Porno? Chic!

by Brian McNair

Porno? Chic! examines the relationship between the proliferation of pornography and sexualised culture in the West and social and cultural trends which have advanced the rights of women and homosexuals. Brian McNair addresses this relationship with an analysis of trends in sexualised culture since 2002 linked to a transnational analysis of change in sexual politics and sex/gender relations in a range of societies, from the sexually liberalised societies of advanced capitalism to those in which women and homosexuals remain tightly controlled by authoritarian, patriarchal regimes. In this accessible, jargon-free book, Brian McNair examines why those societies in which sexualised culture is the most liberalised and pervasive are also those in which the socio-economic and political rights of women and homosexuals have advanced the most.

Genres: Pornography

200 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Brian McNair was a Scottish journalist. He was a member of the Glasgow Media Group.

Reviews

[Dylan Horrocks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much as I have some sympathy with the author's core argument, I found this book disappointingly superficial and lacking in substance. It reads like an extended newspaper opinion piece and ranges from the obvious to the downright silly (such as when the author spends much of a chapter insisting that art can never, by definition, be porn - and vice versa - before admitting in an aside that such distinctions are of course subjective and ultimately meaningless).

McNair has clearly been engaged with the topic for some time, and has written at length on the role of sex and the media in previous books. But, in terms of both research and analysis, this book felt shallow and rushed. I suspect McNair could write a much better book on the subject, but it would require stepping back from the ongoing dinner-party-debates of the Guardian opinion pages and digging deeper.

On the plus side, McNair's book has pointed me in the direction of some interesting-sounding work by Feona Attwood, Clarissa Smith and others. More books to add to the To Read shelf (sigh)...