Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm [Paperback]

Diana E. H. Russell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Russell Pubns; 1st edition (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963477617
• ISBN-13: 978-0963477613
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,290,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diana E.H. Russell (Born November 6, 1938, South Africa) is a radical feminist writer and activist. For the past 40 years she has been engaged in research on sexual violence against women and girls. She has written numerous books and articles on rape (including marital rape), femicide, incest, misogynist murders of women, and pornography. For her book on incest, The Secret Trauma, she was co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The evidence is presented and it's ugly, June 7, 2000

By 

Linda C. McCabe "Athena" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (Paperback)

Dr. Diana Russell does the unthinkable. She used examples of pornography to illustrate text discussing the harm it causes. Many women are forced to re-enact images that men have witnessed in pornographic movies and magazines. And many of the women who were depicted in pornography were forced into the acts in the first place. Some of the images are very disturbing because they show torture of women.

One thing that Dr. Russell wrote that really stuck with me is that if the act of paying someone for sex is illegal, how does it all of a sudden become "free speech" if you document this illegal act by photographing it? Instead it seems like it should be evidence of a crime being committed. Unless of course it is in the few counties in Nevada where prostitution is legal.

Once you start thinking that women have willingly subjected themselves to being tortured sexually for the visual amusement of others, then you start thinking that this is normal for all women. When it could be that those images should be in a court of law because it was not done by a willing participant, but by a woman who was raped and tortured.

Dr. Russell also weaves into the text studies done by researchers who look at the effects of pornography on the attitudes of people toward women in general and victims of sexual abuse in specific. This is a powerful book and one that cannot be dismissed.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary, disturbing work...., April 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (Paperback)

This book is a must-read for anyone who still doubts that pornography is harmful. Russell does painstaking content analysis of pornographic material, with graphic and disturbing illustrations, to reach an unavoidable conclusion: Pornography is hateful propaganda designed to hurt women.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now you know what causes rape culture!, February 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (Paperback)

Rape is the most unreported and under-reported crime in history.
One reported rape occurs every 3-5 minutes in North America alone. Russell's gruesome pictorial expose of the causal effects of pornography on rape and other forms of violent misogyny, leaves no doubt on how pornography contributes to violence against women. Her findings reflect most men globally, not just American men. At least Ted Bundy was honest enough than most men to realise what pornography has done to his mind.

...Russell's book leaves no doubt that women are still treated like objects to be bought, sold, used and discarded. It is left up to a few good men and women to take up the challenge of Russell to work towards a world free from pornography, and rape.