Give it to her
Sexual agency and gendered patterns in erotica
Pornography is commonly criticized for allegedly representing and promoting sexual dominance of men over women.
Studies have shown varying results, with no scientific consensus reached on the matter. To contribute to the discussion with
empirical discourse analysis evidence, I examine the linguistic choices reflected in a corpus of erotic novels to test whether
there are gendered patterns of agency in the representation of sexual interactions. The construal of prominence is correlated to
the notion of agency to find which participant specifies the trajector status and agent role in every relational expression.
Results show that male participants take prominence over females in an overwhelming majority of the cases, while expressions with
plural agency are marginal. The approach of this paper, combining cognitive grammar with linguistic participation roles, provides
comprehensive and realistic results by attempting to operationalize agency as the linguistic expression of a particular cognitive
pathway.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1Gendered patterns in pornography
- 2.2Written pornography
- 2.3Researching sexual agency in written pornography
- 2.4Sexual relationships as cognitive and linguistic relationships
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Material: Corpus description
- 3.2Data analysis
- 4.Results and discussion
- 5.Conclusion
-
References
References (71)
Amazon
2021a Best
sellers in erotica. 〈
[URL]〉 (May 15, 2021)
Amazon
2021b Erotic literature &
fiction. Sorted by: Most reviews. 〈
[URL]〉 (May 15, 2021)
Attwood, Feona
2010 Porn
studies: From social problem to cultural practice. In
porn. com:
Making Sense of Online Pornography,
Feona Attwood (ed), 1–13. New York: Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Attwood, Feona, Barker, Meg-John, Boynton, Petra & Hancock, Justin
2015 Sense
about sex: Media, sex advice, education and learning.
Sexuality, Society and
Learning 15(5): 528–539.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aull, Laura L. & West Brown, David
2013 Fighting
words: A corpus analysis of gender representations in sports
reportage.
Corpora 8(1): 27–52.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baker, Paul
2005 Public
Discourses of Gay
Men. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baker, Paul
2008 ‘Eligible’
bachelors and ‘frustrated’ spinsters: Corpus linguistics, gender and
language. In
Gender and Language Research
Methodologies,
Kate Harrington,
Lia Litosseliti,
Helen Sauntson &
Jane Sunderland (eds), 73–84. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baker, Paul
2016 Gendered
discourses. In
Triangulating Methodological Approaches in Corpus
Linguistic Research,
Paul Baker &
Jesse Egbert (eds), 138–151. London: Routledge.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baldick, Chris
2001 The
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary
Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Barker, Meg-John, Gill, Rosalind & Harvey, Laura
2018 Mediated
intimacy: Sex advice in media
culture.
Sexualities 21(8): 1337–1345.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Barron, Martin & Kimmel, Michael
2000 Sexual
violence in three pornographic media: Toward a sociological explanation.
Journal of Sex
Research 37(2): 161–168.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas
1990 Methodological
issues regarding corpus-based analysis of linguistic variation.
Literary and Linguistic
Computing 5(4): 257–269.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas & Reppen, Randi
(eds) 2015 The
Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus
Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
BookBub
2021 21
of the sexiest books of all time, according to BookBub members. 〈
[URL]〉 (May 15, 2021)
Bridges, Ana J., Wosnitzer, Robert, Scharrer, Erica, Sun, Chyng & Liberman, Rachael
2010 Aggression
and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography videos: A content analysis update.
Violence
Against
Women 16(10): 1065–1085.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cameron, Deborah
2019 Sex. In
Feminism:
A Brief Introduction to the Ideas, Debates, and Politics of the Movement,
Deborah Cameron (ed), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carter, Ronald & McCarthy, Michael
1995 Grammar
and the spoken language.
Applied
Linguistics 16(2): 141–158.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cocks, Harry
2016 “The
social picture of our own times”: Reading obscene magazines in mid-Twentieth-Century Britain: Table
1.
Twentieth Century British
History 27(2): 171–194.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Crawford, Mary & Popp, Danielle
2003 Sexual
double standards: A review and methodological critique of two decades of research.
Journal of
Sex
Research 40(1): 13–26.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dill, Karen E. & Thill, Kathryn P.
2007 Video game characters
and the socialization of gender roles: Young people’s perceptions mirror sexist media
depictions.
Sex
Roles 571: 851–864.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Djikic, Maja, Oatley, Keith & Moldoveanu, Mihnea C.
Ehrlich, Susan
2001 Representing
Rape: Language and Sexual
Consent. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gârdan, Daiana
2020 Cum
iubim? Coduri de gen în romanul de dragoste
românesc.
Transilvania 11–121: 109–112.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodreads
2021 Most read this week in
erotica. 〈
[URL]〉 (May 15,
2021)
Gorman, Stacy, Monk-Turner, Elizabeth & Fish, Jennifer N.
2010 Free adult internet web
sites: How prevalent are degrading acts? Gender
Issues 27(3–4): 131–145.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hardy, Simon
1998 The
Reader, the Author, His Woman and Her Lover: Soft-Core Pornography and Heterosexual
Men. London: Cassell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Harvey, Karen
2004 Reading
Sex in the Eighteenth Century: Bodies and Gender in English Erotic
Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hester, Helen
2014 Beyond
Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex. New York: State University of New York Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Horvath, Miranda A. H., Alys, Llian, Massey, Kristina, Pina, Afroditi, Scally, Mia & Adler, Joanna R.
2013 A Rapid Evidence
Assessment on the Effects that Access and Exposure to Pornography Has on Children and Young
People.
Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England. 〈
[URL]〉 (February 15, 2023)
Jeffries, Leslie
2007 Textual
Construction of the Female Body: A Critical Discourse
Approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jensen, Robert
1993 Pornographic
novels and the ideology of male supremacy.
The Howard Journal of
Communications 5(1–2): 92–107.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jensen, Robert
2007 Getting
off: Pornography and the End of
Masculinity. Cambridge: South End Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jensen, Robert & Dines, Gail
1998 The
content of mass-marketed pornography. In
Pornography: The Production
and Consumption of Inequality,
Gail Dines,
Bob Jensen &
Ann Russo (eds), 65–100. New York: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kilgarriff, Alan, Baisa, Vít, Bušta, Jan, Jakubíček, Miloš, Kovář, Vojtěch, Michelfeit, Jan, Rychlý, Pavel & Suchomel, Vít
2014 The
Sketch Engine: Ten years
on.
Lexicography 1(1): 7–36.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klaassen, Marleen J. E. & Peter, Jochen
2015 Gender
(in)equality in Internet pornography: A content analysis of popular pornographic Internet
videos.
Journal of Sex
Research (52)71: 721–735.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Koopman, Emy M. & Hakemulder, Frank
2015 Effects
of literature on empathy and self-reflection: A theoretical-empirical framework.
Journal of
Literary
Theory 9(1): 79–111.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald W.
2013 Essentials of Cognitive
Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lischinsky, Alon
2017 Doing
the naughty or having it done to you? Agent roles in erotic writing.
Porn
Studies (5)21: 156–174.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Manning, Elizabeth
1997 Kissing
and cuddling: The reciprocity of romantic and sexual
activity. In
Language and Desire: Encoding Sex, Romance and
Intimacy,
Keith Harvey &
Celia Shalom (eds), 43–59. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marko, Georg
2006 ‘…
was an incredibly sexy Latin stud’: Critically analysing descriptors in a (pornography)
corpus. In
Planing, Gluing and Painting Corpora: Inside the Applied
Corpus Linguist’s Workshop,
Bernhard Kettemann &
Georg Marko (eds), 175–203. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marko, Georg
2008 Penetrating
Language: A Critical Discourse Analysis of
Pornography. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mautner, Gerlinde
2016 Checks
and balances: How corpus linguistics can contribute to
CDA. In
Methods of Critical Discourse
Studies,
Ruth Wodak &
Michael Meyer (eds), 154–179. Los Angeles: Sage.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McCarry, Melanie
2009 Becoming
a ‘proper man’: Young people’s attitudes about interpersonal violence and perceptions of
gender.
Gender and
Education 22(1): 17–30.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McEnery, Tony & Hardie, Andrew
2012 Corpus
Linguistics: Method, Theory and
Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McKee, Alan
2005 The
objectification of women in mainstream pornographic videos in Australia.
Journal of Sex
Research 42(4): 277–290.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Morrish, Liz & Sauntson, Helen
2011 Gender,
desire and identity in a corpus of lesbian erotica. In
Queering
Paradigms II: Interrogating Agendas,
Burkhard Scherer &
Matthew Ball (eds), 63–81. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Motschenbacher, Heiko
2013 Gentlemen
before ladies? A corpus-based study of conjunct order in personal binomials.
Journal of English
Linguistics 41(3): 212–242.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Motschenbacher, Heiko
2014 Focusing
on normativity in language and sexuality studies: Insights from conversations on
objectophilia.
Critical Discourse
Studies 11(1): 49–70.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paasonen, Susanna
2007 Strange
bedfellows: Pornography, affect and feminist reading.
Feminist
Theory 8(1): 43–57.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paasonen, Susanna
2010 Good
amateurs: Erotica writing and notions of quality. In
porn.com: Making
Sense of Online Pornography,
Feona Attwood (ed), 138–154. New York: Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Penguin Random
House
2021 Seductive erotica books for mature audiences
only. 〈
[URL]〉 (May 15, 2021)
Peter, Jochen & Valkenburg, Patti M.
2016 Adolescents and
pornography: A review of 20 years of research.
Journal of Sex
Research 53(4–5): 509–531.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Prince, Stephen R.
1987 Power, Pain, and Pleasure in
Pornography: A Content Analysis of Pornographic Feature Films, 1972–1985. PhD
dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Richardson, T. Wade
2013 Paths of love: Age and gender
dynamics in the erotic novel. In
A companion to Greek and Roman
Sexualities,
Thomas K. Hubbard (ed). Malden: Blackwell.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salmon, Catherine & Diamond, Amy
2012 Evolutionary
perspectives on the content analysis of heterosexual and homosexual pornography.
Journal of
Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural
Psychology 6(2): 193–202.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sanga, Luciana
2021 Tanabe
Seiko, Feminism, and the making of a love novel.
Journal of the American Association of
Teachers of
Japanese 55(1): 35–63.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schick, Irvin Cemil
2004 Representation of gender and
sexuality in Ottoman and Turkish erotic literature.
Turkish Studies Association
Journal 28(1/2): 81–103.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinclair, John M.
1995 Corpus typology: A framework for
classification. In
Studies in
Anglistics,
Gunnel Melcher &
Beatrice Warren (eds), 17–34. Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell International.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Clarissa
2007 One
for the Girls! The Pleasures and Practices of Reading Women’s
Porn. Bristol: Intellect.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Clarissa
2009 Pleasing
intensities: Masochism and affective pleasures in porn short
fictions. In
Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualization of Western
Culture,
Feona Attwood (ed), 19–35. London: IB Tauris.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Clarissa
2010 Pornographication:
A discourse for all seasons.
International Journal of Media and Cultural
Politics 6(1): 103–108.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Don D.
1976 The social content of
pornography.
Journal of
Communication 261: 16–24.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Springate, Julia & Omar, Hatim A.
2013 The impact of the
Internet on the sexual health of adolescents: A brief review.
International Journal of Child
and Adolescent
Health 6(4): 469–471.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Strasburger, Victor C.
2012 Adolescents, sex and the
media.
Adolescent Medicine State of the Art
Reviews 231: 15–33.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taylor, Charlotte
2013 Searching
for similarity using corpus-assisted discourse
studies.
Corpora 8(1): 81–113.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ubilluz, Juan Carlos
2006 Sacred Erotism: Georges Bataille
and Pierre Klossowski in the Latin American Erotic
Novel. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vannier, Sarah A., Currie, Anna B. & O’Sullivan, Lucia F.
2014 Schoolgirls and soccer
moms: A content analysis of free “teen” and “MILF” online pornography.
Journal of Sex
Research 51(3): 253–264.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, Andrew
2012 Using
corpora in depth psychology: A trigram-based analysis of a corpus of fetish
fantasies.
Corpora 7(1): 69–90.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Young, James O.
2017 Literary fiction and true
beliefs. In
Art and Belief,
Ema Sullivan-Bissett,
Helen Bradley &
Paul Noordhof (eds), 85–99. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by 1 other publications
Suñer, Ferran & Barbara De Cock
2024.
The role of reticence in the comprehension of metaphorical taboo expressions in the foreign language.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics 34:2
► pp. 746 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.