Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This was a hard read, but very informative nonetheless.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Misogyny, Rape, Antisemitism, Classism
dark
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
challenging
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
"The word pornography [...] means the graphic depiction of women as vile whores"
"Woman is not born; she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes symbol of this, symbol of that: mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so."
Witty, thorough, and explosively fierce. Dworkin is incredibly meticulous in her painting of the reality of complete male (phallus) domination. She reads out and mocks the laughable ideas of male psychologists, sex scholars, pornographers, literary critics and more with a snarky, sarcastic tone (which is much needed; this would have been hard to sit through without the humour).
Dworkin does this all the while weaving together concepts of power, objectification, fetishism, force and whores altogether eloquently. I particularly like how she gave detailed accounts on how white men and women interact with coloured men and women, although the first parallel she drew between the German playboy model and a Jewish woman under Nazi rule was the only time I felt like she was reaching a bit (the subsequent parallels actually made way more sense).
This book does not go into much detail when it comes to queer women; although Dworkin speaks of lesbians in the male fantasy, funnily enough she goes into much more depth on gay men (in all fairness that is because this book focuses on the male psychology of pornography). Perhaps this is the limit of the time it was published in, but I would have loved to see her take on trans women's place in this hellscape, for example.
The necessary conclusion is that pornography is but a part of a system that upholds male dominance, and that the vile whores are not just the "sluts" in pornography; all women are harlots, sluts. It's depressing as all heck (because it's real), and ironically even Dworkin's most powerful last words are simply that "the boys are wrong".
"Woman is not born; she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes symbol of this, symbol of that: mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so."
Witty, thorough, and explosively fierce. Dworkin is incredibly meticulous in her painting of the reality of complete male (phallus) domination. She reads out and mocks the laughable ideas of male psychologists, sex scholars, pornographers, literary critics and more with a snarky, sarcastic tone (which is much needed; this would have been hard to sit through without the humour).
Dworkin does this all the while weaving together concepts of power, objectification, fetishism, force and whores altogether eloquently. I particularly like how she gave detailed accounts on how white men and women interact with coloured men and women, although the first parallel she drew between the German playboy model and a Jewish woman under Nazi rule was the only time I felt like she was reaching a bit (the subsequent parallels actually made way more sense).
This book does not go into much detail when it comes to queer women; although Dworkin speaks of lesbians in the male fantasy, funnily enough she goes into much more depth on gay men (in all fairness that is because this book focuses on the male psychology of pornography). Perhaps this is the limit of the time it was published in, but I would have loved to see her take on trans women's place in this hellscape, for example.
The necessary conclusion is that pornography is but a part of a system that upholds male dominance, and that the vile whores are not just the "sluts" in pornography; all women are harlots, sluts. It's depressing as all heck (because it's real), and ironically even Dworkin's most powerful last words are simply that "the boys are wrong".
dark
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, Classism
dark
informative
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence
Dworkin holds no single punch, digs into the problems with a steadfastness that leaves me reeling in horror. I devoured the book, and, while I understood pornography to be detrimental to health and relationships, I’m absolutely astonished to see the depths of how people, especially and particularly women, are subjected to absolute misery for it. She has no idea the expansion of it today, and she was still correct despite it. If you can stand the absolute revulsion of these stories, they’re important to hear.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Guess I would’ve rated this higher if I hadn’t spent my late teens to very early 20s obsessing over analysing porn/erotica and psychoanalysing its viewers/readers, so a lot of the scene analysis in the book was either something I had already thought of or, in my opinion, a reach.
Agree with most conclusions and statements (although occasionally found the connections to be a bit of a stretch), got introduced to so much history that I had no idea about (Marquis de Sade wtf), and enjoyed Andrea ripping apart Kinsey and his colleagues’ research. And as always, appreciate Andrea’s sarcasm.
Agree with most conclusions and statements (although occasionally found the connections to be a bit of a stretch), got introduced to so much history that I had no idea about (Marquis de Sade wtf), and enjoyed Andrea ripping apart Kinsey and his colleagues’ research. And as always, appreciate Andrea’s sarcasm.