Gail Dines, Her Porn Training Program, and Me

Here is where you can watch the video for yourself. NSFW, and not 2257 compliant.

Now then.

Gail begins with the history of porn, and right away, I have a Historical kick to Gail’s theories. Yes, the 1950’s were a post WWII/Depression Era, and yes, economists and businesses were looking to stimulate the economy. War itself (especially WWII) caused economic and industrial growth. Her observation that television was specifically –and somewhat sinisterly- geared primarily towards women however is erroneous. The following shows were the leading rated shows of the 1950’s:

Dragnet, Superman, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone, American Bandstand, Private Everywhere, Howdy Doody, Lassie, Walt Disney, The Mickey Mouse Club.

Now, look at that list. Most of those shows? Geared towards children and teenagers. Studies show that children in the 1950’s who had television watched an estimated 6 hours of TV a day. The other shows? Crime drama, Family Comedy, and Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Thus, not solely (or even primarily) geared towards a female audience. Yet Gail says TV was for women, and in a homophobic, married obsessed culture, The Hef and Playboy, were prime for making their mark as the first porn outlet, because they offered single men a chance to have their own image ideal (the playboy), and were making specifically male entertainment. She talks of the first porn wars, between Playboy and Penthouse, then later the addition of Hustler to the fray. She intones that Penthouse and Hustler sealed us to our current porno fate, nary you mind that Playboy to this day commands a larger circulation than either of its large competitors…and it always has. Gail lays the birth of the porn industry solely at the feet of Hef, Bob, and Larry…yet neglects to mention other things which also played in the development of the Industry. She utterly ignores the burlesque tradition in the US and Europe, the era of 1960’s free love/accepted nudity, the disco/party/swing scene of the 70’s…in her mind, porn, 1950-80? All blame can be set at the feet of three “scumbags” (historical citation, ‘scumbag’- slang for a used condom, “A&E’s The History of Sex) named Hugh, Bob, and Larry.

Gail then goes on to discuss tech and porn, and TRUE ENOUGH, the PORN INDUSTRY has spurred a lot of technological advances with regard to the net, audio/visual, payment services, and why yes, even internet security (this is a bad thing?)

However, her claim that “historians say” every advancement with regards to tech have to do with men’s desire for pornography? It’s incorrect. One, Gail forgets that yep, women watch porn too, and even considering them as viewers, she’s wrong: the driving force behind the desire for better tech and an influence upon it greater than pornography? World Governments and Militaries. The US Military in particular, and while I am sure a lot of soldiers dig the porn…the Military Tech Desire is less about fucking and more about War, Security, and ease of communication. But um, yeah Gail, porn is a business. People in porn? Especially the producers and the Net Porn Warlords and the Film Companies? They are business people. I’m not sure how anyone missed this basic thing, this whole porn is a business, an industry, thing??? :::Boggle::: But yep, porn is a capitalist industry, and thus drives other capitalist industries. Basic economics, really.

She then rants on a bit about porn on cell phones, using the shocking visual of a dude watching porn on his cell phone and jacking off next to you on the train! Last time I checked? Whacking off in public is still illegal, even if you do have porn on your I-Phone…(my god, her subtle academic shock speech is straight out of the McCarthy playbook… “The commie bastards will stream their shit right into your MP3 Player! The dude on the train next to you might be…gasp…a dirty Red!) Oh, and considering the amount of technical difficulties Gail was having with her slide show, maybe the good professor should, oh, invest in some of that dirty man/porn driven tech…

Then what does Gail do? She moves onto the “pop-culture” section, first slide up? The cover of a Muscle & Fitness Magazine, showing two (one male, one female) bikini clad fitness models. Both very athletic/muscular. The first thing she does? Attack their appearance. Exact quote: “He’s hideous, she’s hideous.” As a rather buff gal who gets Muscle & Fitness herself, I rather wish, at that point, the female fitness model had been in the room (insert mental carnage porn of the fit, I think very pretty, fitness mag cover girl kicking Gail’s ass here). There is no point to, no reason for, Professor Dines to attack these people’s looks. Talk about the pose, the bikinis, the skin with regards to a “pornified culture”? Sure. Attack the actual people for the way they look? Not cool, not necessary, and considering how Gail probably gets attacked for her own looks, I wonder a bit about her motivation…anyway…the fucking hypocrite then goes on to discuss stereotypes and how they are untrue (mind you, after the heavy-set older Professor has just attacked the younger models and called them hideous), suggesting that the true power of stereotypes rests on how those who identify with an image compare themselves to that image- setting the fitness models as stereotypes of masculinity and femininity (he’s huge, she’s buff and blonde), she calls them hideous again, but then says most women probably compare themselves to that woman…(snarl, hey Gail, you asshole…I have a body like that woman…so I’m fucking insulted and pissed when you say such things are hideous!)

She then throws in a little ageism for good measure (because, you know, if you are over 35 you never watched MTV? What the fuck? MTV launched in 1981…when this over 35 year old was 10…Madonna, anyone? Duran Duran? George Michael, anyone? The whole supermodel thing, anyone? Cindy Crawford? Naomi? Pam Anderson? All happened when people my age were…you guessed it…teenagers!) But somehow, over 35 now, one escaped the “image” generation pressures. Ahem, Gail, let me remind you of something: The 80’s, when most people in their 30’s now were pre-teens/teens were the APEX of the image is everything/greed is good/Miami Vice/MTV “revolution’. Massive health clubs like Bally’s and Golds? Rose to prominence in the 80’s. Victoria’s Secret? Late 80’s early 90’s. Jerry Springer? All that stuff? It’s not a new, under 20 thing. But for Gail, it all boils down to “damn that fitness model, she’s making me look bad” (so I’ll call her hideous) and assert that the human animal (especially if under the age of 35), cannot resist…pictures.

She then mentions that women laughing at the Jessica Simpson’s of the world is really women laughing at themselves (but mocking the fitness model was okay). She shows some magazine covers, discusses the “fuck me look”, blah blah…(‘cause you know, male models never do the fuck me look…) and the poor men, seeing this look on all those magazines…well, they just can’t help but feel like they are entitled to rape and sexually assault women. No, I am not shitting you, she says this. P&T took her down big time for this statement in their show…but yeah, a woman on a mag with bedroom eyes Does Not Make men, any man, rape, and saying as much trivializes rape in a way that is just sick. But yeah, Madonna, the porn women, the swimsuit models…they cause rape. Of women like Gail. Or something. Uh huh.

Then we go onto the racism aspect in images…which does exist. No question. In modeling and entertainment of all sorts, white, blonde and slim is the standard. But here Gail makes a fatal mistake. She makes mention of how few PoC are ever highlighted in dramatic serious roles in media. Now, I’m not a scholar of the Oscars…but who are these people again ?

She then goes on with the line about porn=men…yet, I’ve never seen Gail seek to, or allow, a woman pornographer, performer, or viewer to share a stage or forum with her. I suppose if she closes her eyes tight enough and plugs her ears, she can continue to pretend they don’t exist, or at least quarantine women like Nina Hartley, Belledonna, Tristan Taromino, Audacia Ray, Jenna Jameson, Candida Royalle, Harmony Rose, so on, so forth, right on down to little old me, to her nightmares.

Followed by time to blast on 3rd wave Feminism, “Slut culture” and a plug for her new book, “Stepford Sluts” (cause you know, the language in porn is so degrading and women shouldn’t be shamed for sexuality!) Then she holds up Brittany Spears & Paris Hilton as the penultimate examples of what happens to women (whole tribe here) in the media. Not, oh, Jada Pinket, or Madonna, or Brooke Shields, or Courtney Cox…not Amanda Peet, or Cameron Diaz, or Drew Berrymore. Not Kate Beckensale, or Angelina Jolie, or Gwen Stefani…Brit & Paris. Uh huh. She then states, as if it was historical fact and all, that if a woman of generations previous had been photographed having sex (which made Paris famous), it would have ended her career. She’d be done. Really? Who is this then? I mean yeah, she lost her crown and all, but not exactly banished from society and sent to live in a tent of shame at the edge of the village and all. Sorry Gail.

Then she weeps for Anna Nicole…who makes a great data point now that she’s dead. And how life must suck for any kid whose mom is, in any way…porny. (Won’t someone think of the children??) Brief bust on Pam Anderson…and then, it is time…

Jenna. She discusses Jenna’s tragic life, but then states Jenna is very special and unusual, because she made it to 30 (alive and rich), which you know, either of those things is just otherwise unheard of in porn…

Then she eviscerates Howard Stern…as “a pathetic human being held up by millions of capitalist dollars”…um, hey Gail? Millions of capitalists must then know that millions of people think Stern is entertaining. How are your book sales, by the way? This leads into exposing the evil empire of Time Warner, Comcast, HBO, the CW, & Ron Jeremy. That’s right, the Hedgehog is a Dirty Red…or something. Oh, who is also speaking at colleges, and getting paid more than Gail…woo, she seems angry about this. Now, the idea of a debate between her and Ron Jeremy? Humm. I dig it. Then again, we see how Gail gets when Gail isn’t invited to speak where porn people are invited to speak…yet…I see no porn people at any of Gail’s conferences, sessions, lectures, whatever, so…oh well. Tiny violin and all.

By the way, in this oh so porn is evil, triggering, degrading, harmful to women porn slide show…where’s the porn? I’ve seen models in stuff ala Sports Illustrated Swim suit issue…but where’s the porn? I mean, Stern? He’s not even nekkid!

Wait, Houston, we have Porn! Boink Magazine, very soft core girl on girl…she mentions the female editor of Boink’s 6 figure deal with Time Warner for a book…

If I was a petty, horrible person, I’d be beginning to think that Gail is a little annoyed she doesn’t look like the fitness model, but really fucking pissed off that all these other people are making more money than she is…I guess Porn, The Business…does pay…even women!

Gail…come on this is basic. Yes, of course porn & media are connected…porn is media, and they are all businesses!

Okay, finally, 39 minutes into an hour-long presentation, we get to the porn. Gail says it is no longer a matter of softcore vs hardcore, its now “features” and…(sinister drum roll)…gonzo! She describes features as films with higher production value, basic plot, basic dialogue, and body-punishing sex (she stresses this, the whole body-punishing thing). Then, when she mentions Gonzo, who is the first person and name she throws out there, even calling him the father of gonzo? Max Hardcore! Wait, are you shocked? I’m not. First off, this guy is often credited with being the godfather of gonzo, and Max Hardcore is not typical of the genre, but I don’t expect Gail to let a little thing like actual, oh, truth or common reasoning to get in the way of her shock tactics and the crusade! She then defines gonzo as the stuff with the really body punishing (not just body punishing), violent sex. Which, guess what? Sometimes, sure enough, it is. Yet, to say in such a universal sense, that gonzo shows (without a doubt) what men think about women is…stretching a bit? After all, Vivid outsells Max Hardcore…

Then she lists all the dirty, degrading names. How…hideous!

Now, Gail says she doesn’t think men actually hate women, and wow, we agree on something…sex education these days sucks! But…wait for it…porn makes men hate women. Let me repeat that: Gail says porn makes men hate women. Now, personal as political and all…as a porn chick, woman, what have you…I get more hate from women. Women who hate me ‘cause I like porn, women who hate me cause I do porn, women who hate me because I defend porn, women who hate me because their men like porn, women who hate me because I have that hideous body and all, women who hate me because I don’t tell the sob story they want…women. Not men. Not even men who watch porn. Even the gonzo kind. I mean, you think Gail there would let me share a stage with her? Think we could be womyn tribe buddies? I don’t.

Anyway…apparently men are not capable of seeing violence if it is rendered in a sexualized way. Shit! I guess I need to make sure every male I know is not out raping women after watching Law & Order SVU or the Sopranos!

Okay, wait, looks like we’re (43 minutes in) gonna actually see some porn now…

Image from gag on my cock dot com…entry page. Yep, tis porn, with degrading words and messed up mascara and everything. I know this site. But yeah, messed up eye makeup. Which you know, means she’s crying…(pst, gagging causes ones eyes to water, but hey, what of it, right?) And yeah, some of the porn out there? It is presented as “we don’t give a shit if she likes it or not…” but guess what? Contract. Consent. Payment. Business. And if people want to watch that kind of stuff? They have a right to.

Image from Altered Assholes (fuck, I had a membership there…newsflash…stopped filming new content about 2 years ago). Gail moves in with the assumption that in gonzo, all anal sex is depicted as being painful, and the women in these scenes (at least a majority of them) are doing everything in their power not to be ruptured due to the force of the penetration. Incorrect. Scare tactic. As I said at William and Mary:

“Anal sex is like Yoga, to those who are unfamiliar with it, it can look or be painful. To those who are familiar with it and used to doing it, it’s no big thing. To me, anal sex is no big deal…Yoga would probably kill me.”

And now…DP/TP. The evil, evil, evil double and/ or triple penetration. Where a woman is penetrated orally, vaginally, and anally all at once. Something, you know, that no Real Woman would ever ponder doing, fantasize about doing, or, oh, actually do. And, of course, the facial. Oh, and the new big thing, cumming in a woman’s eyes (um…not nearly as popular or standard as Gail wants you to think, sorry to disappoint). Ohh, now we get the “you can see the horrible toll this takes in their faces” line, or how tired they seem. Um, Gail, fucking is physical labor. It can make you tired. And the faces line? Equally tired. Especially, you know, when you make no effort whatsoever to ask the performers their opinions or feelings on any of this…

Then we move to the anti-porn gospel section:

“These are not actresses!" (Unless they look like they are having fun, which is, of course, impossible, then they are acting!) “These are women who have very few choices.” (Prove it). “Many of whom have been sexually abused as children” (look, we have the stereotype hat trick…which Gail is enforcing, after earlier suggesting that the true power of stereotypes rests on those who identify with an image, in this case, the one of the all porn women as victims one Gail is putting out there, in a place where no alternative is presented or allowed). She then goes on to say you can’t trust interviews out of porn performers, because they are on the job (yet Gail does not go out of her way to get them to talk off the job), and then goes on to say how a lot of them talk about things being different once they do that first scene…which they are…but Gail says the reason is this:

Every porn performer is raped her first time on a set, consent and contracts be damned.

Read that again.

Her consent and contract do not matter, no matter what, her first shoot? It’s a rape.

I pause a moment to stifle some serious rage. Very serious rage. She’s just utterly invalidated the autonomy of these women, any and every woman, anywhere, anyplace, any time, who has ever shot a porn scene. She has erased their ability to consent or not consent, cheapened real cases of rape, and does not allow rebuttal on her stage. Are things different after a first porn scene? Yeah, they are. You’ve done porn. You’ve fucked for money. One day, your kids might see it, your parents might see it, your friends and family might see it. Future employers might see it. That makes life different. And then some Professor selling books, teaching classes, and doing lectures might sit there and use that change in your life to bolster her agenda and say you’ve been raped, your consent means shit, and give you no space to say otherwise. And she’s done so without your or any other performers consent.

Yeah, things change, Gail, yes indeed they do. But it isn’t rape in the way you’re using it. It’s rape in a totally different way.

Then she talks about how much trauma this must cause, yet says there is very little documentation on it…and moves on.

Clue here. I wasn’t raped my first time on a set. But this section of her little speech? I feel fucking violated. Erased. Dehumanized. And righteously pissed off.

Christ!

Then she moves on to ATM…blah blah blah. I’m still fucking pissed about her rape comment. Yeah, ATM is meant to be a humiliation thing. Some people get off on that, even women. Far less humiliating than that rape bullshit though.

Now, interracial porn. She’s fucking confused a bit here, and wow, pimps more of her own writing. She states flat out, interracial porn isn’t for black men (or women who like black men, or interracial couples…) no, it is for white men, because, with racism and all, and porn (all of it) being about the debasement of women…what better way to see a woman debased that to see “a white woman getting fucked by a carrier of all that is seen as debased and deviant, i.e., the black male body”…

Gimme a second to pick my jaw up off the floor. Is there racist porn, yeah, but..????

Wow.

Brief bit on Asian women.

Gail can’t look at a cucumber without thinking of porn, therefore, no one can look at one without thinking of porn. I tend to think of salads myself, but…

Back to Boink and other college sex mags…and how back in the good old days (ahem, for those only age 35 and older), this shit, coeds posing nude, wouldn’t have been tolerated. I guess Gail missed, forgot about, or ignored things such as Playboys Top Ten Party Schools and Spring Break issues in her zealotry. I mean, she’s stunned at these students for starting their own (protected, free speech) magazines with…naked students in them? What the hell is wrong with kids today??? Such sluts! But, they did an article on the Donkey Punch (slapping a girl- or guy- in the back of the head while fucking them, thus causing them to tense up and make things…tighter), so on, so forth, and she says it’s a guide for sexual assault and, here’s the word again, rape. Am I down with donkey punching someone without his or her consent? No. Am I for trying to suppress these students right to write about it? No. Is a donkey punch rape? No. It is not. Nor are many of the other things Gail is calling rape.

But hey, nothing like throwing the word rape out there to influence an audience, right?

And of course, we move on to Barely Legal porn. Which, hey, for those with a brain, indicates the woman is over 18…maybe not by much, but, she is legal (and, ahem, a lot of “barely legal” women? They’ve been legal for at least a few years, but hey, let’s not mess with Gail’s agenda here…) The site she uses in the slide? The women? They don’t look like children to me, but…

We know where she’s going, don’t we?

That’s right, pedophilia and child porn. Everything from body waxes to bad schoolgirl porn…all about making men pedophiles. Now sure, do I find some of this stuff offensive? Yep. But see…if its adults making the porn (making porn, not men raping women, thanks), it isn’t child porn. Get it? And the viewers? They know these women are not children, no matter what they are wearing, or what is being said. That pesky 2257 thing Gail herself fucking ignores says as much. And, and, look, those dirty commie bastards, they’re over there!

And of course, the big ending, the whole porn will be the downfall of western civilization, when this stuff gets hardwired into male DNA (how does that work? I’m no scientists, but…), and the world is nothing but rapists and rape victims…

What? We’ll look back and say “We’re so sorry Gail, you were right all along!”?

No. Not from me anyway. Not ever. To the gates of Hell and all that damn dramatic real actress shit, no. Never.

Pornography didn’t steal my culture. It never made me rape, it never denied my autonomy, it never made me a poster victim, it never actively worked to silence and dismiss me and women like me, it never ignored or twisted my words for its own agenda…it never hurt me, and even with the name calling, it never implied that women like me, and our bodies, were hideous.

That’s all on you and yours, and I’d watch who I’m calling a pimp, Ms. I earn my money and academic creds off the backs of sex workers, porn, and use their images without 2257 compliance let alone consent and payment. Pimp culture? Lady, you are right in the middle of it, writing books, giving speeches, and making money. And oh yeah, do not dare to tell me what I can consider entertainment and sex, and what I cannot…which is exactly what you’re doing. Don’t whine about how much media time and support you don’t get, don’t fucking whine about not being heard from the stage of a packed auditorium- center stage at your big event, and don’t you dare whine about being demonized. Join the fucking crowd, lady with the doctorate and program and microphone in her hand. You make a living doing what you do…why try and destroy the way I make mine? Oh yeah, and sure as hell do not presume to say when someone like me has been raped, without consulting us first.

Any time you want an actual debate, Gail? Where you can’t spoon-feed to the crowd? Let me know. I’ll be waiting. Not holding my breath mind you, but yeah, ready, willing, and able.

Christ. This thing sickened me more than any porn ever has. If that’s the new culture, thanks, I’ll keep this one.

(Oh, and obviously Gail is not a professor of history!)


Unefemme- Please feel free to encourage your friends to read this as needed.