Pornland

by Dines, Gail

• ISBN13: 9780807044520
• ISBN10: 0807044520
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-29
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

Professor Gail Dines has written about and researched the porn industry for over two decades. She attends industry conferences, interviews producers and performers, and speaks to hundreds of men and women each year about their experience with porn. Students and educators describe her work as "life changing." InPornlandthe culmination of her life's workDines takes an unflinching look at porn and its affect on our lives. Astonishingly, the average age of first viewing porn is now 11.5 years for boys, and with the advent of the Internet, it's no surprise that young people are consuming more porn than ever. But, as Dines shows, today's porn is strikingly different from yesterday'sPlayboy. As porn culture has become absorbed into pop culture, a new wave of entrepreneurs are creating porn that is even more hard-core, violent, sexist, and racist. To differentiate their products in a glutted market, producers have created profitable niche productslike teen sex, torture porn, and gonzoin order to entice a generation of desensitized users. Going from the backstreets to Wall Street, Dines traces the extensive money trail behind this multibillion-dollar industryone that reaps more profits than the film and music industries combined. Like Big Tobaccowith its powerful lobbying groups and sophisticated business practicesporn companies don't simply sell products. Rather they influence legislators, partner with mainstream media, and develop new technologies like streaming video for cell phones. Proving that this assembly line of content is actually limiting our sexual freedom, Dines argues that porn's omnipresence has become a public health concern we can no longer ignore.

Author Biography

Gail Dines is professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College. The author of two books and a regular commentator on pornography, she’s appeared in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Time, News week, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction Porn and the Industrialization of Sex	p. xv
Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler: Paving the Way for Today's Porn Industry	p. 1
Pop Goes the Porn Culture: Mainstreaming Porn	p. 25
From the Backstreet to Wall Street: The Big Business of Porn	p. 47
Grooming for Gonzo: Becoming a Man in a Porn Culture	p. 59
Leaky Images: How Porn Seeps into Men's Lives	p. 79
Visible or Invisible: Growing Up Female in a Porn Culture	p. 99
Racy Sex, Sexy Racism: Porn from the Dark Side	p. 121
Children: The Final Taboo	p. 141
Conclusion Fighting Back	p. 163
Acknowledgments	p. 167
Notes	p. 169
Index	p. 191
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.