Gail Dines: how the hardcore porn industry is ruining young men’s lives

It rakes in billions, exploits women, and leaves men disgusted with themselves.

A few years ago at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, the biggest porn convention in the United States, Abbywinters.com, an Australian porn company, had one of the largest booths. It bills itself as offering “real, passionate, unscripted” sexual activity by “happy, healthy, regular girls in their normal environments”. The company markets its female masturbation and girl/girl videos as featuring women with “no make-up, no fake boobs, no airbrushing”.

The Abbywinters.com women did stand out from the other porn performers in the room, but their girl/girl action (the industry’s term for lesbian sex tailored to a male audience) didn’t look much different from the industry norm.

With all varieties of cameras, men surrounded the booth, vying for the best angles to record images of women being sexual.

That moment provides an important reminder: pornography, at its core, is a market transaction in which women’s bodies and sexuality are offered to male consumers in the interests of maximising profit. In the end, it’s about attracting the most “wankers” possible. Read full article.

Gail Dines speaks on porn harms at NSW event

In a powerful and unflinching address, Gail spoke to more than 100 people in the Jubilee Room of NSW Parliament House on Tuesday.

The event was co-sponsored by Collective Shout,  Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Spinifex Press and the University of New South Wales. It was recorded by ABC Big Ideas – I’ll let you know when it will be broadcast.

You have one more chance to hear Gail in Australia – in Melbourne this Friday, 7:30pm – 8:30pm, at New Council Chambers, Trades Hall, hosted by the Wheeler Centre.

You can also get hold of Gail’s book Pornland: how pornography is hijacking our sexuality.  And if you still want more, you can read her chapter in my forthcoming book – co-edited by Abigail Bray – Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry, also published by Spinifex Press.

Here’s some pics from our Sydney event.

Hear Gail at Sydney Writers Festival

Gail at The Wheeler Centre (video)

Gail on ABC The Drum panel

Gail interviewed on The Hack, ABC Triple J. Click on player: here