Forever Mediated: Feminist Erotic Texts and the Seduction Economy

Written by Ester Freider

Can pornography be feminist? How are erotic texts made by women mediated by the male patrons, publishers, and toolmakers who fund its creation? Feminist porn has the unique position of being part of two "minor literatures": it is sidelined from porn for being too complex or indirect and sidelined from art for its vulgarity. In "Forever Mediated", Ester Freider aims to uncover how women's erotic art maneuvers this line between theoretical subversion and sexual conformity, as well as how this balance has been automated on digital media by the surveillance of a profit-motivated algorithm. In her literature review, she builds off of post-Deleuzian theories of sex, embodiment, and "becoming-woman" to outline a brief history of erotica that has been considered both porn and art. Freider follows this up with a theory of "seduction economy" - based on the economic idea of "attention economics" - to describe how male attention can act as a sieve for which feminist erotic texts gain larger recognition in art or literature. Through a comparative analysis of Anais Nin's Delta of Venus (1977) and Arvida Bystrom's AI nude photobook In The Clouds with Arvida Byström (2024), "Forever Mediated" explores how the seduction economy has both broadened and solidified for feminist erotic texts with the appearance of digital platforms. Using post-Deleuzian theories of the body, the internet's "girl theory", and pornographic history in order to weave comparison, Freider builds an ambulatory approach to the history of feminist porn and its possibilities in an algorithmic future.

ISBN: 979-8-9923515-1-4 Publisher: Bimbo Rhetoric Publishing House Publication Date: May 5, 2025 Pages: 63 pages Language: English

Book, 63 Pages

PDF Book Download: US Letter (8.5 x 11 in / 216 x 279 mm), Standard Color, 80#