Mireille Miller-Young

Mireille Miller-Young is an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research explores race, gender, and sexuality in visual culture and sex industries in the United States. Miller-Young holds a PhD in American History from New York University.[1] She describes herself as an "academic pornographer", a term originally adopted by Sander Gilman.[2]

Her current projects include a manuscript entitled Hoe Theory, contributions to The Black Erotic Archive, and contributions to The Sex Worker Oral History Project.

A Taste for Brown Sugar

Miller-Young's 2004 PhD dissertation examines the history of black women in pornography with ethnographic methods.[3] Called A Taste for Brown Sugar: The History of Black Women in American Pornography, the dissertation was hailed as "pioneering"[4] and was published as a book in 2014. Reviewers have described the book as "masterful"[3] and lauded its "rigorous scholarship".[5] It has been described as "a remarkable text that applies critical race studies, feminist studies, sexuality studies, and film studies to Black women in pornography" and as a "must read" that is "deftly building" on the work of feminist scholars such as Angela Davis, Saidiya Hartman, and Celine Parrenas Shimizu.[6] Upon its publication, the book was perceived as a foundational work that revisited ″the marginal histories of Black sex workers in pornographic industries but in connecting this to contemporary Black porn actors, Black feminist politics and the larger sphere of sexual politics.″[7]

It won National Women's Studies Association and American Studies Association book awards in 2015.

Criminal case

Miller-Young became known to a wider audience in 2014 when she assaulted a pair of teenage anti-abortion activists on campus, stealing and later destroying one of their signs. In her interview with police, Miller-Young said she felt "triggered" by the sign and had a "moral right" to remove the material from sight.[8] Miller-Young was charged with grand theft, battery, and vandalism. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 108 hours of community service and three years of probation. She was also ordered to pay restitution and attend anger management classes.[9][10][11]

The case attracted widespread attention and precipitated think pieces from all over the political spectrum.[12][13][14] The UCSB Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Michael Young, published a letter on the incident that was interpreted as a rebuke to both sides involved in the altercation.[9] More than 30 professors from universities across the nation signed a letter of support for Miller-Young, describing her as a "gentle, brilliant mentor" who was a "victim of the cultural legacy of slavery"; she "fell victim to the graphic nature of the anti-abortion display [because] she [was] pregnant".[10] A column in the Los Angeles Times called Miller-Young a "sucker" who had walked into an obvious trap.[15]

Academic Career

Mireille Miller-Young is an associate professor of Feminist Studies and an Affiliate Faculty member in Film and Media Studies, Black Studies, History, and Comparative Literature at University of California, Santa Barbara. She was the Advancing Equity Through Research Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University from 2019 to 2020 and a visiting Fellow at the ICI Berlin, the Institute for Cultural Inquiry in Berlin (Germany), from 2020 to 2021.[16]

Publications

Books and book chapters
  • With Penley, Constanze; Parreñas Shimizu, Celine, eds. (2013). The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. The Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 978-1-5586-1818-3.
  • Miller-Young, Mireille (2014). A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography. Duke University Press. doi:10.1515/9780822375913-001. ISBN 978-0-8223-5814-5.
  • — (2007). "Let Me Tell Ya 'Bout Black Chicks: Interracial Desire and Black Women in 1980s Video Pornography". In Nikunen, Kaarina; Paasonen, Susanna; Saarenmaa, Laura (eds.). Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture. Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-8452-0704-5.
  • — (2007). "Sexy and Smart: Black Women and the Politics of Self-Authorship in Netporn". In Jacobs, Katrien; Jansen, Mariej; Pasquinelli, Matteo (eds.). C'Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader. Paradiso. ISBN 978-90-78146-03-2.

Articles
  • Miller-Young, Mireille (2005). "Black Tale: Women of Color in the American Porn Industry". $pread. 1 (1).
  • — (2005). "Hardcore desire". ColorLines. Winter 2005 − 2006 (3): 1–35.
  • — (2007). "Hip-Hop Honeys and Da Hustlaz: Black Sexualities in the New Hip-Hop Pornography". Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 8 (1): 261–292. doi:10.2979/mer.2007.8.1.261.
  • — (2010). "Putting Hypersexuality to Work: Black Women and Illicit Eroticism in Pornography". Sexualities. 13 (2): 219–235. doi:10.1177/1363460709359229. S2CID 143676229.

Awards

References
  1. "Mireille Miller-Young". University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  2. A Taste for Brown Sugar. p. viii.
  3. Harris, LaShawn (2016). "Review of A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography, by Mireille Miller-Young". Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. 18 (1): 174–176. doi:10.1080/10999949.2016.1162606. S2CID 148300062.
  4. Decena, Carlos Ulises (2011). Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4945-7.
  5. Stallings, L. H. (2015-06-05). "A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography by Mireille Miller-Young, and: The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography by Jennifer Nash (review)". Black Camera. 6 (2): 239–244. doi:10.2979/blackcamera.6.2.239. ISSN 1947-4237.
  6. Lamstein, Joanna (2017). "A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography". Journal of Homosexuality. 65 (13): 1937–1938. doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1386028. S2CID 2263758.
  7. Hobson, Janell (2015-02-03). "Black Women's Histories: A Conversation with Mireille Miller-Young". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  8. Hayden, Taylor (March 21, 2014). "UCSB Professor Charged with Theft and Battery". Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  9. Lewis, Loree (August 27, 2014). "Court Rules on Miller-Young Case". The Daily Nexus. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  10. Kabbany, Jennifer (August 18, 2014). "Feminist Professor Who Attacked Prolife Teen Avoids Jail Time". The College Fix. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  11. Wakeman, Jessica (March 24, 2014). "Professor Mireille Miller-Young Charged With Theft, Battery, Vandalism After Stealing Anti-Abortion Protestors Sign". Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  12. Cooper, Davina (April 1, 2004). "Improper attachments, or who do anti-abortion posters belong to?". Critical Legal Thinking. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  13. Gilmore, Stefanie (March 20, 2014). "Why I Am In Solidarity with Mireille Miller-Young". Feminist Wire. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  14. Welch, Matt (June 2014). "When the Left Turned Against Free Speech". Reason. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  15. Abcarian, Robin (March 31, 2014). "The liberal professor who stepped right into an anti-abortion trap". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  16. "Miller-Young". ICI Berlin. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  17. "Whaley Prize Recipients". National Women's Studies Association. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  18. Estrade, Andrea. "Award Winner: Book by feminist studies scholar Mireille Miller-Young garners two major prizes". UCSB. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  19. "About the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize". Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  20. Estrada, Andrea (2019-05-01). "For Excellence in Teaching: Faculty members and graduate students receive Academic Senate teaching awards". The UCSB Current. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
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