Anti-porn activist Gail Dines kindly agreed to let us reprint the following article, which originally appeared in CounterPunch on June 23.
How Some Men React When They Think You Want to Take Away Their PornPenn, Porn and Me
By GAIL DINESEveryone who has ever worked as an activist in progressive organizations fighting gender, racial and economic inequality, has had the experience of seeing their words and ideas twisted by mainstream corporate media. This is what happened to me on Penn and Teller: Bullshit! that is airing all this week on Showtime [link]. And one thing in particular I have learned for sure, after many years of being an anti-porn activist, is that men get very upset when they think you want to take their porn away.
I have seen a lot of upset men, but few get close to the level of rage Penn exhibited on the show. As he yelled and screamed into the camera, I thought he was going to have a stroke. He was especially upset with me for suggesting that mainstream porn, which is increasingly cruel and degrading, has a real effect on the men who use it.
The interesting part of this story is not Penn’s out-of-control anger, but the way the show framed the story on porn. As was expected, the producers used the topic as an excuse to show lots of porn; a quick and cheap way to pull in the audience. But the porn they showed was the soft core kind that is mainly girl-on-girl sex, the type that is not the main moneymaker for the industry.
The porn that makes most of the money for the industry is actually the gonzo, body-punishing variety that shows women’s bodies being physically stretched to the limit, humiliated and degraded. Even porn industry people commented in a recent article in Adult Video News, that gonzo porn is taking its toll on the women, and the turnover is high because they can’t stand the brutal acts on the body for very long.
While I doubt that Penn is any stranger to this type of porn, I know for sure that the lead producer is aware of it. In preparation for the show, he spent several hours with me as I carefully explained the different genres of porn, and he also came to one of my lectures, where he saw in clear and sharp focus just what happens to women in the industry. He himself expressed shock and anger as we talked, yet when it came down to it, he ended up just like the rest of media producers: cowardly and untruthful. The story they told about soft-core porn is only part of the story, as what really needs to be explained is why men are, according to the industry, seeking out harder and harder porn.
I initially declined to do the show, as I had no faith in Penn and Teller doing anything that remotely looked like serious journalism. In the end I agreed because they promised to give me some serious time to talk about porn. They also promised not to edit me to look like a fool. They kept their first promise and reneged on the second. They introduced the three anti-porn activists as the “Three Stooges”, setting us up as idiots before we had said a word. Of course, every time one of us said anything, they cut back to some soft porn and Penn, who was at times having a hysterical fit. It was both scary and comical, his red face contorted with rage as he yelled at the camera that porn doesn’t cause men to be violent!
The producers saved the best for last, when they talked about the lack of research on effects, and they edited my words down to: “there are no good studies.” This was a perfect ending for the show as it granted them the final word. The only problem is that the whole thing was a set up. The producer had asked me about studies showing a direct link between porn and rape. While there are no studies that show direct causation, I had told him about a wealth of research on the impact of porn on men’s attitudes and behavior.
So of course the media gets the last word, and us activists have to take the crumbs that they throw our way, and let me tell you, they don’t get any more crummy that Penn and Teller.
Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College. She is a founding member of Stop Porn Culture and co-producer of the slide show Who Wants to be a Porn Star? For a copy of the show, please email Stoppornculture@gmail.com.
See also:
Gail Dines Presents: Pornography and Pop Culture (explicit)
…33min:30sec – Major corporations are involved with porn, its performers and its advocates
“I
want us to remember who Howard Stern is… He was last year, the second
largest paid entertainer in the world, behind Tom Cruise. He made $302
million last year… I’m just going to take you through, a little bit,
who supports him… I want you to see how pornography and pop culture
are intertwined economically. In August 2005 Howard Stern revealed on
his show that he had signed a deal with In Demand Networks for an
on-demand subscription to his show. This was In Demand’s first premium
video offering…
“Now In Demand is the nation’s largest
pay-per-view distributor, reaching over 50 million households. It is
owned, in part, by TimeWarner and Comcast. TimeWarner also owns HBO,
which, of course, regularly features pro-pornography documentaries,
late at night, that normalizes pornography. TimeWarner also owns WB
Network, which did a reality show with Ron Jeremy, the porn star,
whose…hundreds of movies include…White Trash Whore, Black Babes in Heat, and Girls of the Third Reich… He’s on the college circuit, lecturing… He’s coming to Simmons, across the road to me…and they’re paying him $12,000…
“WB
is the first network ever to employ a porn actor on a regular basis.
TimeWarner also owns Sports Illustrated… It also owns Warner Books,
which is just publishing a new book by this magazine, Boink. Now Boink
is the BU porn magazine which features ‘provocative pictures of real
college students from around the country, by students, for students.’
You can, by the way, look for it in a bookstore near you in February
2008. The woman who is the editor of Boink got a six-figure advance
from TimeWarner.”
37min:05sec – Large cable and satellite operators enjoy lush profits from porn
Comcast
is the nation’s largest cable company… In 2002, Comcast pulled in $50
million from porn programming alone. Comcast also owns E!
Entertainment, which regularly features shows hosted by Jenna
Jameson… [H]er bestselling book was published by HarperCollins [How to Make Love Like a Porn Star]…which
is owned by Rupert Murdoch…[who] has a major share in DirecTV,
[whose] subscribers spend over $200 million a year in pornography.”
Stop Porn Culture and Wheelock College Announce a Summer Institute, July 8-11, Boston, MA
Media Madness: The Impact of Sex, Violence and Commercial Culture on Adults, Children and Society
A Summer Institute for Educators, Students, Human Service Professionals, Activists and Parents
July 8-11, 2008, Wheelock College, Boston
Porn Myths: “Porn is an outlet or safety valve for men who might otherwise do Bad Things”
Some people have suggested that porn shops are a safe place to help
people relieve their impulses. Research suggests that, on the contrary,
porn can “decrease sensitivity to the crime of rape” and “increase the
acceptance of violence against women”. Here is information adapted from
oneangrygirl.net.
“The relationship between particularly sexually violent
images in the media and subsequent aggression…is much stronger
statistically than the relationship between smoking and lung cancer.”–Researcher Edward Donnerstein…
Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution,
Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs
The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the
Research
Influence of Porn on Sex Practices: Dispatches from the Field
(explicit language)
Evidence Assessment: The Role of Pornography in the Physical Abuse of
Women
Time to Explore the Links Between Porn, Testosterone, Sexual
Behavior and Violence
Testimony in Minneapolis: With Growth of Porn, Rapists Show Less Remorse
Testimony in Minneapolis: “Prevalency of pornography amongst our offenders”
Porn and Sex Crimes in Other Countries: The Historical Experience
Exposure to pornography as a cause of child sexual victimization
Porn a factor in many sex offenses
Penn & Teller Think Nevada’s Brothels are A-OK
When it comes to Nevada’s legal brothels, Penn & Teller could use a dose of their own medicine. Their segment about prostitution is summarized as follows:
Everyone knows that prostitution is practiced throughout
the land. Where it is legal – in only a few Nevada counties,
prostitution is vigorously regulated and monitored by the State of
Nevada Health Department. The women submit to compulsory medical tests
for STDs. No one is forced to work as a prostitute. Pimps don’t exist.
HIV has never been detected. The women earn regular paychecks and tips.
Some even get vacation and sick days. And they pay taxes! It’s BULLSHIT
that it’s illegal for two consenting adults to have sex with each other!
This fuzzy thinking is debunked in Melissa Farley’s new book, Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.
Farley shows that life inside Nevada’s legal “pussy penitentiaries” is
far from safe, glamorous, or remunerative. The prostitutes are often
locked in. Many were sexually abused as children. Fines, tips and the
owner’s share typically cut into half the workers’ earnings or more.
“More than 80% of those interviewed told Farley they wanted to leave
prostitution.”