ABSTRACT
At a moment when hardcore pornography is commonplace, accessible, and not terribly controversial, it’s easy to dismiss debates about pornography as a stale preoccupation of the uptight and the insecure. Not surprisingly, many left-leaning social commentators do precisely this, treating pornography less like a political matter and more like a trivial cultural product that doesn’t warrant serious refl ection. Sex-advice columnist Dan Savage (2003), responding to a heterosexual woman concerned about her partner’s porn use, advises her to “get over it”: “The handful of men who claim they don’t look at porn are liars or castrates. Tearful discussions about your insecurities or your feminist principles will not stop a man from looking at porn. . . . I’m sorry if you think that’s insensitive-no, wait: I’m not sorry.” Savage can summarily and unapologetically dismiss his reader’s concern because of the widespread conviction that pornography doesn’t really matter in our lives and relationships. To him, worries about porn are almost always paranoid because porn lacks any power and significance beyond its role as an occasional masturbatory aid. In practice, Savage’s advice constitutes another confident claim that pornography is just fantasy.
