This course is a critical study of the historical, aesthetic, material, technical, legal, and cultural formation of the concept of pornography. The course explores the relationship between sexual representation, sex work, visual cultures, consumption, distribution, and format; works through debates about artistic merit and censorship and how they relate to larger issues of power, capitalism, and technology; and theorizes the relationship between sex and commerce. Readings will emphasize work by sex workers and feminist, queer, people of colour, and trans scholars.