While “say you like sporty spice…say it!” is likely the most memorable line of one episode of a new, alternative porn outlet produced by Indie Porn Revolution, described as “sex positive with a trans female focus”, the radical and in fact humorous nature of the series can be understood through a lens of queer theory. By beginning the pornographic narrative with a handful of female friends, who gather other seemingly random participants from streets in their neighborhood, the film immediately challenges the “organizations of community…and activity in space” of heteronormative ideologies (Halberstam, p.). More specifically, the continuation of the scene and the imaginative sexual activities that transpire create a physical as well as cyber “queer space” (Halberstam), that provides endless and unpredictable alternatives both in terms of narrative as well as sexual identity.
Amongst the playful and often humorous group sex, one act consists of one of the women removing a tampon from another, with the goal of providing sexual pleasure. Strange as it may seem, this use of an otherwise stigmatized ‘feminine hygiene’ product as a means for women to be sexual with one another is a profound statement against firm heteronormative institutions. The reformulation of the tampon from a means to inhibit a natural female process, to a sex toy transcends traditional notions of privacy, of menstruation and reproduction, and thus of gender norms in their entirety. The tampon’s interaction with the somatic self becomes redefined – thus defying its institutional meaning and re-appropriating it within a free, queer space. As Freeman argues, such “institutional forces” have in many ways become “somatic facts” (p.3), a process known as chrononormativity. By challenging the ‘established’ use of the tampon, this porn and its participants take ownership and agency over products designed for their gender, but also over their sexuality and personhood as a whole.
Freeman, however, argues that to exist outside the imposed time line is to barely exist at all; in other words, abiding by a “sequence of socioeconomically “productive” moments” has been unfortunately equated to living. The existence, or rather the avid and animate living of female characters, engaging in evidently queer sexual practices is, in the context of this society, a paradox. Said simply, the silencing of queer space is what ultimately ‘kills’ its participants, depriving them of any opportunity or right to ‘live’. To take this thought even further, I considered the theatrical nature of this porn – the costume-life outfits, the exaggerated expressions, and the comedic twist on sex. So in fact, the existence of this queer space and the queer women within it, remains limited to a theatrical, almost cartooned representation of anything non-heteronormative. To further understand this, we can assess how the narrator in Winterson’s Written on the Body, is constantly struggling with perceptions of ‘survival’ and ‘living’. If living is in fact simply a product of obedience to a timeline of birth, marriage, reproduction, and death, then those that defy it (Winterson’s narrator and our friendly feminist porn stars) are left floating in a space that can only be defined as the opposite of life – death. Queer space then, provides not a flexible option for weirdos, dykes, freaks, tampon-fiends, cross-dressers, or Spice Girl kinks, but rather, it provides life.
Link to Indie Porn Revolution:
I really liked how you connected all of these text. I would say you did a queer reading of a tampon, seeing it as a sex toy instead of a hygiene product. But I think the queer reading of this tampon only exists in a queer, female dominated space. The tampon is shameful and dirty as soon as you enter the patriarchal world; it is the influence of men that makes menstruation a process of concealment and embarrassment. Come to think of it, people who menstruate often are not “productive” with their time, from a capitalist point of view, and often bond with others over the menstrual experience. I would postulate that they form their own queer space, based on community empathy surrounding menstruation. Their cycles sync together for goodness sake!
Absolutely loved this. The idea of a tampon being used as a sex toy, and connecting this act to “queer space” was brilliant. You also make somewhat of a counterargument, or perhaps a challenge to what you’ve introduced. I would be very interested to see this idea that “queer space provides life” expanded!