Undressing the actor : the erotic relationship with the audience

The intimacy and eroticism of the actor’s relationship with the audience is captured in the ecstatic revelation of the actor “being in the moment.” Drawing on the theories of Freud and Sartre and twenty years of performance praxis, this paper explores the exchange of erotic discourse between stage and spectator that not only heightens the experience of the liveness of theatre, but creates a symbiosis that is silently negotiated, agreed upon and sensuously performed during the suspended timeframe of the theatrical event. The actor draws the audience into the erotic transaction through various dramatic devices: the seduction of the soliloquy, the somatic and verbal discourses, the sensuality of light and costuming. The audience responds with its own paralingual and verbal foreplay: the playfulness of laughter, the slapping of hands and, most significantly, the gaze. While the gaze is often perceived as a form of voyeurism, this paper argues that the gaze of consensual agreement between audience and actor can work to unmask inhibitions enabling the actor to create the truth of the moment in complete abandon.

Women's cognitive and emotional processing during sexual arousal : the effects of erotic film and absorption

Sexual arousal is a complex and dynamic element of women’s sexuality. Accounts vary, however most multidimensional models highlight the cognitive, affective and physiological components of the female sexual arousal response. While literature examining the peripheral physiological changes that occur during female sexual arousal abounds, there has been a dearth of literature pertaining to the cognitive and affective components. Thus, while many authors have included cognitive and emotions as independent components of the female sexual arousal response, there has been little empirical research to validate this approach. The aim of the current thesis was to examine the cognitive and affective components of female sexual arousal in more depth, investigating the nature of the relationship between these components under various experimental conditions. In order to do so, two integrated studies were conducted, each highlighting the effects of either external or internal variables on women’s subjective sexual arousal, absorption, positive affect and negative affect. Study One was designed to evaluate women’s emotional and cognitive processing of two elements of erotic film – foreplay and erotic context. 60 women were asked to report their subjective sexual arousal, absorption, positive affect and negative affect in response to one of four erotic film excerpts. The erotic excerpts varied in accordance with the degree of foreplay (low vs. high) depicted and the context in which the sexual activities took place (novel vs. habitual context). Women in the study responded more favourably to the high foreplay erotic film excerpt, subsequently reporting higher degrees of subjective sexual arousal, absorption and positive affect. Women also responded favourably to the erotic excerpt filmed in a novel context, reporting greater subjective sexual arousal as a result. The environment in which the sexual encounters were filmed failed to have an effect however, on women’s absorption or their positive or negative affect. The results of Study One suggest that stimulus specific variables, such as the degree of foreplay depicted, have a significant influence on female cognitive and emotional processing of erotic film. The results also suggest that a relationship exists between absorption, subjective sexual arousal and positive affect, albeit a correlational one. Specifically, there was evidence of parallel processing during sexual arousal, as participant reported sexual arousal, absorption and positive affect all increased and decreased in unison. Based on the results it was suggested that future research attempt to experimentally manipulate one of these variables, to examine its direct effect on the remaining variable. Thus, Study Two aimed to examine the effects of absorption on women’s cognitive and emotional processing of erotica. Study Two manipulated absorption at two levels (high vs. low), examining the impact of these states on participants’ subsequent absorption, subjective sexual arousal and positive and negative affect. 62 women were asked to read one of two sets of test session instructions. The first, participant-oriented instruction set, instructed participants to immerse themselves in the erotic film excerpt, as if they were active participants in the sexual exchange. The second, spectator-oriented instruction set, directed participants to observe and evaluate the erotic film. These instructions were designed to elicit high and low degrees of absorption, respectively. The utility of this approach when manipulating female absorption, was demonstrated by self reported ratings of absorption, given at the conclusion of the film presentation. Participants were also asked to report their subjective sexual arousal and positive and negative affect at the conclusion of the erotic film presentation. The findings of this study suggest that the adoption of a participant-oriented (high absorption) perspective elicits more favourable responses from participants than a spectator-oriented (low absorption) perspective, with participants in the former experimental group reporting greater degrees of subjective sexual arousal and positive affect. Negative affect was equivalent across experimental conditions, with the participants reporting that they experienced little to no aversive feelings during either of the experimental conditions. The results suggest that the degree to which a women immerses and absorbs herself in a sexual stimulus has a significant impact in her subsequent cognitive and affective processing of that stimulus. More specifically, it appears that women respond more favourably when they are highly absorbed and immersed in a stimulus, reporting greater subjective sexual arousal and positive affect. Overall, the results of Studies One and Two highlight the dynamic and complex nature of female sexual arousal. It appears that women have definite cognitive and affective responses to sexual stimuli. The magnitude of these responses may be mediated by a number of factors however, including the intrinsic qualities of the stimulus and the degree to which the woman attends to the stimulus. Both these variables act to either enhance or inhibit the sexual arousal response. There results have important implications for current sexuality literature. While women’s cognitions and emotions in response to erotic film were generally highly correlated, in some instances they differed, warranting their inclusion as separate elements in models of female sexual arousal. Furthermore, it might be suggested that the inclusion of an additional variable – absorption – into current models of female sexual arousal would prove beneficial, aiding researchers to better understand and predict the arousal process. As such, recommendations are made for a revised model of female sexual arousal. In terms of future directions, the results of the present thesis have implications for the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, suggesting that clinicians need to understand the internal and external variables that might contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of their presenting problems.

Erotic capital, popular pedagogy, and healthy adolescent female sexuality

The sexualization of the female body in contemporary media has created considerable anxiety about its impact on girls. Much of the resulting research focuses on the influence of visual media on body image and the flow-on effects for girls' health. Rather less attention is paid to the pedagogical role of popular romance fiction in teaching girls about their sexuality. Given the pronounced increase in eroticized fiction for girls over the past decade, this is a significant oversight. This article applies Hakim's (2010) concept of erotic capital to two chick lit novels for girls. The elements of erotic capital—assets additional to economic, cultural and social capital—are used to explore the lessons these novels teach about girl sexual subjectivities and sociality in a sexualized culture.

Flash-floods : genre subversion and the abject erotic in Dorothy Porter’s The monkey’s mask and El Dorado

When discussing her verse novels, Dorothy Porter explicitly stated that she loved to ‘write bad’. This paper will argue that it was Porter’s engagement with the verse novel form and genre subversion, most notably seen with her detective and crime thriller verse novels The monkey’s mask and El Dorado, that allows for a destabilisation of traditionally established genre conventions, which in turn provide a narrative foundation for Porter’s use of abject erotic imagery.

In both The monkey’s mask and El Dorado there are several types of ‘bodies’ to be examined: the body of the verse narrative, the bodies of the characters subjected to crime, the body of poetry that is referred to as evidence, and the abject eroticised body. Extending upon the studies of Rose Lucas (1997) and Fleur Diamond (1999), this paper contends that it is Porter’s engagement with the abject erotic, as informed by Julia Kristeva’s (1982) theory of the abject and Johanna Blakley’s (1995) discussion of the abject in relation to eroticism, that allows Porter to subvert the phallocentric limitations upheld through the crime fiction genre and offer an alternative representation for lesbian sexuality and desire.

Erotic symbolism, the mechanism of detumescence, the psychic state in pregnancy.

Mode of access: Internet.

Dancing for women:subverting heteronormativity in a lesbian erotic dance space?

This article utilises participant observation, interview and collaborative visual data, collected with women erotic dancers, management and customers, to ascertain how far heteronormativity is subverted in a UK lesbian leisure space, Lippy (the name is a pseudonym), which provides erotic dance for women customers. The potential for a female 'gaze', the 'normativity' of gendered and sexualised bodies, and the notion of a 'women's space' are taken as areas for analysis. Women's engagement with erotic dance is complex, and this article examines the connections between sexual agency and gendered power relations, questioning how far women can exercise autonomous sexual expression in commercial sexual encounters. © The Author(s) 2012.

Performing in a night-time leisure venue: a visual analysis of erotic dance

This article analyses a range of different meanings attached to images of erotic dance, with a particular focus on the 'impression management' (Goffman 1959) enacted by dancers. It presents a visual analysis of the work of a female erotic performer in a lesbian erotic dance venue in the UK. Still photographs, along with observational data and interviews, convey the complexity and skill of an erotic dancer's diverse gendered and sexualised performances. The visual data highlights the extensive 'aesthetic labour' (Nickson et al. 2001) and 'emotional labour' (Hochschild 1983) the dancer must put in to constructing her work 'self'. However, a more ambitious use of the visual is identified: the dancer's own use of images of her work. This use of the visual by dancers themselves highlights a more complex 'impression management' strategy undertaken by a dancer and brings into question the separation of 'real' and 'work' 'selves' in erotic dance. © Sociological Research Online, 1996-2012.

The Complications of the Erotic: Eroticism in Last Tango in Paris and Une liaison pornographique

Even more so than in other arts, film has tried to draw an artificial but clear line between eroticism and pornography, nonetheless perpetuating moral judgments about movies marketed as “erotic”. The explicit and repeated portrayal of sex in such films would place them dangerously near the vortex of the pornographic, and thus, since they are not concerned with transcendental issues, they would require little or no critical attention. I will however try to argue, using Last Tango in Paris and Une liaison pornographique, that many of these “erotic” films conclude that a relationship based solely on sex (i.e. “pornographic”), which ignores the complexities of individual identity and the interpersonal is doomed to fail. Also, I would like to show how these films ultimately conceive of sex as something that goes beyond the merely physical and walks the grounds of such transcendental issues as despair, loneliness, death, or love.