Title:

‘Black Cock Fever’: An exploration into the representation of a Black male actor in
pornography and the effects it may have on viewers.
Name:
Zoe Rainford
Student Number:
13606860

This dissertation is submitted as partial fulfilment for the Degree of

Research Dissertation

Word count:
11,866

I certify that the work submitted herewith is my own and that I have duly acknowledged any
quotation from the published or unpublished work of other persons.

Signature of Candidate: Zoe Rainford Date: 5th September 2021

Table of Contents

Abstract Page 3

Introduction Page 4

Literature Review Page 7

Methodology Page 12

Analysis

Who is Prince Yahshua? Page 17

My Results Page 19

Women in videos Page 20

Lighting Page 22

Positions or acts Page 23

Shot types or angles Page 26

Scenarios Page 27

Music or Audio Page 29

Dialogue Page 30

Title language Page 33

How could this affect viewers? Page 34

Conclusion Page 35

Bibliography Page 39
3 | 13606860

Abstract

This dissertation explores racialised sexualisation found within pornography, and explores

how a Black male body is presented by an actor as well as the videos they act in. It aims to

identify racist and colonial themes that are present in pornography and discuss how these

presentations can be internalised and reproduced by viewers of pornography. Interest in the

topic comes from personal research into decolonisation literature as well as COVID-19

lockdown resulting in pornographic consumption increasing (Zattoni et al, 2020; Grubbs,

2020; PornHub, 2020). An in-depth content analysis looking at 36 videos from the ‘Most

Viewed’ section of a specific pornographic actor, seven main themes were decided upon

before observation and smaller codes were developed through watching the videos.

Results suggested that pornography used a wide variety of tools to present racist themes,

like the use of lighting to accentuate specific body parts. Videos predominantly contained a

White female partner opposite a Black male, and these videos tended to focus on the idea

that Black male bodies interacting with White female bodies in a sexual manner encouraged

the humiliation of White men. Results generally showed that performative tools were used

to present and perpetuate racist ideas of Black masculinity and the Black male body. Focus

also tended to be on the Black penis, which was then demonised through dialogue and

other functions.

More research should be conducted into the field to open a dialogue – existing research is

focussed on the oppression of women through pornography. Like all content, we should

attempt to change these systems that are not only sexist, but also racist.
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For my dissertation I have chosen to explore pornography

and how it represents and displays Black male bodies. Specifically for my research, I have

identified one core actor in the industry and have chosen to explore their videos on a public

access pornography website - PornHub. One of the main reasons that I chose to conduct this

research is my interest in decolonising research – during the start of my master’s course, I

found that I had growing interest in the ways that bodies were represented because of

colonial mindsets from years past. When reading Hall (1997), I found that a lot of the

examples they had used I could identify within the current day and in one part, they discuss

Saartje Baartman (Ibid, 1997, pp. 266) and it made me think of the modern applications

seen within pornography. My hope is that the research I have conducted will be useful in

identifying the ways in which Black bodies are presented now in a more modern age and

discussing the ways in which this could alter a viewer’s perspective on Black bodies. By using

pornography, it allows me to explore some of more open forms of theatre – “porn is

theater, which of course has subtext” (Klein, 2006, pp. 246) – and explore the themes and

discourses that they present to viewers as these themes can unconsciously influence people

(Ibid., pp. 249).

When considering the research questions for this study, I

knew there was a few things I wanted to identify. Firstly: What are some of the ways in

which a specific pornographic actor is presented when working on screen and off it? By this,

I mean that I want to explore how this actor is presented by his own branding, as well as

how he is branded whilst working – is there specific focus on his genitalia? Is his brand

consistent off screen? My second research question aims to explore racial and/or colonial

themes: Are any of the ways the specific actor is presented racist or thematic with

colonialism? I want to explore these themes and identify them within the videos as well as
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discuss them in association with works that I have found that relate to the topic and

decolonisation literature. My final main research question is: Could these representations

have an impact on the viewer? Does seeing racist representations encourage people to

think in a racist way? For this question, I will discuss the themes that I found in my research

and discuss them in relation to how media has and is used as a tool of education.

In terms of my studies aim, I intend to create a dialogue that

explores the different ways in which tools used in pornography – like lighting and dialogue –

can and do present racist themes that could potentially encourage viewers to behave in a

similar way to what they are seeing. From this, the research could be used in discussion with

other pieces of research and literature which discuss the racial components of pornography

and be used to discuss how things could be improved in either regards to pornography or

even support for people who want to stop thinking these racist themes.

It is my theory that through my research, I will identify overt

elements of colonialism in pornography and that these presented themes will impact how a

viewer could think about Black bodies. It is my belief that this could impact how someone

thinks and behaves around a Black body.

One of my main reasons for conducting research into this

field is a result of COVID-19 and people being restricted to their homes due to lockdowns

implemented by the Government. Being locked in at home has meant that things like

loneliness, stress, and anxiety have increased – especially in younger people – which has

turned many people to the internet for support. For some people, this has meant seeking

out pornography as a comfort. PornHub (2020) indicated that when lockdown restrictions

were announced in March 2020, the use of their website increased globally. One of the
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campaigns that PornHub ran involved handing out premium memberships to countries that

had applied a lockdown as a way to encourage people to stay at home – their research

showed that it did increase their site traffic (PornHub, 2020). In addition to this, research

has shown that negative emotions can lead people to seek out forms of escapism – video

games, pornography, and books are examples of this – and I felt that exploring something

like pornography which can be free to access was important as many people can access the

website without inputting personal information, as well as it being used as a way to combat

loneliness and absence of intimacy. Further on this, I felt that exploring the ways in which

bodies were presented was important, especially in relation to Black bodies as there is

already an existent history of this happening like with Saartje Baartman for example who

was treated as an object and spectacle (Hall, 1997).

Before I begin discussing the literature that I identified, I will

explain how I intend to lay out this dissertation. First, I will conduct my literature review in

which I will discuss the field of research I am trying to place my work in to. I will discuss

what is generally explored, the ways in which this research is conducted and talk about

where my research fits in to the field comparative to the literature that I layout. I will then

go on to discuss the methodology that I approach the research with and discuss why I feel

that this is the best way for me to conduct my research. In addition to that, I will lay out how

I conducted the research and gathered my results. I will then discuss the results in depth

within my analysis after discussing who my study focuses on. By doing this, my hope is that

it creates a clear image of who this actor is and how they generally present themselves, and

then explain the results after it is clear who the results are linked to. I will finish the

dissertation with a conclusion, discussing my results in summary as well as discussing the

importance of this research.

Literature Review

To formally begin this dissertation, I will first discuss the

literature that is relevant to my topic of research and explain how my research fits in to the

literature I have read. As mentioned in the introduction, my research focuses on

pornography and how Black male bodies are represented and displayed for viewers. In

addition to this, my dissertation aims to focus on how this representation could affect

others perception of race, and potentially encourage someone to act in a racist way similar

to the representations and themes that they see in pornography. I will discuss research that

looks at pornography, and then discuss literature that relates more closely to my research,

specifically about accessing pornography, and end with a discussion focussing on the

literature about COVID-19 and loneliness in relation to my argument about pornography

consumption increasing.

For this literature review, I will be outlining the existing

research in accordance with main themes that are present within my own work and within

the field that I am researching. One of the main themes I found is that a large portion of

pornographic studies focus their research on representation of women. When looking at

ethnicity and race, primarily, research tends to have a focus on Black, Asian, and Latina

female bodies – largely a result of feminism and feminist researchers exploring how

pornography functions as a system that encourages the oppression of women (Benard,

2016; Cowan and Campbell, 1994). For my research, as has been mentioned in the

introduction, I direct my focus to Black male bodies from the perspective of a White female

viewer. Whilst I do agree from a feminist perspective, pornography can and is used as a

system of oppression for female bodies, I also think that it is important to discuss how male
8 | 13606860

bodies are presented and used in pornography – whilst exploring literature, I struggled to

find research that primarily focussed on male bodies in heterosexual pornography,

especially Black male bodies.

Interestingly, a large portion of literature that focussed on

Black male bodies were intermingled with feminist papers that discussed how Black male

bodies were used to oppress female bodies (Benard, 2016), and were even involved in the

further oppression of Black female bodies as a result of the Black male’s desire to not be

seen as Black:

By loving me she proves that I am worthy of white love. I am loved like a white man.

I am a white man. … When my restless hands caress those white breasts, they grasp

white civilisation and dignity and make them mine. (Walker, 1979, pp. 103).

Social norms dictate that as individuals, we should seek out opportunities that allow us

social mobility, and, in this case, the target that is expected to be aimed for is ‘whiteness’

and the privileges that come with it. I feel that for my research, this discussion about social

mobility is important, as we know that a lot of ideologies revolve around this concept of

power.

In addition to this, a large portion of studies done on

pornography primarily focus on interracial pornography. Generally speaking, this can be

beneficial, however it does mean that the research focuses on a wider group of people as

opposed to the focus that I have chosen for my research. For my dissertation, I am not

choosing to focus specifically on interracial pornography but will be identifying elements of

interracial porn – I aim to identify it when it is a key element in the videos I have chosen to

study. Most research that explores interracial pornography identifies that it acts as a
9 | 13606860

function to reinforce colonial mindsets that the Black man is ‘taking’ a White woman

(Benard, 2016) – interracial pornography is often referenced as Black on White bodies, but

other ethnicities are involved in the creation of this type of pornography, and I think to

ignore this fact could impact research. With my data, I aim to avoid specifically discussing

interracial pornography as it erases the identities of the other involved actors, and I will

indicate the ethnicities of actors to allow for discussion within my analysis. In addition to

this, it is suggested that interracial pornography can be used as a tool to display evidence

that racial and sexual discrimination is no longer an issue and that society has progressed

past its old racial views (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 278; Walker, 1979, pp.95). Whilst the

exploration of this tool within the performance of pornography is important, for my own

research, I felt that creating a focus on that whilst exploring the presentation of a Black male

body limited the data that I would be able to gather as bodies within pornography are

varied and restricting myself to a certain type of pornography would only produce certain

results.

In addition to this, racism is also a topic that is indicated

within the study of pornography and has been indicated in several papers as a topic of

discussion. Some papers and literature discuss racism in terms of being a present theme

that can be identified within pornographic films and videos (Cowan and Campbell, 1994;

Dines, 2006; Fritz et al 2021) and some discuss how race is considered within pornography

(Walker, 1979; Mayall and Russell, 1993; Benard, 2016). The difference between these, is

that racism as a theme explores how somethings that are seen in pornography are racist,

like dialogue or the scenario the actors are involved, whereas race within pornography

explores how bodies are presented. Within my research, I intend to discuss both within my
10 | 13606860

analysis as I feel that they are both essential in exploring and acknowledging racist functions

within performative art as well as being important to having an expansive dialogue.

Another thing that this research tends to focus on is

analysing content found in significant pornographic movies. I intend to use pornographic

videos, from a public access pornographic website – PornHub. My main reason for this is

that it would allow replication more easily as the content is not stuck behind a paywall, but

also that it allows me to open a dialogue about accessibility and the impact that easy

viewing could have on its viewers. Research into pornography tended to be varied with the

content it analysed, for example, one piece of research I found looked at a famous

pornographic film (Smith and Luykx, 2017) and another at pornographic videocassettes

(Cowan and Campbell, 1994). In our current technological age, almost anyone can access

the internet and, as a result, pornographic websites. Many of these pornography websites

are free to access, but restrict certain content so that viewers must pay to view them.

Looking in to free to access pornography is not a new field of study and was looked at by

Fritz et al (2021) as well as Shor and Golriz (2019).

Because pornography can be free to access, it can also be

used as a tool by younger people to understand sex as well as the behaviour and acts that

come with it. In some countries, sex education can vary between useful and non-existent,

and pornography can be used as an exploratory tool to help further understand sex and

other’s bodies whilst being free to use. Research shows that pornography is used in this way

(Liberman, 2015; Oosterhoff et al, 2016; Dawson et al, 2019) regardless of the sex education

that people receive and it can be used as a tool to explore fetishes and sexuality. Regarding
11 | 13606860

my research, I want to see if pornography could be used as a tool in encouraging potential

racist behaviours by exploring my results in collaboration with other pieces of research.

For my dissertation, my main reason for exploring and

analysing pornography is a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns that have been experienced

globally and resulted in everyone being required to stay at home to reduce the spread of

infection. As a result of this, studies have been conducted over the last couple of years

which make it clear that the pandemic has resulted in an increased use of pornography

(Zattoni et al, 2020; Grubbs, 2020; PornHub, 2020). This increase can be attributed with a

few things, a common theme that respondents state is sexual frustration due to COVID-19

isolation – this has meant that in many countries people were unable to meet up with other

people unless it was necessary and meeting up with people to have sex was not considered

essential. As pornography is considered a form of theatre (Klein, 2006, pp. 246), it could be

used as a tool to feel intimate with someone, even if the viewer is watching it by

themselves.

In addition to everyone being restricted to their homes,

mental health in the population has deteriorated and meant that people are more

commonly experiencing loneliness and anxiety. Studies and reports are indicative that these

feelings can impact thrill seeking and sexual behaviour (Dutton and Aron, 1974; Zattoni et al,

2020; Reid et al, 2011; Grubbs, 2020; Denworth, 2020; Kanter and Manbeck, 2020) – it could

be inferred that seeking out pornography is thrill seeking behaviour for some, whilst others

could be more inclined to watch hardcore versions of pornography. This research indicates

that this is a result of a chemical response in the brain which treats loneliness in a similar

way to hunger, in that the brain essentially becomes ‘starved’ for social interaction. In
12 | 13606860

addition to this, it is suggested that the increased feelings in anxiety results in individual’s

seeking out pornography as a method of escapism as it displays a scenario in which

someone can place themselves within and experience what they are seeing. With my

research, it could be suggested that this is content that is actively sought out by viewers to

make themselves feel better and potentially become influenced by presentations of bodies

that they see.

Methodology

When conducting research, it is of great import that the

methods in which it will be performed are set and explained for the opportunity to test

reliability in the future. In this section, I aim to lay out the methods I have selected for my

research, and to explain how and why I chose them. In addition to this, I will discuss my data

collection and the ways in which I selected my data. To finalise this section, I will briefly

discuss ethical issues that could be present as well as suggest the ways in which I could

conduct this study differently.

The main basis of this dissertation is a content analysis with

the data analysed in an exploratory discussion. I feel that this is the most effective method,

as other pieces of research in pornography used this method (Shor and Golris, 2019; Cowan

and Campbell, 1994) and it allows me to explore how this media could alter public opinion

(Stemler, 2000). By choosing this method of research and analysis, it was my intent that I

would be able to identify key themes in the variety of tools that pornography uses. Through

identifying themes in dialogue, lighting, camera shots, scenarios, etc, it was my hope that I

would be able to discuss these themes in relation to literature discussing post-colonial

research and research already conducted in the field of racialised pornography. In addition
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to conducting my study this way, I also have chosen to focus primarily on one specific

pornographic actor – Prince Yahshua.

My reasoning for choosing this actor is founded through a

few things; for this research, I knew I did not want to focus on an ‘amateur’ pornographic

actor and wanted to observe ‘professional’ pornography – professional pornography is

produced and decided by agents and companies, and means I am able to draw inferences

from a more general stand-point comparative to ‘amateur’ pornography and discuss what

the demand is when it comes to pornographic videos; it allows me to look at the broader

scale of present themes that could impact the behaviour and ideologies of individuals within

society. In addition to this, I knew it was important to identify and look at works involving an

actor who has been involved in pornography for a long period of time. In Prince Yahshua’s

case, he has an established presence within the pornography community which I will discuss

further in my analysis. By choosing a singular well-known pornographic actor, I can make

certain inferences about the work he has been involved in and discuss the discourse that

surrounds a specific black male body by himself and others. In the case of this research, I

aim to analyse only 10% of his free videos which are easily accessible on PornHub, and I will

be choosing these videos from his ‘Most Viewed’ so that I can observe what viewers are

generally looking for when it comes to a Black male body in pornography.

To explain how I was able to conduct this research, I need to

explain how I chose the actor and their videos. Firstly, my choice of actor came from

navigating PornHub’s ‘Male Pornstar’ tab and filtering the ethnicity to ‘Black’ and looking at

the number of videos posted by the actor. The first result was an actor who primarily

performed solo videos, so I decided to not use that content as it would not allow me to
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observe the data I intend to research. The second actor was Prince Yahshua, who’s profile

had shown the sort of content I had intended to analyse as well as indicating their lengthy

time in the industry. Now that I had chosen the actor I was going to focus on, I had to decide

how many videos I would watch and how I would choose them. For a dissertation, and being

a solo researcher, I felt that I should not give myself too much to watch - I would then have

too much data for a dissertation which is word restricted - and that 10% of the most viewed

videos found on Prince Yahshua’s profile on PornHub was reasonable as it equated to 40

videos averaging around 10 to 15 minutes each. As I am looking to observe whole videos, I

am electing to avoid videos which are compilations as these videos only show specific shots

from videos that Prince Yahshua is involved in. My main reason for omitting those videos is

because they are a collection of clips from a variety of videos, and whilst it is beneficial in

seeing that these videos are being watched by the public, for my research it is my belief that

it is not useful for my data as my data is primarily focusing on videos in one setting, not a

variety at once. At the time of conducting my research, Prince Yahshua’s PornHub page had

a total of 401 videos under his ‘Most Viewed’ category, which means that 10% of this would

be 40. Out of this, 4 videos were not used due to being compilations or for being duplicates

of videos already watched.

When watching these videos, I had pre-set some main

themes that I wanted to identify in the videos. By doing this, it allowed me to watch videos

with an idea of what kind of content I was aiming to analyse as well as allowing me to build

codes off the existing ones I had decided. My main themes that I had chosen were:

scenarios, lighting, positions or sexual acts, camera angles or shots, video titles, audio or

music, main women, and dialogues. As pornography is a form of multimedia, it is important

to observe and analyse all the components as they can be significant in understanding the
15 | 13606860

entire picture, like a piece of art in a museum. Unlike most art, pornography can be overt in

the themes and the representations it wishes to display which could make it more directly

influential on a viewer as it is clear in what it is trying to present, leaving little to no room for

interpretation. By creating broad themes to look for in the videos, I was then able to create

smaller umbrella terms. Specificity within content analysis can restrict the data gathered, so

I was making sure that I was noting themes of significance whilst also being sure to not

make it specific and make it so that it was just a smaller umbrella to make my time coding

easier, but not difficult. This broadness is one of the downsides to content analysis, as it can

leave results on the vague side, however, for my research I feel that being too specific would

leave me with too much information to analysis within a word restricted dissertation.

There are some issues I can foresee in this research, the

main of which is my main case study into a specific actor. While not a major issue, it does

create some issue with my data in that it only shows the representation of one Black male

body in pornography and does not account for Black bodies that can be found involved in

different types of pornography, like gay pornography. However, for my research I am only

focussing on the racially charged issues surrounding Black bodies in heterosexually coded

pornography, and so selecting one actor to focus on is helpful for me in my research as it

means I can focus and be more in depth with their videos instead of accessing the large

variety of videos that contains Black male actors in straight pornography. In addition to this,

identifying and analysing one actor allows me the opportunity to explore the ways in which

their body is advertised and presented outside of pornography and makes it easier as a

focus when analysing videos, as I know that I am mainly focussing on the one actor as

opposed to the many that could be involved within the video being displayed.
16 | 13606860

In addition to this, conducting a content analysis can be

inherently bias, as I am identifying themes that specifically fit my research, which others

may not identify when they view the same videos I do. By discussing the main themes that I

had aimed to observe in the video, it is my hope that this allows others to observe the

thought pattern I followed to get to specific themes that I will discuss in my analysis. I am

making it as clear as possible what themes are visible and providing examples of what I

identified so it is clear what my thought process was to identify significant data.

In terms of ethics, the only major ethical issue involved is my

own safety. My research does not involve interviewing anyone or using anyone’s personal

information – Prince Yahshua’s information is all accessible through PornHub as well as his

own site. Whilst conducting my research, I made sure to watch all the videos in an incognito

window on Google Chrome, as this allows me to access content without it affecting my own

online data and internet history. It allowed me to keep the content of pornography

specifically to the window I conducted my research in, and there was no risk of being a part

of my own personal data. Whilst the website I access will likely store the viewing

information for the videos, my computer will not store the data in its browsing history, nor

will it save any of the site data upon closing the incognito window.

Now that the methodology of my research has been laid

out, I can begin to show the analysis of the data that I have collected. In this section, I will be

initially discussing the individual that this study focuses on – who he is, how he is placed

within the pornography industry, and what discourse surrounds him – and follow this

discussion with an in-depth look at the themes of significance found in his videos and what

this content could mean for viewers. After discussing who Prince Yahshua is, I will begin
17 | 13606860

discussing the type of partners involved – the main women theme – and follow this with

discussing positions or acts, then shot types or angles, followed by the scenarios, then a

discussion on music or audio, then talk about the kinds of dialogue used, and end on a

discussion of the title language. I will then summarise the information with a brief discussion

on how racially coded information could be interpreted by viewers.

Who is Prince Yahshua?

Before analysing the content that I gathered, I should first

explain who the actor is that I have focussed my research on. Prince Yahshua is a

pornographic actor who has been in the industry since roughly 2004 and has even been a

director for pornographic films between 2008 and 2019 (IAFD, 2021). During his time as an

actor, he has received multiple awards over the years - some within the last few years for

his involvement in the industry and some of these awards came from Adult Video News or

more commonly known as the AVN, which is an industry trade magazine that holds yearly

awards ceremonies that are considered “the Oscars of porn” (Feinberg, 2017). As a result of

his lengthy time in this industry, he has had the chance to perform with some well-known

female pornographic actresses, like Riley Reid – an actress who is ranked 4 th on the PornHub

website, which suggests that her videos are frequently searched for and watched - who was

involved in two of the videos I analysed. In addition to this, he went on to create his own

adult talent agency to represent actors in the porn industry which he titled ‘Silverback

Modeling Agency’ (SBW Modeling, 2021) – the title itself has some racial connotations,

which could be linked colonial representations. As an actor, Prince Yahshua develops a racial

discourse for viewers to follow, not just seen from the talent agency he created, but also in

his stage name.

The discourse that Prince Yahshua perpetuates is one that

involves the constant reminder of his Black body – his talent agency being titled ‘Silverback’

in reference to the animals that have been associated with Black bodies in racist

commentary as well how he presents himself within pornography, where he is known for his

large genitals and muscular frame. Dines (2006, pp. 288) states that, “Black men, whether

athletes or hip-hop artists, are admired for their cool, muscular, hard bodies when they are

located within the safe, contained space of a mediated image on a screen.”. We could

suggest that this is something that Prince Yahshua leans in to and embraces as a way to get

his brand across. Pornography is recognised as a performative art (Klein, 2006, pp. 246) and

the overt character that Prince Yahshua presents himself as is very similar to colonial

representations of Black bodies (Hall, 1997, pp. pp. 249, 262-263; Shefer and Ratele, 2011,

pp. 36). Further to this, on Prince Yahshua’s website, there is a statement in the biography

which says: “White girls, black girls, Asian girls, you name it, I wanna fuck the living shit out

of her!” (Prince Yahshua Official Site, 2021) which Walker (1979, pp. 103) indicates is a

portrayal in pornography which is common – the perception that the Black man is capable

and wanting to have sex with anything. Prince Yahshua is not the first and is unlikely to be

the last to describe themselves this way as Dines (2006, pp. 286) identifies another actor –

Paul Little, AKA Max Hardcore – that does a similar thing.

In addition to this, the stage name that he has chosen for

himself – Prince Yahshua – has some interesting implications. The very clear one being that

his character is close to kingliness, being considered a prince, and that he considers his

character to be above others. The other component of his name – Yahshua – has religious

connotations. In Hebrew, Yahshua can be loosely translated as the Messiah’s name (Botkin,

ND). It could be suggested that this character he has created – Prince Yahshua – is meant to
19 | 13606860

be placed above others, and this is something I identified in the videos I analysed – he is

seemingly always in the position of power and is taking what he wants like a ‘Prince’ would

and should, but he is also giving these women that he works with almost ‘religious’

experiences by having sex with them. Experiences that these women would not ordinarily

be able to have. It is unclear if this representation is freeing or repressive, but there is

research that suggests that this representation can be liberating to counter racist narratives

(Smith and Luykx, 2017).

When it comes to the identity of Prince Yahshua, his name

and body are not the only key things that are prevalent within his videos and presence – his

genitals are also important to the identity of his pornography character. Many of his videos

reference his ‘Big Black Cock’ – which I will discuss more later in the analysis – and during his

career, he has even suffered from penile injuries. When the first injury he sustained was

reported on, the concern seemed to be more directed at the fact his career would be over

due to the damage and instead of reporting on the situation in a more general circumstance

(Chatsworth, 2010), the focus remained on his genitals almost as though that was the only

important part of Prince Yahshua.

My results

As previously mentioned, I had watched a total of 40 videos,

but only used data gathered from 36 of them as data from 4 of them were unusable. They

were not able to be used as they were either compilation videos or they were duplicate

videos of more popular videos that were analysed already. Data was gathered through a

tally collection document in excel, and from that I can make inferences regarding it in
20 | 13606860

relation to post-colonial research and literatures, then further discuss how the

representations and themes identified can affect a viewer’s perspective.

Women in videos

One of the biggest things I identified in my research, is that the videos primarily had

a White female partner (29 out of 36), and in these videos they were treated more gently by

the male actor(s) compared to Black or Latina actresses – Monk-Turner and Purcell (1999)

found that White women were more likely to experience less sexual violence when paired

with a Black man compared to a White man. In addition to this, the situations that they

were involved with were often White women wanting to have fun with Black men, and in

many videos these women could be heard saying: “Fuck me like my husband can’t”. From

post-colonial research, we understand that Black men have been identified as being bestial

and have been debased to their ‘basic’ elements (Dines, 2006, pp. 288; Mayall and Russell,

1993, pp. 279; Dines, 1998). Black bodies were also demonized as a way for White men to

feel superior, and this demonization acted as a function to encourage segregation in wider

society. Dines (2006, pp. 285) states that:

it is black men, not white men, who carry the legal and social burdens of being the

“fucker” of white women. Indeed, black men are fast becoming, in the world of

mainstream electronic pornography, the most sought after “fuckers” of white

women.
21 | 13606860

This suggests that Black men are the bodies that people wish to see paired with White

female bodies within pornography – there could be many reasons for this, one is that the

Black man is able to become more socially mobile because of their proximity to Whiteness

and in turn become more powerful (Walker, 1979, pp. 95). Another reason for this pairing

being sought out, is that people could be using the idea of interracial pornography as a

presumption that racial discrimination is not an issue because pornography can present

their coupling with no issue (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 278). Further to this idea, it could

be suggested that pornography which sees Black men and White women having sex could

be sexist towards White women, Dines (2006, pp. 285) states:

It is hard to conceive of a better way to degrade white women, in a culture with a

long and ugly history of racism, than having them penetrated again and again by a

body that has been constructed, coded, and demonized as a carrier for all that is

sexually debased, namely the black male.

Another thing I found whilst researching, was that when the

pornography involved a Black female actor, the scenarios of the video were more

promiscuous. One of the videos saw the actress seducing the actor who was married to her

sister; another video presented a sex party with 3 men and 3 women where they were

swapping partners and moving and making noises in a very animalistic way. In addition to

this, there was a video titled “EBONY BABE ANA FOXX CELEBRATES HER BIRTHDAY WITH AN

ANAL GROUP SEX PARTY” (Analized, 2020) in which a Black actress says that she wants to

have a sex party with all her friends, which heavily links in with old representations of Black

women being promiscuous and having a large sexual appetite (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp.

279; Crenshaw, 1991, pp. 1251). In this video, the actress was passed around multiple male
22 | 13606860

and female actors of varying ethnicities which could lean into that perspective that Black

women are sexually depraved and impulsive. Mayall and Russell (1993, pp. 279) suggest

that: “This kind of pornography likely fosters racist-sexist stereotypes as well as racist-sexist

behaviour, including sexual abuse and sexual violence against African- American girls and

women.”

There was only one video that included a Latina actress, and

this video was one of the more aggressive videos in which the actress was passed between

Prince Yahshua and another Black man and there was only rough movements and actions.

Shor and Golriz (2019) state that pornographic “videos featuring Asian and Latina women

were more likely to depict aggression.”. Similar to Black women, Latina women were

perceived as being sexually depraved and were generally expected to be ‘put in their place’.

Through the aggression seen in the pornographic video, it could be suggested that this acts

as a way to show viewers again this idea that Latina women need to be ‘put in their place’

and that maybe the Black penis is the only way to do this. By viewing this, watcher’s may

unconsciously associate Latina women as wanting sexual encounters to be on the rough side

and thus treat people with this body in a racist way.

Lighting

In terms of lighting, I found that it was always generally

done in a way that was either natural appearing or similar to the basic white lighting in a

film studio. In 7 of the 36 videos, there was lighting done in a certain way that it highlighted

the Black penis, and it was often above a woman or just before they go to perform oral sex.

By focussing on the Black penis in this way, it reinforces Dines’ (2006, pp. 291) statement

that “In IP [Interracial pornography] it is the black penis that becomes the star of the show”,
23 | 13606860

and in addition to this, “the camera lingers on the black penis; the female body is interesting

only in terms of how much penis she can tolerate.” (Ibid, pp. 292) The highlight of the Black

penis shows that it is the ‘star’ of the video and is what pornography producers and studios

believe is what viewers want to see. In doing this, it perpetuates this idea that the Black

body is different and encourages this sense of difference and ‘otherness’ that has been

discussed as a main component to racism and in racial segregation (Hall, 1997, pp. 256;

Veneuse in Fanon, 2008, pp. 55)

There was one video in which the lighting was done in a way

to make the woman appear extremely pale white and make the two black male actors

appear darker, like a spotlight. Highlighting bodies in this way in theatre or film is generally

indicative of importance, so by highlighting the Black body and genitals in this way it acts as

a way to reinforce the importance of the presence of the Black man, like Dines (2006, pp.

291) stated, “it is the black penis that becomes the star of the show”. It also acts as a way of

displaying ‘basic’ components of the Black body, implying that only specific parts of the

Black body are important. This use of highlighting specifically focuses on colour as a main

part of the video, which you could interpret as the colour white indicating purity or

innocence, whilst the colour black is bold and powerful. By using the light to accentuate skin

colours in this way, it allows the racial stereotypes that revolve around the interpretation of

the Black male body as powerful and dangerous for having that power and the White female

body to be delicate and pure, and it breeds the implication that White female bodies must

be protected whilst Black male bodies should be feared because of their power.

Positions or acts
24 | 13606860

In terms of actor positioning, my results showed that in 28

out of 36 videos Black men were stood over their female partners. This could be a result of a

couple things: 1) a way to reinforce the power of the Black male body, and 2) to indicate

sexist themes. In terms of sexism, you could suggest that by placing the female body below

a male body, it differentiates the size between them and shows just how small and weak the

female is (Klein, 2006, pp. 246). In terms of racist ideologies, by placing the Black man in a

position of power above their female partner, you could suggest that this acts as a way to

show that Black men are intimidating. In addition to this, there were also many videos (23

out of 36) that included multiple men – generally it was multiple Black actors, but there

were a handful with a variety of ethnicities – which perpetuates this colonial idea that Black

men are sexually deviant and hungry by having multiple men interacting with the female

body in a sexual way.

Whilst videos tended to be mixed in terms of aggression,

there was six videos that were particularly rough in terms of the performance – examples of

this are choking, gripping the hair tightly, throwing the actresses body – and also included

‘ass to mouth’, which is where the penis goes from being in someone’s anus to being in the

mouth of the same person. As an act, it is not particularly safe from a hygiene and bacterial

point of view, and this does suggest an implication that a Black penis encourages female

partners to become ‘unclean’, similar to how Black bodies have been perceived as well

being perceived as sexually depraved (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 279). In addition to this,

the roughness seen within the videos could indicate that this is a component of the Black

male body – the strength and power that they have – and could suggest that whilst the

image of the Black male body is intimidating and perceived as something that could bring

pain, it is also something that is closely associated with desire (Yang and Ryser, 2008, pp.
25 | 13606860

740). To further add to this, Prince Yahshua was seen performing over exaggerated

movements or noises in 7 of the 36 videos. These videos saw him literally throwing smaller

women around – it was very similar to watching a Saturday morning episode of WWE,

where the wrestlers throw each other in very exaggerated ways to excite the audience –

and in some videos, yelling very loudly in a way that does not make sense; sex as an act is

supposed to be pleasurable, but the yelling did not sound or come across as pleasurable. It

could be suggested that this over-the-top performance has links to the concept that black

men are “incapable of self-control” (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 279) because they throw

their partners and yell in an uncontrolled way and by displaying this in the videos, it

perpetuates this racist ideology and allows viewers to perceive the same thing – Black men

are unable to control themselves, so they throw sexual partners around as though they

were objects.

There is one act that I feel deserves mentioning, despite its

appearance only once. This particular act saw a White woman crawling across the floor

towards her Black male partners, in which she was treated as like an animal – Walker (1979,

pp. 95) states that:

Many Black men see pornography as progressive because the white woman,

formerly taboo, is, via pornography, made available to them. Not simply available,

but in a position of vulnerability to all men. This availability and vulnerability

diminishes the importance and power of color among men and permits a bonding

with white men as men, which Black men, striving to be equal, not content with

being different, apparently desire.

It could be implied from the imagery of the subservient and willing White woman, that the

Black men in the video were like White men, which as Walker (1979) stated, is something

that Black men apparently desire to be. With Black men and White men the same for having

the White woman engaged and subservient to them, it could be implied that there is no

racism within society, because why would a White woman willingly behave in this way? “It is

widely believed that sexual unions nullify sexism and racism.” (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp.

278) There is another implication in that this could be perceived as the Black man’s fantasy,

to be served by a White body in this way and have his needs fulfilled. Either way, this could

be seen as something potentially progressive because of the act seen within the video, but it

could be debated that it just continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes by showing this

representation of the White woman as being subservient to the Black man.

Shot types or angles

When analysing the kinds of camera shots and angles that

were used, I noticed that a variety of camera angles were used, and they were generally

insignificant to study. There were, however, some shots that are worth mentioning. Out of

the 36 videos, 21 of them kept the focus away from Prince Yahshua’s face. Dines (2006, pp.

261) states that: “In heterosexual non-interracial pornography, it is the woman’s body that

is scrutinized, talked about, focused on, and visually interrogated. In IP it is the black penis

that becomes the true star of the show.” When the focus was away from Prince Yahshua’s

face, it was almost always focused on his Black penis or on the woman enjoying his Black

penis and this penile focus occurred in 18 out of 36 videos. As Hall (1997) discusses in

reference to a famous athlete – Linford Christie – Black bodies experience sexism and being

debased to their ‘basic’ elements, and in doing so it dehumanises and belittles them. The
27 | 13606860

focus on the Black penis debases the Black body, as it suggests the only significant thing

about them is their genitalia. In addition to the camera focus on the Black penis, there were

also 17 videos where the shots focussed on the Black body being stretched out, normally to

display their chest or to lay back on a surface so they are displayed for their partners. By

displaying their chests and musculature in this way, it debases them to a ‘base’ element –

being physically strong and well built – which is a theme noted in Hall (1997, pp. 262-263)

where they suggest that Black masculinity is forged from the histories of slavery,

colonialism, and imperialism, where the expectation is that Black men are strong and tough.

Both the camera focus on genitalia and musculature are acts of dehumanisation as they are

perpetuating this idea that Black bodies are only important for their components as

opposed to their bodies as a whole.

Scenarios

When it comes to scenarios of the video, there was a

mixture of aggressive and sensual pornography – 21 videos were aggressive, while 15 videos

were more on the sensual side. Sensual representations were often focussed on new

experience type videos, like married women having sex with a Black man (8 out of 36) or a

sugar-baby having sex with her sugar-daddy (1 of 36). Monk-Turner and Purcell (1999)

suggest from their own research that pornography that involved White women tended to

present less violence when they were paired with a Black man – in my own research, I found

that this was often the case, and that if White women were involved in an aggressive

scenario, the video often displayed rough sex acts and appeared to be more sexually violent,

like in one video I studied, the White woman was kidnapped and the Black man ripped her
28 | 13606860

clothes and raped her character. The conclusion to the video was that the White woman

enjoyed being taken advantage of by the Black man. This scenario of the Black male body

raping the White female body could play into the power fantasy of the Black man taking

control of the White man’s ‘possession’ (Shefer and Ratele, 2011, pp. 37), which were

considered genuine fears - the myth of the ‘Black rapist’ (Davis, 1983, pp. 101) – and in

addition to this, Mayall and Russell (1993, pp. 279) state that, “rape is a liberatory

experience for women is a popular male fantasy in pornography.” We could infer that in

reference to the videos, the idea of the Black man raping the White woman is something

that the pornography registers as being a liberatory act for Black men, as they are displaying

this scenario for viewers and suggesting that in the end, the White women really loved the

Black man taking advantage of her and her vulnerability. This could be interpreted by some

viewers that women secretly enjoy this act of being raped, but also that Black men are

unable to control themselves (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 279) and will take advantage of

people’s vulnerabilities – not just in women, but they might exploit men to obtain women.

Other scenarios often involved porn actors just being porn

actors shooting pornography in 13 of the 36 videos. There is nothing necessarily significant

about this, as the videos that were like this had no story and was just about two people

having sex together on camera – it is just considered to be work, ‘another day at the office’.

There is one key scenario that I felt was important as it had

a lot of racial connotations, and this was the ‘White married women want fun’ scenario,

which appeared in 8 of the 36 videos. These videos often focused on the idea that these

women felt unfulfilled within their marriages, and felt that by cheating on their ‘boring,

White husbands’ with a Black man, they would be fulfilled again. One of the main things I
29 | 13606860

had picked up from my own research, is that in these scenarios, it often included dialogue

that humiliated their White husbands and glorified the Black body through comments about

them being strong or having a large penis. This is another scenario in which Black bodies are

debased to their basic elements for White bodies (Hall, 1997) and it perpetuates this idea

that White married women are engaging with dangerous bodies – it breeds this idea that

marriage is a bond of possession, and that Black man are bad, so being fearful and policing

the Black body is justified (Dines, 2006, pp. 288). By reproducing this idea that Black bodies

need policing because of the risk they present, it perpetuates this idea of segregation (Hall,

1997, pp. 256) through the use of pornography – viewers may be led to believe that they

should either stay away from Black men or that they need to protect women from Black

men because of this.

Music or audio

The audio or music was generally insignificant. Introduction

music did not indicate anything about the video and was used to build a scene, so techno

music was used for women getting ready to seduce a man. I found that in terms of

significance, there was two different bits of audio which were important to analyse. The first

is the use of animal like noises in 3 of the 36 videos. Two of these videos involved Black

female partners whilst the other included a Latina female partner. The videos were sexually

violent, and the noises that were being made were similar to dogs barking or howling, and

ape-like howling. Sex can be seen as a primal act, as you are giving in to your baser needs as

a mammal so noises are to be expected, but noises outside of moaning can be seen as odd –
30 | 13606860

especially if the noises are animal like. It could be suggested that these noises reinforce the

racist ideology that Black bodies are animalistic (Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 279) as well

as reinforce the identity of Black masculinity as suggested by Dines (2006, pp. 293).

The other significant piece of audio I found was the use of

dramatic music in one video. The music was in a scene which saw a White woman’s hand

approaching the Black penis slowly, the music slowly builds up as the hand approaches and

peaks and ends once the hand has grasped the Black penis. The White woman then

nervously laughs and comments: “It’s so big.” Through the use of this small piece of music, it

tells a story about the Black penis – it is dangerous, unknown. We can infer that to the

White woman, the Black penis is new but dangerous (Klein, 2006, pp. 246), and by grasping

it they accept whatever the Black man has to offer, even if that offer is pain (Yang and Ryser,

2008, pp. 740). Viewers could be led to believe that this interpretation is reality as

pornography continues to mythologise the Black penis and, in some cases, demonise it.

Dialogue

Dialogue could also be considered audio, however, for this

research I wished to look at them as separate components – pornography is a form of

theatre (Klein, 2006, pp. 246) and to consider spoken dialogue in the same category as

music or other sounds would mean clumping two separate and important tools together.

Spoken dialogue tended to vary in videos, with some themes appearing more commonly

compared to other themes. One of the most common themes I noticed was how the Black

penis was referred to like an object, and this occurred in 24 of 36 videos. When I say that

genitals were treated like an object, I am discussing the phrases that are like: “Take that

dick”, and “I know you can take it”. These phrases essentially commodify the penis as it is
31 | 13606860

being referred to as an object for others to consume, orally, anally, or vaginally. By using ‘it’,

this idea develops that the Black penis is something else – it cannot compare to any other

penis. We see from pornography titles and studios that the ‘Big Black Cock’ is a commodity

within the pornographic space, and that it is something that people want to actively search

for within videos (Pornhub, 2019). This dialogue perpetuates this idea that the Black body is

only important for certain components, and it also proceeds to place Black bodies in a

position where they are treated as a commodity – like slavery. Their Black bodies are used

for service, and in one video I found dialogue that directly referenced this idea of the Black

man servicing the White female body – Prince Yahshua specifically says, “I am here to serve

you” to the White woman who was lonely and tired of her boring White husband, who

leaves her so unfulfilled as a married woman. The main racial theme here is that Black

bodies are below White bodies – Black bodies are there to serve and please their White

employers or ‘masters’. Cowan and Campbell (1994) indicate that “racism was

demonstrated in the lower status of Black actors and the presence of racial stereotypes”,

and so by placing the White woman in the position of power in the video – the employer –

and the Black man in the position of subservience – the employee – you see this colonial

stereotype of the Black body being socially below White bodies.

On the flip side, there were also 8 out of 36 videos in which

Prince Yahshua was in the position of power and was directly referred to as the authority

figure. The titles he was referred to were things like: “Mr. Davis”, “Daddy”, and even his

stage name of “Prince” which places him in a position of power. Using the name Prince was

not heard in every video, which makes sense as pornography sells itself on its authenticity

so to use you or your partners name within the performance could destroy the illusion for

viewers. By placing the actor in the position of power, it could be argued that it is an
32 | 13606860

attempt at trying to display that racism is no longer an issue – as Cowan and Campbell

(1994) suggest, “racism was demonstrated in the lower status of Black actors and the

presence of racial stereotypes”, and by having a Black actor in a higher status in these

videos, you could suppose that the racism is not present. Another theory that I have, is that

it plays into this idea that pornography is progressive as Walker (1979, pp. 95) suggests that

White women being available to Black men allows them to be equal to White men – they

are both in positions of power that allow them to access White bodies.

White focused language was seen in videos, in two different

ways. In 5 of 36 videos, I identified language that aimed to humiliate the White penis – this

dialogue was seen in the videos where White married women were cheating on their

partners as well as videos in which women cheated on their boyfriends – and the comments

were a mix of: “your penis is 5 times bigger than my boyfriends”, “my husbands dick is so

small”, and “your dick is so much better than my husband’s.” Through this humiliation, it

reinforces this idea that the Black penis is big and that once you experience it you will not

want the White penis again (Yang and Ryser, 2008, pp. 740) and in addition to this, it creates

this idea that the Black penis is ‘something else’ and reinforce this idea of ‘otherness’ – it

separates the Black male and the White male, despite them having the same type of

genitals. The presentation of inadequacy from the White penis also reinforces the

contemporary myth of Black masculinity which renders the White man impotent (Dines,

1998). Viewers could interpret this language and begin to also treat the Black penis as a

commodity in a similar way – an object that should create anxiety.

The other form of White focused language was seen in 2

videos, and this language directly referenced the female body. The comments were in
33 | 13606860

relation to the mouth and vagina, and how much of the Black penis it could take. This, again,

serves to reinforce this idea that the Black penis is so large and that White bodies may not

necessarily be biologically designed to ‘manage’ it. Viewers could develop this idea and

potential fascination with the Black penis, and thus reproduce the myth of the Black penis

and Black masculinity as something that is large, potentially dangerous, but exciting (Hall,

1997, pp. 262-263; Benard, 2016; Yang and Ryser, 2008, pp.740). It also encourages this idea

in pornography that White women when paired with a Black man are only interesting in

how much Black penis they can take (Dines, 2006, pp. 292).

To follow on from this, there were 14 videos which

contained dialogue in which Prince Yahshua praised his female partner for taking his penis.

We know from Dines (2006, pp. 292) that women are generally only interesting in

pornography in how much Black penis she can take, and in addition to this, they state that

interracial pornography also applauds the actress for taking the Black penis “in her white

mouth, vagina, and anus”. (Dines, 2006, pp. 291) By essentially congratulating someone for

‘taking’ the Black penis, it turns it in to an object and it acts as a way to suggest that the

Black penis is not something that should be taken – the phrasing makes it seem as though

the Black penis is considered invasive, as if it does not belong. Hall (1997, pp. 256) suggests

that forms of media as well as the society that consumes the content encourages

segregation, and by referring to the Black penis as though it were an object and something

to fear produces this sense that if it is dangerous and should be kept away.

Title Language

When it came to analysing the titles, I knew there was not

much to discuss, however, there was some language that I felt was worth discussing. When
34 | 13606860

using websites like PornHub, they have categories for videos, and the videos often have the

name of the category in the titles which can make searching for specific content easier. I

found that 10 of the videos had sex acts in the title for filtering, or they often just had the

names of the actors in them, but the main thing I noticed was that 20 out of 36 videos

contained BBC in the title. BBC is slang for ‘Big Black Cock’. As previously mentioned in the

analysis, research and literature is indicative of this idea that Black bodies should be

debased to their ‘basic’ components, and that by using this term for filtering, people are

actively seeking videos that contain this content. Pornhub (2019) have seen an increase in

searches for BBC, and while it is commonplace because pornography deals with bodies at its

core in an unapologetic way (Dines, 2006, pp. 289), it can also be indicative of a racist

ideology as viewers and pornography companies are debasing Black bodies and presenting

them in such a way that it accentuates only one component of their body – the Black penis.

How could this affect viewers?

Now that the most important data has been discussed in

relation to the racial and colonial connotations that it has, I will discuss how this could

transfer into the viewers own ideology. As mentioned already, pornography can be

presumed to constitute evidence that racial or sexual discrimination is not a problem

(Mayall and Russell, 1993, pp. 278) and so, you could assume that because in pornography

White woman willingly have sex with Black men, racism is not an issue when it comes to

pornography and sex. This, however, is not the case, and we can clearly see it from

something as simple as the title which commodifies a ‘basic’ component of the Black body
35 | 13606860

(Hall, 1997; Dines, 2006; Benard, 2016) and see that racism is very present in pornography

and is still an issue.

Racism in media is sadly not a new phenomenon, and

pornography is not the only industry that tries to exploit bodies of colour to get views on

their content. Television is something that has been doing this for a long time, and we have

seen television shows like the Cosby Show and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which represents

a “safe and sanitized black middle-class identity” (Shefer and Ratele, 2011, pp. 38), and we

have seen similar things in pornography in which a Black actor could be performing as a

middle-class identity – in one of the videos I analysed, Prince Yahshua was a music producer

which presented this idea of a wealthy, middle or upper class Black man. By presenting

Black bodies in this way, it shows viewers that there is a ‘safe’ or ‘good’ version of the Black

body, and this can be used to alleviate racial anxiety. (Dines, 2006, pp. 288) Media

consumption can influence a viewer’s ideology, as research has shown with pornography

that people seek it out to understand sex better (Liberman, 2015; Oosterhoff et al, 2016;

Dawson et al, 2019) and so from this, we could infer viewers are learning about sex and the

different components of sex – including the racial stereotypes that surround bodies of

colour in the space. My own research has shown that racial stereotypes are presented and

performed in pornography in an overt way, and we could suggest that pornography

primarily presents the concept of the ‘bad black’, which Dines (2006, p.288) suggests,

“served to legitimize the overt violence, lynching, and rape of blacks by positioning blacks as

violent, in need of policing, and as a threat to white stability if left uncontrolled.”

History has shown us that media presentations of bodies

can dictate what the societal perspective is, and we have seen this happen in Apartheid in
36 | 13606860

South Africa (Shefer and Ratele, 2011) and they go on to state that “experiences, both

material and physical, from the past will constantly try to reinscribe themselves (often in

masked form) in the present, if they are not acknowledged, interrogated and addressed.”

(Ibid., pp. 31) From this, we can deduce that because racism is not being appropriately

addressed or acknowledged in media, and specifically pornography, that it will make

appearances in the current day – the data shows that this is happening, although the

presentation is different in comparison to older racial perspectives. Acknowledgement alone

is not enough to stop racism from happening again, but the active deconstruction or

reworking of systems to stop these representations being accessible to the public could

make a difference in changing people’s perspectives.

Conclusion

Now that the research has been explored in terms with the

overt racial themes it presents as well as the impact it could have on a viewer’s perspective

on race and bodies of colour, it is time to summarise. The pre-existing research conducted

that observes pornography often looks at the levels of aggression that are directed towards

women specifically, as well as commonly analysing how pornography is a system that

reinforces the oppression of women – this research is important, and from my own data,

there is a gendered issue that is present. Finding research that specifically discusses

pornographic representations of the Black male body was difficult, primarily because a lot of

research was stuck behind pay walls and as a student who does not have the financial

means to access this, it does restrict what I can read about already existing data. On the

same tangent, because this data is not open, it makes it harder for a dialogue about the

topic to be opened because the data is hard to access – is this something deliberate? By
37 | 13606860

making the data ‘closed’, it restricts people from becoming educated on the topic and can

hinder efforts to deconstruct racist ideologies and themes that are present in pornography

(Bhambra et al, 2018).

Furthermore, a lot of pornographic studies that focused on

Black bodies chose to focus on the Black female body within pornography. There are

important things about exploring the representation and treatment of the Black female

body, however, this kind of research seemed to dominate the field of research regarding

Black bodies in pornography. When it comes to the discussion of bodies of colour within

media, it is important to open that dialogue, but it is also important to make sure that

bodies of colour are involved in this work so that the agenda of deconstructing oppressive

theories works and is inclusive. (Darder, 2019, pp. 16)

Regarding my own research, I found that there were very

clear themes of racism, racial sexualisation, and racial stereotypes from the performance

provided by the specific actor I chose to analyse – Prince Yahshua – and I conclude that

pornography is already used as a tool for personal education, so it is possible that these

racist themes could stick with a viewer and mould how they behave towards Black men.

Obviously, correlation does not equal causality, and this effect may not be seen in every

person that views pornography – some people are aware of the theatrical nature of

pornography and will not base behaviour around it.

Ideally, further research should be done in this field, most

likely with interviews and surveys about public opinion and looking at racism in relation to

consumption of pornography. For my dissertation, I believe that conducting this research

has been beneficial as I have been able to identify the overt themes in pornography and
38 | 13606860

discuss them in relation with decolonising literature. Finding research that was already

conducted within the field of pornography but was broader in terms of what it was

analysing was also useful, as it expanded my own thoughts on the subject and made me

think more in depth at what certain representations could mean.

Regarding my own methodology, I can see that a content

analysis was useful but may have left me with too much data to analyse in this paper. With

more time, and word count, I could look more in depth at other things and look at more

videos, or alternatively look at multiple pornographic actors to see if the themes identified

in one actor are consistent with another. However, I feel that analysis of free to access

pornographic videos is important because as long as you have an internet connection you

can access it, and in this current technological age, almost everyone has access to the

internet. Shops are moving online, because people prefer to be in the comfort of their own

home so analysing pornography stores seems redundant, and it is unclear if people still

watch pornographic films when the access to online sites is free and you can watch more

videos.

One of the main themes I have seen in regard to criticality

towards pornography, is that,

conventional critics see men doing things they believe men want to do (having wild

sex), and women doing things they don’t believe women want to do (having wild

sex). Thus, critics see men being coercive, and women being victims. (Klein, 2006, pp.

246)

The issue with this is that many systems reinforce this idea, like religion, and it should be

understood that sex is something that women can enjoy too – this is a reason why there is a
39 | 13606860

lot of feminist research in to the topic, they explore this concept that women can and do

enjoy sex so pornography should be more empowering for women, and they also look at

how pornography acts as a tool to reinforce this idea that women do not want sex. Similarly,

I can see that this happens with racism within pornography – the presentation of racial

stereotypes surrounding Black male bodies – and it is my belief that more research should

look at it and explore it. Looking at pornography too broadly tends to ignore the difference

between actors, and as Crenshaw (1991, pp. 1242) states, “ignoring difference within groups

contributes to tensions among groups.” We need to talk about pornography and what it

shows us from a racial perspective, because it seems to clearly reinforce racism to viewers

and this could be used to influence an individual’s behaviour, but generally speaking,

“research suggests that pornography is not harmful for the individual, however, like any

substance or behaviour when taken to excess there may be problems that arise.” (Binnie

and Reavey, 2019)

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