Gender & Society 2006 Parvez 605 31

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The Labor of Pleasure: How Perceptions of Emotional Labor Impact

Women's Enjoyment of Pornography
Z. Fareen Parvez
Gender & Society 2006 20: 605
DOI: 10.1177/0891243206291109
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THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

How Perceptions of Emotional Labor Impact
Womens Enjoyment of Pornography
Z. FAREEN PARVEZ
University of California, Berkeley
Propornography and antipornography literatures have failed to elucidate the complexity

of womens consumption of pornography. This article submits that a reconstructed theory
of emotional labor, developed from the perspective of the consumer, explains some of
womens ambivalence toward pornography. Findings are based on interviews with 30
women who enjoy porn films. The womens ambivalence reflected their perception of emotional labor in pornographic production. Although they found pornography arousing, they
faced uncertainty over the authenticity of the porn actresses pleasure. Furthermore, they
perceived emotional authenticity through the lens of their personal biographies.
Specifically, their economic backgrounds and experiences with sexual coercion are discussed. This study fills two gaps: (1) By linking the production and consumption of
pornography, it enables a deeper exploration of womens ambivalence and the subsequent
implications for understanding sexuality, and (2) it features the experiences of workingclass and minority women, whose voices have been marginal in the literature.
Keywords:
emotional labor; pornography; sexuality; sex work; consumption
espite a voluminous body of literature on pornography, there has been

little empirical work on the issue of pornography consumption among
women and even less with an empirical analysis regarding social differences
among women pornographic consumers (Sonnet 1999). Instead, antipornography feminists have condemned pornography as exploitative and harmful to
women, while propornography feminists have praised it as potentially liberatory and as part of working-class culture (Kaite 1995; Kipnis 1996;
McIntosh 1992; Nead 1992; Segal 1998). Both sets of literature suffer from
insufficient empirical examination and, in particular, have ignored the voices
AUTHORS NOTE: I thank Raka Ray, Michael Burawoy, Laura Enriquez, Brad Brummett,
Tom Medvetz, James Lamb, and Jon Norman as well as Christine Williams and the reviewers for this journal for their critical insights and comments on earlier drafts.
GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol. 20 No. 5, October 2006 605-631
DOI: 10.1177/0891243206291109
2006 Sociologists for Women in Society
605
606
GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006
of working-class and poor women. Rejecting the dichotomy that has largely
characterized the feminist debates on the topic, this article submits that a
reconstructed theory of emotional labor, developed from the perspective of
the consumer, may be useful in understanding womens attitudes toward
pornography.
The concept of emotional labor refers to the work service workers perform to induce or suppress feeling (Hochschild 1983, 7) for the purpose
of creating the desired effect in a customer, as per the goals of the
workers employment organization. When there is a discrepancy
between true feelings and outward emotion, the worker experiences
emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion (Glomb and Tews
2004; Hochschild 1983; Mann 1999; Morris and Feldman 1997; Pugliesi
1999). Since Hochschilds original formulation, emotional labor has been
debated from different angles and applied to numerous occupational categories, including sex work (Brewis and Linstead 2000; Chapkis 1997;
Kempadoo and Doezema 1999; Sanders 2004; Wood 2000). However,
there have not been attempts to apply the concept to the experiences of
consumers.
In the field of erotic labor, the relationship between production and consumption bears particular salience: Unlike with consumer goods and many
service provisions, the labor product is in large part the emotional labor
process itself. In addition to performing the physical act of sex, the porn
actresses must in general display arousal and pleasure to satisfy most viewers. Thus, I conjectured, the way women consumers think about the workers and sex work in general (labor process) would affect the way they
experience pornography (labor product). The literature on emotional labor
mentions the desire of customers for authentic emotions on the part of workers, but it takes for granted the notion that customers are buffered from, or
do not relate to, the emotional exhaustion and dissonance that workers may
feel. I suggest that because of the existence of emotional labor and its particular importance in pornography production, the women consumers interviewed in this study experience a parallel sort of dissonance to that of the
porn actresses. They are conflicted between their sexual arousal on one hand
and their uncertainty over the authenticity of the actresses pleasure on the
other hand. Furthermore, I argue that they perceive emotional authenticity
through the lens of their own personal biographies.1
In an attempt to apply the construct of emotional labor to pornographic
consumption, I interviewed 30 women of diverse social backgrounds who
watch hard-core porn films and derive erotic pleasure from them. The definition of hard core that I tried to employ and that remained consistent
Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE
607
throughout the interviews is from Linda Williamss Hard Core ([1989]

1999, 30): the visual (and sometimes aural) representation of living, moving bodies engaged in explicit, usually unfaked, sexual acts with a primary
intent of arousing viewers. I chose to focus on heterosexual pornography
because I wanted to address mainstream pornography. However, I agree
with Williams in her criticism of her own focus on heterosexual pornography: Minority pornographies should not be bracketed as utterly separate
and distinct. While they are different from heterosexual pornography, they
nevertheless belong to the overall speaking sex phenomenon in modern
Western societies ([1989] 1999, 7). Of the women I interviewed, several
had same-sex experiences and had viewed (enjoyed as well as criticized)
lesbian pornography.
Contrary to the polarized views endorsed by propornography and
antipornography literature, the women I interviewed held profoundly
ambivalent attitudes toward pornography. On one hand, most of the women
enjoyed and valued porn films for entertainment, sexual arousal, and sexual
education. On the other hand, they also experienced occasional feelings of
contradiction and discomfort, or emotional distress. This discomfort arose
in accordance with two factors that clearly reflect the impact of emotional
labor in pornographic production on the women: (1) uncertainty about the
well-being and authenticity of the porn actress pleasure and (2) personal
experiences with sexual violence, which led to greater sensitivity to coercion
in pornographic scenes. The former tendency was very pronounced among
the poor women in my sample, thus challenging claims linking greater enjoyment of pornography with the working class. This ambivalence reveals how
sexuality, as experienced through pornography, can be simultaneously a
source of pleasure and unease. It is as intensely private and individual, in
terms of ones personal arousal, as it is deeply social, in terms of being intimately connected with the effects of emotional labor in pornographic production, including dissonance and exhaustion.
FROM EXPLOITATION TO LIBERATION:

TRENDS IN THE PORNOGRAPHY DEBATE
Antipornography scholars as well as prosex/propornography scholars
have ignored social differences among women in their analyses of
pornographywith antipornography feminists making claims about the
impact of pornography on womens physical, emotional, and sexual wellbeing (Griffin 1981; Russell 1993) while failing to see in what ways or
608
why many women in fact enjoy viewing porn films. Instead of theorizing
the reasons for differing views and experiences, antipornography feminists frequently assumed or simply pronounced that women who defend
pornography consumption suffer from false consciousness of the true and
oppressive nature of pornography and its effects (MacKinnon 1997).
Propornography feminists have created the mirror image of these arguments, by declaring pornography as potentially liberating for women,
again regardless of sociological factors (McElroy 1995; Vance 1984). The
theoretical trajectory on pornography has thus shifted from earlier arguments about the harms of pornography toward arguments about pornography as an important text, full of contradictions and vulnerabilities
(Williams [1989] 1999) that render it a site of resistance against patriarchy. For example, women could point out discrepancies between pornographic depictions of male sexual power and the real-life failures of men
to match the popular myths about their sexual skill (Butler 1997; Segal
1998). Such discursive strategies would in theory serve to undermine
notions of male power. This has led to praising sexual performances
(within the realm of nonmainstream pornography) as potential spaces for
womens sexual exploration and feminist practice (Cornell 2000, 564;
McElroy 1995).
In addition to claims about the liberatory potential of pornography, there
are assertions in the literature about positive links between pornography and
working-class culture. For example, it is argued that hard-core pornography
reflects working-class desires and practicesthat it is unpretentious and
oriented toward a working-class consumer base (Kaite 1995; Kipnis 1996).
There is also an effort to disassociate criticisms of pornography industry
practices from the value of porn films themselves. In other words, conceptualizing pornography as degrading based on its labor process is part of
bourgeois logic (Kaite 1995, 154; Strossen 1995, 184). As I will show, the
poor women in my sample were keenly opinionated about the pornographic
production process, thus contradicting the notion that such logic is particularly bourgeois. Such analyses create a dichotomy between criticisms of
pornography and bourgeois values on one hand and working-class values
and propornography sentiments on the other. I submit that such a dichotomy
inaccurately represents a reality that is far more complex (Chancer 2000).
As mentioned, empirical work on womens consumption is practically
non-existent, according to a recent review of research on the topic
(Attwood 2005, 72).2 A Canadian study (Senn 1993), using Q methodology,
examined womens responses to sexually explicit materials and found several different categories of responses, predominantly antipornography. The
author found a small category of women who enjoyed such materials but
609
had mixed feelings, primarily related to issues of body image. Two studies,
one examining the impact of mens pornographic consumption on women
(Shaw 1999) and the other looking at womens responses to sexually
explicit material (Boynton 1999), focused on womens reluctant acceptance
of their partners consumption and anxiety over body image. Finally,
Ciclitira (2004) interviewed women consumers of pornography in the
United Kingdom, focusing mainly on the influence of feminist polemics on
their experiences. My study departs from these in three crucial ways: It provides greater representation of working-class and minority women; employs
individual in-depth interviews to explore a fuller variety of womens experiences with pornography; and joins together the production and consumption of pornography, through the construct of emotional labor, for a deeper
exploration of womens ambivalence.
APPLYING EMOTIONAL LABOR

Emotional labor has been applied to studies of sex workers, mainly
prostitutes and strippers, to show how sex workers strive toward performances that appear emotionally authentic to please and retain their clients
(Brewis and Linstead 2000; Chapkis 1997; Kempadoo and Doezema
1999; Sanders 2004; Wood 2000). Some sex workers do emotional work
on themselves to separate their private feelings from the appropriate emotions they must demonstrate (Grandey 2000). They also must provide
pampering and sympathy, in addition to altering their physical appearance, for the sake of clients. Some sex workers find it necessary to invest
elements of their own personalities into their work performances, because
clients need to know a part of their real selves (Sanders 2005).
The implications of such emotional work have been widely debated. In the
case of sex work, scholars have pointed to the exhaustion and personal difficulties that result from trying to compartmentalize ones sexuality into different domains (Hoigard and Finstad 1992; ONeill 2001; Sanders 2004). Others
have taken a different perspective, focusing on emotional labor as rational
manipulation and management of the work that both protects the worker from
some of the stresses of sex work (e.g., feelings of attachment or, conversely,
animosity toward a client) and helps maximize her profit (Mears and Finlay
2005; Sanders 2005; Wood 2000). More broadly, there exist differing evaluations of emotional labor. Hochschild (1983) argues that emotional labor
serves as a mechanism by which organizations exert greater control over
workers. Furthermore, for individual workers, it leads to alienation from their
true feelings (Leidner 1993; Pierce 1995). Conversely, others have argued that
610
emotional labor potentially benefits some workers, as they take pleasure in

establishing emotional connections with customers (Bolton and Boyd 2003;
Erickson 2004).
Alongside these larger evaluations of emotional labor, there has also
been a debate over emotional dissonance. While there is agreement that
dissonance is one part of emotional labor, some argue that it is not a necessary element. Specifically, if a worker is not faking her or his emotions,
then there is no experience of dissonance (Mann 1999). Nonetheless, the
act of expressing emotions, whether genuinely felt or not, can be a laborious process, especially when required repeatedly (Ashforth and
Humphrey 1995). Thus, even in the absence of dissonance, there may still
be emotional exhaustion from the work of expressing emotion (Glomb
and Tews 2004).
As stated earlier, the literature on emotional labor has considered only
its impact on workers. Consumers are mentioned, insofar as they demand
from workers as much emotional authenticity as possible. However, the
complexity of their emotions and beliefs with regard to this demand
remain unexplored. I suggest that in the case of pornography, women consumers are affected by emotional labor and that this impact drives part of
their ambivalence toward their own consumption. Furthermore, the ways
that they are affected are shaped by their individual backgrounds and
experiences.
METHOD
I conducted in-depth interviews with 30 women who responded to a
call for participants in an urban area on the West Coast. Their ages ranged
from 18 to 40, with the average age at 28 years.3 The sample was racially
diverse and included 13 white women, 11 Black women, 5 East Asian
American women, and 1 Latina. African American women represented
approximately 36 percent of the sample, which reflected the demographic
composition of the areas included in the study.
The womens backgrounds ranged from having some high school education only to having postgraduate degrees and from unemployed or
receiving welfare assistance to a salary of nearly $100,000. Several of the
women were out of the formal labor market, lived just above or below the
national poverty level, and in some cases, lived in ghetto neighborhoods. In
this respect, the sample represents varying social class locations. Table 1
summarizes the demographic characteristics of the women. All participants
were asked to choose a pseudonym so as to protect their confidentiality.
TABLE 1:
611
Demographic Characteristics (N = 30)
Characteristic
Frequency
Age
18-24
25-29
30-34
35-40
Racea
African American
Asian American
Latina
White
Education
Some high school
High school diploma
Some college (terminated)
College diploma (in progress or attained)
Graduate degree (in progress or attained)
Individual income
College or graduate student
$0-19,999
$20,000-39,999
$40,000-59,999
$60,000 and greater
11
9
4
6
11
5
1
13
3
9
3
10
5
6
10
8
4
2
a. Self-identified. Includes seven who occasionally identify as multiracial.
Women were recruited through Internet community postings and notices

that I placed in various public places, including bus stops, subway stations,
laundromats, colleges, womens restrooms, and public libraries. The content
of the notice was a call for participants for a research study on womens
views of pornography, with the requirements as follows: heterosexual
female, age 18 to 40, either you or your partner look at pornography
(videos, Pay-TV, Internet). All of the women had watched hard-core porn
films either during several years in the past or currently. Most watch it currently, ranging from a few times a year to every week. Five of the women
disliked pornography and chose to focus the interviews on their partners
consumption. There was a slight difference in the preferred media types,
with the more educated women watching films downloaded from the
Internet and the poorest women watching videotapes, although there were
exceptions to this (as I will discuss later). While there was a diversity of preferred genres, all of these fell within the domain of hard-core pornography.
612
I did not notice any patterns that involved specific types of pornography. All
of the women, of course, chose to respond to the call for participants and
were comfortable enough discussing their histories with the issue. In addition, although I did not raise the issue, it seems that approximately half of
the women, especially those who had attended college, had some exposure
to general feminist language, but only five women discussed feminism as
having had an impact on their understanding of pornography.
Interviews were semistructured and between one and two hours long.
They took place in locations of the respondents choice, which included my
university office, their residence, and cafs. Interviews consisted of broad
and open-ended questions on the following five topic areas: family, neighborhood, and work background; relationship history; history with pornography; likes and dislikes about pornography; and beliefs about the industry
more broadly. I did not ask any questions about the participants sex lives
per se. However, all of them chose to discuss their sexual experiences, with
several of the women mentioning violence and/or sex work. In addition,
each woman completed a demographic questionnaire asking her age, racial
identification, sexual orientation, education level, employment, and income.
As the sample was obtained through self-selection, this was not a random
sample and was not sufficiently large to draw generalizable conclusions.
Potential biases include regional factors, personal politics, and factors related
to sexual history. For example, there may be a bias built into the sample such
that the notice tended to draw women interested in discussing sex, due to
extreme sexual histories, whether very prosex and positive or marked by
abuse. Table 2 lists salient experiences of the participants. In addition, the
posting of fliers tends to draw respondents who obviously are attentive to
public notices and thus in search of opportunities, perhaps between jobs and
unemployed. Such respondents may have more free time and greater motivation to participate in research, as they make the effort to respond to fliers.
Moreover, they may be more agreeable and likely to respond in ways that
they believe the researcher is desiring. While this selection bias related to
posting fliers may have attracted respondents who were generally more open
and talkative, I did not observe a tendency to answer questions in a particular manner. Questions were deliberately designed to be neutral and open
ended, and almost all of the women delved into both positive and negative
aspects of pornography.
Participants were paid $20, which I believe provided just enough incentive for them to pay for transportation, give approximately two hours of their
day, and discuss an issue as personal as this one. Paying respondents likely
motivated them to talk more than they otherwise would have. The poorer
women, especially, may have felt like they had to earn the amount (despite
TABLE 2:
613
Characteristics Related to Pornography Consumption, Sex Work,

and Sexual History (N = 30)
Characteristic
Frequency
Partner status
Singlea
Partner
Married
Previous same-sex relationships or encounters
Yes
No
Context of pornography consumption
Primarily alone
Primarily with partner
Only partner consumes it
Pornographic mediums
Primarily videotapes
Internet downloads
Only partner rents videos
Sex workb
1-2 porn films
Stripping
Prostitution
Considered regular sex work
Sexual violencec
Rape
Domestic violence
Sexually assaulted (by prostitution clients)
Felt sexually pressured
6
21
3
8
22
12
13
5
14
11
5
2
1
2
4
5
2
2
2
a. All participants, however, had partners in the past.

b. A total of six women mentioned experience with sex work.
c. A total of nine women mentioned sexual violence.
the assurance that they were free to stop participation at any time without
penalty) and thus more openly discuss their experiences. For example, one of
my participants, of the lowest socioeconomic status, told me she was sexually abused as a child by her late grandfather and that she had never before
admitted this to anyone else. It is possible that she would not have felt
inclined to verbalize this had there been no financial incentive to participate.
As a South Asian American, I was ethnically different from all of my
respondents. This may have created distance between myself and the women,
causing them to feel less free with me. However, there were also many shared
experiences between us. With the nonwhite women, our shared minority status may have created more ease and frankness. With the working-class
614
women, my own upbringing in a working-class community inculcated certain

dispositions and sensibilities in me that perhaps bridged our racial and educational divisions. These same dispositions might have created distance between
myself and the middle-class women, making them feel less inclined to be candid. At the same time, I shared with them the experience and dispositions that
come with higher education, which created an easy rapport. It is also possible
that my status as an academic researcher more generally encouraged women
to be more analytical and explore their ambivalence toward pornography
instead of focusing on one particular vantage point.
Above all, the shared experience of being a woman was perhaps critical to the participants honesty and willingness to discuss their sexual histories with me. They typically assumed a mutual understanding about the
desire to experiment and enjoy sex as well as notions of male-oriented
pornography.
Finally, it is necessary to discuss the issue of pornographic content. The
fact that I did not control for content, in terms of film production quality,
directors, actors/actresses, or common storylines, raises important questions
about the study. Is it possible that differences in pornography, especially
between inexpensive low-end and pricier high-end productions, explain differences in the attitudes of women from different backgrounds? For example, are women of lower socioeconomic status watching cheaper porn
films? Although this is certainly possible, and future research of this kind
should make effort to control for content, my data suggest that this is too
simplistic an analysis and unlikely to serve as the primary explanation for
the complexity of womens perspectives.
Given all of the interview questions, the women had the most difficulty in
answering questions about content because of the diversity among the types
of films they watch or to which they had been exposed. Internet downloads,
though more popular among the middle-class women in my sample, were
also consumed by the working-class respondents, with the exception of a few
women who did not have Internet access. With Internet pornography,
although there may exist a particular price structure ruled by production
quality, I found that free and amateur porn films on the Internet were popular among my wealthiest respondents. Moreover, all of the educated and
wealthier women had seen video pornography, including low-end productions. For example, laughing at cheap porn videos in college dormitories
was a common experience. In addition, many women complained of unsolicited Internet pop-ups as well as video segments that were unpleasant
and degrading. In other words, all of the women who regularly watched
porn films over a period of years ended up accidentally watching things they
disliked and considered unattractive or insensitive to women, just as all of
615
them at some point found their favorite films. The working-class women had
their favorite videos (and in many cases, Internet downloads), which they
claimed had attractive actors and well-planned sets.
Finally, it might seem that if poor women are watching low-end productions with actresses who appear similar to themselves, then their particular
ambivalence toward pornography might stem from this tendency to see
themselves in these low-end films. However, again, such an argument may
be too simplistic. There was a great deal of diversity of porn actresses whom
the women favored. For example, one of my respondents particularly
enjoyed watching a skinny, blond, Asian porn actresswhile she herself
was a heavyset, African American woman. In sum, differences in pornographic content may be important to explaining womens diverse views on
pornography. However, my interviews led me to believe that they are not as
critical as they may seem.
FINDINGS
In the following discussion, I first present the main reasons why the women
view pornography. I then discuss their likes and dislikes in porn films, paying
special attention to the critical importance of the authenticity of the porn
actresses pleasure. The degree to which they believe in authenticity is in part
informed by their understanding of emotional labor in porn acting. I then present the womens various beliefs about emotional labor in pornographic production. Next, I show how experiences with sexual violence shape womens
beliefs about authenticity in pornography and explain part of the ambivalence
they feel. I then briefly discuss factors other than the relationship to emotional
labor that account for the womens ambivalence. I focus here on their attitudes
toward their male partners pornography consumption. Finally, I conclude by
discussing how these findings support a reconstruction of the theory of emotional labor and their implications for thinking about gender and sexuality.
Sexual Enhancement and Pornographic Consumption
All but five of the women I interviewed currently and regularly view
pornography. Although all began their viewing under different circumstances,
there were four reasons for their consumption. The primary reason was erotic
arousal and masturbation. The predominant source of stimulation for most of
the women was simply watching people having sex. (Thus, watching graphic
sex was of greater interest to them than softer pornography or womens erotica.) Beyond this, some enjoyed looking at mens bodies; however, more
claimed that womens bodies were more aesthetically pleasing. Most of the
616
women enjoyed watching womens same-sex porn films as much as heterosexual sex. Approximately half of the women preferred watching pornography alone, as they felt more sexually free alone rather than with partners. In
some cases, women did not have steady male partners, so pornography provided a regular sexual outlet for them. Tammy (age 40, some high school education, African American) discussed her viewing of a few porn films as a
monthly routine, something that seems to partially replace her need for intimate relationships with men. With a scarred history of abusive relationships,
forced prostitution at a young age, and most recently losing her lover (and
childs father) to prison, she says that she is uninterested in meeting new men.
She stated, Its a good thing. Because for me, I dont have to make [any] decisions when I get home. I just have my movies and myself and Ill be okay.
The second most common reason was curiosity about sexual practices.
Many women said that pornography was educational, initially in teaching them how to have sex, and later for learning different sexual positions. Ann, a 24-year-old, college-educated, white woman, admits that
pornography taught her most of what she knows about sex and even
anatomy: I dont think I would know an eighth of what I know if it wasnt because of porn. Im not even talking about penetration, but even stupid things like necking and petting and anatomy, which is kind of sad but
very true. Diane (age 32, graduate education, white) stated that learning
things from pornography helped her enjoy sex more: I have a much more
healthy sex life. I think that pornography helped me enjoy sex a lot
more . . . having learned different tips and images that I find erotic.
This was related to the third major reason, that of alleviating sexual boredom with their partners. Usually, this meant finding new sexual positions.
Susan (age 26, graduate education, Asian American) felt embarrassed about
her interest in pornography but admitted, I think it has made our sexual life
better. There are just different things that we might not have thought about
sexually that seem interesting.
The fourth, less prevalent, reason that some women cited was the novelty of it (Elizabeth, age 30, graduate education, white) and its seemingly
rebellious nature. For example, Karen (age 25, graduate education, white)
liked the feeling of pursuing something rebellious after years of being
such a good girl.
Authentic Pleasures: Pornography and Reality
Regarding the womens likes and dislikes in porn films, the most consistent and emphatic response across the sample involved the films abilities to
depict reality through the plots and scenes, and most important, the actresses
617
real pleasure (Boynton 1999). Just as authenticity of performance is a crucial

theme in many studies of emotional labor in service work, including sex
work, it was a consistent theme in my interviews. Most of the women initiated discourse about their dislike of fake bodies, fake plots, and fake pleasure. At the same time, nearly all of them placed some importance on
plotlines, to establish some sort of erotic connection between the characters:
Theyre sayin something, and theyre not just goin to China [intercourse]
(Tammy, age 40, some high school education, African American). And
according to Victoria (age 27, high school education, Latina), there are
some pornos that are realistic and some that are just fake. You know that
porno kissing where theyre just touching their tongues. I dont want to see
that. I want to see a real kiss. Like that doesnt turn me on at all. You can tell
when its fake.
Discussions of pornographys fakeness often appeared a euphemism for
male-oriented pornography. In this sense, women employed the term fake
to indicate distorted representations of their desires and in some cases scenarios that they view as degrading. For example, Ann (age 24, college education, white) asserted, Its hard to find good porn anyway, especially if it looks
really staged or fake, or its like women with really long nails, fingering themselves. So I dont like anything thats obviously for men and just unrealistic.
Most of the women identified the same factor as crucial to their enjoyment: whether the woman in the film looked like she was enjoying herself.
Good pornography, in other words, is where the female porn actress is really
enjoying herself. Consequently, bad pornography involves fake pleasure.
Heidis (age 29, college education, white) statement represents a common
sentiment: What I like is people authentically enjoying themselves, as
opposed to if it looks totally fake and theyre not into it. Consumer desire
for authenticity is indicated or implied in studies of many service occupations, from airline attendance to waitressing (Erickson 2004). However, in a
field like pornography, belief in authenticity apparently determines womens
enjoyment of the product, as opposed to being helpful or secondary.
Womens abilities to derive pleasure from pornography seem to be regulated by whether women can relate to the porn actress. This relation between
worker and consumer is particularly marked in a field like pornography,
where the actresses erotic pleasure is the crux of the consumer product.
Across the sample, empathizing with the porn actress and imagining oneself
in her scenario is the mechanism by which the films evoke certain emotions,
desires, or memories (Norris et al. 2004). For example, if I actually find the
man attractive, then I probably think that should be me, you know, being
her. Im very much relating to what is going on, to what the action is
(Rhonda, age 38, high school education, African American). Conversely,
618
negative scenarios evoke upsetting feelings: If they look like theyre kind
of uncomfortable, then I start feeling uncomfortable too. Maybe its me sort
of connecting with the woman on screen or something like that (Mary, age
22, college education, Asian American).
Just as the women commonly identified the actresses pleasure as the
source of their enjoyment, they also commonly stated that anything that
looked unenjoyable to the actressor that did not represent their own
desiresrepulsed them. With a few exceptions, they tended to cite the same
practices as repulsive, such as cum-shots on the actresses face, anal penetration, and three-way penetration. They also disliked scenes that focused in
on womens genitals, detached from their whole bodies and portrayed as just
holes, to screw (Anna, age 23, college education terminated, Asian
American).4 Many of these scenes that they found disturbing might arise
unexpectedly. The unpredictability of any particular porn film or video is
something that all of the women had to confront as they sought out pornography that they found enjoyable.
Perceptions of Pornographic Labor
As stated earlier, the literature on emotional labor generally ignores the
impact of emotional dissonance and exhaustion in the production process
on consumers. In this section, I demonstrate two things. First, most of the
women I interviewed cited a number of concerns about pornography production. Their negative beliefs drove part of their ambivalence toward
pornography, because they challenge and contradict the notion of authenticity so critical to enjoyment of porn films. Second, the womens own
experiences with work, including sex work, play a part in determining
their perceptions of authentic pleasure in production. Alongside this, I
found that most of the working-class women held views that were not only
negative but also deeply personal. Thus, these findings contradict the
claims that positively link working-class culture with pornography.
There were three clear categories of responses to the issue of pornography production. These seemed to fall along the social class spectrum.
Given the small sample size of this study, however, it is not possible to
draw definitive comparisons between different groups of women in the
sample. My findings instead suggest that the women generally tended to
project their own social class backgrounds and experiences with work onto
the porn actresses.
First, a few women emphasized porn acting as positive or enjoyable. They
happened to be at the highest end of the education and income spectrum,
619
suggesting that their considerable distance from economic struggle led them
to underestimate the degree of economic pressure and coercion involved with
working-class jobs. Ive known strippers who enjoy dancing. It made them
feel free, and they liked being looked at. And I would imagine that a lot of
women in pornography have the same experience. Probably some of them
would rather be doing other things, but there are days Id rather be doing
other things as well (Diane, age 32, graduate education, white). In this
quote, Diane projects her own freedom from economic constraint as she
chooses to focus on the positives and asserts that dissatisfaction with ones
job is not a big deal. Similarly, Daisy (age 22, college student, Asian
American) states, Some people have a lot of fun, and its a great way to
make a lot of money. If I could go somewhere for a weekend, have a lot of
fun, and come out $10,000 richer, then that sounds great. For these women,
there is no contradiction between their positive experiences and overall
enjoyment of pornography and their primary beliefs about the labor process.
They did indicate an understanding of the varying motivations that women
have to engage in sex work and recognized the diversity within the industry
as a whole. However, they seemed to emphasize choice and funas opposed
to emotional or physical exhaustion. These several women dismissed difficult working conditions, in some cases glorified sex workers and their confidence, or stated that they fundamentally disrespected women who work in
the sex industry. For example, while discussing why porn actresses do not
have an impact on her body image, Ann (age 24, college education, white)
states, Because I think I dont respect the people in it, which makes a big
difference for me.
A second category of responses squarely focused on the harsher working
conditions and possible consequences of sex work. These women believed
that porn actresses on the whole lead destructive lives. They pointed to
issues like drug addiction, emotional instability, and compromised intimacy
as a result of porn acting. Anna and Chantal, for example, emphasized such
factors as drug addiction and the latent emotional difficulties involved in
portraying sex: It just seems like a strange thing. A regular movie is going
to have endless opportunities for you to show your acting abilities. But for
your entire role to be based around somebody having sex with you, obviously it goes into this area, where, can you even think theres emotions?
How well can a person be, no matter how good of an actor or actress they
are, at portraying those emotions of when somebody is having sex or making love (Anna, age 23, college education terminated, Asian American).
Chantal (age 21, high school education, white), who herself is in a drug
rehabilitation program, states, Ive heard that they all are tested for diseases
620
and theyre tested for drugs. But I really dont believe that. Im pretty sure
theyre a bunch of drug addicts.
In addition, these women seemed to hold views of porn actresses as stigmatized (Boynton 1999). Interestingly, of those who had negative things to
say about sex workers, most had a history of poverty and unemployment.
Furthermore, several of them admitted that they themselves considered sex
work. A few had irregularly performed sex work, in independent porn films,
stripping, and prostitution, while others struggled with their decisions not to
participate, in light of their financial need. For Jen (age 28, high school
GED, white), with her history of poverty, unemployment, and drug abuse,
her disdain had more to do with the choice to exploit stereotypical images
of women:
Fareen: You mentioned theres some stuff that you thought was degrading?
Jen: A lot of the women are allowing it to be that way. Theres this one
video where this girl, I swear, her rear end was like that big [uses
hands to indicate small], okay. Shes turning around smiling at the
camera, and she cant see the guy, whos like bombing her, you know
what I mean? Thats degrading. I dont know what it is, maybe its the
fact that theyre just lookin to flip her over, lookin for anywhere to
put anything, just tossing her around like shes a little rag dolland
her smilingI just feel bad for her cause shes so stupid I guess.
Jen generally had a more cynical attitude toward porn films, despite her
choice to frequently watch them for sexual exploration and excitement
with her partner. Her cynicism revealed the degree to which she was
closed off to perceiving pleasure in the performance of emotional labor
and instead, in this case, viewed the actress smile as stupidity.
When asked how they would approach the question of whether women in
pornography are exploited, most of the women who were unemployed or
held working-class jobs insisted that it is the womens individual choice to
exploit themselves. Anna (age 23, college education terminated, Asian
American) exclaimed, Ive been tempted sometimes. But I found a lot of
things to do other than strip or be in porn or pose nude for pictures. Its not
a last resort. And Frances (age 38, high school education, African American)
said, Get a job! Go get another job! Man! Im going to school to get me a
good job. Thats what Im doing, and they can do the same thing. Theyre
gonna do it anyway, and not get paid, cause theyre tramps! Brenda (age
40, high school GED, African American), who is currently unemployed,
exclaimed, You exploited yourself when you said yes. Brenda in fact had
worked in two porn films and in a strip club. She looked back very negatively
621
at both experiences. These quotes clearly demonstrate the negative lens

through which these women understand pornographic labor. They also show
the degree to which some of the women with histories of economic struggle
(circumstances that include welfare, no high school diploma, criminal
records) understand the issue through a more resentful view of sex workers.
They compare the choices of sex workers to their own choices.
The third category of responses reflected more nuanced views of
pornography production. All of these women were college educated, but
most discussed some degree of struggle: either watching their parents
struggle for money, previous employment in working-class jobs, or suffering racism. These women refrained from making positive or negative
judgments of sex workers and instead considered their decisions in light
of their other alternatives:
Here you are in a situation where you can do a couple scenes in a
movie or whatever and make a couple thousand dollars. Thats a
much better situation than getting a job at Burger King for $6 an
hour. I dont know if I can be on the holier than thou trip to condemn anybody. (Amy, age 26, college education, African American)
I imagine that a lot of them dont have other options. People sometimes say, Well, no, I choose to do this, but what led them to the
point that they would say yes to do it? (Lisa, age 35, college education, white)
These different categories of responses support the argument that the
degree of economic constraint one faces shapes her understandings about
work (Blustein et al. 2002; Bourdieu [1979] 1984; Wilson 1996). Hence,
the women I interviewed perceived pornographic labor somewhat in
accordance with their own economic backgrounds. In this study, a trend
emerged such that the women who worked physical labor jobs or struggled to attain themfor subsistence and not for extra moneybelieved
that people work such jobs under difficult conditions, shaped by the pressures they face such as drug addiction or anxiety about meeting basic
needs. Therefore, the sexual pleasure depicted in porn films may not be
entirely authentic, from the standpoint of a woman who has worked physically demanding jobs out of necessity. In this sample, such jobs include
waitressing, nursing, babysitting, and illegal activities such as drug trafficking. Moreover, as mentioned, a few of the unemployed and workingclass women had performed sex work, while others considered it in light
of the frequency with which they were having sex with strangers. Finally,
622
most of the poorer women expressed persistent anxiety over maintaining

employment and surviving financially. Nida (age 23, some high school
education, African American), for example, who is at the bottom of the
socioeconomic spectrum, insisted that porn actresses work primarily for
money: She gonna want that money. And she gonna do somethin to get
that money. She know what she doin! She also was incredulous as to
how porn actresses can perform such difficult labor with men who are not
their partners. Thus, instead of emphasizing fun, many of the women like
Nida seemed to have a heightened awareness of possible emotional dissonance and exhaustion in pornographic labor.
Experience with economic struggle in several cases invoked resentment
toward sex workers and emotionally charged responses. Women who face
both painful sexual histories and poverty cannot easily undertake sex work
even though it can be far more lucrative than their other options. For them,
the emotional labor would simply be too difficult. Ive fantasized about
being able to do it and not take it home with me, being able to do any sort
of sex work and not be deeply affected by it. Especially when money issues
come up, I get very frustrated at all my own issues. You know, why cant I
just suck it up and do it and forget that it would wreck me (Vida, age 24,
high school education, white). Because they believe that sex work takes a
greater emotional toll on a woman than other lines of work, there is anger
and in some cases envy toward people who make the choice to work in the
pornography industry. Frances, for example, who exclaimed, Get another
job, took pride in her struggle to support herself through a dental assistance program. She, like others in her position, often finds pornography
nerve-wrecking.
Emotional Dissonance and Sexual Coercion
Experiences of sexual coercion had a significant impact on how the
women in the study perceived emotional labor in pornography. A number
of women (nine) discussed sexual violence, domestic abuse, and sexual
pressure, even though I did not explicitly ask anyone whether they experienced sexual or domestic violence, due to the potential for emotional upset.
Experiences with sexual violence seemed to create a greater sensitivity
to what the women perceived as coercion in pornographic production.
Stated differently, these women had a heightened sensitivity to emotional
dissonance in the porn actresses and in turn felt a parallel dissonance
themselves. Alternatively, one might say that they stopped believing that
there was a process of emotional labor and instead perceived pure coercion. One of my interviewees, Brenda (age 40, high school GED, African
623
American), described a recent experience watching pornography on PayTV as a defining moment in her relationship to it:
And somethin happened one night. I was in there watchin it by
myself. And there was this one that I ordered. For some reason, it
changed my whole view about porn in that one instance. Because it
looked likeit didnt look like itit really wasthis man was
abusing this woman. You know, he was makin love to her from the
back, and he had her by the head, I mean, just real real hard. It was
like a form of abuse. And that turned me off to no end. I felt like
shes being raped, and theyre filmin it. And shes puttin up with
this because theyre payin her. And so I havent really been into it
since then, cause I dont want to run across one of those again. I still
like em. But that just did somethin. Some of those tapes are, you
know, passionate and theyre love making, and then some of them
are just hard-core rough sex abuse. I dont like that. And I can tell
the difference.
Brenda brought up this particular episode a few times and had been clearly
affected by it. For her, as for most of the women, porn can be arousing when
it depicts what seems like genuine pleasure and passion. But understandably,
stumbling on, in their own words, degradation or abuse has a particularly
strong impact on women with sexual violence in their past. Similarly, Vida
(age 24, high school education, white) related the following: I really like
sort of the extreme of things. But lately, more and more, Im scared of the
sense that its a rape scene. Especially if very brutal or very violent, my
whole body sort of closes off, and I burst into tearseither burst into tears
or feel like I have to puke or something. I react very strongly. I dont know
why that is, why its happening now. I think its just the process of like actually beginning to feel things. Like Brenda, Vida found particular porn scenes
viscerally upsetting. For both of them (and others), certain pornographic
scenes may invoke memories of their own traumas. These would be scenes
where it appears to them that the porn actress cannot perform convincing
emotional labor, perhaps due to the nature of the act or scenario.
Vida and Brenda share a history of frequent abuse. Kicked out of her
mothers house at 12 years old, Vida spent time on and off the streets or at
various mens homes and was raped by a boyfriend. Brenda had a severe
history of violence, witnessing domestic violence, beaten by her stepfather,
suffering domestic violence in several intimate relationships, and surviving
a gang rape. She, along with several of the other women, had their first sexual experience between the ages of 13 and 15 with significantly older men.
624
Three had ectopic pregnancies as young as 14 and nearly died. Generally,

for these women, imagining themselves in the pornographic scenario carries
certain risks. They indeed watch porn films in search of arousal, but they are
conflicted by the risk that they will be upset or reminded of their past.
In one case, no amount of emotional labor and degree of authenticity
could override memories of sexual coercion. Keisha (age 32, some high
school education, African American) had seen a great deal of pornography
in past relationships but could never fully enjoy it.
Keisha: I could just never really get into it [pornography]. It just disgusts me, you know.
Fareen: Do you know what it is that disgusts you?
Keisha: I think things that happened over my life, you know. Watching
it, I just see things that I was doin, like I was taken advantage of. I
just see that: me bein taken advantage of.
Partners Consumption
Overall, the women in the study were neutral toward their partners consumption of pornography (it doesnt bother me). Only a small number
appreciated their partners use of pornography to enhance sexual exploration and prevent boredom. Francess (age 38, high school education,
African American) assertionit could be worse . . . like cheatingwas
a common sentiment.
Despite overall neutrality, most pointed out specific issues that they
occasionally found upsetting. The most common problem women had
involved their partners paying more attention to the porn film than to them.
But then he started you know, like having sex with me and watching the
pornos, and that really upset me. Like, thats when I felt like I was just a
piece of meat. Like he would be having sex with me but just straight up
looking at the porno you know, flipping me over and doing all sorts of
things and not even looking at me (Victoria, age 27, high school education, Latina). In addition, many women discussed feelings of jealousy of
the porn stars, as surrogate mistresses. While this had not posed a major
issue, a few struggled with discomfort over their boyfriends interest in
porn films and Web sites. Nancy (age 21, college student, Asian American)
expressed feeling hurt and inadequate over her boyfriends interest in
pornography, especially as she coped with an eating disorder (Boynton
1999). In addition to body image, there are also pressures related to racialized images. Victoria had a boyfriend, who for nearly one year hid from her
a pornography collection fetishizing large Latina women. Half Latina
625
herself, she received criticisms from him: Youre Latin, why dont you
have those Latin lips and tits and butt and hips? Clearly, womens feelings
of hurt and jealousy are driven in part by pressuresrelated to race, gender, and body imageplaced on them by society and by their own partners.
Finally, some women admonished themselves for feeling jealous. Brenda
admits she has confusing attitudes about the issue, but it is clear to see that
her gendered experiences with pornography are connected to her resentment
of her boyfriends consumption. She was a young girl when her older
boyfriends used pornography in front of her, for their pleasure, not mine!
Furthermore, she states, I have mixed feelings about all of this. I really do.
Its like its okay for me to watch it, but its not okay for my boyfriend.
Thats crazy, you know? Indeed, these frustrations with their partners consumption fed into the womens ambivalence about pornography and in
some cases made them question their own consumption.
CONCLUSION
This study began with the assertion that the prevailing feminist theories
on pornography have done little to elucidate the complexity of womens
actual experiences with pornography consumption. I thus turned to the literature on emotional labor (Glomb and Tews 2004; Hochschild 1983;
Leidner 1993; Mann 1999) to provide a framework through which to
explore womens viewing of porn films. In this article, I have argued that
just as customers desire authenticity of emotion from service workers,
women consumers desire authenticity of pleasure from porn actresses.
Indeed, authenticity is necessary to their enjoyment. But what the women
perceive as authentic depends in part on their own experiences. Specifically,
I showed how experiences with sexual violence and economic struggle led
many of the women I interviewed to perceive porn acting as self-destructive
and in some cases coercive. As a result, these women sometimes found
pornography emotionally upsetting despite the arousal they generally
obtained from it. Stated differently, they experienced emotional dissonance,
as they perceive such dissonance in the porn actresses. These findings thus
support an expansion of theories of emotional labor, to account for parallel
and complex feelings of dissonance in consumersespecially in areas
where the emotional labor largely constitutes the labor product.
While suggesting a reconstruction of emotional labor, this study has also
addressed two gaps in the literature on pornography. First, it defined a component of womens ambivalence toward pornography by linking, empirically and theoretically, production and consumption of pornography. By
626
connecting womens responses with aspects of their individual biographies,

it also offered an alternative way to think about the diversity of opinions on
pornography (Chancer 2000)without having to accept the blanket condemnation or endorsement that tend to characterize existing approaches.
Second, the study featured the experiences of working-class and minority
women, whose voices have been marginal in current literature on the topic.
This neglect is surprising given the claims simplistically linking them to
pornography consumption. I found that their perceptions of authentic pleasure were complex and emotionally charged, which is consistent with an
analysis framed by emotional labor. If customers are intimately attuned to
the performance of emotional labor, there is reason to suspect that workingclass women would have complex understandings and feelings toward it
because of their greater experience with service work.
Finally, the analysis of womens ambivalence reveals how the sexual
experiences of most of the women, vis--vis their pornography consumption,
could not be extracted from the larger social context of power in which gender and sexuality operate. The empathy for the porn actress that is temporarily formed (Norris et al. 2004) and that is largely responsible for the
consumers pleasure, is ultimately a social connection shaped by concerns
about power and inequality in the labor process. However, this connection
coexists alongside the private and individual experience of erotic arousal. In
addition, as I showed, other factors such as male partners viewing of porn
films complicate womens attitudes. Gendered and racialized pressures and
inequalities within their heterosexual relationships negatively influence their
experiences with pornography.
Given these difficulties, what are the implications for minimizing
womens discomfort with pornography? It is commonly argued that
women-produced pornography would ensure representation of womens
real desires (Assiter and Carol 1993). Indeed, some of my interviewees
sought out such films and found them a welcome alternative to mainstream productions. The availability of women-produced porn films
would certainly increase the chance that women could find material that
they truly enjoy and find more authentic. At the same time, womenproduced is no overall guarantee of being women friendly. The rather
extreme example of director Lizzy Bordens violent pornographic films
makes this point clear (Brown 2002).
In addition, one implication of my findings is that even if womenproduced pornography were to expand and survive in the market, various
perceptions of the labor process would persist. Even women-produced
627
pornography does not eliminate the structural reality of commodification of

sex, which may have greater subjective resonance for poorer women because
of the economic pressures they face. How specific or broad such feelings of
discomfort are remains unclear: Is the discomfort linked to the commodification of sex or more generally linked to alienated labor?
One area of future research that would potentially tackle some of these
issues is the growth of free and amateur pornography available on the
Internet. Several of the women in this study mentioned particularly enjoying these films because they were real. For example, some women discussed Internet clips in which married couples filmed themselves for a
free pornographic Web site. In these cases, there is no economic motivation for the couples involved. However, even this phenomenon becomes
complicated by potential power inequalities. The interviewees who discussed these Web sites stated that they could never be sure that the women
were freely agreeing to being filmed.
Thus, it seems, watching sex, whether commodified or not, inevitably
invokes issues of power. Nonetheless, the gradual moves toward regulation of the industry and worker safety can make a difference for women
consumers. Many of my interviewees said they would like to know that
the actresses in the films they watched were treated respectfully but that
they had no idea how to find such information. Some degree of industry
transparency and trust in particular companies (likely, women owned and
affordable) could go a long way in minimizing womens ambivalence.
In conclusion, the women I spoke with enjoy porn films for erotic
arousal, entertainment, curiosity, and the alleviation of sexual boredom.
With few exceptions, the women believed that porn films helped enhance
their sexual lives, thus serving an important purpose that is invalidated in
antipornography literature (Griffin 1981; MacKinnon 1997; Russell 1993).
However, for most of them, the impact of emotional labor creates contradictory feelings and, in some cases, distress surrounding the issue of authenticity of pleasure. Their experiences are clearly more complicated than those
depicted in much of propornography literature (Kaite 1995; Kipnis 1996;
McElroy 1995; Nead 1992; Segal 1998). According to one of my interviewees, Rhonda (age 38, high school education, African American), pornographic labor would leave women anaesthetized to their work and run
into the ground until they cant perform. Such a perspective, I have argued,
reveals the extent to which sexuality can be simultaneously social as it is
personal. Pleasure from pornographic consumption is qualified by, and
embedded in, the consumers relationship to emotional labor.
628
NOTES
1. This formulation is in line with the school of literary theory called reader
response criticism, which stresses the readers role and experiences in creating
subjective meaning in response to a text (see Fish 1967; Rosenblatt [1938] 1995).
2. There have been studies exploring the complexities of mens pornography
consumption and overturning stereotypes of male consumers (see Loftus 2002;
Putnam 2002).
3. I set a maximum age of 40 to minimize the effects of generational difference
between respondents, assuming significant differences between a sexual comingof-age in the 1960s versus later decades.
4. Few of the women invoked the term objectification when discussing their
dislikes in porn films, although many mentioned their discomfort with close-up
shots of womens body parts. There was little evidence that the women were troubled by pornographys objectification of womens bodies more broadly. Indeed,
they shared an enjoyment of watching women have sex. Thus, the crucial concern
for them was the actresses apparent enjoyment and not the fact of her objectification per se.
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Z. Fareen Parvez is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of

California, Berkeley. Her research interests include the sociology of gender, racial institutions, and the relationship between religious movements
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sociology.

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THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

Propornography and antipornography literatures have failed to elucidate the complexity

emotional labor; pornography; sexuality; sex work; consumption

espite a voluminous body of literature on pornography, there has been

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

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throughout the interviews is from Linda Williamss Hard Core ([1989]

FROM EXPLOITATION TO LIBERATION:

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GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

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APPLYING EMOTIONAL LABOR

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

emotional labor potentially benefits some workers, as they take pleasure in

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Demographic Characteristics (N = 30)

a. Self-identified. Includes seven who occasionally identify as multiracial.

Women were recruited through Internet community postings and notices

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

Characteristics Related to Pornography Consumption, Sex Work,

a. All participants, however, had partners in the past.

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

women, my own upbringing in a working-class community inculcated certain

Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

real pleasure (Boynton 1999). Just as authenticity of performance is a crucial

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

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Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

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GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

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at both experiences. These quotes clearly demonstrate the negative lens

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

most of the poorer women expressed persistent anxiety over maintaining

Parvez / THE LABOR OF PLEASURE

GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

Three had ectopic pregnancies as young as 14 and nearly died. Generally,

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GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

connecting womens responses with aspects of their individual biographies,

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pornography does not eliminate the structural reality of commodification of

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GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

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Brown, Janelle. 2002. Porn provocateur. Salon.com 6/20/02. Retrieved 10 May

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GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2006

McIntosh, Mary. 1992. Liberalism and the contradictions of sexual politics. In

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Z. Fareen Parvez is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of

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