Sex Scene

Darren Kerr is Associate Professor of Sexual Cultures and Head of the Bath School of Art, Film and Media at Bath Spa University, UK. His research interests focus on the politics and representation of sexual cultures on screen. His publications largely focus on pornography, perversion and sexual violence, and include Hard to Swallow: Hard-core Pornography on Screen (2012), Tainted Love: Screening Sexual Perversion (2017) and two-volume collection The Sex Scene (2026). He is series editor of Edinburgh University Press’s Screening Sex book series, a member of Routledge’s Porn Studies editorial board and co-director of the Screening Sex network. Donna Peberdy is Professor of Gender, Sexuality, Screen and Culture at Southampton Solent University, UK. Her publications include Masculinity and Film Performance: Male Angst in Contemporary American Cinema (2011), Tainted Love: Screening Sexual Perversion (2017) and two-volume collection The Sex Scene (2026). She is a series editor of Edinburgh University Press’s Screening Sex book series and co-director of the Screening Sex network.

At a moment when sex scenes are reportedly disappearing from mainstream cinema, editors Darren Kerr and Donna Peberdy bring together a diverse and engaging collection of essays that interrogate what this absence means. Spanning contemporary screen media, this volume offers fresh, timely insights into how sexual content is shaped, regulated and reimagined.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsContributorsSex seen and unseen: The dialectics of the sex sceneDarren Kerr and Donna PeberdyPart I. Locations, Boundaries, Histories1. Goin’ up the country: Early adult film production and exhibition in Eugene, OregonPeter Alilunas2. If you’re feeling blue: The screening of hardcore pornography on BritainOliver Carter3. Speculative methods for excavating gay industry history: Jack Jackson’s leather cowboy scene in San Diego CountyFarrah Freibert4. Open secrets, closed doors and national treasures: Social responsibility and cultural reparation in narratives of child sexual abuseDarren KerrPart II Censorship, Regulation, Legislation5. The scene and the seen: Discourses in censorship and female pleasure in IndiaDarshana Sreedhar Mini6. Pushing the boundaries of screening sex and sexuality in popular Egyptian cinema: The Malatili BathhouseSamar Abdel-Rahman7. ‘The sex in them is as ludicrous as anything else’: Thinking through sex, shit and the censor with John Waters’ Pink FlamingosKatie ArthurPart III Technology, Consumption, Commodification8. From Sex and the City to Grace and Frankie: Changing representations of sex toys and sex tech on ScreenLynn Comella9. Stars and seduction in tantai Films: Exploring the sexual logics of contemporary Japan via adult videosThomas Baudinette and Alexandra Hambleton10. The frenzy of the intelligible: AI sex scenes in Her and Blade Runner 2049Laurence Kent11. Sex on the very small screen: Data cultures and sexual consentRebecca SaundersPart IV Collectivity, Connections, Affect12. On crowd sex: Crowd psychology, crowd pornography and FleapitGabriel Ojeda-Sagué13. Watching porn in public: Ann Hirsch’s Cuts series at The Pleasure Principle exhibitionKylie Harris14. ‘We don’t have any queer porn in Finland’: Ephemerality of a sceneSusanna Paasonen and Daniel CardosoIndex