Make Love Not Porn: Technology's Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior (TED Books) [Kindle Edition]

Cindy Gallop (Author), Rodger Ruzanka (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Hardcore pornography is becoming so ubiquitous on the web, it is shaping and distorting the way many of today's young men and women think about sex and intimacy. Cindy Gallop discovered this through personal experience. In a bold, honest book, she describes numerous examples of porn-influenced behavior from the hilarious to the disturbing, both from her own dating life and from readers of her groundbreaking website MakeLoveNotPorn.com.

"Make Love Not Porn" is part of the new TED Books series. TED Books are short digital books that present a single powerful idea.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 406 KB
• Publisher: TED Books (February 22, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004P1IX9U
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,599 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Cindy Gallop's background is brandbuilding, marketing and advertising - she started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of www.IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a web meets world platform designed to turn good intentions into action one microaction at a time, which launched in beta with a demo at TED 2010, and of www.makelovenotporn.com, launched at TED 2009. She acts as board advisor to a number of tech startups and consults, describing her consultancy approach as 'I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.' She has a reputation as a highly compelling and inspirational speaker and speaks at conferences and events around the world, such as ad:tech, Social Media Week, Ignite, ANA Masters of Marketing, 4As Transformation, MI6, Tomorrow Awards, Clio Awards, South by South West, LuxuryLab Innovation Forum, GenNext Forum, private corporate events, and, of course, TED.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, compelling, alarming, February 23, 2011

By 

Student of Life (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Make Love Not Porn: Technology's Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior (TED Books) (Kindle Edition)

There were a couple of sections of this book that made me want to throw up. Cindy Gallop's description of what kids of 11, and younger, are reading and watching is horrifying. Most of us really don't want to know what's going on in seedier parts of the hardcore porn web world. But perhaps we should. She argues persuasively that a whole generation is emerging whose sexual habits are being learned from that "porn world". And what gives this book its unique feel, is that she's not really writing from a position of moral judgement. She actually enjoys pornography. But she's observed from her own extensive experience of dating younger men that they're getting their sex education off the web, and it's teaching them some very - very- strange habits.

The book goes into this in much greater depth than her celebrated four-minute TED talk on youtube, and includes searingly honest personal anecdotes - and a series of extremely frank and revealing emails from people who responded to her website. If you can't bear graphic adult language, you should not read this book. But if you have a young kid - or a young lover - you should consider a read. It's compelling, hilarious in places, and it will definitely open your eyes.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for parents, February 25, 2011

By 

Kate Bristow "Kate" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Make Love Not Porn: Technology's Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior (TED Books) (Kindle Edition)

Most parents do not want to think about their teenage children having sex. Or viewing sex. Or talking about sex with their peers. But the truth is they do. A lot. What Cindy Gallop has done with this honest, insightful book is expose the fallacy that porn is only for grown-ups and that children will develop their own sexual modus operandi in a natural, organic fashion. They won't. If today's parents are too afraid to discuss sex and porn with their children, they should at least tell them to read this book. It will open their eyes to the fact that they have been fed a series of unreal expectations and beliefs about what constitutes good sex. Cindy's work deserves attention at the highest level. As a reader, I salute her eloquence. As a mom, I thank God for her courage.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A modern spin on the oldest tale (and the oldest trade), February 24, 2011

By 

A. Smith (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Make Love Not Porn: Technology's Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior (TED Books) (Kindle Edition)

I first met Cindy Gallop a couple of years ago when I was interviewing her on the subject of storytelling. In this case it was to do with the rather more (though only, perhaps, a little) polite world of online advertising. Cindy understands how to communicate directly and with humor. With Make Love Not Porn she undresses all the illusions one might have about our own intimate behavior, and what is harder to read (especially to those of us with kids) that of the searching minds of teenagers. We live in a world where anything that can be imagined (or visually created) is but a mouse click away. The porn industry (with all its friends and relations) has a deep reach into the lives of us all. It affects how we think about sex, our own bodies and the bodies of those we interact with. Cindy Gallop addresses all these issues in a very personal and explicit way. This is not for the faint of heart but it will certainly open the eyes. Place alongside "The Sexual Life of Catherine M" by Catherine Millet and you will have two of the most explicit and well-told stories of female/human sexuality.