Submitted manuscript, 88.7 KB, Word document
Accepted author manuscript
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Obscene performative pornography
T2 - R v Peacock [2012] and the legal construction of same sex and gendered identities in the UK
AU - Beresford, Sarah
PY - 2014/11/3
Y1 - 2014/11/3
N2 - Whom? The failed prosecution in R v Peacock (2012) revealed English law to be10 based on attempts to protect public and individual morality – ensuring thatpeople do not become ‘depraved and corrupted’ by the pornography they see and hear. The Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964, and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, figure criminality upon normalized notions of ‘appropriate’ pornography and ‘appropriate’ sexual expression. A Foucaultian analysis 15 would suggest that in regulating pornography and obscenity through the lens of morality, it is the law itself that produces and creates these concepts and hence the perpetuation of ideas of ‘acceptable’ identity expression. Using Michel Foucault’s ideas on ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge’ and Judith Butler’s theories of performativity, this article suggests that the decision to prosecute Peacock was, in and of itself, an 20 act of production, creation and ‘performativity’ that contributes to the ‘regime of truth’ about pornography and obscenity.
AB - Whom? The failed prosecution in R v Peacock (2012) revealed English law to be10 based on attempts to protect public and individual morality – ensuring thatpeople do not become ‘depraved and corrupted’ by the pornography they see and hear. The Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964, and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, figure criminality upon normalized notions of ‘appropriate’ pornography and ‘appropriate’ sexual expression. A Foucaultian analysis 15 would suggest that in regulating pornography and obscenity through the lens of morality, it is the law itself that produces and creates these concepts and hence the perpetuation of ideas of ‘acceptable’ identity expression. Using Michel Foucault’s ideas on ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge’ and Judith Butler’s theories of performativity, this article suggests that the decision to prosecute Peacock was, in and of itself, an 20 act of production, creation and ‘performativity’ that contributes to the ‘regime of truth’ about pornography and obscenity.
U2 - 10.1080/23268743.2014.958384
DO - 10.1080/23268743.2014.958384
M3 - Journal article
SP - 378
EP - 390
JO - Porn Studies
JF - Porn Studies
SN - 2326-8751
ER -