Pornography and Hyperreality; A Qualitative Study of Experiences of Iranian Users in Using Porno-graphical Products

Hyperreality is one of the key concepts in Jean Baudrillard’s theory. Sexual issues are one of the contexts in which hyperreality has intensely penetrated. Hence, in the present study, pornography is taken as a kind of hyperreality in the sexual domain and by employing concepts specific to Baudrillard in this regard, the experiences of the users of these products are analyzed by using the grounded theory method. The sample consisted of 20 users (10 women and 10 men) of pornographical products who were selected through targeted sampling method from three psychological clinics as well as from virtual groups with sexual contents and in-depth interviews were conducted with them. The data was analyzed through three-stage open, axial and selective coding. The findings of the research included three main categories with their sub-categories consisting of relational hyperreality (media sex action and illusion of joyfulness and satisfaction), experimental hyperreality (sexual adventurism and overlapping of sexual imagination with routine affairs) and consequential hyperreality (woman as a consumption commodity and entanglement in the sequence of sexual signifiers). The overall result indicates that imitation of the sexual actions demonstrated in pornography does not lead to the desired outcome nor does it lead to sexual satisfaction in the real world of the people, because they are not real and are made by the media. Hence, lack of sexual satisfaction in the real world is considered the pivotal concept of present research, for in pornography, a thing is projected more glittering, more colorful and sexier through increasing the resolution of colors.