About book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality (2010)
This book gave great insight into the porn industry and especially the "choice" politics that often surround it. Dines talks a great deal about Gonzo (or the most "hardcore" and brutal debasing type of porn) primarily because that is where the process of consumption typically leads. I especially liked the fact that she devoted an entire chapter to the really gross racial fetishizing that happens - particularly towards Asian and black women. Gail Dine's Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality is a thoughtful, well-researched book that explores the (feminist) theory and reality of what it means to live in a society in which violent, misogynistic pornography has seeped into all corners of our culture, and as such, it must be read with an eye turned towards the social sciences and nuance.Let me be clear: this is not a scathing indictment of all porn/sex/erotica/etc. Rather, Pornland targets porn which is in someway harmful, whether it be overtly misogynistic, racist, and/or targeting minor children whose bodies and minds have yet to fully develop, along with the culture that makes such porn commonplace. Dines carefully outlines her stance as a feminist activist/academic and very clearly asserts that she is not "anti-sex." Rather, she is pro-equality, meaning that she sees no use for the predatory greed-based pornography that objectifies both the actors and users in order to feed our capitalist system. Further, Dines spends Chapter 5 dismantling the red herring of relating porn use to rape as a test of pornography's harms. Fully the cultural sociologist, the author argues that pornography cannot make a person rape, but that when porn is degrading and violent and contextualized in a culture that treats women as less than, the idea of victim-blaming (and so, often excusing the rape) becomes more palatable.Look, I think that this is a great book, but I've been primed. I've been studying both gender theory and sociology with a focus on gendered violence for the last couple years. Coming from that place, I found Dines' book both reinforcing and enlightening. Her primary focus on men seemed apt because the target audience for porn is men. Her focus on women, men, and children as victims is logical given the evidence she lays out, as well as the evidence in her fields of study. Where this book was the most difficult for me was in its insistence that I look at myself and question my own sub-conscious acquiescence to porn culture. Did I find things I have done and still do that appalled me given my own personal and political orientation? Definitely. But, now that I know they're there I can figure out how to deal with them. To me, the mark of a great book is one that challenges the reader to become a better person and gives them the tools to do so. Pornland does both.
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Read the degree to which the porn-industry seeps into all aspects of our popular culture.
—ziziflower
I just finished this book and am still digesting it. Rating & review to come.
—PenelopeSkywalker
