Grey, gonzo and the grotesque: the legacy of porn star Sasha Grey

Saunders, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9566-4744 2018. Grey, gonzo and the grotesque: the legacy of porn star Sasha Grey. Porn Studies 5 (4) , pp. 363-379. 10.1080/23268743.2018.1505544

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Abstract

This article offers a retrospective analysis of the career of Sasha Grey, one of the most significant porn stars of the twenty-first century. The article focuses in particular on the malleability of the increasingly dominant pornographic style of gonzo and considers how Grey’s use of alternative porn elements within the customarily macho and androcentric gonzo style provides new avenues for subversive and ‘liberated’ female sexual expression. Grey is also analyzed, however, in relation to the dangerous synonymies between sexual violence and postfeminist agency which are epitomized by Grey’s particular performative iterations of gonzo. Constituting the first in-depth analysis of this major porn star, this article critically investigates the legacy of this performatively unique celebrity and explores how her utilization of the gonzo style to unexpectedly feminist ends positions her fascinatingly but problematically within a postfeminist-neoliberal nexus.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	2326-8743
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 July 2023
Date of Acceptance:	24 July 2018
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 08:39
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/161051

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