Blaming Porn

Laura Kipnis, in Slate, takes issue with one of the neo-puritan books about pornography — Pamela Paul's Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families.

Writes Kipnis:

Here are a few of the many bad things Paul blames on porn: failing relationships, men's flight from intimacy, men judging women by harsh appearance standards, men liking large breasts, female body-image issues, general female insecurity, lack of sexual foreplay, male impotence, men demanding more oral sex, infrequent sex among couples — just about everything but acne. (Yes, a single explanation for every social ill is very convenient.) I'm no historian, but I'm under the impression that all these behaviors and predispositions long preceded the rise of porn. Men treat women like sex objects? Not exactly new: Consider the brilliant, crazy Valerie Solanas' 1967 S.C.U.M. Manifesto: "It's often said that men use women. Use them for what? Surely not pleasure." Women are romantically disappointed in men? Read — gosh, it's such an endless list — the collected stories of Dorothy Parker. Men are in flight from intimacy? I know from careful study of The New Yorker cartoons that when television was invented, husbands planted themselves on the couch and have yet to look up — unless it's to play golf, poker, flee to the office, or have affairs, all of which wives have been miffed about for decades.

So, when exactly was the golden age of relationship bliss that Paul thinks porn has torn asunder?

Wendy Shalit and Meghan O'Rourke weigh in too. (Why are only women deemed qualified to take part in the discussion? Odd choice on Slate's part, no?) Anyway, more arguments and counter-arguments here.

Comments

[Rob D.]

Hey Rogier...sent you an email a couple days ago. Have you had a chance to read it yet?