Product Description
In our culture, porn makes the man. So argues Robert Jensen in Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. Jensen's treatise begins with a simple demand: "Be a man." It ends with a defiant response: "I chose to struggle to be a human being." The journey from masculinity to humanity is found in the candid and intelligent exploration of porn's devastating role in defining masculinity. Getting Off seamlessly blends personal anecdotes from Jensen's years as a feminist anti-pornography activist with scholarly research. In his trademark conversational style, he shows how mainstream pornography reinforces social definitions of manhood and influences men's attitudes about women and how to treat them. Pornography is a thriving multi-billion-dollar industry; it drives the direction of emerging media technology. Pornography also makes for complicated politics. These days, anti-porn arguments are assumed to be "anti-sex" and thus a critical debate is silenced. This book breaks that silence. Alarming and thought-provoking, Getting Off asks tough, but crucial, questions about pornography, sex, manhood, and the way toward genuine social justice. Robert Jensen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity.
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 Highly problematic from a feminist perspective... ( mankeymonkey )
I found this book problematic also, but I am female, advocate feminism, and study feminist theory. I don't think the positions that critics of this book lay out as mutually exclusive (feminist v. pornography) need to be so divisive. However, it is the rhetoric of this book, and books like it (Dworkin, for example), that encourage polarized views of sex, sexuality, and pornographic media.
In my opinion, both masculinity and femininity are constructed, and in ways that are damaging for both sexes; women, however, have been oppressed more considerably over history. Nevertheless, I found Jensen's rhetoric infuriating, an as someone who writes about pornography using feminist theory (and I am neither "pro" nor "anti" pornography - I find some pornography progressive, interesting, smart, and highly enjoyable; some pornography I find racist, sexist, unpleasant etc. I think pornography, just like everything else, is constructed in ways that replicate sexism, racism, classism et al, but that does not mean it is lacking in cultural value, or even feminist value) - but I do not condone censorship in any form, and I don't find Jensen's approach useful.
His "analysis" of the women in pornography I found to be particularly offensive. In fact, what was ostensibly a book about male consumers, and I chose to read it for that reason, turned into the usual rant about the degradation of women in pornography, without considering what the female performers might experience in their chosen line of work - or, rather, presenting it as though there is no choice, and that women pursuing pornographic careers are a result of false consciousness. His only "evidence" in this regard consisted of a curious "reading between the lines" of behind the scenes footage, where he drew conclusions from a brief look in a performer's eye. I found this to be absurd. What about male performers? What about women in other lines of work? Are they exploited?
Furthermore, as I have come to expect from extremist writing of any kind, there is no attention to genre, no content analysis, and even though he claims to randomly select the most popular movies, the more interesting and subversive popular movies were conspicuously absent. His analysis of a Wicked movie, for example, shocked me - it bore no resemblance to the overwhelming majority of Wicked movies I have seen, in terms of violence/degradation.
I'm not saying that all of Jensen's positions are incorrect, or that I think all pornography is great; I am saying that the obsession with women in pornography is grounded in sexism, and the belief that the ultimate exploitation of women is rooted in sexuality is a cultural belief repeated again and again, with a lack of attention to why we believe this to be the case. It's an extremely complex issue, and one that should not be reduced to these black and white treatments.
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 Inane ( koningvondeberg )
A mandatory book for a psychology class which pretty much reaffirms my growing realization that the field in general has become so rife with biases drawn from flawed assumptions that have no accurate basis in fact, history, reality etc. And that pretty much mirrors this book. If one accepts the given tenants of radical feminism, and supposes that masculinity is entirely constructed, and constructed to oppress women, than this book will be your cup of tea. If you live in the real world and think that women are accountable for and play a controlling role in how they shape perceptions of themselves as a group then this book will read like more delirious gender feminist skreed. Also if you reject the enormous assumption that men like porn because it proves they are different from women, and therefore superior to them then you will dislike this book. Moreover if you disagree that masculinity is solely constructed to dominate and screw over others then you will also find this book absurd. The book relies on assumptions and passes them off as facts from which to build its arguments, but unfortunately, the assumptions are broad leaps of intellectual dishonesty, much like the proponents who pedal this kind of tripe from their taxpayer subsidized classrooms, and pass it off as academia. One star is too kind, and the taxpayers deserve better than this.
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Nonsense ( jhan6120 )
If Robert Jensen thinks masculinty is so toxic, he should get a sex change. I'm getting tired of this kind of man-bashing. Jensen's liberal humanism is nothing but a guise for thought control. His arguments are puerile, scattered, and inconclusive.
Instead of whining, blaming men for their problems, and playing the eternal victim game, women need to step up to the plate and start taking responsibility for their own behavior. Here's a thought, girls: try a little introspection once in a while. It won't kill you.
Here's a better idea: If we get rid of masculinity, then men shouldn't have to pay taxes to support any women's programs. If the world doesn't need us anymore, it doesn't need our money, right?
Sorry - is that too logical for you?
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 Activist not Academic
I enjoyed the beginning and the end of this product. The middle part has a long expose on pornography that is unnecessarily graphic. the conclusions, motivations, and impulses presented in this book are all fairly incisive and culturally accurate. I'd recommend this to anyone wondering about the nature of masculinity. Although its author is a well respected academician, the book can't stand up to graduate level discussion and is too graphic to give to undergrads.
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 Right on.
I have been struggling with the ideas and issues that this brilliant book discusses for years. I am genuinely thankful that this exists. It reaffirmed many of my current beliefs, helped me further understand why I feel the way that I feel, and offered me new knowledge and more importantly, hope.
Read it. For the love of humanity, read this book.
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