The Pornification of Everything

Schonig, Jordan

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The Pornification of Everything

Schonig, Jordan

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Publisher

Queensland University of Technology

Date

8/9/2024

Abstract

In recent years, the word "porn" has been increasingly used as a kind of descriptive suffix in aesthetic categories like "food porn", "nature porn," "trauma porn", and "inspiration porn". Some scholars in Porn Studies have commented on the phenomenon as a notable expansion of the concept of porn, noting the striking fact that almost none of the porn-suffix categories contain representations of sex. Thus, an obvious puzzle emerges: what is it exactly that makes food porn, nature porn, or trauma porn pornographic? While a number of scholarly publications have examined the sociocultural implications of some of these categories, such as the examinations of food porn within food studies (see Krogager and Leer), of inspiration porn within disability studies (see Grue), and torture porn within film studies (see Lockwood), few have examined the proliferation of such porn-suffix categories as a sociocultural phenomenon in itself (see, for example, Hester; Nguyen and Williams). One notable exception, Helen Hester's book Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex (2014), examines categories like war porn and misery porn, which are primarily used as negative evaluative judgments that insinuate the moral depravity of the aesthetic objects under consideration (not unlike trauma porn, poverty porn, and disaster porn), usually highlighting the ways that human suffering is sensationalized for entertainment. While this kind of category -- what I call categories of moral critique -- encapsulates a major component of the porn suffix phenomenon, this article will focus on a different side of the phenomenon: categories like food porn, travel porn, architecture porn, and nature porn. Unlike trauma porn and poverty porn, these categories -- what I call categories of aesthetic indulgence -- do not imply a negative moral judgment upon the aesthetic objects under consideration, but instead refer to a viewer' indulgence in enticing or attractive images of objects. Such categories proliferate on social media platforms through hashtags (#foodporn, #architectureporn) and subreddits (/r/natureporn). What has come to be known as Reddit' "SFW Porn Network", in fact, includes 98 such categories, each devoid of depictions of sexuality or sexual activity -- from the fairly self-explanatory "architecture porn" and "space porn" to the more nebulous "human porn" and "things-cut-in-half porn". Such categories take on a valence qualitatively distinct from categories of moral critique, and thus imply a different social attitude toward porn. It is the aim of this article to examine what the proliferation of such categories reveals about our shifting attitude toward porn, entertainment, and gratification. Central to my investigation will be the examination of the role that aesthetic judgment plays in the formation of these categories and, by extension, porn itself. Within the principles of aesthetic theory, labelling an image, film, or novel as "pornography" is not a value-neutral category attribution -- like identifying a four-legged animal as a "cat" -- but an aesthetic judgment involving the aesthetic faculties, similar to judging a painting beautiful. In a similar way, labelling an image as "food porn" or "nature porn" is a judgment of the aesthetic qualities of that particular image. By drawing on the aesthetic theory of Immanuel Kant and Frank Sibley, I show how the casual adoption of "porn" as a metaphor to name these image-sharing communities in fact acknowledges and reflects on the aesthetic foundations of porn itself. Specifically, the rapid emergence of aesthetic categories like food porn and nature porn reflects upon "porn" as a transparently value-laden concept that, like beauty, is devoid of identifiable criteria, a condition best exemplified by Justice Potter Stewart's well-known declaration about obscenity: "I know it when I see it". Ultimately, I will argue, the porn suffix reveals how "porn" has come to signify the role that mere aesthetic feeling, rather than logic or reason, plays in the creation of some of our most politically charged concepts.