Sexuality is often considered to be ‘naturally’ derived, and thus subject to discourses of authenticity. Through a discussion with non-exclusively heterosexual women performing lesbian sexuality in pornography, this article seeks to complicate ideas surrounding performance and authenticity. I argue that performance itself, by reiterating certain culturally salient codes, determines what is generally viewed as ‘authentic’. In addition, I argue that ‘authenticity’ is a mobile descriptor that may or may not be applied to a participant’s sex-work performances for reasons that go far beyond simple consistency between off- and on-camera sex acts.
AbbottSA(2004) Creating a scene: The work of performing sex. In: KimmelMPlanteR (eds) Sexualities: Identities, Behaviours and Society, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 380–398.
2.
AlexanderJ (2007) Bisexuality in the media: A roundtable discussion. Journal of Bisexuality7(1–2): 113–124.
3.
BaumanR (1977) Verbal Art as Performance, Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.
4.
BernsteinE (2007) Sex work for the middle classes. Sexualities10(4): 473–488.
5.
BoellstorffT (2008) Coming of Age in Second Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
BolsøA (2007) Approaches to penetration – Theoretical difference in practice. Sexualities10(5): 559–581.
7.
BurkeK (1969) A Rhetoric of Motives, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
8.
ButlerJ(1998) Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of ‘sex’. In: GoodmanLde GayJ (eds) The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, New York: Routledge, pp. 282–287.
9.
ButlerJ(2004) Imitation and gender insubordination. In: CarlinDDiGrazziaJ (eds) Queer Cultures, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 354–371.
10.
CarseAL (1995) Pornography: An uncivil liberty. Hypatia10(1): 155–182.
de LauretisT(1998) Sexual indifference and lesbian representation. In: GoodmanLde GayJ (eds) The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, New York: Routledge, pp. 276–281.
13.
EscoffierJ (2003) Gay-for-pay: Straight men and the making of gay pornography. Qualitative Sociology26(4): 531–555.
14.
FrankK (1998) The production of identity and the negotiation of intimacy in a ‘gentlemans club’. Sexualities1(2): 175–201.
15.
GagnonJHSimonW (1973) Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality, Chicago, IL: Aldine.
16.
GamsonJMoonD (2004) The sociology of sexualities: Queer and beyond. Annual Review of Sociology30: 47–64.
17.
GowansA(1980) Ritual illustration functioning as substitute imagery: Pornography. In: BrowneRB (ed.) Rituals and Ceremonies in Popular Culture, Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, pp. 141–149.
18.
HochschildAR (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, London: University of California Press.
19.
Irigaray L (1985 [1974]) Speculum of the Other Woman (trans. GC Gill). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
20.
JacksonS (2009) ‘Hot lesbians’: Young people’s talk about representations of lesbianism. Sexualities12(2): 199–224.
21.
JacksonSScottS (2007) Faking like a woman? Towards an interpretive theorization of sexual pleasure. Body and Society13(2): 95–116.
22.
KibbyMCostelloB (2001) Between the image and the act: Interactive sex entertainment on the internet. Sexualities4(3): 353–369.
23.
LydonS(1970) The politics of orgasm. In: MorganR (ed.) Sisterhood is Powerful, New York: Random House, pp. 197–204.
24.
Miller-YoungM (2010) Putting hypersexuality to work: Black women and illicit eroticism in pornography. Sexualities13(2): 219–235.
25.
Monthony JE (1999) Reconfiguring power, identity and resistance: An analysis of consciousness in sex workers, Unpublished graduate thesis, Department of Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, USA.
26.
MorrisonTGTallackD (2005) Lesbian and bisexual women’s interpretation of lesbian and ersatz lesbian pornography. Sexuality and Culture9(2): 3–30.
27.
MulveyL(1998) Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In: GoodmanLde GayJ (eds) The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, New York: Routledge, pp. 270–275.
28.
NoFauxxx Productions (n.d.) Available at: www.nofauxxx.com (accessed 8 April 2010).
29.
Perry K (2008) I kissed a girl. One Of The Boys, Capitol Records.
30.
Queer Porn (n.d.) Available at: http://queerporn.tv (accessed 8 April 2010).
31.
SandersT (2005) ‘It’s just acting’: Sex workers’ strategies for capitalizing on sexuality. Gender, Work and Organization12(4): 319–342.
32.
SedgwickEK(2005) Axiomatic. In: MorlandIWilcoxA (eds) Queer Theory, New York: Palgrave, pp. 81–95.
SimonWGagnonJH (2003) Sexual scripts: Origins, influences and changes. Qualitative Sociology26(4): 491–497.
35.
ThompsonEM (2006) Girl friend or girlfriend? Same-sex friendship and bisexual images as a context for flexible sexual identity among young women. Journal of Bisexuality6(3): 47–67.
36.
Van LeeuwenT (2001) What is authenticity?Discourse Studies3(4): 392–397.
37.
VanniniPWilliamsJP(2009) Authenticity in culture, self and society. In: VanniniPWilliamsJP (eds) Authenticity in Culture, Self and Society, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 1–20.
38.
WaskulD(2009) The importance of insincerity and inauthenticity for self and society: Why honesty is not the best policy. In: VanniniPWilliamsJP (eds) Authenticity in Culture, Self and Society, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 51–64.
39.
WaskulDLustM (2004) Role-playing and playing roles: The person, player, and persona in fantasy role-playing. Symbolic Interaction27(3): 333–356.
40.
WeeksJ (2003) Sexuality, 2nd edn. New York: Routledge.
41.
WhitneyE (2002) Cyborgs among us: Performing liminal states of sexuality. Journal of Bisexuality2(2): 109–128.
