Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity

Robert Jensen

South End Press, 2007 - Social Science - 197 pages

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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - cjbanning - LibraryThing

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 ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - obscuresoul13 - LibraryThing

This book presents the effects of pornography on the human psyche & reveals aspects of the porn industry that are not always evident. I found it to be a very eye-opening, informative read. However, I ...

Contents

• The Rowdy Boys I: 1
• pornography the paradox in the mirror: 13
• where we are stuck playing king of the hill: 21

About the author

Robert Jensen is a professor of media law, ethics and politics at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Heart of Whiteness and Citizens of Empire. He also writes for popular media, and his opinion and analytic pieces on foreign policy, politics and race have appeared in papers and magazines throughout the United States.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity
• Author: Robert Jensen
• Publisher: South End Press, 2007
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: Nov 9, 2009
• ISBN: 089608776X, 9780896087767
• Length: 197 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Gender Studies