Monday, October 25, 2010

Who gave the housewife a bad name anyway?

I recently read a book review of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality by Gail Dines.  The author of the book review, Pauline Cooper-Ieolu summarized part of Dines' history of pornography in regards to women, men, and the family:

Yet Hefner drew on a counter-cultural trend that encouraged men to resist marriage and embrace the bachelor lifestyle. The conformist male, so the argument went, was being robbed of his masculinity, freedom and sense of individuality, and women were singled out as the culprits. Described as greedy, manipulative, and lazy, America women were accused of emasculating men by dominating their husbands. . . .  Hefner exploited such messages relentlessly in Playboy, affirming that marriage and single women were the enemy of available men.

Hmmm.  I always thought it was the extreme feminist movement that gave the housewife a bad name, but apparently the pornography industry can also be to blame.

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