Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families (Hardcover)

by Pamela Paul (Author) "What's a nice girl like you doing writing a book about porn?..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, First Amendment, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Having already carved out a major niche among 20-to-30-somethings with The Starter Marriage, Paul takes on another bane of postfeminism: the Internet-enabled "all pornography, all the time" mentality of many younger men and its ripple effect on the culture. For this pornograph, Paul interviewed more than 100 people—80 of them young, straight men. Some findings are predictable: porn allows men "to enjoy the fantasy of endless variety," but can distract men from their partners, detract from their sexual skills and harm relationships. More valuably, Paul finds women caught under new forms of social pressure—from men and women—not to disdain porn: to do so, now, is (among other things) to be seen as limiting women's sexual self-expression. Paul also sees porn seeping ever sooner into preteen life and sensibly observes that there's no reason for porn to be limitless on the Net when it's regulated elsewhere. Still, a critique that aims to avoid religious conservatism's invocation of sin and radical feminism's emphasis on civil rights violations can get fuzzy. Like Potter Stewart ("I know it when I see it"), Paul can't always distinguish sex-related art from pornography other than on a case-by-case basis; things get especially thorny regarding the torture and pain that, she asserts, "many, perhaps most men, find alluring." She ends up arguing that pornography, like alcohol or cigarettes, should be "discouraged," and proposes an effort by the government and private sector to quell consumer demand. Paul's outlines and analyses can seem simplistic, and her prose rarely rises above the level of the Time magazine feature on which the book is based. But she covers a lot of territory, and there's plenty to unnerve the knee-jerk "free speech" crowd. This will be a major watercooler book this season.
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From Booklist
It's beyond argument that pornography in America today has achieved a certain respectability: think of porn star Ron Jeremy's reputation in the 1980s and his reputation today. Paul details how the ubiquity of pornography impacts our personal lives. She discusses studies on the subject--in one, 77 percent of respondents said they had looked at pornography at least once in a 30-day period--and shares interviews with many who watch it regularly. Paul's analysis is wide-ranging: why men look at porn and how porn affects them, how women see pornography, how porn affects sexual relationships, the effects of porn on children. If Paul is far less polemical than, say, Andrea Dworkin, her book reveals a sadness about it all, reflected in one user's comment: "I don't see how any male who likes porn can think actual sex is better, at least if it involves all the crap that comes with having a real live female in your life." Certain to generate discussion, as did Paul's previous book, The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony (2002). Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Times Books (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805077456
• ISBN-13: 978-0805077452
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #361,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth your time to read, July 20, 2006

By	J. Aragon "Feminist Educator" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is worth purchasing and reading or at the very least leafing through at the library.

The author does an interesting job of presenting controversial material. Today if you're not supportive of the Porn Industrial Complex, somehow you're either a puritan or another woman with an axe to grind!

Paul is on to something with this well-read (read not another dry academic polemic) and so-so researched book. I don't think her "study" meets the requirements of an acceptable social science inquiry, but that is another issue.

The quotes and observations from people who view porn are the most telling and allow her to make her point easily.

136 of 179 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book, August 30, 2005

By	A Reader - See all my reviews

For those who aren't into porn and don't want to be, this book is a helpful education. Paul manages to tell us what's really going on in porn without forcing us to walk hip-deep into the muck. She also makes it unblinkingly clear, both from important, documented studies and from porn watchers' own disclosures, that a steady diet of porn is indeed a slippery slope into worse and worse stuff. She provides the information needed to avoid getting sucked into the "it's just harmless fantasy" and free "speech" defenses while, at the same time, standing firmly against Puritanism and outright censorship as the only alternatives.

Paul also makes it painfully clear that the kind of porn so easily accessible via the Internet today is nothing like the old Playboy centerfolds (which could be characterized as Hugh Hefner's endlessly adolescent fantasies). Today's horrifically hardcore stuff is distorting in the worst possible way even to adults but even more so to pre-teens and young teens just learning about sexuality. Saying that porn is an inevitable guy thing is like saying men truly believe they are helpless in the face of pornifed images, have no say in their fantasies or in what turns them on, that porn is the only way they know how to deal with repression and silence about sex, that what they learned at age 13 is good enough for the rest of their lives, or that they are incapable of distinguishing between the "forbidden" and their own internal standards.

Even remaining totally within the realm of fantasy, it is perfectly legitimate to ask of porn advocates (ourselves or others), why would you even *want* to be turned on--even in fantasy--by the kinds of things porn purveyors produce? In the end, porn says virtually nothing about sexuality or the paid players. It says a whole lot, however, about the purveyors who for whatever reasons--some possibly even tragic--learned to associate and condition their own erotic feelings with degrading acts. And this association appears to be the monument to "speech" they wish to pass on to future generations.

There are, of course, many additional aspects that are and could be discussed, and Paul's main points are that we need to stop putting our heads in the sand about the very real and negative effects this cynical and sometimes life-threatening activity is having on our lives and those of our children, that there are alternatives to the proliferation of this stuff, and that there are things we can do to bring about those alternatives.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective, nuanced view of pornography today, February 25, 2006

By	Karen Walter, a sociologist (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

After seeing Paul on C-Span, along with the president of the ACLU and some other authors, I knew I had to get this book. It's about time a serious journalist (and not someone with an agenda or an axe to grind) decided to examine the issue of pornography in society today. Not only is Paul's research incredibly thorough -- she had the Harris Poll do a nationwide survey and interviewed dozens of people froma wide range of backgrounds -- but she approached the subject in such a rational, methodogical way. (Which is amazing, given the insanity of some of what the people she interviews say). She not only interviewed men and women with a vast array of experiences -- both users and nonusers, fans and the disinterested, casual users and compulsive users -- but she got a diverse group in terms of background. It was nice to see an author who bothers talking to people other than just upper middle class white folks.

The most impressive thing about this book was its objectivity in the face of a subject that gets people riled up beyond reason. Unlike some fanatical people on the far right and the far left, Paul sticks to the facts and leaves her political view (which is hard to discern) out of it. How refreshing! I'm sick of polemics masquerading as serious sociological works.

My only wish is that she had written more about the impact of pornography on families and children. She only devotes one chapter to the subject, and while it is riveting and upsetting, it begged for more. I understand that the author wanted to beyond the usual "What about the children?" argument, but I still think it's a crucial issue and could have used another 30 pages or so on the subject.

Overall, however, this is a much needed book and one that I would recommend to anyone, no matter what their opinion on porn is. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the book that finally opened the eyes of knee-jerk pro-pornography people who refuse to listen to any evidence that might shake their world view. Certainly, if someone I know starts nattering the same-old same-old rationalizations of porn, I'm going to buy them a copy of this book. It could only do them good.