Gender ideologies on adult video-sharing websites

Academics have argued for the democratic potential of new media within the field of sexuality and media culture, as these allow to challenge traditional norms of the culture industry. At the same time, a recent study has suggested that YouPorn, a popular adult video-sharing website enabling the consumption and production of user-generated pornography, maintains a conservative gender ideology. This thesis consists of a qualitative interpretative analysis on altogether 100 ‘amateur’ videos from 5 mainstream adult video-sharing sites (20-20 each) in order to reveal and compare the underlying gender ideologies of these portals. As an attempt to contextualize the recent phenomenon of adult video-sharing sites and user-generated pornographic clips, the analysis includes not only video materials, but also characteristics of the platform, like the usage of key terms (categories and tags), along with the social networking aspects of the site. The results show that the most popular adult video-sharing sites dominantly remain within the hegemonic ideology of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity. The analysis revealed further unexpected findings in connection with the interpretation of ‘amateur’, which labels different materials on each site. Almost half (45%) of the overall sample consisted of professionally produced materials which are most probably of commercial nature. This has also made the question of ‘authenticity’ a focal point, as commercially oriented sites seem more likely to remain the storehouses of mainstream pornographic footages which are created within the framework of the hegemonic gender ideology. On the other hand, platforms that promote personal accounts (as opposed to commercial ones) and provide an extensive feature set for social networking, are more likely to host ‘authentic’ user-generated pornography. However, the higher ratio of ‘authentic’ materials does not guarantee the presence of materials that transgress the boundaries of the traditional norms. In general, the findings of this research suggests that the previous binary oppositions of pornography (like amateur and professional, commercial and non-commercial, etc.) are no longer valid within the dynamic environment of new media, and are in need of reconceptualization in order to be able to theorize these new phenomena.