Video in which I talk about porn in front of 500 people

Last quarter I was a TA for Soc 1: Introduction to Sociology, a gen ed course that covers a wide variety of concepts related to sociology. During the week about gender, the professor asked if any of us grad students would like to share our gender-related work with the class, so I volunteered to talk a bit about my project.

I forgot until recently that one of my friends took a video of my talk, and I wanted to post the video as a very brief, very basic introduction to my current project. I cut out a bit at the start where we had some technical difficulty with the Powerpoint-- it would not project correctly with my notes, so I gave this talk without any notes whatsoever. Also, unfortunately my camera ran out of space before my final conclusion and the questions from students at the end- but you get most of my talk and a bit of my data.







After the video cuts off, I conclude by relating the story that several of my female participants became much more comfortable in the course of the focus group, and several actually asked me for copies of the porn I showed them during the groups. I told the students that creating open, positive spaces like this and normalizing sexual curiosity for women is an important avenue for change.

The students were actually quite receptive, despite it being 8:30am. The first question I got from a female student was, "What exactly IS feminist porn... and how can I find some??"

I guess I'm doing something right.