Instinct(ive) senses: the haptic experience of feminist postpornography

Abstract

Is feminist postpornography a medium through which it might be possible to experience porn not only from a voyeuristic perspective? Can feminist postpornography provide a deeper sensorial experience? Through the feminist close-reading analysis of one short film, Instinct (2019), directed by Marit Östberg, Adrienne Teicher, Ester Martin Bergsmark and Mad Kate, from the Swedish feminist porn collection Dirty Diaries (2019), this article demonstrates how this kind of approach to pornography can awake senses and lead the spectators to experience porn at a deeper level stimulating an engaged spectatorship. Spectators are active agents in the construction of meaning and value of the artistic product, going beyond the mere passive role of recipient of information. The analysis employs mainly Laura Marks’s concepts of “haptic visuality” and “haptic hearing,” as well as Irina Leimbacher’s “haptic listening,” together with key insights of feminist film theory.