthetic pleasure from looking at something and from looking at someone.
So, on the one hand of the spectrum lies xenophobia. This is because the consumption of
content with the added element of voyeurism can breed the feeling of ‘thankfully it’s them and not
me’, the fear of or revulsion for something that is considered anathema. This phenomenon is most
often found when consuming reality TV or even in the concept of ‘hate watching’, watching for the
pleasure to feel better about oneself. This was mentioned above in the Yesil (2001) text: “the
paradox of voyeurism that is contained in the coexistence of revulsion”.
On the other side of the spectrum is scopophilia, because there is also immense pleasure in
regarding and spectating others. Especially in a voyeuristic context, there is an element of the
temptation of the forbidden fruit in illicitly seeing what one is not supposed to see or what no one
else is seeing. Freud (1962) explores this spectrum: "pleasure in looking [scopophilia] becomes a
perversion (a) if it is restricted exclusively to the genitals, or (b) if it is connected with the overriding
of disgust (as in the case of voyeurs or people who look on at excretory functions), or (c) if, instead
of being preparatory to the normal sexual aim, it supplants it.” This is why scopophilia is the other
side of the spectrum because it operates in extremes and could be considered a perversion.
Voyeurism lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and people have their own place
on the spectrum. Reality TV lies on the xenophobic side of the spectrum also because it is one-
sided, the classic peeping Tom voyeuristic experience. As mentioned earlier in this thesis, social
media, with the addition of exhibitionism become the facilitator of voyeurism. What takes the
element of one-sided voyeurism away from social media is that the action of the peeping Tom is
eliminated, because he is ‘expected’ even ‘invited’. This is amongst other things because of the
concept of the walled garden. A user already has to possess a certain level of exhibitionism to enter
the garden and must be willing to surrender information such as name, profile picture, and age. This
content, personal information shared online and fully public, is no longer exclusive to any voyeur.
Therefore, there has to be either active participation, a relationship, a degree of privateness or
exclusivity for the user to enjoy the voyeuristic experience.
Exclusivity is the idea that no one else is seeing what you are seeing, that you are the only
one. Regarding social media the only other option to still operate as a voyeur and not
simultaneously an exhibitionist is to be anonymous or disguised online, and still be a peeping Tom
in a walled garden. This can escalate to catfishing where a fictional online persona is created and
used as an identity. But it can also be more subtle, such as only sharing what is not intimate and

41
would be open and easily accessible information to others anyway. User-generated content is the
playground for voyeurism and exhibitionism alike.
If what is shared is inauthentic, the experience is based on fiction, although for many people
this does not seem to detract from it. The peeping Tom sees what is happening in real time. With an
online experience one does not know if it is reality and if it is authentic and even then, to what
degree. For social networking sites and reality TV there is a general awareness amongst users and
consumers who understand to what length there is authenticity and also that the knowledge of being
filmed or updating a personal profile does not fully eliminate or substantiate a core of authenticity. It
is not so much whether something is real, but whether the viewer wants it to be real.
A more in-depth explanation of amateur pornography and the relationship with authenticity
and voyeurism is necessary, because what is amateur pornography on these platforms really?
According to references on the Wikipedia page about this subject the history of amateur
pornography begins at the introduction of the Polaroid camera in 1948 with which self-produced
pornographic photos were taken. Later, in the 1980s video became more popular paired with the
camcorder revolution. People would record their own sex lives and watch it on VCRs. In 1982,
Homegrown Video was the first company to distribute these homemade videos commercially;
before that they had also been shared for free ‘under the counter’ at video stores.
The term ‘realcore’ as discussed by Paasonen (2010) is used to describe digital amateur
porn, made possible by the combination of cheap video cameras and the eruption of the World
Wide Web in the mid-90’s. This term refers to the way this pornography is made, with simple
technical equipment: single, simple cameras and a documentary style. It would mostly be distributed
for free online in for example web communities.
Nowadays amateur pornography online in general is to be found on Pornhub, and other
general pornography platforms such as YouPorn and XHamster. What is already known is that
pornography is prevalent in everyday society and also that the ‘pornification’ of society influences
everyday life to a certain extent. People have their own fantasies and desires which they may or
may not gratify by means of pornography. What remains unknown is how this gratification is
enhanced by a judgement from the users regarding the degree of ‘reality’. It is, however, not that
simple to establish if amateur pornography is really ‘authentic’ or not. To expand upon this, amateur
pornography in its essential core suggests ‘real’ people in their own domestic space having sex
while a camera ‘happens’ to capture this. But nowadays on pornography platforms under the tab
amateur this is not always what a consumer will get. There is a term to describe amateur
pornography performed by professionals (mentioned before in this thesis), Pro Am, an abbreviation
for professional amateur. Pro Am is the genre in which professional pornography actors get paid to
make pornographic videos for online distribution using amateur aesthetics. The issue is that they
are still professional porn actors who get paid for the work they deliver, just as in mainstream
pornography produced by a professional studio. Just because it is set in amateur aesthetics does

42
not make it ‘real’ or authentic, even though as described throughout this thesis, it often feels real
enough for users, also because they can identify more easily with what is happening on screen.
Actual amateur pornography, made by amateurs and not on a professional set, is user-generated
content and is mostly distributed for free. It follows a narrative of people operating in a private
domestic sphere who happen to have sex and film it. By uploading it, their content becomes a part
of the gift economy as user-generated content usually is. Users online register user-generated
content as having a degree of authenticity, on social media platforms or reality TV. Therefore,
amateur pornography also gets registered as user-generated content and thus as reality. As a result
of this fact, Pro Am can be considered problematic because it is not authentic even if it can be
easily registered as such by users because they emulate exactly that authenticity by the means of
amateur aesthetics, authenticity has become a commodity (Berg, 2017).
Authenticity is a complex term because as stated before, Pro Am is acted, paid work and
therefore not ‘sex for the pleasure of having sex’. But on what level is amateur pornography
authentic when the awareness is there that the sex is being filmed? This knowledge makes amateur
pornography a subject full of precarity. Assuming that amateur pornography still means people
having sex which a low-quality camera ‘happens’ to capture, the term amateur pornography can be
viewed as an oxymoron. If it is pornography, then it is (paid or unpaid) work and acted. Pornography
actors also have actual sex but not in the private sphere and with a lack of intimacy. The
amateurism ‘for the love of it’ then is real, intimate and in the private sphere and shared for different
reasons. Ergo, amateur and pornography are not symbiotic terms. As mentioned before, amateur
pornography with the awareness of it being filmed changes the private sphere into a stage, albeit a
messier one. There is a mutual influence of mainstream pornography and amateur content
distributed on pornography platforms and as was shown in this thesis they tend to follow similar
sexual scripts.
Consequently, how does this relate to online pornography, mainstream and amateur?
Mainstream pornography displays the aesthetics of clearly being acted mostly with an elaborate
storyline. It does not allude to the fact that it is not acted, this is operationalised by technicalities
such as edits and angles, for example, and also actors’ names in credits or the description. Amateur
pornography on the other hand is different. The aesthetics of amateur pornography strive for that of
‘reality’ and authenticity, as was also found in the visual analysis performed in an earlier section in
this thesis. The settings are very low-key, mundane or even below average, therefore making
settings of reality suddenly something that can become a fetish in itself. This is categorized by
Pornhub under the tab and tag ‘Homemade’. To a certain extent this can again be a misleading ploy
for a user because Pro Am videos can also be found under this tab, if the video is constructed with
homemade aesthetics. If it is filmed in any bedroom or even a constructed bedroom set it is
technically homemade; on Pornhub it gets the ‘homemade’ tag. The aesthetics of the home are
enough to construct the idea of a pornographic video made in a home by genuine amateurs. A

43
pornography consumer does not expect a homemade video to be shot by professionals, nor for it to
lack an element of authenticity or ‘reality’. Even if it is not the full voyeuristic experience, as in
seeing what no one else is seeing and what is not supposed to be seen, they still are voyeuristic
aesthetics, including that the acts are still real. This user-generated content of amateur pornography
is still exhibitionist content which is consumed in a voyeuristic way; thereby constructing the reality
fetish, even if the expectation has shifted from it being ‘real’ people having sex for themselves who
happen to be filming it. It still scratches the psychological itch of voyeurism.

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7. Conclusion
In researching amateur porn from the angle of a reality fetish in contemporary media culture this
thesis intended to answer the research question how voyeurism and ‘reality’ are constructed in
amateur pornography, as well as four sub questions:
- What are aspects viewers use to register ‘reality’ and authenticity?
- How has voyeurism developed in the media landscape?
- What drives the production and sharing of user-generated content?
- How different is amateur pornography from mainstream pornography?

The research object was amateur pornography on Pornhub and a slightly tangential conclusion is
that the results show that it is indeed a rich source of excellent and accessible content, which turns
out to be in line with mechanisms in other areas of contemporary media culture, even although
pornography itself is considered controversial. A reality fetish in contemporary media (Van Doorn,
2010) is an aspect of the user experience of amateur pornography as much as it may be a factor in
other areas of contemporary media culture.

What are aspects viewers use to register ‘reality’ and authenticity? From the theoretical framework a
number of different points of view emerged regarding this first sub question: technical aspects of
production (Zimmermann, 1995); ( Fox, 2004); (Paasonen, 2011), aesthetics of the everyday (Hall,
2015), self-disclosure (Cohen, 2001); (Wang and Chou, 2019), authority as a poster (Garcia-Rapp,
2017), the inimitable experience of intimacy (Sarracino and Scott, 2008), spontaneity and/or minimal
scripting (Fox, 2004); (Garcia-Rapp, 2017), or degree of privateness (Wang and Chou 2019) and
identifiability (Kim Allen and Heather Mendick, 2012).
All of these aspects increase the sense of the real and a perception of authenticity for the user in
some contexts. For the purposes of examining the sense of the real and authentic in amateur
pornography, based on both the literature and the research results (see Results) the conclusion is
that authenticity and a sense of reality is felt predominantly on the basis of aesthetics of the
everyday (partly identifiability, partly credibility) and the – sometimes deliberately low – technical
quality of production (mainly credibility).
Other aspects mentioned seem to play less of a role. This ties in with the sub-question how
different amateur pornography is from mainstream pornography. It turns out that there is a level of
performativity in the amateur videos, but more importantly this performativity relies on a high degree
of sexual scripting that make amateur pornography very similar to mainstream pornography, with
the mentioned exceptions of production quality and the aesthetics of the everyday. Reality
aesthetics have surpassed actual intimacy as the focal point for pleasure (Hardy, 2008). There is a
mutual influence between mainstream pornography and amateur content distributed on

45
pornography platforms. The awareness of being filmed that the amateurs possess, make them also
to a certain degree follow tacitly or explicitly known sexual or pornography scripts. Amateur
pornography is more ‘Reality Porn’ (similar to ‘Reality’ TV) than ‘amateur’. Although the settings are
domestic, the action is mainstream.
Because of the degree of similarity of sexual scripting between actors and audience this
does not render the experience necessarily inauthentic. Moreover, following Baudrillard (1988) and
Deuze (2011), whether it is real or not appears not to be as important as whether it is flagged or
presented as real. The results also showed that “the inimitable experience of intimacy” (Sarracino
and Scott, 2008) was as absent from amateur pornography as it is from mainstream pornography.
Finally, spontaneity was neither present, nor suggested, meaning these two aspects do not
construct authenticity in this context in practice. At this stage, amateur productions are not a better
kind of porn, “more ethical in its principles of production” (Paasonen, 2010).

What is real and authentic is mainly a concern for the voyeur, who per definition has a reality fetish.
One of the sub-questions to be answered is how voyeurism has become an aspect of the
contemporary media landscape. This is described at some length in the theoretical framework and
merely summarized here.
Voyeurism is an old concept and not technologically determined. As Yesil (2001) points out:
“Technologies and the media are new, but the choices are as old as human history. People have
always liked to watch other people. Technology has only made it simpler to do so.”
Looking at the role of voyeurism in contemporary media culture we can summarise the
theoretical framework Calvert (2004), Yesil (2001) and Patterson (2004) by saying that a symbiosis
has developed between voyeur and exhibitionist, based upon the joint fetishizing of reality and given
scale and meaning by contemporary media. Aesthetics of realism construct the illusion of reality that
is necessary for satisfying a voyeuristic tendency.
Voyeur and exhibitionist are two sides of the same coin and both are looking for an
emotional reward. Looking at the side of the exhibitionist, the uploader, the motivations of the
uploader differ from those of the viewer. The theoretical framework looked at user-generated
content from the point of view of the final sub-question - what drives the production and sharing of
user-generated content - and came up with the following motivations: building intimacy to attract
and build relationships with followers (Cohen, 2001), (Garcia-Rapp, 2017); Ego defence and
minimizing self-doubt (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright, 2013), social status (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright
2013); (Levina and Arriaga, 2014). Although voyeuristic tendencies were examined also in the
context of Reality TV, because it may be seen as both a precursor and an accelerator of voyeurism
in contemporary media culture, the motivation of the contestants on Reality TV was not examined
(although social status and attracting followers, in terms of fame or notoriety would seem likely).

46
The research question can now be answered: how are voyeurism and ‘reality’ constructed in
amateur pornography?
Voyeurism and reality are constructed in amateur pornography through a symbiosis between
voyeur and exhibitionist. Both have fetishized reality to such an extent that the professional
pornography industry as well as the platforms have joined in with this fetishation, with ‘the realer the
better’ being the most popular standard. If it is not real, it does not feel like voyeurism. If it does not
feel like voyeurism, it cannot be real. Aesthetics of realism construct the illusion of ‘reality’ that is
necessary for voyeurism. Whether it is real or not is not as important as whether it feels real or is
branded or tagged as real. Because of sexual scripting and performativity, the sex on video is very
similar to mainstream pornography, but because of low production value and ‘homemade’ settings
the illusion of the real is maintained.
In conclusion: due to its unique hybrid position, amateur pornography, as a ‘high-stakes’
form of user-generated content, offers uploaders, viewers and platforms rich rewards, be it
emotional or financial. It offers rewards to media studies as well, as a large, accessible and
representative microcosm of many aspects of contemporary media culture which merits further
study.

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Appendix
Individual video checklists
https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph57008cea4971a
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o The age in this video of the two participants is around twenties or thirties which is
supposed to represent maturity, experience, knowledge and control
- Gender.
o There are a man and a woman enacting sex in a heteronormative fashion.
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The woman has long hair on her head. All her body hair is removed making her
completely smooth. This can add to society’s norm that female body hair is
unacceptable in a sexual context. The man has a regular amount of hair
- Body.
o The woman is thin and the man a normal build, broad and muscly. Both represented
as attractive
- Size.
o At a certain point the camera is used at a closer angle of the man entering the
woman from behind. Whereby both their heads are no longer to be seen in the shot.
This puts penetration central to the video
- Looks.
o Both are shown to be covered in tattoos and have that in common. The guy has
something around his ankle which looks like a mandatory ankle monitor.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The man here is the one represented in control and the woman listens and follows
his lead. The expressions are that of tension but not with knowledge of each other or
even acknowledgment. There is an expression of longing. The man barely has any
facial or verbal expression. The woman also barely makes any noise apart from
some light moans and her facial expression is that or pain or light discomfort and at
some points sexual pleasure. There is barely any verbal contact between them.
- Eye contact.

48
o There is barely any eye contact between the two of them. The man predominantly
looks at his phone to see what he is filming or the standstill camera they are filming
on. The woman looks at the man in a submissive way as she does everything he
asks. Later in the video the man faces the woman’s back whereby no eye contact
can be made.
- Pose.
o The woman is always lying down or bending down. The man is in charge leading the
sex act, sometimes they both lie down, but the man also has standing positions.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The man at a certain point when taking the woman from behind puts his hand in her
neck and pushes her down and after that chokes her lightly. The touch is hard and
rough. The man also grabs the woman’s body a couple times with a hard touch.
- Body movement.
o The woman is passive as the man is taking charge of this situation. Also in her body
language she is passive, either being pushed down or lying down by herself. The
man is mostly upright or the one doing the pushing. Even when the man also lies
down, he is still the active participant
- Positional communication.
o The two people are physically intimate. The man is in charge as the woman follows
his lead. The woman is mostly down and spatially lower than the man, who is mostly
upright or simultaneously holding the woman down.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o The man uses an iPhone to film what he is doing. He films the woman he is having
sex with; while he is having sex with her he holds it in his hands and films different
parts and from different angels.
- Settings.
o Low technicality, medium quality camera propped up. Normal setting somebody’s
house indicating at the reality aesthetics, something somebody watching this could
relate to.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5ea8ed9658f8e
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.

49
o They are around their twenties, meant to emulate youthfulness, innocence and
spontaneity
- Gender.
o They are a male and female engaging in a heteronormative sex act
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The woman has long blond hair that has been curled, her body hair cannot be seen
in this video. The man has a regular amount of body hair on his legs and trimmed
pubic hair.
- Body.
o They both have societal regular body types that are meant to be attractive. The
woman has a slim waist and ‘big’ breasts.
- Size.
o There are many close ups of the woman’s breasts that are somewhat big and the
man’s erect penis which is also somewhat big. These are the focal points of the
video
- Looks.
o The woman looks of age and playful with a pretty flowery dress on. Also attractive
and well groomed. We don’t see the man on camera only his penis and legs.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The woman looks at the man who is filming, thereby emulating a POV (point of view
shot) meant to make the viewer feel like they are the one she is looking at and
performing the sex act on. She looks happy, exited and aroused. The man’s face is
not seen.
- Eye contact.
o The man and the woman keep looking at each other, although when she looks at him
she also often looks at the camera. Therefore the ‘real’ eye contact in this setting are
harder to distinguish.
- Pose.
o The man is upright the whole time the woman spends time sitting lower or bending
over for the man.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.

50
o The man and the woman touch a couple times, the touch is light and tender.
- Body movement.
o The man and the woman are pretty equal in this video regarding activeness and
passiveness. They both actively participate and look content with the sex act they are
engaging in. There is always a certain element of passivity from the woman as the
man does still take charge in the sex act.
- Positional communication.
o The couple is sexually intimate as they engage in the sex act. The woman sits down
to pleasure the man orally then turns around so that he can engage in the sex act
from behind

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props just the handheld camera that is being used to film the video.
- Settings.
o Good quality camera handheld POV style. It is set in a stairwell. Which can emulate
a certain fantasy of doing private acts outside or in an impulsive decision based on
sexual arousal.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5e9ab3dbc3648
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o They both look young: late teens early twenties. The girl especially has big doe eyes
and is supposed to emulate innocence for them both.
- Gender.
o There are a male and a female, more like girl and boy. engaging in the
heteronormative sex act
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The girl has long dark blond hair and all her body hair is removed including her pubic
hair. The man has a short male haircut, dark hair, and also has removed his pubic
hair.
- Body.
o They both have slim body types; the girl is skinny and the man a slender build.
- Size.

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o The camera is standstill so there are no close ups. But the girl’s face is often very
close to the camera making her facial features such as her eyes and her mouth
including her lips look very big. That has the focal point
- Looks.
o The girl looks very young and innocent. Her lips and eyes are big which adds even
more to the young innocent look. The guy has a lot of tattoos and a ‘generic’ male
look. They both have T-shirts on the whole video long, which could emulate song sort
of distance between the two of them in this setting.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The expression of the girl is sort of ‘young girl being taken advantage of’ look. Big
doe eyes, her mouth with big lips that she keeps pouting. She also opens her mouth
and frowns to emulate that she is in slight pain. She looks seductive like she knows
what she is doing when she looks in the standstill camera. There is no verbal contact
between the two of them.
- Eye contact.
o There is barely any eye contact, in the beginning the man is behind the girl and
therefore eye contact is already harder and less focussed. The girl looks into the
camera a lot, practically the duration of the whole video. Even while the girl is giving
the man oral sex there is not really any eye contact. She switches positions while
giving oral sex to be able to look into the camera.
- Pose.
o The man starts off on top of the woman when she is on her stomach and she stays
lower than him while giving him oral sex. At the end she puts her head on his
stomach while still pleasuring him.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The touch is light and not there a lot. The man strokes the girl’s hair a bit at the end
of the video. But it is mostly just the intimate acts.
- Body movement.
o They both look quite passive towards each other and more so enacting the
heteronormative sexual script than actually engaging the intimate relations with each
other.
- Positional communication.

52
o They are physically intimate. The man has sex with the girl, and she pleasures him
orally. But there is no other intimacy to be detected.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props just the standstill camera that is being used to film the video.
- Settings.
o Low technicality, medium camera quality. Gives of a homemade and reality
aesthetic. It is also set in a normal looking bedroom which adds to this quality.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5eaf5e86c738d (ProAm)
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o The man and the woman both look of age, around mid to late twenties. Shows
youthfulness and energy.
- Gender.
o They are male and female engaging in the heteronormative sex act
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o She has long black hair, the man has short black hair. The woman’s body hair has
been completely removed leaving her smooth. The man has little body hair but he
does have some amount of pubic hair
- Body.
o They both have slim builds. Meant to be regarded as attractive.
- Size.
o There are no close ups seeing as the camera has been propped up and films by
itself. The bed is the focal point of this video where the couple engage in different
intimate relations.
- Looks.
o They look like a ‘generic’ couple, nothing out of the norm. The woman starts of the
video in her pyjamas and the man in his boxer shorts. She has glasses on for the
entirety of the video.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.

53
o They both look fondly towards each other. Like there is common ground. They look
longingly towards each other in an intense way. They both look like they are very into
what acts they are engaging in.
- Eye contact.
o There is a lot of eye contact during the whole video in an intimate manner.
- Pose.
o The man and the woman have many different intimate positions that they put
themselves in. In the beginning the man start of as upright and taking charge and
later they switch, and the woman takes the lead. There is an equality about them.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The touch is light and tender. The man strokes, caresses and touches the woman a
lot. The woman also does so to the man a couple of times. They kiss a lot. And they
look like long and intimate kisses.
- Body movement.
o The man and woman switch out who the active one and the passive one is. In the
beginning it is very much the man and the woman seems to enjoy that and later on it
is the woman being active and the man passive. And they end with the man being
the active one again.
- Positional communication.
o The couple remain spatially intimate for the duration of the video. They change their
positioning many times. They remain active and intimate with each other.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props just the standstill camera that is being used to film the video.
- Settings.
o Low technicality, medium quality camera. The setting is a bedroom. One that looks
like a normal generic bedroom that someone could have themselves. This is meant
to emulate the aesthetic of reality and add to the homemade genre.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5eb0d81a40986 (ProAm)
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o It’s a man and a woman and they both look of age around their twenties. Shows
youthfulness.

54
o
- Gender.
o It is a male and a female that are engaging in the heteronormative sex act.
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The woman has long hair. The body hair on her legs has been removed but the rest
of the body cannot be seen. The man has a regular amount of body hair on his legs.
- Body.
o The man is muscular and has a strong physique. The woman has a slender and slim
body type. Both meant to be found attractive.
- Size.
o There are no close-ups in the video because it is a stand still camera that has been
propped up. But the focal point of the video is the sex act itself. Seeing as the man’s
head is not even in shot to begin with. It’s a close rage shot of the intimate act.
- Looks.
o The man has tattoos, looks muscular and has a shaved head. The woman looks like
by society’s standards a good-looking, slim woman.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The facial expressions of the woman is mostly that of slight pain as are the noises
that she makes. The man’s expressions is mostly not to be seen but the few
expressions that can be seen are barely there or strained. The man also grunts a
couple of times.
- Eye contact.
o The couple share no eye contact. As they are also in a position that the man is
behind the woman which does also already add to the no-eye contact experience.
They don’t share any for the duration of the video. The man looks at the woman from
behind. And the woman’s face is mostly buried in a pillow.
- Pose.
o The man and the woman stay in in the same position for the duration of the video.
The man taking the woman from behind, as the man is upright and the woman is
lying flat.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.

55
o The touch is hard. The man grabs the woman in a seemingly sexual and hard
manner. He also pushes down on the woman and you see the muscles in his arms
straining like force is being exerted. The woman does no touching for the duration of
the video.
- Body movement.
o The man is active and the woman is passive for the duration of the video. The
woman is submissive to the man. The man looks like he is inflicting pain on the
woman to a certain degree. When he is entering her, it looks like he is trying his best
to do it as hard as he can. He pushes the woman down many times also in a hard
manner. The woman stays compliantly in the same position.
- Positional communication.
o The man and the woman are physically intimate as he is inside of her. But other than
that, there are no signs of personal intimacy.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There is a prob in the video, a vibrator. It sits prominently in the shot but does not get
used. Other than that, just the standstill camera that is propped up.
- Settings.
o Low technicality, medium quality camera. The setting is that of someone’s couch.
This setting feeds the aesthetic of the real and the genre of homemade.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5e8ea1d2584f2 (ProAm)
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o It is a man and a woman who are both clearly of age. Around their thirties. Meant to
angle at maturity and experience.
- Gender.
o It is a male and a female engaging in the heteronormative sex act.
- Race.
o It is a white man and a woman with a darker skin tone.
- Hair.
o The woman has long hair and the rest of her body hair is removed. The man has a
regular amount of body hair.
- Body.

56
o The man has a somewhat average physique, not very muscular and a little bit
chubby but nowhere near overweight. The woman is slim and slender, seen as
attractive by societal norms.
- Size.
o There are no close ups in this video because it is filmed on a standstill camera. But
the bed and the sex act that is happening upon it is the focal point of the shot. The
man’s face is not even in shot.
- Looks.
o The man has a couple tattoos and other than that looks like an average man. The
woman looks like an attractive woman form society’s point of view, long hair and
slender body.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The expressions on their faces are difficult to detect seeing as they are both wearing
a mask and the man’s head is out of the shot for the most part. The woman’s facial
expressions are sometimes that of pleasure and shock.
- Eye contact.
o There is barely any eye contact seeing as the man is mostly upright above the
woman or either she is turned around and the is entering her from behind. The eye
masks also make it hard to detect the eye contact, but it does presumably also make
the eye contact harder.
- Pose.
o The man is mostly upright except for the beginning while he is giving the woman oral
sex. The woman is lying down the entirety of the video or is on her knees bending
forwards for him.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The touch is dominant and a little rough but not hard. The man grabs the woman at
some points in the video. The woman does not touch the man
- Body movement.
o The man is completely active and the woman is passive. The man is in charge and
the woman follows his lead. The man is upright and the active one in all positions
and the woman either lies down or bends down. In the end he stops intercourse with
her to ejaculate in her mouth.
- Positional communication.

57
o The man is spatially higher continuously during the video as the woman is lower.
They are physically intimate the whole entire time.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o The props used in this video are masquerade ball masks that both the man and
woman are wearing. Also the standstill camera used to film the sex act on.
- Settings.
o Low technicality but high-quality camera. The setting is a bed, nothing out of the
ordinary. Further there is nothing else to see, that is the entire shot.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5e04f8d0f1ebf
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o The man and the woman look of age, around their late twenties, begin thirties.
Shows maturity and experience.
- Gender.
o It is a male and a female engaging in the heteronormative sex act.
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The woman has short blond hair, the rest of her body is not seen in this video. The
man has a lot of chest hair
- Body.
o The man is not slender but muscular and broad but not chubby. The woman is
slender, a societally regular body type.
- Size.
o The man is holding the camera, pointing at a mirror while he is having sex with the
woman. At a certain point he films a close up of his penis going into her from behind.
Other than that nothing is made bigger in the shot
- Looks.
o They both look like two average people that you could meet anywhere or even be
acquainted to. Regular body types, clothes and appearances. The woman wears a t-
shirt for the whole video and her trousers are on her ankles.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.

58
o The man’s expression cannot be seen because his face is just out of frame but he
does talk with the woman in the beginning and his tone is friendly and aroused. The
woman’s facial expression is mostly that of light pain but she also smiles to indicate
she is enjoying it. She also talks to the man in the beginning of the video and her
tone is also light.
- Eye contact.
o The man is standing behind the woman, but they are able to make eye contact
because they are standing in front of a mirror. In the beginning while they are still
taking to each other she looks at him a couple times, for the rest of the video she has
her eyes closed or leans her head down.
- Pose.
o The man stands straight during the whole video, taking the woman from behind. She
is bent over before him but also standing, her upper body is lent down forward in
front of him.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The man does not touch the woman often but when he does the touch is light, he
lays his hand on the nape of her neck a couple times. He does pull her hair but her
face seems to indicate that she is enjoying that. The woman does not touch the man
at all
- Body movement.
o The man is active as he is the one behind the woman having sex with her and she is
taking it. So she is the passive one here in this dynamic.
- Positional communication.
o The two are intimate with each other. Spatially they are close. They stay in the same
position for the duration of the video. The man spatially higher than the woman
because he stands tall, with the woman bending lower.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props used in this video. Expect for the handheld camera that is being
used to film the sex act and the mirror
- Settings.
o Low technicality and low camera quality. The setting is in front of a mirror in a
bathroom. The woman still has her clothes on and her trousers are at her ankles,
insinuating that this sex act happened out of infatuation and passion from two

59
people. The bathroom is not cleaned up and looks normally used as someone’s own
bathroom would.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1978596610 (ProAm)
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o The video contains a young teen couple, the girl and the boy look young around their
late teens early twenties. Shows innocence and youthfulness.
- Gender.
o It is a male and a female engaging in the heteronormative sex act.
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o The girl has long blond hair on her head and the rest of her body hair is completely
removed leaving her body smooth. The boy has no facial hair with a regular amount
of body hair on his legs, his pubic hair is also completely removed.
- Body.
o The boy has a slender body type. For the girl it is the same thing, slender and slim
body type. Meant to be attractive for societal norms
- Size.
o There are no close ups in the video because it is filmed on a standstill camera that is
propped up.
- Looks.
o The girl starts off the video with a ‘cute’ look. A white lacy bra and little green shorts
that say lucky charm on the back which she explicitly shows to the camera in the
beginning of the video. Later she takes these clothes off. She has long blond hair
and some make up on, she also has a small tattoo. The boy has a green T-shirt on
that matches the girl’s shorts and keeps it on for the entire video.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o Her expression is very seductive especially while performing oral sex on the boy.
She smiles sometimes in a playful way and pouts at some points in the video.
Overall, she seems content with the situation at hand. The boy’s expression is not
shown but he does moan in pleasure a couple times during the video.
- Eye contact.

60
o The eye contact is a little harder to detect seeing as the boy’s head is out of frame,
but you can see that while the girl is performing oral sex on the boy, she is looking at
him seductively. Also, when she is on top of the boy, she looks down at him often.
There is from her a lot of eye contact checking if he likes what she is doing.
- Pose.
o The boy lies down for the entirety of the video and the girl is on top of him in different
positions for the whole video.

3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The touch is light and tender. The boy strokes her hair a couple times and caresses
her body at many points in the video. The girl also touches the boy in a tender way
but mostly his genitalia.
- Body movement.
o The girl is the active one in this setting. She is always on top of the boy performing
sexual acts. The boy is passive as he is always lying down and touches the girl a lot
and presumably enjoying it.
- Positional communication.
o The girl and the boy are intimate they stay in a spatially close setting the girl lying or
sitting on top of the boy. While lying down the boy reaches up a lot to touch the girl.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props used in this video, except for the standstill camera which the sex
act is being filmed on.
- Settings.
o Low technicality and medium quality camera aesthetics. The setting is a bedroom
and then mainly the bed. It looks sort of messy and used as a normal bedroom
would.

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5cea0eac6bd79 (ProAm)
1. Representations of bodies:
- Age.
o There are a man and woman; the woman looks young, around her twenties. Shows
innocence and youthfulness. The man is not very clearly to be seen but he also looks
around that age.
- Gender.

61
o It is a male and a female engaging in the heteronormative sex act.
- Race.
o They are both white.
- Hair.
o She has long brown hair and her body hair is completely removed as well as her
pubic hair. The man’s body is not really seen because it is shot POV style and he is
holding the camera. He does film his genitalia at some point where it shows that he
has a fair amount of pubic hair.
- Body.
o The man is slender and fairly muscular. The girl looks slender but not skinny, a
normal body type as seen by societal norms.
- Size.
o There are no close ups in the video because it is filmed by a handheld camera. But
the man does sometimes film closer to the genital area where the man is entering the
woman instead of just filming the entire shot. That could show that he finds that
important to also film
- Looks.
o The man is not really to be seen a lot but looks average. And the girl also looks like a
young average girl. Little make up and her hair simple, with a normal everyday
sweater on.

2. Representations of manner
- Expression.
o The man’s facial expression is not visible in the video. The girl has her mouth open a
lot of the time either because he is choking her or generally. She also has her eyes
closed for most of the time or looks down at the sex act. She also frowns at certain
points in the video.
- Eye contact.
o There is some eye contact between the two, it is harder to detect because it is from
only the girl’s perspective because it is shot POV style. But she looks up above the
camera a couple times presumably to make eye contact. But this is not often. For
most of the duration of the video she has her eyes closed or looking down.
- Pose.
o The girl is sitting on top of a sink countertop with her legs spread. The man is
standing in front of her and is entering her. They stay like this for the duration of the
video.

62
3. Representations of activity
- Touch.
o The man touches the girl often in the video my means of choking her, the touch is
rough. There is no other tender touching, the only other time they touch is when she
sucks his thumb. Other than that, the girl does not touch the man.
- Body movement.
o The man is the active one of the two, while the woman is passive. The man is in
charge, he is predominantly choking her during the video making her literally passive
and he is also having sex with her during it. She lets him take the lead.
- Positional communication.
o The man and the woman are physically intimate with each other. They stay spatially
the same for the entirety of the video the man standing over the woman while they
have sex. The man poses himself as superior seeing as he is choking the girl for
almost the whole video and films either her face while being choked or his penis
entering her. Making it seem the girl as inferior.

4. Props and settings

- Props.
o There are no props used in this video. Except for the handheld camera used to film
the sex act on.
- Settings.
o Low technicality, high quality camera. The setting is a bathroom not much else is
seen in shot expect for the sink and the countertop. The bathroom looks tidy. As if it
has never been used before

63
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