Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry
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“This powerful and humane book is a breakthrough. Like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring which launched the environmental movement, Big Porn Inc shows us we are poisoning our own spirits, and that an ugly misuse of thousands of women – and very young children – is the dark and criminal underside of this industry. I hope this is the point where we turn away from pornography – from using it, from condoning it, from allowing it.”
– STEVE BIDDULPH, AUTHOR OF THE NEW MANHOOD AND THE SECRET OF HAPPY CHILDREN
“At a time when so many celebrities, academics and free speech fundamentalists are siding with the sex industry to deny that pornography is violence against women, Big Porn Inc is the voice of reality – a strong indictment; an epic work.”
– JANICE G. RAYMOND, PROFESSOR EMERITA OF WOMEN’S STUDIES AND MEDICAL ETHICS; PAST CO-DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN (CATW)
“Big Porn Inc is a first-rate book: comprehensive and thoroughly researched. Porn does not liberate sexuality. What is it that men enjoy in porn: humiliation, degradation, control, sexual violence, submission …? Fortunately, this anthology considers the possibilities of resistance and offers hope for transformative futures.”
– RICHARD POULIN, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA AND AUTHOR OF SEXUALISATION PRÉCOCE ET PORNOGRAPHIE AND PORNOGRAPHIE ET HYPERSEXUALISATION: ENFANCES DÉVASTÉES
“If you care about social justice, buy this book. Big Porn Inc is a must read for anyone interested in the human rights of women and children. The book is cogent and alarming, yet hopeful that together we can create a world where women and children are not hurt and degraded. Big Porn Inc is a much needed blueprint for ending the global porn industry.”
– CHRISTINE STARK, AUTHOR OF NICKELS AND CO-EDITOR OF NOT FOR SALE
“When anthropologists from Planet Upsilon report on how civilization failed, Big Porn Inc will probably be Exhibit One. I thank the authors for the courage it took to wade through this material and put together this awesome book that drags us kicking and screaming to what so many do not want to know about corporate sex. Big Porn Inc may be our last chance to grasp porn ideology before it slips in and becomes the very fabric of our lives.”
– MARTIN DUFRESNE, ANTI-SEXISM ACTIVIST, CANADA
“Global media have infused the culture with sexually objectified and commodified women and girls, mainstreaming pornography with ever-increasing harms to females everywhere. Big Porn Inc is a clarion call to action against this gross violation of women’s human rights. Brilliant, insightful, essential.”
– KATHLEEN SLOAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN (NOW) USA; CONVENOR, UN PANELS ON THE MEDIA’S SEXUAL COMMODIFICATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
“Woman or man, ignore this book at your peril. A remarkable international collection of insightful essays on the growing, poisonous role Big Porn plays in global culture, economics, mores, and violence against women and children. Brava to Spinifex Press for publishing this gift to thoughtful readers.”
– ROBIN MORGAN, AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST
“Big Food, Big Oil, Big Pharma and, yes, Big Porn – global corporate giants that shape and exploit human needs and desires, profiting while furthering injustice and denying toxic effects. Big Porn Inc is a hugely necessary, radical and rousing work, full of big thoughts and big truths about the all-consuming pornographic worldview.”
– JANE CAPUTI, CREATOR OF DVD THE PORNOGRAPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
“Many people, for all sorts of reasons, have preferred to avoid thinking about the porn industry and its manifold negative impacts. The invasion of Big Porn throughout mainstream culture makes moving beyond such denial long overdue. Big Porn Inc offers clear and topical chapters from a range of thinkers who are uniquely well-equipped to explain why. This is a profoundly important book.”
– EMMA RUSH, LEAD AUTHOR CORPORATE PAEDOPHILIA: SEXUALISATION OF CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA; LECTURER IN ETHICS, CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY
“In Big Porn Inc feminists lay down the gauntlet to pornographers by exposing the hate and harm of their man-dated sexuality which has become normative behavior. Big Porn Inc not only contests pornographic harm and hate. It will, I predict, incite a new bold wave of global activism in which we reclaim our future.”
– KATHLEEN BARRY, AUTHOR OF FEMALE SEXUAL SLAVERY, PROSTITUTION OF SEXUALITY, AND UNMAKING WAR, REMAKING MEN
“Big Porn Inc represents a powerful and growing reaction against the influence of the porn merchants and society’s willingness to let them get away with one outrage after another. The book unleashes a cascade of emotions – shock, disgust, guilt, rage, and heart-felt admiration for the victims of the porn industry … A landmark publication sure to help open the eyes of the public to the modern scourge of porn and amplify the call for greater decency and respect. Because without them, there can be no true liberation.”
– CLIVE HAMILTON, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC ETHICS AT CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY
“Big Porn Inc is a brilliant exposé on how the porn industry has sold us big fat lies about sex and sexuality. No previous generation has had to navigate such a flood of porn inspired imagery and concepts. Essential reading for everyone, especially the deluded defenders who remain willfully blind to the harmful impacts. I hope Big Porn Inc helps to create the seismic shift humanity needs.”
– JULIE GALE, ACTIVIST AND FOUNDER OF KIDS FREE 2B KIDS
“Big Porn Inc is a courageous book, brilliantly undertaken. Based on impressive research and experience, the collection provides a disturbingly convincing portrayal of the multi-billion dollar global pornography industry. The pornography industry’s assault on women, girls and our culture is real. This is the book we need to understand how and why and the means by which it can be halted.”
– MARY LUCILLE SULLIVAN, AUTHOR OF MAKING SEX WORK: A FAILED EXPERIMENT WITH LEGALISED PROSTITUTION
Melinda Tankard Reist is a writer, speaker, blogger, media commentator and activist against violence against women, objectification of women and sexualisation of girls. Melinda is author/editor of 4 books including Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (Spinifex Press, 2006) and Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009). Melinda’s opinion pieces appear frequently in Australian media and she is a regular on morning television and current affairs programs. She is a co-founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation. Melinda is named in the Who’s Who of Australian Women and the World Who’s Who of Women. Her Website is
Dr Abigail Bray is a Research Fellow at the Social Justice Research Centre at Edith Cowan University. She has published widely in leading international academic journals on anorexia, child sexual abuse, moral panics, and child pornography. She is the author of Hélène Cixous: Writing and Sexual Difference (2004) and Body Talk: A Power Guide for Girls with Elizabeth Reid Boyd (2005). She was an inaugural inductee into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011. Her forthcoming book Misogyny Re-Loaded will be published by Spinifex in 2012. She is a member of Socialist Alliance and the Marxist collective Das Argument.
Other books by Melinda Tankard Reist
Giving Sorrow Words (2000)
Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (2007)
Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (2009)
Other books by Abigail Bray
Hélène Cixous: Writing and Sexual Difference (2004)
Body Talk: A Power Guide for Girls (2005) with Elizabeth Reid Boyd
BIG PORN INC
EXPOSING THE HARMS OF THE GLOBAL PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY
edited by
Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray
First published by Spinifex Press 2011
Spinifex Press Pty Ltd
504 Queensberry St
North Melbourne, Victoria 3051
Australia
women@spinifexpress.com.au
www.spinifexpress.com.au
Copyright © on collection Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray, 2011
Copyright © on individual contributions remains with the authors, photographers and creators
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.
Copying for educational purposes
Information in this book may be reproduced in whole or part for study or training purposes, subject to acknowledgement of the source and providing no commercial usage or sale of material occurs. Where copies of part or whole of the book are made under part VB of the Copyright Act, the law requires that prescribed procedures be followed. For information contact the Copyright Agency Limited.
Edited in-house by Renate Klein
Copy edited by Maree Hawken
Indexed by Kath Harper
Cover design by Deb Snibson, MAPG
Typeset by Palmer Higgs
Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group
The National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Big Porn Inc: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry / Melinda Tankard Reist; Abigail Bray editors.
9781876756895 (pbk)
9781742195407 (ebook: pdf)
9781742195414 (ebook: kindle)
9781742195438 (ebook: epub)
Includes bibliography and index.
Pornography. Internet pornography. Sex in popular culture. Sex role in children.
Mass media and sex. Sex-oriented businesses.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Tankard Reist, Melinda.
Bray, Abigail, 1966-
306.742
Contents
Acknowledgements
MELINDA TANKARD REIST AND ABIGAIL BRAY
Australia
Introduction
CAROLINE
Scotland
The Impact of Pornography on My Life
PART 1: PORNOGRAPHY CULTURES
GAIL DINES
USA
The New Lolita: Pornography and the Sexualization of Childhood
CATHARINE A. MACKINNON
USA
X-Underrated: Living in a World the Pornographers Have Made
MAGGIE HAMILTON
Australia
Groomed to Consume Porn: How Sexualised Marketing Targets Children
ROBERT JENSEN
USA
Stories of a Rape Culture: Pornography as Propaganda
NINA FUNNELL
Australia
Sexting and Peer-to-Peer Porn
DIANE L. ROSENFELD
USA
Who Are You Calling a ‘Ho’?: Challenging the Porn Culture on Campus
CHRISTOPHER N. KENDALL
Australia
The Harms of Gay Male Pornography
JEFFREY MOUSSAIEFF MASSON
USA/New Zealand
Pornography and Animals
ROBI SONDEREGGER
Australia
Neurotica: Modern Day Sexual Repression
MEAGAN TYLER
Australia
Pornography as Sexual Authority: How Sex Therapy Promotes the Pornification of Sexuality
RENATE KLEIN
Australia
Big Porn + Big Pharma: Where the Pornography Industry Meets the Ideology of Medicalisation
PART 2: PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRIES
SUSAN HAWTHORNE
Australia
Capital and the Crimes of Pornographers: Free to Lynch, Exploit, Rape and Torture
ABIGAIL BRAY
Australia
The Pornification of Post-feminism: Why Roddick’s $ex Shops Are a Sell Out
HELEN PRINGLE
Australia
A Studied Indifference to Harm: Defending Pornography in The Porn Report
MELINDA TANKARD REIST
Australia
Sexpo and the Death of Sex
SHEILA JEFFREYS
Australia
Live Pornography: Strip Clubs in the International Political Economy of Prostitution
STELLA
Australia
Dancing Pornography
MELISSA FARLEY
USA
Pornography is Infinite Prostitution
ABIGAIL BRAY
Australia
Capitalism and Pornography: The Internet as a Global Prostitution Factory
HIROSHI NAKASATOMI
Japan
When Rape Becomes a Game: RapeLay and the Pornification of Crime
CHYNG SUN
USA
Investigating Pornography: The Journey of a Filmmaker and Researcher
PART 3: HARMING CHILDREN
DIANA E.H. RUSSELL
USA
Russell’s Theory: Exposure to Child Pornography as a Cause of Child Sexual Victimization
S. CAROLINE TAYLOR
Australia
The Pornification of Intrafamilial Rape
CAROLINE NORMA
Australia
Teaching Tools and Recipe Books: Pornography and the Sexual Assault of Children
HELEN PRINGLE
Australia
Civil Justice for Victims of Child Pornography
AMY
USA
The Victimisation of Children by Pornography: Victim Impact Statement of Amy
PART 4: PORNOGRAPHY AND THE STATE
ANNE MAYNE
South Africa
The Power of Pornography – A South African Case Study
ASJA ARMANDA AND NATALIE NENADIC
Croatia and USA
Genocide, Pornography, and the Law
RUCHIRA GUPTA
India
Pornography in India
BETTY MCLELLAN
Australia
Pornography as Free Speech: But is it Fair?
PART 5: RESISTING BIG PORN INC
JULIA LONG
UK
Resisting Pornography, Building a Movement: Feminist Anti-porn Activism in the UK
GAIL DINES
USA
Stop Porn Culture!
LINDA THOMPSON
Scotland
Challenging the Demand
ANNA VAN HEESWIJK
UK
OBJECT: Challenging ‘Sex-object Culture’
MELINDA LISZEWSKI
Australia
A Collective Shout for Women and Girls
MATT MCCORMACK EVANS
UK
Men Opposing Pornography in the UK
CAROLINE NORMA
Australia
Challenging Pornography in Japan: the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP)
SUSAN HAWTHORNE
Australia
Quit Porn Manifesto
Biographical Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
Melinda Tankard Reist
Firstly, my gratitude to some of the best women in the country for working on this book with me.
My co-editor Abigail Bray – the way your mind works and the way you put words together, is a wonder to behold. Thank you for significant support and solidarity.
This book is also the product of the brilliance and dedication of a number of women, primary among them Renate Klein, Helen Pringle and Caroline Norma.
To the contributors – counted among the bravest people
I know. I am indebted to you for your willingness to contribute and for continuing to speak out in the face of unrelenting opposition. Your names make an impressive and compelling line-up.
To those who shared their personal stories of suffering harm and damage from their own or another’s pornography use, deepest gratitude.
To Renate Klein and Susan Hawthorne at Spinifex Press for your belief in this project (even a cyclone couldn’t stop you!). Renate, thanks for keeping us on track and reminding us that there really was a deadline. And also for your special friendship over many years. Susan, for massive help with proofing (and so much more). Special acknowledgement to Deb Snibson for the strong cover design, Maree Hawken for careful and intelligent copy editing, Kath Harper for a comprehensive index, Nikki Anderson and Kate Page for publicity, along with Maralann Damiano, Jo O’Brien and Bernadette Green.
To our wonderful endorsees. Your support means so much.
I have been blessed with the support and friendship of great women: Abigail, Renate, Susan, Helen, Caroline – as well as Deborah Malcolm, Melinda Liszewski and my other Collective Shout colleagues. Significant thanks to Julie Gale for almost daily de-briefs and laughter, without which I’m not sure I would still be standing. To everyone who sent a word of encouragement through my blog and social network pages. Do not underestimate how much this means.
Finally, to my family who make significant sacrifices for my work. One day I hope to make it up to you.
Abigail Bray
First of all, I would like to salute the contributors for their integrity and life work; without them this book would not be possible, and I have learnt a great deal from all of them. Thank you Melinda for your courage, fortitude and friendship, for bearing the ‘terrible knowledge’ and staying strong. A special thank you to Renate, Susan, Helen, Julie, Caroline and the Collective Shout team, for immeasurable things, for the gift of such intelligent friendship, and for your passionate integrity. I would like to acknowledge the Edith Cowan University Social Justice Research Centre for supporting this book. Gabby, your infectious laughter and cool subversive mind is the best cure for the misogyny blues. Thanks Jonathan for large bottles of vitamin C, 500 soy smoothies, bags of health food and hysterical laughter. Thank you Charity for your integrity and wisdom, and for always being there for me. Thanks Peter, Sam and Martin for many interesting conversations about capitalism and pornography. Thanks also to my scattered and talented family for much support.