Screen - Dark Matter Archives

94 between classes of representation, depending upon an assessmentof the likelihood of judicial seizure. and their acceptability tothe potential advertisers of a wide range of consumer products.This distinction is usually designated 'hard-core'j'soft-core', termswhich originate in an American distinction as to whether real sexor simulated sex have been involved in the production of a representation,but no longer have such a particular meaning. Soft-corepornography. available currently in public cinemas, in magazineson open sale in newsagems, attracts advertisements; hardcorepornography does not. Along with these advertisements comes awhole series of journalistic practices, from circulation audits toparticular modes of address within written texts.Pornography can deSignate itself by various simple mechanisms.An institution that is defined largely from outside by the suspicionof many vocal pressure groups is able to signify itself by exploiting the connotations associated with that suspicion. Thus'Swedish', 'X', 'E mrn a n uel ~ e ' , 'Sins' are precise generic indicators:as are a certain size of magazine with a near-naked female bodyportrayed on the cover, even before the list of contents developsthe connotation, Similarly 'Books and Magazines', 'Adult' and'Private' indicate 'hard core' emporia. This activity of self-definitioncontinues within the texts themselves, with the intrusive 'we'('aren't we daring?') of editorial matter; the recurrence of models;and the habit in films of lIsing the institution of pornography itseU(eg photo sessions) as circ umstances fO[ sex. This process meansthat areas of representation constructed from outside as 'porno·graphic' never have to USe that term ro de fine themselves. Theground is never explicitly conceded.Pornography in Britain occurs across a diversity of practices,each with their own means of marketing and dissemination ,nevertheless unified by processes of self·designation into an institutionof signi fication. Each practice has its own particular emphasesand porentiali ties, both for marketing and for signification. Cinemais shatply divided into the kinds of soft-core fi lms " 'ailable inpublic cinemas, and the grades of sexually specific material to befound in 'clubs' of various sorts. The Briti sh Board of Film Censorsensures (hat public fi lms are extensively cut from the form theytake in other countries, red ucing them ro a traditional kind of'teasing' ; Tatler Cinema Clubs (associated with the ClassicCinema chain) show uncut American soft-core films; other clubsin City centres show fi lm of actu al sex acts of various kinds.Video tapes for home consumption are a fast developing industry,providing both ma terial developed for [he format (eg the videomagazineElectric Blue, de veloped on an analogy with soft-coremagazines). and fu l1 recordings of film s sometimes banned orcensor-cut for cinema. Magazines comprise a large and diversifiedz:>:zo'"z~'"'""'::E