Porn Studies journal publishes first issue despite criticisms

A recent porn study journal that was published for the first time has been criticized by anti-porn campaigners.

Porn Studies, published by Routledge, is a quarterly academic journal described as "the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal to critically explore those cultural products and services designated as pornographic", the Independent reported.

The porn journal has been criticized for normalizing and glamorizing porn culture.

Gail Dines, an anti-pornography activist and professor of sociology and Women's Studies at Wheelock College, Boston, told The Observer in June that while it was vital that pornography was studied and research published, she had grave concerns about the editorial direction of the journal.

Dines said that it is today's online pornography that sexualizes the degradation of women's bodies and leads to desensitization.

Writing for The Independent, the organization's founder, Jerry Barnett, said that the protest was intended to defend sexual freedom in Britain against a new wave of morality campaigners.

The editors of Porn Studies feels that it was this very divide in opinion that has prompted their publication of the journal, which they hope can become a space in which debate and argument can flourish without rehearsing the same old arguments of the porn debates.

The journal is freely available online for a limited period, meaning that anyone can read all of the papers included in the inaugural issue.