Pornografia internetowa jako zwierciadło społeczeństwa
Internet Pornography as a Mirror of Society

Summary/Abstract: Pornography has become an important social and political issue. The emphasis on pornography as a form of sexual and gender diversity is a component of larger societal and cultural trend – globalisation. The aim of the paper is to present and prove the thesis, that Internet pornography is nowadays a good mirror of deep social processes and structrures (suppressed fears, complexes, needs, changes of identity and forms of power, esp. biopower). The first part includes the recapitulation of the methodology of sociological research of pornography (esp. visual anthropology, discourse analysis). Author shows, how important are implications of Polish laws for research on Internet pornography in Poland (there are no international laws regulating Internet pornography). Author also proposes new definition of pornography. Global pornography is in the dialectic relation with social institutions. It sexualizes social practices, which people try to desexualize in everyday life to avoid allegations of sexual misconduct (eg. health care practitioners). Hence, existence of pornography causes reaction of the social system, which generates new taboos (eg. nakedness of children) and forms of social control. But also pornography transgresses social norms and visions. The second part of the article includes three case studies: the BDSM pornography, the medical fetishism as a form of biopower and a problem of ‘pedophilization’ of visual representations in public sphere.

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