The Porn Myth

The Porn Myth is a non- religious response to the commonly held belief that pornography is a harmless or even beneficial pastime. Author Matt Fradd draws on the experience of porn performers and users, and the expertise of neurologists, sociologists, and psychologists to demonstrate that pornography is destructive to individuals, relationships, and society. He provides insightful arguments, supported by the latest scientific research, to discredit the fanciful claims used to defend and promote pornography. This book explains the neurological reasons porn is addictive, helps individuals learn how to be free of porn, and offers real help to the parents and the spouses of porn users. Because recent research on pornography's harmful effects on the brain validates the experiences of countless porn users, there is a growing wave of passionate individuals trying to change the pro-porn cultural norm-by inspiring others to pursue real love and to avoid its hollow counterfeit. Matt Fradd and this book are part of that movement, which is aiding the many men and women who are seeking a love untainted by warped perceptions of intimacy and rejecting the influence of porn in their lives.

“An extremely helpful and much needed resource….I highly recommend it.” —Harville Hendrix, author of Getting the Love You Want Internationally recognized sex therapist, educator, lecturer, and author of The Sexual Healing Journey, Wendy Maltz offers proven strategies for healing from porn addiction. Boldly addressing a debilitating problem that no one likes to talk about, The Porn Trap provides help and hope for addicts and their partners. Barry McCarthy, Ph.D., author of Men’s Sexual Health, calls this essential guide to overcoming the problems of pornography, “groundbreaking…the best book on the market to help compulsive porn users and the people who love them to confront and change this destructive pattern.”

Shapiro captures a generation through first-person reporting, interviews with refugees from the porn industry, conversations with psychologist, educators, and students, and a telling cultural critique.

Professor Gail Dines has written about and researched the porn industry for over two decades. She attends industry conferences, interviews producers and performers, and speaks to hundreds of men and women each year about their experience with porn. Students and educators describe her work as “life changing.” In Pornland—the culmination of her life’s work—Dines takes an unflinching look at porn and its affect on our lives. Astonishingly, the average age of first viewing porn is now 11.5 years for boys, and with the advent of the Internet, it’s no surprise that young people are consuming more porn than ever. But, as Dines shows, today’s porn is strikingly different from yesterday’s Playboy. As porn culture has become absorbed into pop culture, a new wave of entrepreneurs are creating porn that is even more hard-core, violent, sexist, and racist. To differentiate their products in a glutted market, producers have created profitable niche products—like teen sex, torture porn, and gonzo—in order to entice a generation of desensitized users. Going from the backstreets to Wall Street, Dines traces the extensive money trail behind this multibillion-dollar industry—one that reaps more profits than the film and music industries combined. Like Big Tobacco—with its powerful lobbying groups and sophisticated business practices—porn companies don’t simply sell products. Rather they influence legislators, partner with mainstream media, and develop new technologies like streaming video for cell phones. Proving that this assembly line of content is actually limiting our sexual freedom, Dines argues that porn’s omnipresence has become a public health concern we can no longer ignore.

For readers of Peggy Orenstein and Rebecca Traister, an authoritative, big think look at pornography in all its facets - historical, religious, and cultural. In the 1960s, sex researchers Masters and Johnson declared the end of the fake orgasm. Nearly two decades later, in 1982, evangelical activist Tim LaHaye foretold that the entire pornography industry would soon be driven out of business. Neither prediction proved true. Instead, with the rise of the internet, pornography saturates the American conscience more than ever and has reshaped our understanding of sexuality, relationships, media, and even the nature of addiction. Dr. Kelsy Burke has spent the last five years researching and interviewing internet pornography's opponents and its sympathizers. In The Pornography Wars, Burke does a deep dive into the long history of pornography in America and then turns her gaze on our present society to examine the ways this industry touches on the most intimate parts of American lives. She offers a complete understanding of the major players in the debates around porn's place in society: everyone from sex workers, activists, therapists, religious leaders, and consumers. In doing so, she addresses and debunks the myths that surround porn and porn usage while showing how everything from the way we teach children about sex to the legal protections for what can be published is tied up in the deeply complicated battles over pornography. Sweeping, savvy, and deeply researched, The Pornography Wars is a necessary and comprehensive new look at pornography and American life.

The business of pornography is a surprisingly elusive subject, and debates on the subject can cause emotions to run high. Tarrant answers the most-asked questions about the performers, the viewers, the dangers and the economic impact of the porn industry. She sorts myths from reality, and the result allows readers to explore these provocative issues and make their own decisions.

What brings us real and lasting happiness? Although just about every marketing firm, self-help guru, and man on the street has an answer, very few, if any, understand true happiness. It doesn’t come from power, pleasure, popularity, or possessions. So what is happiness and how do we find it? In How to Be Happy, author Matt Fradd relies on the help of St. Thomas Aquinas to show what will—and what won’t—bring us happiness in this life. By making the thought of Aquinas utterly accessible for today, How to Be Happy is an invaluable guide to a good life.