Allison Vivas is president of Pink Visual, an internet porn company, but her book is aimed at women, helping them accept their husbands’ use of porn, so long as it is not excessive. She argues that watching porn is normal for men, that it is only a fantasy and so does not represent their real wishes, that most porn is not degrading to women, and that porn performers should be respected because they are hard workers and smart, interesting people.  She writes not only as a defender of her business, but also as a wife and mother, who has come to lose her previous reservations about porn and its use by men.  Her writing style is lively and friendly, and her language is clean.  She provides pretty strong evidence for her claims, although she does not address the arguments of the most thoughtful critics of porn.  She does agree that porn is unrealistic as a depiction of regular sex, and she does not think it should be used as a means of sex education.  She also thinks that more should be done to stop children being able to access porn.  This goes hand in hand with her wanting more regulation of the piracy of porn videos, which has created a financial crisis for the porn industry.  None of her arguments is new, but it she does supply facts about porn use and the lack of evidence for harmful effects of porn which are relatively current.  Doubtless, porn opponents would dispute many of her claims, and they would emphasize the problematic effects that the porn industry has on the sexual behavior of young people.  This is not a scholarly work and it clearly comes from a pro-porn perspective, but she at least makes an effort to supply facts and ideas that are plausible.  Opponents would have to emphasize the violent, degrading and racist porn and then argue that it has a significant effect on people.  Vivas at least makes a strong case that most of the more straightforward porn used by adult men in moderation is basically harmless.

© 2014 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York