Customer Reviews

The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go from Here

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To be honest, this book really acts much more as a history lesson of porn in our culture. Very little of the book is spent examining the state of porn today and how it affects our culture - so the "Where We Go from Here" portion of the title is a bit misleading.

Overall an interesting, if somewhat disheartening read (on the social level). It neither defends nor attacks porn, which leads it to read quite well factually... but also seems to try too hard to not take a side that it doesn't give any sort of sense of urgency or importance.

Fascinating, and very readable without losing the critical, scholarly element. Great introduction to the topic, with just enough details and just enough broadness to leave a reader informed and, perhaps, ready to dive into more specific research. Provides a broad and interesting history of the "porning" of America, and most intriguingly, is able to pull that off without attaching any particular negative or positive connotation to the word "porning." The authors are refreshingly honest about their difficulty in deciding what is either good or bad about porn, and in deciding "where we," as a society, "go from here."

Covers: historical relationship between war and pornography, Civil war -- Iraq; the puritan sex-shame that much pornography still fuels off; sexualization of children, men, women, and the elderly; Feminism and pornography; detailed history of pornography from 70's till 2007 (ish).

Great balance of clear, concise, and sharp writing with solid facts and hardly a paragraph of wasted words. This book was well organized and coherently progressive from end to end.

If you are looking for a particularly bold assertion about whether porn is "good or bad," or, if you are looking for any detail about homosexuals and pornography, this is probably NOT your ideal book.

What an eye opening book! I knew that there was a lot of porn on the internet, but I was astonished to see just how persuasively the writers argue that it is the main influence on our culture today, shaping just about every aspect of day-to-day life. Some of the book is hard to take, but parents, especially, need to know what is going on. Head-in-the-sand is really not a helpful option if you have kids to raise. I found the last chapter, "Where We Go From Here," to be especially interesting and valuable. All in all, a great read! Highly recommended.

With exception to the final chapter the book is clearly written by heterosexual men! The primary group holding the least amount of discriminatory history in the area of sexuality. To speak of how women and gay men feel about things without citing actual women and gay men is ridiculous. Not to mention the lack of cited work (They mention a Susan Sontag text but do not cite it or even give a name!). The APA case studies are constantly used and when it comes to sexuality and if you have read other texts you would know that Psychology is sometimes behind on the times, still listing transgendered as a disorder and only recently removing homosexuality. True this book came out in 2008, but it already seems like a historical text then what we should do. This book reads as two men trying to protect their children (primarily their girls) from what the world really is. Yes they make some good points about BRATZ dolls and such but these things should be rite in front of our faces. As for shunning hardcore bondage porn.... shame on them!!! If they actually opened some good psychology texts they would know that bondage play is healthy for some people and that fantasy including rape fantasy is a normal function and these pornographic images help in these processes. Basically I am saying that this is a point of view, one that to me seems outdated, verging on sexist and homophobic at times. Do not tell me how a group of individuals feels you can not group all women or all gay men into something and claim thats how they all feel, especially when they aren neither female or gay. I have a degree in psychology, who has read many texts on "porning" and there are way better texts to be read then this one. Look for something else, preferably more specific to what you re looking to learn. This text is very broad making it vague and does not explain itself. If you are looking for a broad overview look for one that markets itself as such.

I bought this book looking for answers: Why would a virile, masculine man prefer porn to a real
naked woman? The book is mostly history, however, telling us all about the
beginnings of porn, the politics, etc. And throughout the authors constantly
disclaim a stand one way or the other about porn. No research cited in the areas of
psychology, sociology,addiction; in fact, the word "addiction" is not even in the index.

The book is a bit on the sensational side, a lot of Hollywood name-dropping,
and is a wealth of porn sites itself,and porny stories that are bad, very bad.
"Don't try this at home" type of thing. D.

If you've ever been troubled by porn; a guilty pleasure, a normal human curiosity or a sickness destroying our society, then perhaps some perspective might help. The authors provide a reasonably balanced point of view but in the end that's all it is. I'd have preferred s bit more analysis on the impacts of porn on "normal" people.

I knew that my country had fallen into the pornographic sewer, but until I had read this book, I did not know how far. That's the reason I give the book two stars: It taught me something. I did not know, for instance, that mainstream ad campaigns now incorporate allusions to the money shot and porn facials. This is, of course, sickening and depressing, but I did learn something I did not know, and because I am not a Republican dittohead, I consider this a good thing. Otherwise, though, the book is idiocy. The authors wrote this book to sound the alarm about violently degrading porn that might well bring Nazi horrors to these shores and the generally porned atmosphere that threatens the innocence of children. But the authors make it very clear that they are not against all porn. Porn that doesn't celebrate domination of men over women but recognizes everyone's sexual joy is actually good. But porn that is stuck in the thesis-antithesis of domineering stud and submissive slut is really bad. This produces Nazi porn and leads straight to the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The book is pretty much a plea for a Hegelian dialectic of porn, in which the end of history happens when everyone acknowledges one another as a happy and equally empowered sex worker (as long as the sex workers are of legal age, or course, and their videos are kept in places where the kids can't find them). The authors actually suggest that good sex education programs can bring this about. So much for the authors' concern about a child's innocence, I guess. I could imagine a teacher asking, "Okay, class, why is bukakke bad porn?" One kid raises his hand, "Because the sperm sometimes gets on the lens and then you can't see nothing." "No," the teacher says somewhat irked, "it's bad because the woman is merely passive and not empowered." And the teacher shows good porn directed by Jenna Jameson. It's good, the teacher explains, because although the actresses seem to be depraved, filthy sluts, that's okay because, well, a woman is directing it and that means a woman now will receive her long overdue Hegelian recognition as a porn king! Isn't that inspirational, kiddies? Geez.

these guys really reach to draw their conclusions, taking logical shortcuts to try and link "porning" with things as diverse as sneaker ads, Bratz dolls, and horror films. If you are against pornography, you will find a lot in this book to agree with, but no intellectual stimulation. If you are pro-porn, you will find yourself sighing very loudly and contemplating a writing career of your own after realizing how little effort and brainpower it takes to get publishing deal.