"They’re Just Tixel Pits, Man": Disputing the 'Reality' of Virtual Reality Pornography through the Story Completion Method

Matt Wood, Gavin Wood, Madeline Balaam

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)
34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Pornography is a substantial part of humans' everyday interaction with computers, yet to date the topic has been underconsidered by HCI. Here, we examine some of the common cultural ideals non-experts constructed of a 'new' pornographic experience - Virtual Reality (VR) Porn - through use of the 'Story Completion Method'. Forty five participants completed a story stem about a male character who was about to have his "very first virtual reality porn experience". Through our analysis, we demonstrate a narrative of a 'perfect', idealised sexual experience, as well as one which emphasised the imagined 'precarious' and dangerous consequences around this technology use. We indicate how the stories reproduced ideals around heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity, suggesting an agenda of 'Designing for Eroticism' as a tactic which could avoid such problematic discourses. We also suggest the opportunities and challenges presented through use of the 'Story Completion Method'.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of PublicationNew York, USA
PublisherACM
Pages5439-5451
Number of pages7098
ISBN (Print)9781450346559
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 2 May 2017

Keywords

  • Pornography
  • porn
  • virtual reality
  • design fiction
  • speculative design
  • thematic analysis

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