Susanna Paasonen (born 1975, Helsinki) is a Finnish feminist scholar. She is a Professor of Media Studies at the
University of Turku
sv, Åbo universitet
, latin_name = Universitas Aboensis
, image_name = University of Turku.svg
, motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle''
, established = 1920
, type ...
, and was a visiting scholar at MIT in 2016. She gained her
PhD from the University of Turku in 2002; her dissertation was on gender and the popularization of the internet, which was later published through
Peter Lang. After holding positions at the universities of Tampere, Jyväskylä and Helsinki, Paasonen was appointed Professor of Media Studies at the University of Turku on 1 August 2011, and publishes on internet research, media theory, sexuality, pornography and affect.
Research
On Monday, 4 April 2016, Paasonen gave a lecture at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
in the USA on the politics and culture of online porn. In the essay, "Glimmers of the forbidden fruit: Reminiscing pornography, conceptualizing the archive," written along with Katariina Kyrölä, Paasonen traces the evolution of the "porn stash" from a physical collection to a digital one, and in doing so, examines cyberporn as a site of identity formation. She and Kyrölä suggest that pornography occasions the accumulation of a somatic archive, which are "not merely reservoirs of extra-cognitive sensation but also knowingly curated, reflected upon and reworked: they are simultaneously material and semiotic, intimate and culturally specific, affective and open to representation." In her lecture at Brown, Paasonen suggested that digital pornography must not be understood as something that creeps into society from the outside, but rather as something that already exists in contemporary culture. She writes, "Encounters with pornography therefore become incorporated as carnal capacity-- as what we can imagine our bodies enjoying and being capable of, or not enjoying and being capable of." Paasonen argues, therefore, that interactions with pornography, therefore, can contribute to the development of an individual's sexual identity.
Awards
The
Finnish Academy of Science awarded her the Jutikkala Prize of €15,000 14 October 2011. In the same year Paasonen published the book, ''Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography'', through MIT Press. In October 2020, Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light won the
Association of Internet Researchers The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) is a learned society dedicated to the advancement of the transdisciplinary field of Internet studies. Founded in 1999, it is an international, member-based support network promoting critical and schola ...
' Nancy Baym Book Award for ''NSFW: Sex, Humor, and Risk in Social Media'', published with MITP in 2019.
Bibliography
Books
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*Paasonen, Susanna (2018). ''Many Splendored Things: Thinking Sex and Play.'' London: Goldsmiths Press. .
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*Paasonen, Susanna (2021). ''Dependent, Distracted, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262045674.
Journal articles
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See also
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Baitbus
Baitbus.com is a website specialising in gay pornography of the gay-for-pay type, which claims to bring "straight boys over to the dark side". It has been described as "part practical joke and part fantasy that plays with the contingency of stra ...
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Cyberculture
Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...
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Cyberethics
Cyber ethics is the philosophic study of ethics pertaining to computers, encompassing user behavior and what computers are programmed to do, and how this affects individuals and society. For years, various governments have enacted regulations ...
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Internet pornography
Internet pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the internet, primarily via websites, FTP servers peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The availability of widespread public access to the World Wide Web in late 1990s ...
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Feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...
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Gender studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...
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Internet ethics
Cyber ethics is the philosophic study of ethics pertaining to computers, encompassing user behavior and what computers are programmed to do, and how this affects individuals and society. For years, various governments have enacted regulations ...
References
External links
Profile: Susanna Paasonen, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Turku.Susanna Paasonen on Google Scholar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paasonen, Susanna
Living people
1975 births
University of Turku alumni
Academic personnel of the University of Turku
Feminist studies scholars
Mass media scholars
Finnish ethicists
Cultural academics
Writers from Helsinki
Finnish women academics
20th-century Finnish non-fiction writers
20th-century Finnish women writers
21st-century Finnish non-fiction writers
21st-century Finnish women writers
Finnish women non-fiction writers