One way to think about effects is to turn the question around; rather than asking how porn affects users, we could ask, Under what conditions would the images in porn not have an effect? In other words, what do men need to be exposed to in order to counter the stories in porn? In media studies we ask similar questions when discussing how to immunize people to the constant flow of consumerist ideology that is paired with capitalism.
Gail Dines: Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
Porn should not be understood as an avant-garde “art form” allowing for the creativity and playfulness of independent directors, performers, and producers. It needs to be understood as a business whose product evolves with a specifically capitalist logic. Moreover, this is a business with considerable political clout, with the capacity to lobby politicians, engage in expensive legal battles, and use public relations to influence public debate. As with the tobacco industry, this is not a simple matter of consumer choice; rather, the business is increasingly able to deploy a sophisticated and well-resourced marketing machine.
Gail Dines: Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
The pornographers did a kind of stealth attack on our culture, hijacking our sexuality and then selling it back to us, often in forms that look very little like sex but a lot like cruelty.
Gail Dines: Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
I've confused passion with excitement. An issue people rarely talk about these days is what true passion actually feels like. Instead we assume that passion feels like excitement — that passion is inherently exciting — but that assumption is usually wrong. You see, it's easy to get briefly excited about something — an idea, a project, a potential promotion—and think that means we're passionate about it too. But this sensation of excitement is different from the type of deep passion that drives and fulfils people long term. Excitement comes and goes; it wanes when times get hard, when the work gets tough, when creative flow turns into drudgery. True passion, however, arises after you've put in the long hours necessary to become a skilled craftsman, a skillset you can then leverage to have an impact, to gain autonomy and respect, to shape and control your destiny.
When we make changes in our lives, we're often afraid of what people will think of us. Will they think I'm crazy or stupid or out of touch? The truth is, people are more supportive and understanding than we think. Particularly the people who are closest to us.
