PORNLAND:
Pornography has seeped into our everyday world. Howard Stern regularly features porn on his radio show; Hugh Hefner’s life with his “girlfriends” is the focus of the hugely successful show The Girls Next Door on E!; fifteen-year-old Miley Cyrus is photographed almost naked for Vanity Fair; Kevin Smith’s movie, Zak and Miri Make a Porno, is warmly received by movie critics; and pole dancing is a widely popular form of exercise for young women. But what are the consequences to our culture, sexuality, gender identity and relationships? Dr. Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Wheelock College in Boston, has devoted herself to finding the answers, having spent two decades writing, researching, and speaking about the porn industry. Her work culminates in PORNLAND, which takes an unflinching and eye-opening look at today’s porn industry; its increasingly hard core content, its emergence as a major industry, the way it manipulates consumers into buying its products, its profitable niche market areas, and its pervasive impact on popular culture. Above all, this book looks at how porn images shape, distort and constrain our sexual imaginations. Dr. Gail Dines knows better than anyone how pornography is affecting our lives, and her book challenges us to examine and to take control of our relationships, our identities, and our sexuality. |
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