The People's Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781789142266)

The first history of American handmade and homemade pornography, The People's Porn offers the backstory to the explosion of amateur pornography on the web. In doing so, it provides a much-needed counterweight to ahistorical and ideological arguments that dominate most discussions of pornography.

Critics tend to focus on mass-produced materials and make claims about pornography as plasticized or commodified. In contrast, eminent historian Lisa Z. Sigel looks at what people made, rather than what they bought, revealing how people thought about sexuality for themselves. She also explores periods when these sexual artifacts were pilloried, ransacked, and destroyed, providing a unique document of rare nineteenth- and twentieth-century objects. Whalers and craftsmen, prisoners and activists, African Americans and feminists--all made their own pornography. Ranging across the full sweep of this output, The People's Porn challenges preconceptions as it tells a new and fascinating story about American sexual history.

Author: Lisa Z. Sigel
ISBN-10: 1789142261
ISBN-13: 9781789142266
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Language: English
Published: 12/09/2020
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 8.50h x 6.50w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2021