Communication 790STA - Sex in the Moving Image

Taking the labor of women?s bodies, specifically the performance and labor of sex as a starting point, this seminar will examine cinematic portrayals of transactional intimacy. By centering working girls the seminar aims to analyze how these figures both fulfill and troubles heteronormative fantasy. The seminar will engage with literature that provides insight to the language around transactional intimacy to engage with the, still, contested field of terminology to center how these working girls define themselves. Moreover, by centering cinematic accounts of transactional intimacy, the seminar seeks to expand our understanding of body labor that is not solely fixed to pornographic accounts but that is a useful framework for non sex workers as well. Methodologically, this class will engage with feminist film criticism, critical race studies, and affect theory as both a model to read cinema and the labor of sexuality.