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Dec 27, 2011

James rated it:

Riddle me this:

Q.What is the difference between pornography and erotica?

A.Pornography is dirty pictures you don't approve of, erotica is dirty pictures you like.

I have a bunch of respect for Robert, so I really wanted to like this book. I didn't very much. But first the good parts.

1) A very decent challenge to us men to look at the ways that our consumption of culture might reinforce fucked-up attitudes towards women.

However....
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0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2007

Bart rated it:

Robert Jensen recycles arguments from anti-porn feminists against mainstream heterosexual porn with a few twists. Jensen argues for male self-censorship of porn rather than making it illegal. He also argues that deconstructing and ridding culture of masculinity will help in this process (while taking in account the reality of masculinity). Getting Off was refreshing in that Jensen admits to uses of male privilige and challenges male feminists (who decry other males for using male privilige but a More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2010

Jasmine rated it:

I really, really want to give this book a second star but there is no justification.

The author says that men in the feminist movement (by the way you only have to call yourself a feminist once I got it the first time, I don't need to be reminded three times a page how you are with the ladies, and the multiple reminders that you are bi, while interesting are not terribly relevant to the content) try to be white knights and shouldn't. You know what is highly victimizing to women never More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2008

Martha rated it:

Excellent. Thoughtful, provocative, sensitive. The only other male I've known who writes and speaks out on this issue with such thoroughness and sensitivity is John Stoltenberg. I find so few men who take on pornography, not to mention the whole idea of the need for an "end to masculinity," (in favor of "humanity") that it moves me to hear a man delving into this. It is encouraging. Robert Jensen also takes on the racism involved in pornography.

Jensen did a study More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2007

Rachele rated it:

This book was at times deeply, deeply disturbing to me - parts of it were so sick I could barely get through it - but also oddly funny sometimes and certainly very interesting overall. I would recommend it only to people who are prepared to think very hard about feminism and gender equality ... you can't just skim it and go back to your happy flirting-with-drunk-strangers-at-the-bar life. Jensen's thesis is essentially that the conception of masculinity in our culture is one of dominance and a More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2009

Mrs. Crane rated it:

I was searching for a book on views on anti-pornography. This is the one that stood out the most. I rated it 3 because I didn't quite grasp his anti-"man" pro "human" philosophy. I also thought that maybe his ideas of "rape culture" were a bit radical. Not that part of me doesn't agree with him to a certain extent.. but I thought he would touch more upon how pornography affects real relationships, families and marriages. It didn't, at all. It's more of an essay. it' More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 12, 2008

Scott rated it:

This book brings up some serious issues worth exploring, especially for men, but they are often presented with too much anecdotal evidence and absolutist generalization on Jensen's part. The book also has a tendency to resort to a tone I can only describe as saccharine and whiny that compromises the message, especially if the point of this book is to communicate with men who don't already think about gender issues and masculinity.

In the end, it's a valuable read, but as an academic More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Heron rated it:

This book destroyed me. Jensen does say that these ideas will hurt women - namely that mainstream heterosexual pornography facilitates American rape culture and misogyny. I cried the first night I began reading. But I kept reading because, as a radical feminist, I want to know - I want to know the arguments against porn, something which as a liberal I have often felt obligated to defend. No more. Mainstream heterosexual pornography is a visual, pervasive symbol of the patriarchal cancer that More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Cole J. Banning rated it:

Jensen has written a wonderful 1970's-style second-wave feminist tract . . . in 2007. One might think some type of grappling with third-wave feminism (and I have to add my standard disclaimer whenever I use the wave metaphor that feminist theorizing and activism is a constant process that can't really be cut up into discreet waves as if nothing happened in between them) might be called for. Indeed, the back of the book even manages to promise something of the sort (and the same text appears on t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 17, 2010

Jennie rated it:

This book deeply disturbed me. In fact, it upset me so much I had to stop reading it and made my partner get rid of it. Because as much as I was horrified by it, I couldn't put it down. Ultimately, however, I didn't finish it. I couldn't. It was wrecking my ability to look at or talk to my man.

That being said, Jensen brought out a lot of things that I keep in a small closet in my brain. The things that I don't want to take out and look at. Jensen's analysis of porn is that it is vio More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2009

Tahleen rated it:

So far all I can say is this book is... unsettling. It makes me depressed and sad and wishing we didn't live in the society we live in. I am realizing a lot of things not only about pornography, but about how men treat women and each other. I just wish I could figure out an effective way to deal with it. Jensen really does a great job at pointing out a lot of things people don't really think about, mostly because they can't without feeling awful (man or woman alike). My problems with this book a More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Angela rated it:

I found "Getting Off" profoundly unconvincing. I went into this book with an open mind, but the author makes his argument with huge logical leaps, a lot of gender stereotypes (!), and a general lack of information. He totally ignores gay pornography, which I think would provide some interesting insights with its own treatment of masculinity and femininity. I still have high hopes for an interesting book club discussion out of it, but Jensen didn't make the case to me.

I also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2010

elisa rated it:

he is spot on. his analysis is just great, and he approaches it with a personal honesty that is really refreshing. and that i think probably is a good way to bring in people that might not be so on board with his arguments. this is really worth a read. there were about 2 pages where he may have crossed the line - he certainly toed it, if nothing else - of making a moral argument against casual sex, which i wish he hadn't, or at least had done differently. other than that, such an important More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Keely rated it:

This was a very difficult book for me to get through, particularly the section that described how men in heterosexual relationships use pornography as a tool for coercion and abuse. If you're a rape survivor or have a similar personal stake in the issue, I would approach this book with extreme caution because it's graphic depictions of painful and degrading sex acts can be very triggering. That said, the main reason I wasn't terribly crazy about this book was that it made little or no attempt at More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2009

Doran rated it:

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend. I found myself beginning to become skeptical about one-third of my way through. I found it problematic that the argument presented by Jensen is profoundly one sided and almost entirely comprised of hearsay and opinion rather than fact. So even though there are parts of his argument which I absolutely agree with (read: the majority), I couldn't help but find myself playing devil's advocate because there was no real citation of fact throughout. S More...

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Aug 09, 2010

John rated it:

Jensen, a university journalism professor, uses feminist arguments must be implemented if porn use will be stemmed. He points out that porn is growing more popular as it becomes more degrading and violent against women. This has had a trickle-down affect in how females are mistreated as persons in mainstream media: "The men who consume pornography enjoy watching sexual activity in which women are less than human. Men like to watch sexual activity in which women are treated with cruelty." More...

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Jun 01, 2009

Bethtub rated it:

What I like about Jensen is that he doesn't rely on smarty pants jargon AND he employs the rigor of an academic analysis. Though I think the conclusion (and starting point)of rejecting masculinity in favor of being a human being needs a stronger alternative ('human being' is vague and has a history that doesn't ring of the level of self-analysis and social critique he intimates) the reasoning and arguments are helpful not only to look at issues of pornography and patriarchy/mysogeny, but at any More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2009

Rita marked it as to-read

"excellent for beginning courses in gender studies or masculinity", "Pornography, he writes, is pictures of real women performing sexual acts that are often degrading...IN porn. women do not have the right to say no... 75% of online traffic these days is porn."

Another book to read, very different:
Mary Roach: "Bonk" --
" a delight...one of the funniest books .. makes sex endlessly fascinating for the mind..She doesn't deal with pain, sorr

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Jan 14, 2009

Julia marked it as to-read

Don't. Need. More. Books.

But Bob gave a talk tonight for PPJC, and I was all trying to tell other people to buy his books, and... (Not that I buy everybody's books I'm trying to push; I ain't that stupid. But he writes well enough -- and concisely enough -- that I've actually managed to finish a book of his before, which is unusual for me with nonfiction.)

And then I came to add it to my GoodReads list, and saw that Gel's just added it too. :)

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Nov 27, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

It was a little repetive at points, and I could do without so much graphic details but I guess for someone just starting to think about this type of thing it makes it's point. I also hate that he would put the actual websites and website names in the book, it's like advertising for those companies and for some people can be a trigger. I guess the point was mostly just to prove that this isn't stuff he is making up, this is the norm and it's out there everywhere. In general I liked the book and t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2012

Holly rated it:

Wow. I didn't know what to expect when I started this book. But what an amazingly empathetic, sensitive look at the consequences of pornography. Reading this book, you want to cry when Jensen writes about how little thought people give the subject. I myself never thought about pornography at the level Jensen raises. I'm not even sure why. I never thought about the impact pornography could potentially have on my non-sexual relationships with men. And now I can't help but think about it. Jensen is More...

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Aug 21, 2011

Roxanne rated it:

Disturbing, enlightening, horrifying read on pornography and its effect on men. As a woman and a feminist, this was a difficult read and it is hard to award it any star rating that suggests I really liked it. It was a book I needed to read and I am glad I did, but I turned the pages with a heavy heart.

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Mar 27, 2009

Jeff rated it:

Sparked by a porn debate with my girlfriend.

Robert Jensen needs to quit whining so damned much. The information here could easily have been presented in a way that didn't piss me off, but it wasn't. In spite of that, common ground was established.

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Apr 16, 2009

Devon rated it:

pretty good look at the main-stream porno industry. easy to understand, well thought out arguments against pornography and the very concept of masculinity. not exactly super-duper sex-positive, but definitely engages in an important conversation that doesn't happen much. the theoretical chapters are the highlights, the data (a lot of graphic description of porno) gets the point across.

is it better to masturbate to fantasies about people you know rather than porno? discuss amongst y More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

Lizette marked it as to-read

Written by robert jensen, my former journalism professor for "media law and ethics." He is a very controversial figure...i'm just too curious.

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Mar 17, 2009

Hoss rated it:

about how awful pornography is for men, women and society in general. A must read for everyone.

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Dec 02, 2010

Ben rated it:

Interesting... he has a point... but it might be a little extreme...

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Aug 23, 2010

Pam rated it:

Not sure I agree with all of it, but easy to read and makes a number of good points

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Nov 18, 2009

Steev rated it:

Every male should read this book, or at least every straight one. Some might think this is typical man-hating "feminazi" stuff ala Andrea Dworkin, and/or if you're already a veteran of Women's Studies courses maybe you won't see this as useful, but I think it's a valuable addition to the debate about sexism, masculinity, and porn. What's unique and new, for me, is Jensen's personal perspective and history that he thoughtfully includes, along with the more academic reasoning.

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Nov 09, 2008

Gilg rated it:

Picked it up at random from library's new-book shelf. It is radical feminist attack on porn and masculinity in general, written by a male journalism professor in Austin (who interestingly got into trouble right after 9/11 for posting some US-bashing editorials). A little shrill and he pushes his points further than justified, and he spends a lot of time beating around the bush instead of making his point, and he's not the greatest writer ever, but still a good read

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