Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography

by Rebecca Whisnant (Editor), Christine Stark (Editor)

Including the latest research on prostitution and pornography, this essay anthology shows how the sex industries harm those within them while undermining the possibilities for gender justice, human equality, and stable sexual relationships. From sex industries survivors to social activists and theorists such as Taylor Lee, Adriene Sere, and Kristen Anderberg, this volume assesses from a feminist perspective the racism, poverty, militarism, and corporate capitalism of selling sex through strip clubs, brothels, mail-order brides, and child pornography.

Genres: Feminism, Sociology, Politics, Nonfiction, Pornography, Sexuality, Prostitution

464 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Gabrielė Bužinskaitė · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Real people, whose lives cannot hope to measure up to these ‘ideals’, are made to feel inferior and worthless. The media pimps work to divert people from the ups and downs of real life into dependence on the fantasy worlds that they sell. The sex industry, above all, sells fantasy regardless of who gets hurt.”

[Rachel Smith keller · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some legit data, personal anecdotes, and research referenced; but the book is mostly a theoretical attack on neo-liberalism. I may have been more easily persuaded by the passionate rhetoric if I was not so entrenched in empirical studies showing the benefits of legalized, regulated prostitution. Don't get me wrong, I'm against exploitative pimp-controlled prostitution, trafficking, and violent pornography too. But attacking everything left of center is not the best way to address those issues. Neither is completely ignoring the research being done to better understand the root causes. I am saddened and disappointed in this book because it is more of the same polarized, unhelpful discourse that is taking us in the complete wrong direction. We need pragmatism and collaboration, please.

[Rosie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few of the articles in this anthology were excellent, but many were poorly written. The one by Andrew Dworkin, the one by Sheila Jeffries, and the one by D.A. Clark (the way she connects prostitution, globalization, and neoliberalism was enlightening and on point) come to mind most immediately as those few excellent ones. Besides poorly written ones, there were also just quite a few very dull, pedantic, and statistic-ridden ones. And gratuitous use of statistics doesn't need to be an issue, as I've read many books which employ statistics extensively without being boring, so you can't blame it on that. I felt like the ordering of the articles was also a little bit wonky - not necessarily the splitting of the anthology into its three parts, but the way the articles within the parts were ordered. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I definitely feel like this could have been of much higher quality. I really liked the autobiographical articles by survivors of the industry, and I felt like those ones were very insightful, so I wish there were more of those, more personal articles, as those non personal articles weren't very good. It's still a valuable anthology, but definitely not good for beginners or for people who want an introduction into anti-pornography and anti-prostitution radical feminism, because there are many much better anthologies and books of this type out there. I felt myself getting very bored about halfway through reading this. Actually, I was bored while reading many of the articles, but my determination to finish the thing won over the boredom. The pages are so thin too! It's difficult to tell how many more pages you have left...

[Dela Dejavoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

And by liked it I mean I completely disagreed with it. It nicely laid out modern day arguments against pornography and prostitution in all their ridiculousness. If you are easily swayed by poor arguments, do not read this.

[marie monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good overview and thorough examination of male privilege and related abuse.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is A LOT of opinions in this book.