Some Like It Hard : The Preservation and Presentation of Gay Moving Image Pornographies

Z. Bobák

I am concentrating on gay pornographic moving images in this research as I believe that pornography plays a pivotal role in the identity construction of gay men and because it serves as a crucial element of cultural memory for this particular group of people. I specifically focus on a general Western context, and all the case studies and examples mentioned are products of Western societies. This is not accidental if we take into account Lynn Hunt's argument about the origins of pornography in The Invention of Pornography: "pornography as a legal and artistic category seems to be an especially Western idea with a specific chronology and geography" . As such, this research engages with Western ideas of human sexuality and pornographic representations, however, I also acknowledge and illuminate that pornography is always defined, conceptualized, negotiated, imagined, and re-imagined according to culturally specific ideologies and value systems. My aim in this research is to investigate the socio-cultural significance of gay moving image pornographies and to plead a case for their ethical handling in presentational domains, but also in archival realms. I find it important to discuss aspects of preservation and presentation together, as in my view the two are inherently bound to each other. The preservation of gay filmic porn determines the ways in which these objects are remembered and valued, and thus also the ways in which their presentation becomes possible (or impossible) in the cultural landscape of the hegemonic social order, therefore a consultation of archival philosophies is necessary. However, my main focus is on the presentation and the operation of gay moving image pornographies. For these reasons, this research is divided into three main chapters: the first discussing the socio-cultural significance of gay pornographic moving images and their operation; the second illuminating the issues of history-writing for gay men arising from pornography's problematic status in archival domains; and the third detailing curatorial considerations around the subject matter.