Cosa resterà di questi anni porno? Fenomenologia della post-pornografia in Italia fra TV e Twitch

If the context of online cultures has definitively reshaped the way in which online content is produced and enjoyed, this also applies to mainstream pornography. This is rapidly passing (or has passed) from a “traditional” fruition context to a new “post-pornographic” structure, in which live streaming through webcams and one-to-one customized content replace the classic tube sites. These new pornographic dynamics, certainly consolidated in the pandemic context, take on a particular cultural relevance when they are subjected to processes of effective normalization of porn, progressively shifted from a territory of marginality to one of discursive centrality. Although this type of movement can constitute a proof of emancipation, its dark side is instead the loss of the original subversive charge of pornography, consequent to the removal of a taboo often and willingly raised exclusively in favor of neoliberal economic dynamics. The state of health of pornography, in the post-pornographic era, appears ambiguous, since a paradoxical “removal of the removed” corresponds to an immoderate quantitative increase in performers, dedicated platforms, and discourses, and therefore a phenomenological flattening. Therefore, the purpose of the essay is to explore the new post-pornographic horizon in a systemic perspective, noting its criticalities.