Gail Dines

I'm giving this the full five stars as to my mind this is an urgent and important topic for our young people - and Dines argues her case very well. The topic is so vast though, that the surface can only be skimmed .... little about the 'homemade' market (who are these people? I assume some at least put their videos up for public consumption through choice?), nothing about 'ugly' sites, or 'fat' sites or 'senior citizen' sites (where the performers fall into these categories, not the viewers!). Diines' descriptionsof gonzo porn sickened me (although with a weird undercurrent of titillation - and I'm a middle aged housewife, so what must they do for red blooded young men?) ... and her points about desensitization were spot on. This book should be required reading on every media studies course in the world ... and would make an ideal 18th birthday present for your average randy teen! *****… (meer)

Dines makes some great points in this book: that individuals try on the trappings of gender as such things are projected by the greater culture. If those archetypes are harmful, as in the ones common in 'gonzo' pornography (as Dines calls it), then the social order can be harmed. I understand what the author is trying to do, truly, but I also think she neglects some of the subtleties of sexuality that are interwoven inextricably into the fabric of each complete being. The last chapter of this book about 'PCP' or pseudo-child pornography is particularly horrifying, and Dines argues convincingly that pornography might help desensitize men to violent or otherwise awful sexual practices.… (meer)