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A review by themermaddie
Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen
4.0
jensen gives a comprehensive and compassionate criticism of pornography specifically aimed at male consumers, and i found his analysis to be clear, accessible, and without ego. I found this to be a really interesting read, especially as someone who is pro-pornography and I really enjoyed reading these anti-feminist arguments against it. I thought it was really compelling, and although I won't say that it changed my mind entirely. It did give me a lot of food for thought, and opened up different avenues of thought to be more nuanced than I had before. I thought it was a really good mix of academic discussion and personal anecdotes in a way that I think most people, but especially men, would be able to relate to; I can see this being a challenging read as a man, because Jensen asks some difficult questions that require a lot of self honesty and inward reflection.
The one thing that I will say about Jensen's writing is that he often uses very emotionally evocative descriptive language when he describes certain pornography, often imposing meaning or analysis on them, that I felt weakened his overall argument. like he would frequently describe more violent sex scenes, and then talk about how "the actress was clearly in pain" or "clearly uncomfortable" which I felt was kind of presumptuous? Obviously, we have no way of knowing how that actress felt with certainty during that scene, and of course, there is a chance that she was genuinely in pain, but there is also the very reasonable possibility that she was just told to act that way, given that pornography is a performance. The directing choices to ask a female performer to act as if she is in pain is definitely a societal fact that can and should be up for analysis, but I felt like a lot of Jensen's description felt overly subjective in order to prove a point.
I know he does this because he's obviously an anti-pornography feminist, and most of his book is a call to arms for men to renounce pornography, and understand it's deeper negative effects on interpersonal relationships and self-esteem. that being said, I do wonder, if his overall and goal would be to end pornography, what he thinks about current sex workers. this book was published 15 years ago, and the democratization of sex work is way more ubiquitous now than it was then, what are we meant to do about all the people who currently depend on it as livelihood? he addresses worker exploitation, but doesn't really go into the logistics of sex work from their perspective. I recognise that this wasn't the focus of this book but I'm just curious what Jensen's take on this is; I think his takes are generally good, but a bit idealistic.
The one thing that I will say about Jensen's writing is that he often uses very emotionally evocative descriptive language when he describes certain pornography, often imposing meaning or analysis on them, that I felt weakened his overall argument. like he would frequently describe more violent sex scenes, and then talk about how "the actress was clearly in pain" or "clearly uncomfortable" which I felt was kind of presumptuous? Obviously, we have no way of knowing how that actress felt with certainty during that scene, and of course, there is a chance that she was genuinely in pain, but there is also the very reasonable possibility that she was just told to act that way, given that pornography is a performance. The directing choices to ask a female performer to act as if she is in pain is definitely a societal fact that can and should be up for analysis, but I felt like a lot of Jensen's description felt overly subjective in order to prove a point.
I know he does this because he's obviously an anti-pornography feminist, and most of his book is a call to arms for men to renounce pornography, and understand it's deeper negative effects on interpersonal relationships and self-esteem. that being said, I do wonder, if his overall and goal would be to end pornography, what he thinks about current sex workers. this book was published 15 years ago, and the democratization of sex work is way more ubiquitous now than it was then, what are we meant to do about all the people who currently depend on it as livelihood? he addresses worker exploitation, but doesn't really go into the logistics of sex work from their perspective. I recognise that this wasn't the focus of this book but I'm just curious what Jensen's take on this is; I think his takes are generally good, but a bit idealistic.