Customer Reviews

Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm

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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.

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.

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.

I bought this book two years ago, when I was feeling particularly troubled about sexism and misogyny in our society. I wanted to read up on the subject of pornography in order to acquire a stronger foundation of arguments against it, should I find myself in a discussion on the topic. However, this book did not supply me with any useful information whatsoever, instead, reading it, or rather viewing the pictures included in it, proved a traumatic experience.

The books main content is a collection of pictures - of cartoons and photos, most of which show women being sexually degraded or tortured. These pictures are collected from old editions of porn magazines, mainly from the seventies.

I showed the book to a male acquaintance with whom I had had arguments about pornography (he took the view that there was nothing wrong with pornography). He said he never saw anything like these pictures before; he agreed that they were nasty and kept his view that 'normal' porn is all right.

Therefore, this book does not say anything about the majority of porn, and the information contained is of no use in acquiring knowledge and arguments about pornography in general.

In addition to this, the pictures were so horrible and upsetting that I was unable to forget them for a long time. In fact, I felt tormented by the memory of the terrible scenarios portrayed and grew very depressed.

So if anyone considers reading up on pornography: There are better books around, which are more informative and which are not merely aimed to shock.

I regret having bought this book and decided to write this review in order to
warn others.

This book was a disappointment. Rather than give any sort of fresh or new material, the author just rehashes old out-dated accusations. The analysis shows a clear political bias and is poorly supported. If you are at all interested in a true fair analysis of the topic, don't waste your money on this book.