Overview

The essential guide to adult film and media studies, combining historical insight, critical theory, and global perspectives for scholars, educators, and students alike. The Intellect Handbook of Adult Film and Media brings together thirty-six chapters organized into six sections, ranging from historical and methodological approaches to issues of representation, production, and spectatorship, to transnational perspectives, and questions of law, health, and policy, offering a comprehensive survey of this growing field. Written by leading scholars, the volume examines sexually explicit media in its full context: its production, circulation, consumption, and reception. Engaging with an extensive body of scholarship, the essays provide overviews of key literature, major historical developments, and central theoretical debates, supporting the continued growth of adult film and media studies as a legitimate area of academic inquiry. Designed as both a reference work and a teaching resource, the handbook will be invaluable to emerging scholars and educators working in film, media, gender, sexuality, and porn studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Alilunas ,  Patrick Keilty ,  Darshana Sreedhar Mini (University of Southern California)
Publisher:   Intellect
Imprint:   Intellect Books
ISBN:  

9781835952085

ISBN 10:   1835952089
Pages:   594
Publication Date:   16 January 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction Peter Alilunas, Patrick Keilty, Darshana Sreedhar Mini   1 History of Early Adult Film David Church   2 Adult Movies and Small Gauge Films Dan Erdman   3 Producing Sexploitation: Two Case Studies Eric Schaefer   4 The Golden Age Laura Helen Marks   5 Adult Movies Theaters Whitney Strub   6 The Boob Tube: Tracking Pornhub’s Emergence Becky Holt   7 Theories of Sex, Sexuality, and Historiography in Adult Film History Brandon Arroyo   8 Methods for Adult Film Studies Daniel Laurin   9 Porn and Sex Education: Realism, Patriarchy, and the Orgasm Gap Alan McKee, Emma Phillips, Pavla Nováková   10 The Teacher: A Conversation with Constance Penley Peter Alilunas   11 An Archive of Pornographies & The Pornography of ‘The Archive’ B.M. Watson   12 Fantasy: Genre Conventions, Political Correctness, and Queer and Feminist Representational Strategies in the Erotic Film Nikola Stepić   13 Bisexual Male Hardcore Film and Video Kevin Heffernan   14 History of U.S. Trans Pornography Sophie Pezzutto   15 An Interview with Ariane Cruz Marilia Kaisar   16 Latinxxx Pornography Yessica Garcia Hernandez   17 ""Organic, Fair Trade"": The Politics of Feminist Pornography' Jennifer Moorman   18 Gay Pornography Nguyễn Tân Hoàng   19 Flaunting, Flourishing, and Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Queercrip Porn Loree Erickson   20 Asian American Representations in Pornography Shawn Suyong Yi Jones   21 Adult Film Labor Kevin John Bozelka   22 Sex Stores Lynn Comella   23 Pornography Platforms Maggie MacDonald   24 Webcamming Hanne Stegeman   25 The Internet is for Porn Patrick Keilty   26 In a Sea of Dicks: On the Limits of Porn Susanna Paasonen   27 The Porn-Brokers: Transnational Entrepreneurship in Western Europe’s Pornography Trade Oliver Carter   28 Pornography in Southeast Asia: Issues, Challenges, and Possibilities Ruepert Jiel Dionisio Cao   29 Pornography in Latin America Victoria Ruétalo, Ana Paula Magalhães Da Silva   30 Porn in/and Africa Jordache A. Ellapen   31 South Asian Pornographies Darshana Sreedhar Mini, Anirban Baishya   32 East Asian Pornographies and Conversation Pieces at the Hong Kong Porn Seminar Katrien Jacobs   33 Regulating Pornography Brenda Cossman   34 Porn Health: Occupational and Community Approaches Val Webber   35 Feminism and Pornography Carolyn Bronstein   36 Porn Panics Rebecca Sullivan

Reviews

“This outstandingly rich and wide-ranging collection with many key voices in adult film and media studies highlights the significance of an often misunderstood and maligned arena of media production, unravelling its complex histories and contemporary manifestations with clarity and precision. In its diverse explorations of adult media, from early stag films to online porn, it tracks production, exhibition, and circulation, labour networks, representation, regulation, and expanding global forms––making for a terrific teaching resource. These illuminating and inspiring essays provide an essential and timely tool kit for understanding sexually explicit media in the twenty-first century.” -- Elena Gorfinkel, author of Lewd Looks: American Sexploitation Cinema in the 1960s and reader in film studies, King’s College London

Author Information

Peter Alilunas is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon. He is the author of Smutty Little Movies: The Creation and Regulation of Adult Video (2016, University of California Press). His work has appeared in Film History; Camera Obscura; Television and New Media; JCMS; and Porn Studies, where he is a member of the editorial board. He is the co-editor with Whitney Strub of ReFocus: The Films of Roberta Findlay (2023, Edinburgh University Press, 2023), and the co-editor of Screening Adult Cinema (2025, Routledge), with Desiree Embree and Finley Freibert. Patrick Keilty is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His research interests include the politics of digital infrastructures in the sex industries, adult film, and the materiality of sexual media. His writing and editorial work has appeared in Feminist Media Studies; Information Society; Journal of Documentation; Porn Studies; Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience; Scholar and Feminist Online; Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader (Litwin Books, 2013); Uncertain Archives (MIT Press, 2021); Queer Data Studies (University of Washington Press, 2023); and elsewhere. Darshana Sreedhar Mini is Associate Professor of Film at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Rated A: Soft-Porn Cinema and Mediations of Desire in India (UC Press,2024) and co-editor ofSouth Asian Pornographies: Vernacular Formations of the Permissibleand the Obscene (Routledge, 2024).  

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