Hearing Feminist Sex Imaginative potential in the soundscape of audio erotica

Abstract

This essay offers an in-depth exploration of audio erotica, specifically from the Quinn app, and its potential to shape new understandings and imaginations of feminist sex. The essay identifies three key elements that define the soundscape of feminist audio erotica: 1) its naturalistic modality (van Leeuwen 1999), which allows listeners to witness and engage with feminist sex; 2) the “grain of the voice” (Barthes 1977), which highlights the sensuality of consent-driven, communicative intimacy; and 3) a gendered reversal of visual and auditory frenzy which subverts our patriarchal sexual imagination that women’s sexuality is audible, while men’s is visual (Corbett and Kapsalis 1996). In mapping this soundscape the essay muses on the possibilities offered to listeners by attuning themselves to sexuality rooted in “pleasure, safety and [calmness]” (Larson 2019).