Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-98).

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-52).

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-46).

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-52).

This thesis examines 'pharmacopornographic' subjectivity in the work of contemporary Spanish philosopher, Paul B. Preciado, and represents the first extended study of his work. In Preciado's writing, 'pharmacopornographic' describes the entwined influence and dominance of the pharmaceutical and pornographic industries, and the thesis analyses how they produce 'pharmacopornographic' subjects. This thesis explores Preciado's writing on gender, sexuality, pornography, drugs and power between 2002 and 2014 and articulates an emergent trans-feminism. This research analyses how pharmacological and pornographic industries affect the design and production of genders and subjectivities. The thesis further refines Preciado's assertion that contemporary, 'pharmacopornographic' regimes of power produce subjects rather than objects, or people, rather than things. Ultimately, this research is concerned with understanding the production of pharmacologically-determined subjectivity. The thesis articulates various subject positions, as a means of theorising pharmacopornographic subjectivity: 'The Voyeur', 'The Sex Worker', 'The Biodrag King' and 'The Junkie'. These subject-position chapters are prefaced with a chapter exploring theoretical frameworks used to analyse Preciado's work, and the thesis concludes with a chapter on accelerationism and the microprosthetic scale of Testo Junkie.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Marriage and Family Therapy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-85).

Thesis (M. Journ.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-46).

Human sexuality is a product of sociocultural and historical constructs. In modern, contemporary society, pornography has emerged as the dominant form of sexual discourse, transforming the human body as an object to be manipulated, shaped, and trained. In this thesis, I will argue that pornography is the vehicle for disciplinary practices that transforms human bodies into sexual bodies that are mere representations of itself. As Michel Foucault describes it in Discipline and Punish (1977), discourse does not function all by itself to produce effects of power, but, rather, the efficacy of discourse is tied to the systematic and calculated use of force by definite agents on definite human bodies. Modern pornographic sexual discourse is only part of a power-knowledge formation that includes subtle and often direct coercion over the body. Men acting as sexual partners extract from pornography a ‘knowledge’ of sexuality that they use to organize their personal domination over women, in order to turn women into docile bodies that learn to adopt various positions or gestures. Even though, if discipline is successful, coercion is minimized, economized, to generate the maximum effect of control through the minimum expenditure of force, a force that never disappears completely. When society is saturated with pornographic representations as a normative standard, which in turn operates as an ideal to which people ‘voluntarily’ aspire, it is only because of the operation of this efficient economy of force, which goes mostly unnoticed. Perceived as a natural, innate human characteristic, sexuality is instead a social construct, where all of the body’s movement, gestures, and attitudes are manipulated, and thus obedient to a pornographic ideal of sexual experience that is limited in its heteronormative expression.

Human sexuality is a product of sociocultural and historical constructs. In modern, contemporary society, pornography has emerged as the dominant form of sexual discourse, transforming the human body as an object to be manipulated, shaped, and trained. In this thesis, I will argue that pornography is the vehicle for disciplinary practices that transforms human bodies into sexual bodies that are mere representations of itself. As Michel Foucault describes it in Discipline and Punish (1977), discourse does not function all by itself to produce effects of power, but, rather, the efficacy of discourse is tied to the systematic and calculated use of force by definite agents on definite human bodies. Modern pornographic sexual discourse is only part of a power-knowledge formation that includes subtle and often direct coercion over the body. Men acting as sexual partners extract from pornography a ‘knowledge’ of sexuality that they use to organize their personal domination over women, in order to turn women into docile bodies that learn to adopt various positions or gestures. Even though, if discipline is successful, coercion is minimized, economized, to generate the maximum effect of control through the minimum expenditure of force, a force that never disappears completely. When society is saturated with pornographic representations as a normative standard, which in turn operates as an ideal to which people ‘voluntarily’ aspire, it is only because of the operation of this efficient economy of force, which goes mostly unnoticed. Perceived as a natural, innate human characteristic, sexuality is instead a social construct, where all of the body’s movement, gestures, and attitudes are manipulated, and thus obedient to a pornographic ideal of sexual experience that is limited in its heteronormative expression.

This study was concerned with investigating young people’s consumption, interactions and attitudes towards pornography. However, obtaining valid answers to sensitive questions is an old and persistent problem in survey research (Coutts & Jann, 2011). Therefore, a second objective of this study was to assess the methodological efficacy of the Unmatched-Count Technique (UCT). The UCT is a survey protocol that provides greater levels of anonymity in the attempt to elicit more truthful responses than conventional survey techniques regarding sensitive issues/behaviours. In this study the base rates of UCT were compared to those obtained by an online self-report questionnaire (SRQ). One hundred and forty five students ages 18-24 from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus, completed an online questionnaire. Participants were either assigned to the UCT or the SRQ. The results revealed that the majority (93.75%) of the sample had been exposed to pornography, more males (76.00%) than females (23.07%) consumed pornography, and that male participants tended to express a more positive-accepting attitude towards pornography than the female participants. A Two-Sample Z-Test was used to compare the base rates of the UCT and the SRQ. The results suggest that the SRQ underestimates base-rates in comparison to the UCT The results illustrate that young people are interacting and consuming pornography within the South African context and as such future research should be aimed at further exploring this genre of sexual media. Furthermore, this study adds to the empirical work which employs the UCT and highlights the efficacy and potential of the technique. Keywords: attitudes, pornography, South Africa, unmatched-count technique, young people. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.