Response for this article
Article & Response Post #1
The Truth about the Porn Industry
This article is written by Julie Bindel, a staff writer for theGuardian; where she interviews Gail Dines, an outspoken anti-pornography advocate. Ms. Dines speaks of her book, “Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality” where she claims that pornography has damaged both men and women. In one of her examples she states, “I have found that the earlier men use porn, the more likely they are to have trouble developing close, intimate relationships with real women. Some of these men prefer porn to sex with an actual human being. They are bewildered, even angry, when real women don’t want or enjoy porn sex.” She continues by discussing “the way women and girls think about their bodies, their sexuality and their relationships. Every group that has fought for liberation understands that media images are part and parcel of the systematic dehumanization of an oppressed group . . . The more porn images filter into mainstream culture, the more girls and women are stripped of full human status and reduced to sex objects. This has a terrible effect on girls’ sexual identity because it robs them of their own sexual desire.”
I have always found issues of pornography and prostitution, the arguments for and against, extremely intriguing. I personally think the average male or female (yes, many females DO enjoy porn) that views porn, find it erotic, funny, or unrealistic, just as many view today’s “Soap Operas.” Granted, soap operas do not go as far in the scope of nudity but, do take the viewer to a certain point and allows them to use their imagination and/or fantasies. As we will cover in Chapter 18, pornography in its purest form, viewed by mentally adjusted adults, is not a disorder. It becomes a disorder if and when the person’s sexual and social behavior is adversely affected. The average viewer of porn does not try to emulate what they have seen, or treat others in a demeaning or destructive manner. While I find the article interesting and parts valid, it is her opinion and I defend her right to it but, find some of her thoughts as being sensationalizing.
