No Money Shot? Commerce, Pornography and New Sex Taste Cultures

Abstract

This article examines two internet websites — Nerve, a magazine devoted to `smart smut', and SuicideGirls, an `altporn' site where softcore sexual display is a major component of a participatory taste culture. Through a consideration of the ways such sites present their commercial and community elements as part of a shared taste and aesthetic, the article investigates how some new forms of pornography are developing to construct sexual display as a form of recreation, self-presentation and community building.