A Critical Look at Stop Porn Culture (by a Lesbian Woman)

I will start out by letting everyone know that I make absolutely NO money off of the adult industry whatsoever, I have several friends in the adult entertainment industry, I am a lesbian woman, I have a college education (EMT-B & Human Development) I am Canadian, I am a person who politically is a left leaning Libertarian and am a supporter of the adult industry.

I have always been fairly critical of Stop Porn Culture & Dr. Gail Dines’ viewpoint & arguments against pornography. However I used to believe that it was just a group that had misguided views & ideas of what pornography was but its intentions were inherently good. It also crossed my mind that maybe they were so passionate about their cause, that it might have left them blinded to see any viewpoint but their own. Now I believe differently.

One of my issues is that I have never heard Dr. Dines speak on hardcore lesbian or gay pornography. I myself have seen the so-called acts of ‘degradation & humiliation’ (Gail’s words, not mine) in gay/lesbian adult media, but yet nothing has been said about this form of adult entertainment by her or her organization. I know the excuse will probably that the target audience are heterosexual males (especially in the case of lesbian pornography), but I’m genuinely interested in knowing why this is never mentioned. Is it less degrading because the “body punishing sex” is being perpetrated by a member of the same gender? I am in no way agreeing with Dr. Dines’ views on pornography, but her focus does seem to intentionally solely be on heterosexual pornography.

As a member of the LGBT community, this troubles me. Why hasn’t Dr. Dines addressed abuse within same-sex relationships in pornography? I always hear in lecture after lecture the “body punishing” & “women being gagged with penises” explanation. However I never hear about “butch girls gagging femmes with strapons” or “male on male rape fantasy” porn. By this standard it seems to me that Dr. Dines is (possibly even subconsciously) bashing the heterosexual male. I thought she was was supposed to be leader & academic speaker of an anti-pornography organization, not attack the adult viewing habits of the hetero male. The focus seems to be very direct, deliberate, and intentional. Not at the ENTIRE industry like SPC claims.

A number of SPC (Stop Porn Culture ) members/supporters have been extremely abusive toward those with opposing views. Insults, defamation, accusations & assumptions ran wild. These included a passive agressive death threat, accusations of beastiality, claims that I support rape & enjoy watching women be raped, questioning if I am a pedophile, and saying that I was happy when a 13 year old raped his sister. When I questioned/informed SPC about this they told me it was upto the Sex & Censorship moderators on their facebook page to deal with it. I had explained to them that I actually had concern for THEIR organization. Afterall, I wouldn’t want some of my biggest & outspoken supporters to be making these obscene & untrue claims because naturally people assume guilt by association. Despite the people making these claims were on Dr. Dines facebook friends list. These concerns were simply brushed off & ignored. Gail herself has refered to female pornographers/supporters of the adult entertainment industry as ‘scabs’. She especially likes to use immature terms towards males defending the industry brushing them off as ‘boy-men’, ‘creeps’ and ‘porny men’. It shocked me that an academic would resort to using these words. I was dumbfounded and at a loss of words that someone who professes to hate abuse, bullying and derogatory words would behave in this childish, infantile manner.

Gail’s refusal to debate women who hold their jobs in the sex work/adult entertainment industry in high regard is unusual for someone of her academic level. She is highly avoidant when it comes to those who question her beliefs or debunks her research. She often misquotes forums, researchers, and adult stars to coincide with her message. I frankly do not understand it. Why doesn’t she want to debate? Is Gail afraid that the likes of Nina Hartley, Lily Cade and Tristan Taormino will utterly wipe the floor with her uncited & unsourced research? Is she afraid of losing her credibility by having actual people (especially women) currently in the business speak positively about it? Although I don’t know if you could lose much more credibility than by hanging out with the likes of Shelley Lubben (whom now apparently is a ‘Doctor’ as well).

In closing, I am proud to say I support the adult industry, sex workers & the anti censorship movement. I’m proud of who I am & As a PROUD WOMAN I stand by my beliefs.

Warmest Regards & Stay Safe,
-Kat C

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25 thoughts on “A Critical Look at Stop Porn Culture (by a Lesbian Woman)

  1. Im sure I read it somewhere in association with Anna Span that Gail Dines admitted to being “jealous” of mens sexual freedom where porn was concerned. This would explain her fiery attitude towards straight porn which in turn would diminish her altruistic motives where her struggling sisters suffering under a patriarchal rule is debated.

    That said I totally agree with what you have said and your perceived thoughts on her passion for what drives her to protest. I felt the same way and was subjected to much abuse by her supporters as well

  2. Thanks for bringing this up. Gail used a still from a rope instructional DVD I produced as one of her “men abusing women” images in one of her early press releases; I found it somewhat amusing that, had she actually LOOKED at the “porn” (in reality, instructional video) she was condemning she could have had a matching image where the woman had me tied up in a similar fashion. The cherry-picking of Images to be Outraged About is pretty sad.

    Thanks for bringing up the issue, and for being on the front lines of the sex culture wars

  3. I was unfortunate enough to witness the recent attacks and “man-hating” extremist “feminism” on a Facebook page, where her rabid club of busybodies resorted to calling all men commenting rapists and child molesters.

    Yes, that’s right, their response to facts and statistics, genuine comparisons and actual reality forces them into a corner that they cannot get out of, so they gang up and start making accusations about those who present an alternative view.

    One of these “feminists” even threatened to “out” a female commenter to her employer, for daring to disagree with her manufactured bullsh*t.

    It’s also vitally important to repeat again that Gail and her club of hand-wringing extremists block people and delete comments when they threaten their firmly held beliefs. There is no room for freedom of opinion of the expression of an alternative view when you’re in Gail’s club.

    Thankfully, all of these things can routinely be used as evidence and reason to dismiss this radical group from any genuine discourse on the subject of censorship or adult media.

    It’s impossible for her group to maintain any credibility when she herself has proven that rational debate is not what she’s seeking. If she were, she would not be scared of confronting opinions on FB and Twitter.
    Likewise, presenting the evidence of her followers threats and attacks on FB and Twitter can be used to further discredit her crusade.

    It would be productive to continually show these people up for what they are – anti-feminists and fascists who desperately want to control the lives of others, much like religious fundamentalists all over the world. Extremism comes in many forms, Gail and her club is just another manifestation of that same mentality.

    1. Yeah, nothing extreme about porn these days right? I’m a hetero male who let myself become extremely warped by 20 years of porn addiction. I don’t feel hated by people like Gail Dines, at all. In fact, everything I’ve read and heard from her has made me think “wow, someone actually cares about my plight and that of others like me.” Porn peddlers most certainly don’t care about me or my well-being. At all. So you can fuck right off with YOUR brand of extremism.

      1. So much ambiguity in one short comment. You believe you became “extremely warped” – what’s your evidence for this? Do you have an objective second opinion, or are you self-reporting based on your own emotional state? And what’s your evidence that porn is the problem rather than anything else that happened in your life during your teens? Such as the huge physical, hormonal and neurological changes of adolescence? Or perhaps, you weren’t warped at all, but you were in an environment that led you to believe your natural feelings were wrong? Hopefully you’re feeling less warped now – it sounds like you were traumatised by something, but it’s unclear what.

  4. simple she focus on straigth porn because she hates men and men’s heterosexuality and she is jealous of women and women in porn who are more sexuality attractive to her. feminism is a movement of jealous and mostly unattractive women who can’t compete with hot women and defending their sexual interests.

  5. What about snuff porn is it still out there and what are we doing about it . Can we track down those sob’s and prosecute . I happen to be changing dial and heard the show this morning about porn and was very upset about it and always wondered about those people

    1. Those who have been addicted to porn, or had porn ‘warp’ them are simply not taking accountability if their “solution” is to outright ban porn. We don’t ban alcohol (anymore) just because we’ve got a shitload of alcoholics running around this country. That’s a personal problem, seek help.
      As for this post goes, I 100% agree. This Gail broad is no feminist at all, and is frankly giving feminism a horrid name. This Political Lesbianism is what many people think Feminism is about, and it’s completely different. I’m way late to the party, as this is years-old news, but this is the first I’ve heard of it and I am glad to have been made aware of it.

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