Introduction to journal

Welcome to our special issue, in which we hand over the editorial role to Sharif Mowlabocus and Rachel Wood to focus on audiences and consumers of pornography. The special issue begins with their introductory essay providing an overview of the many claims made about pornography's problematic influences on individuals. Mowlabocus and Wood make a passionate case that porn consumers – and the various materials that they consume – should be taken seriously, not to uncritically endorse or support their choices but to acknowledge the complex, and even contradictory, potentials of pornography. Their commentary is followed by nine articles which grapple with important theoretical and methodological issues and address a wide range of topics, including some typically outside the purview of standard inquiries into what porn ‘does’ to people.