The homology hypothesis: Pornography on the VCR

1 September 1988

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Studies in Mass Communication

Vol. 5 (3) , 202-216
https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366703

Abstract

In this essay, I develop the argument that texts may be especially rhetorically effective when the content, the medium used to convey the content, and real life experiences that make the content relevant are formally or structurally similar. I examine the work of several scholars from different traditions to show that many schools of thought have suggested that formal linkage creates rhetorical effect: some structuralists, Marxists, recent media theorists, and the work of Altheide and Snow. Burke's theory of form is offered as a useful way to explain the effect of formal links. The ways that formal linkages and the symbolic dynamics of content, medium, and experience might be discovered are illustrated in an analysis of conventional, heterosexual, male‐dominant pornography as viewed on home videocassette recorders. Finally, I consider the implications of discovering such formal links and outline research strategies needed to develop this argument further.

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