Citation

Dines G. Violence Against Women 2012; 18(4): 512-520.

Affiliation

1Wheelock College, Boston, MA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077801212452550

PMID

22865620

Abstract

In his review of my book Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality, Ronald Weitzer claims that anti-porn feminists are incapable of objective, rigorous research because they operate within the "oppression paradigm," which he defines as "a perspective that depicts all types of sex work as exploitive, violent, and perpetuating gender inequality." (VAW, 2011, 666). This article argues that while anti-porn feminists do indeed see pornography as exploitive, such a position is rooted in the rigorous theories and methods of cultural studies developed by critical media scholars such as Stuart Hall and Antonio Gramsci. Pornland applies a cultural studies approach by exploring how porn images are part of a wider system of sexist representations that legitimize and normalize the economic, political and legal oppression of women.

Language: en