8. A Cyberian Turn in Pornography: Understanding Internet as a Sexual Medium

The mass media of internet has made pornography, more than ever, part of the Indian popular culture. Uncritical focus on the moral, legal, feminist aspects of it only tries to mask the said fact. Since pornography is bound to be disseminated at a much larger and faster pace with the emergence of internet-enabled mobile phones, the counter-dialogue lies not in dismissing it but rather critically, academically studying it. A small venture is undertaken in that direction through this paper. My paper undertakes a case study of the events and discussions that followed the “porngate” incident in 2012 in the Karnataka state assembly. The focal point of this investigation is the import of medium and mediation in understanding the significance of a contemporary method of communication such as the internet. That is to say that the popularity of internet-enabled pornography is not only due to accessibility, affordability and anonymity but rather because cyberpornography undoes the traditional contours of public and private space leading to the emergence of a new space of public privacy. Simultaneously, with the introduction of genres such as amateur pornography, it produces an effect of realness and directness.