FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS: Queer Noise and The Sonic Textures of Pornographic Representation

This text operates under two main frameworks of curiosity: firstly, within the context of a "Hegemony of Optics," what is the nature of sound and how is this sound related to queerness? Secondly, given this relationship, what elements of sound might inform a new approach to pornographic imagery that foregrounds seeking pleasure (rather than solely authentic representations) with receptivity, bottomhood, and other marginalized positionalities in mind? Instead of right-ing the wrongs of the perpetually wounding pornographic object through good, liberal representational politics, I would posit that acts of listening and counter-listening unravel the genre just as well as the solitary meaning it is purported to be creating. I call these acts an approach of 'slutty listening,' a means leaning into the ear's openness, of listening to everything without asking everything: "What are you?," "Who are you?," "Why are you?" and expecting a singular, legible response. I am drawn to sounds that are twinkly, inauthentic, and opaque. I would like to hide behind sound as well as discover something new through it, whether that be a new method of looking(-feeling) or a new means of conceiving of the bounds of 'the body' within three dimensional space. This method might be receptive, like an open ear, mouth, vaginal cavity, or anus, and the body unclassifiable and expansive. Maybe, the sounds of a "fake" orgasm on loop, in ejaculatory spurts.