I am in the middle of writing an article on pornography and the sexualization of the gaze, and for that I have watched around 20 or more scenes. Suddenly, the direction of the article changed dramatically: I was no longer writing about the gaze, but about one specific performer, and the way she uses her eyes on camera. It was too biased. Although I intend to mention her in the article, here is a little introduction, and what I had to leave out.
Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.
[Berger, John. (1972): Ways of Seeing, p. 42]
I want to talk about the gaze, this underestimated, underrated tool which can be the most powerful sexual lure between two people. More specifically, I want to talk about the feminine gaze, which is hid behind the veil in eastern civilizations, was directed to the ground in Victorian times, and still thrives to find a space into today's society. Lacan’s appropriation of the term; the dichotomization of the gaze into male and female, perpetrated by Laura Mulvey in 1975; Teresa de Lauretis’ discussion on the adoption of the gaze by male and female spectators (1984); Jackie Stacey’s question: ‘Do women necessarily take up a feminine and men a masculine spectator position?’ (Stacey 1992, 245); Bracha Ettinger's Matrixial Gaze (1995): none of these theories approach a topic I am interested in, which relates not to the spectator, but rather the gazer themselves. What gender is the gaze that comes from female XXX performers? To what extent are they participants in the scene in which they perform, and to what extent are they mere spectators? How much objectification really takes place in girl/girl porn scenes, and how much of that is a response to a feminine gaze being masculinized by the demands and expectations of the industry itself?
Those are questions that are currently guiding me throughout my studies, and it is not easy answering them. Very little literature is produced academically from the perspective of porn performers by scholars who are not performers themselves, and the positioning of the eye/I which might change the outcome of a research is quite powerful here. Virtually next to nothing is written about the porn industry that does not come with latent categorization and, therefore, judgment: it is depreciative, belittling, vicious, gynophobic, phallic centered, plastic, fake.
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In “Teach Me” (Elegant Angel, 2011), Zoey Holloway answers the pre-scene interview the following way:
“What do I feel like I can teach a younger girl?
Maybe that whole sensuality part if they don't already have that within them, maybe teach them to slow it down a little bit, and, and just, you know, just some little basic things sometimes can feel so good, just like kissing right under here or on the back of the knee, just places that you wouldn't think of.
Or just a lingering look into each other’s eyes can say a lot as well.” [my emphasis]
It is Halloway herself who brings in the discussion of the gaze, whether intentionally or not. It is with no surprise, then, that Holloway stands out exactly by the use of her own gaze over her partner in a girl/girl porn scene. Moreover, she actually verbalizes the scopic function by punctuating her actions with verbal comments that demark the territory of the gaze in her performances:
"Let me see that again. Let me see your eyes."
"Let me see your tongue.”
“Let me see.”
“Let me see it right there.”
“Let me see your teeth.”
"Let me see you."
"Let me look at you."
"Look how wet you are."
“It was either that or go blind.”
Holloway derives pleasure from watching: she is part of the scene and spectator at the same time, and this allows us to experience the scene with her eyes, in her eyes, and through her eyes. She enjoys looking at the other, looking at herself touching the other, looking at the reactions the other has, and experiencing them on a physical level: first through her eyes, then through her body. The intensity of her gaze is self-gratifying; she thrives on how much pleasure she is giving her partner by closely observing them rather than reading more "visual" clues that could easily be simulated. She is the kind of woman who understands goose bumps to be more revealing then a moan, and who notices the after sex glow as if it was a Hollywood sign (with Veronica Avluv: PMMAL2, and with Missy Martinez: WSW76). She teases her partners, inviting them to look at themselves and at her, to share with her (or learn from her) the pleasure of looking. She lingers with her mouth open over cunts and nipples, allowing them time to feel pleasure by imagining her next move before she moves an inch. When she finally reaches for them with her tongue, they are ready.
And so are we.
- Published January 4, 2012