Gail Dines talks in this lecture about the pornography industry. She begins by talking about the history of pornography, and Playboy and Hustler's begining in Capitalist America.
She continues on to talk about our image culture, where stereotypes of femininity and masculinity are continually bombarded upon us through magazines, movies, celebrities, music, etc. She speaks of Jessica Simpson, who has become the laughing stalk of American media (just as Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan were before her). She states that when we laugh at her, we laugh at every woman because it reinforces those very stereotypes about women.
Food For Though: The Reader Inscribed in the Text: When you look at an image of a person in a magazine, who is the presumed spectator of the image? Who is the image geared to? What is the image trying to communicate? She then talks about the "fuck me" look; this image is bombarded upon men in our culture, and it is what this image to the right illustrate.
She then goes on to talk about the glamorization of the "perfect" woman for men in our culture, shifting from the "perfect housewife" image to the "slut, brainless" image of women. She speaks about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, and Pamela Anderson who are given stardom but then spitted out by our culture for being "whores" and useless.
Lastly, she speaks about the porn industry and the glamorization of violence against women within the porn industry. Gail Dines ends the lecture by stating that she isn't against porn itself but the culture that is perpetuated within the porn industry, and I couldn't agree more.
Update: Here is Gail Dines website
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