Posts Tagged ‘addiction’

Big Porn Inc ‘by far the best and most significant’ of recent books on pornography: reviewer

‘This thick, landmark book is highly recommended’

My co-editor Abigail Bray, my publishers and me (of course) were delighted to read this journal article “Book Reviews: Recent Books on Pornography: From Discussions of Harm to Normalization” by Robert Brannon of Brooklyn College, US and published this week by Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence. Big Porn Inc appears at the top of reviews of nine books addressing pornography all published since 2010.

Robert Brannon

National Organization for Men Against Sexism

Book Reviews: Recent Books on Pornography: From Discussions of Harm to Normalization

Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry. Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray (Eds.) (2011). Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, Australia.

This is by far the best and most significant of these recent books. It comes from Spinifex, a feminist press in Australia, where radical feminism is prospering rather more than in the U.S. (Spinifex was recently profiled by Barry, 2016). With 40 solid chapters, this is the richest such feminist collection since Laura Lederer’s (1980) Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography and/or Diana Russell’s (1983) Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography.

With contributions from Melissa Farley, Catharine MacKinnon, Diana Russell, Bob Jensen, Gail Dines, and Chyng Sun (and praise from Robin Morgan, Kathleen Barry, Janice Raymond, and Chris Stark), it represents much of the best of feminist analysis from the U.S. It adds many other good selections from Australia, Japan, India, South Africa, Croatia, Scotland, and Britain.

The wide range of topics is impressive: internet pornography, pornography now on campus, the sexualization of youth and of childhood, rape culture, feminist movement-building, pornography addiction, free speech issues, governmental indifference, rape video games, child and incest pornography, pornography of animal-abuse, challenging the demand for pornography, etc.

It also contains moving accounts from damaged survivors. A woman used in stripping writes: “I left with my self-esteem is shreds, my pockets empty, my body damaged, and my heart filled with shame.” A victim of pederasty and of child pornography describes the terrible lasting effects on her life.

Melissa Farley describes the many profound intersections of prostitution and pornography, and Abigail Bray reveals the highly profitable exploitative economics of each. Sheila Jeffreys describes the intermeshing of strip clubs and pornography: shared marketing, proximity, same owners, same customers, same women, used interchangeably.

Maggie Hamilton explores how sexualized marketing directly targets children. Megan Tyler describes how some sex therapists promote hard-core pornography to couples seeking help, offering films such as Jenna Loves Pain and Deep Throat. They suggest that clients model this behavior, and sometimes also recommend buying whips and bondage restraints. Teenagers’ sharing of photos they have made of themselves should (arguably) not be labeled “pornography,” but Nina Funnell’s article on this subject was good and thoughtful. This thick, landmark book is highly recommended.