Christina Oddo
Writer
Gail Dines, author of “Pornland,” expressed how the porn industry is leaking into mainstream media in a lecture with University students and staff on Tuesday in the Elaine Langone Center Forum. She explained how this industry is manipulating how teenagers think about their sexuality and how they interact with one another.
“The estimated revenue of the porn industry is $12 billion, while the estimated revenue for the box office for mainstream films is $9 billion,” Dines said.
Dines explained that while her generation is “print-based,” the generation of today’s college students is “image-based.” Instead of reading things in print, college students are overwhelmed with images every day.
Women, Dines said, constantly compare themselves to images of other women. In this way, the porn industry has manipulated women into hating their bodies. American capitalism and the success of many industries depends on women’s overall dissatisfaction with their bodies, as they go to great lengths for fashion, diet
In fact, most images in the media that portray both men and women often show men fully clothed, while women are much more exposed. Dines said being naked in the presence of clothed people is to be in a state of vulnerability; why else are men
Dines included discussion regarding women of color in the media, and how animals often accompany them in images. In this way, the media is portraying women of color as hypersexual.
In regard to celebrities and the privileged white, Dines said people who are extremely rich and privileged, as well as white in color, have the ability to make the label of “slut” work for them.
Dines
Pornography, Dines said, is completely debasing and violates women’s human rights. Promotion for online pornography sites alone is ridiculously degrading. Dines spoke directly to the men in the audience: “What turns you on? Are you really like this?”
“Words exist in a material reality,” Dines said.
In this way, Dines said, people need to reshape how they think about and act upon different words that relate to sexuality and gender.
For more information, visit Gaildines.com and stoppornculture.org.
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