Katey Duffy

Writer

Sitting in a room full of mature college students and adults, I never thought I would feel so comfortable discussing the major impact of the pornography industry on our society today. So how was it that I was comfortable in this setting where we were discussing a topic that is usually taboo? It was because I was part of an audience in which students were eager to learn and Dr. Gail Dines knew how to blatantly bring up the problems with pornography by describing the motives behind the major pornography producers.

Dines is a professor from Wheelock College in Boston and a leader of the anti-porn movement as well as an active feminist. She is the proud author of the book “Pornland,” in which she shares her views about the negative effects of porn on young women and has also been interviewing and studying people in the porn business to understand their reasons for production.

I was most impressed with the way Dines handled the topic of porn. She discussed how our generation is an “image-based culture.” We have grown up in a society where we are constantly seeing images of what we are “supposed to look like.” But in reality, Dines highlights the truth: the men and women in these media images are part of an “abnormal group” of our culture. She stresses the reason men feel superior to women is because they have grown up seeing images in which women are vulnerable to men. This is the connection to the growing porn industry which is why the business is so huge in our world today, bringing in an estimated $12 billion in revenue every year. 

Although Dines commented on many different things throughout her talk, she claimed that her efforts to put a stop to this porn industry are like “pushing a boulder up a huge hill.” She understands that she cannot single-handedly manage to stop something so massive throughout our society today, but she demands that women stop allowing it to happen. For the sake of the next generation of young girls, we must demand more respect from men because the pornography industry is a “runaway train” in a sense. They have legally been able to portray women in this light and they are running out of ideas. We must stop it before it ruins the next generation. If you have any interest in joining this movement, Dines suggested visiting www.stoppornculture.org for more information.