When we hear about social justice issues such as sex-trafficking in Southeast Asia and injustice toward children in Africa, it is easy to dismiss these as impossible overseas problems. But pornography isn't overseas, and it is a monster too. We are living in "pornland," Gail Dines says. "Ironically, pornography has become almost invisible by virtue of its very ubiquity" (Dines 163). Her book tracks the steady increase of pornography from its beginnings in Playboy andPenthouse to the brutality of "gonzo," a genre of porn that has become very much the mainstream, and which thrives on brutal degradation of women. The power of the porn industry is staggering. It paves the way for technological advances (Dines 48-47).
Dines shows that critical to the success of the earlier pornographers was the casting of the "implied viewer." Playboy attempted to portray a rich, cultured sort of man as a viewer (thus the cultural articles that went along with the magazine), while interestingly Hustler portrayed the viewer as "someone to be either avoided or ridiculed, certainly not someone to identify with" (Dines 17). Viewers must have such justification to look at pornography. The viewer's self image must continually be maintained as the norm, in one way or another. Porn has effectively created a believable world for viewers to live in, which comes in a seriously sharp contrast to the real world, but, nevertheless, has also shaped the real world we live in so that it fits the world of porn. "By editing out those women who refuse to cooperate, GGW [Girls Gone Wild] creates a closed world where everybody seems only too willing to perform sexually for the camera" (Dines 31).
Jenna Jameson is the first pornstar to achieve celebrity status, and culture has paraded her as the typical pornstar, who out of her own free will has chosen to express her sexuality through such a career. She is "an image of a highly sexual woman who luckily finds her niche in porn" (Dines 35). Dines presents several interviews with Jameson which reveal that she has an utterly split personality. One side attempts to remain consistent with this image. But digging deeper one finds that she had suffered abuse as a child and early adult, that she was neglected by her father, that she was later raped by an abusive boyfriend, that this boyfriend coerced her into stripping, etc. For Jameson, the path toward pornography was abusive and full of deceit, contrary to the image the industry would wish to portray.
One of the most difficult parts of Dines' book to read is the quotes from blogs and forums in which fans of gonzo porn sites express their opinions about various productions. So naive are these fans, that when they come across parts in gonzo films that seem "obviously too much for her," they are disappointed at the possibility that these women might in fact be acting. This demonstrates the depth of numbness viewers have reached in a desperate attempt to live in and believe the false reality which pornland has created: "If porn performers truly don't like what is happening to them, then the fantasy that users have erected about women and porn begins to crumble..." (Dines 67).
Dines' book is extremely graphic (to warn, if you consider reading). She discusses also the systematic dehumanization of women (and men, actually) in porn, the consistent pattern of a decline toward more and more violent and taboo porn among users, the utterly racist world within porn, etc.
This holistic overview of the industry (by a nonreligious feminist) has kindled within me a passion for purity and holiness, and a passion to fight pornography together with my brothers and sisters. The most powerful weapon to fight against pornography is to expose it, to call it what it is, to bring it to the light: "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light" (Eph 5:11-14). Brothers and sisters must have open conversations about the struggle, the insecurity, the shame, the sin.
Fight against pornography, because it - unlike the social justice issues in Africa or Southeast Asia - is all around us. Not that we cannot address these other issues, but we do indeed live in pornland. I would suggest that this is one of the most important parts of Christian holiness and sanctification. Pornography is a subject which involves Christians as men and women, as sexual beings - the very part of our identity which proclaims the image of God in human beings (Gen 1:27). The reason that pornography is so evil is because sexuality is so good. This universe is about a Bridegroom's love for his Bride, and this story is engraved into our identity as men and women in our sexuality, and thus our sexuality is infinitely precious and must be protected at all cost (Eph 5:22-33).
How are you fighting pornography? Do you view it yourself? Do you turn a blind eye to it? Have you become numb to it? Are you praying for those in your life who view it? Are you discipling men or women who struggle with it? Are you naive about it? do you understand it?
"But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints" (Eph 5:3).
"Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:20)
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