“Io sono Valentina Nappi 3D”. Personalization and Empathy in VR Pornography

This essay aims to investigate the relationship between the personalization of pornography and empathy in virtual reality pornography, with a focus on the figure and work of Valentina Nappi. The performer’s body, conceived as a site of social, political, and economic tensions, will be examined within the framework of pornographic immersivity and the potential for heightened empathic engagement. By adopting a postfeminist lens and applying to Valentina Nappi’s work an interpretative framework grounded in concepts such as choice, personal agency, and empowerment, the issue of empathy, and its deliberate absence, in VR pornography can be reinterpreted as a strategic, entrepreneurial, and provocative choice, consistent with both the professional trajectory and the public persona of the performer. The ability of VR to connect humans through immersive and networked virtual environments (Evans 2020, 2) takes on a unique significance when it comes to emotional connections with an audience accustomed to the online presence of Valentina Nappi, who combines the performance of pornographic corporeality with a distinctive social, cultural, and political persona. Her public identity is characterized by a layered and often unresolved interplay of seemingly contradictory attributes, which in turn contribute to shaping and diversifying her image as a porn performer. While the sensual grasp of the cinematic object of desire is only partially fulfilled, the immersivity of virtual reality introduces new possibilities for spectator participation and identification.