Gail Dines

Dines was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Manchester, England, and attended King David School. When she was 18, after reading Robin Morgan's book Sisterhood is Powerful (1970), she abandoned Orthodox Judaism and became a radical feminist, later calling her relationship to feminism "a passionate love affair".Dines, Gail (2005). [http://circleboston.org/sites/www.circleboston.org/files/This%20Sisterhood%20is%20Powerful%20final%20_2_-1.pdf "This Sisterhood is Powerful"]. The Workmen's Circle. She spoke in 2011 about the appeal of radical feminism: "After teaching women for 20-odd years, if I go in and I teach liberal feminism, I get looked [at] blank ... I go in and teach radical feminism, bang, the room explodes. ... I remember what happened to me the first time I read radical feminism. I remember thinking: 'I have been waiting for this my entire life, and I didn't even know I was waiting for it."{{cite news|last1=Dines|first1=Gail|title=Gail Dines on radical feminism|date=29 June 2011|publisher=Wheeler Centre, Sydney Writers' Festival|location=Melbourne|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9LVVxvuomU&t=0m20s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/B9LVVxvuomU |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}Also see {{cite news|last1=Dines|first1=Gail|title=Gail Dines: Putting the Radical back in Feminism|date=27 January 2017|publisher=The Institute of Education|location=London|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Hyi5gpWOk |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/D_Hyi5gpWOk |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

She obtained her BSc from Salford University, where she met her husband, David Levy, who was studying at the University of Manchester.Aucoin, Don (27 July 2010). [http://gaildines.com/2010/07/the-boston-globe/ "The Shaping of Things"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826113501/http://gaildines.com/2010/07/the-boston-globe/ |date=26 August 2018 }}, The Boston Globe.

She embraced Marxism but became disillusioned with the British left when the students' unions voted to support that Zionism is racism, following United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which meant Jewish student groups were denied funding. The atmosphere in the UK led to increased antisemitism. Swastikas were painted on Jewish homes; in a pub with Jewish friends, Dines heard a nearby group say they could "smell gas".

As a result, in 1980 when she was 22, Dines and Levy moved to Israel. While there she co-founded a feminist group, Isha L'isha ("Woman to Woman"), which described itself in 2018 as "the oldest grassroots feminist organization in Israel",[http://isha2isha.com/english/ "Isha L’Isha—Haifa Feminist Center"], isha2isha.com. and engaged in research at the University of Haifa into violence against women. She started her PhD thesis while volunteering in a rape crisis centre, after encountering pornography during a meeting in Haifa arranged by Women Against Pornography. The following day, she told her thesis advisor she wanted to write her dissertation on pornography: "I literally couldn't believe the images. I couldn't believe that men created such images, and that other men wanted to watch them."

The couple had a son, who was born while Levy was in Lebanon with the Israel Defence Forces, although both he and Dines opposed the war in Lebanon. Dines joined the Israeli peace movement and has continued to be critical of the expansion of Israeli settlements and the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.[http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3218450.htm "Transcript: Q&A"], Sydney Writers' Festival, 23 May 2011. Finding it increasingly difficult to live with the hyper-masculinity of Israeli culture, the family moved to the United States in 1986, where Levy began studying at Harvard Business School.Yaffe, Simon (2011). [https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_103.html "Feminist Gail is No 1 campaigner against 'cruel' porn industry"]. Jewish Telegraph. Dines obtained her PhD in 1990, again from Salford, for a thesis entitled Towards a Sociology of Cartoons: A Framework for Sociological Investigation with Special Reference to "Playboy" Sex Cartoons.Gail Dines, [http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14736/ Towards a Sociology of Cartoons: A Framework for Sociological Investigation with Special Reference to Playboy Sex Cartoons], University of Salford, 1990.

{{ external media | topic = TEDx talk by Gail Dines | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YpHNImNsx8 "Growing Up in a Pornified Culture"], TEDx Talks on YouTube, 28 April 2015{{cite AV media | people= Gail Dines | date= 28 April 2015| title= Growing Up in a Pornified Culture | medium= Video | publisher= TEDx Talks, via YouTube | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YpHNImNsx8}} }}

Dines worked at Wheelock College in Boston from 1986 for around 30 years; she became professor of sociology and women's studies there and chair of its American studies department. Levy became professor of management at the University of Massachusetts Boston.[https://www.umb.edu/academics/cm/faculty_staff/faculty/david_levy "David Levy, DBA"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206135916/https://www.umb.edu/academics/cm/faculty_staff/faculty/david_levy |date=6 December 2017 }}, University of Massachusetts Boston.{{cite news |last=Tozer |first=Joel| url=http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/demonising-porn-use-unleashes-more-evil-20110519-1eusw.html |title= Demonising porn use unleashes more evil| work=The Sydney Morning Herald | date=20 May 2011}}

The author of two books, including Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality (2010), Dines has also written for a variety of journals and newspapers, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and The Guardian.{{cite web|url=http://users.rcn.com/gaildines/ |title=Gail Dines, Ph.D |publisher = RCN|access-date=25 September 2010}}{{cite web |url=http://gaildines.com/biography/ |title=Biography |publisher=gaildines.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=9 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100909045044/http://gaildines.com/biography/ |url-status=dead }} She is a founding member of Stop Porn Culture, co-founder of the National Feminist Anti-Pornography Movement, and founder of Culture Reframed, which aims to have pornography recognized as a public health crisis.

Dines's view of pornography is that it distorts men's view of sexuality,{{cite web |last=Avard |first=Christian |url=http://pulsemedia.org/2010/06/29/gail-dines-how-pornland-destroys-intimacy-and-hijacks-sexuality/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100629210544/http://pulsemedia.org/2010/06/29/gail-dines-how-pornland-destroys-intimacy-and-hijacks-sexuality/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2010 |title=Gail Dines: How "Pornland" destroys intimacy and hijacks sexuality |date=29 June 2010 |work=PULSE |access-date=25 September 2010 }} and makes it more difficult for them to establish intimate relationships with women. The violence and cruelty found in modern pornography is unlike earlier forms of soft-core pornography with which the general public may be familiar, Dines writes, and it degrades the position of women in society. She also views the prevalence of hardcore pornography as a contributing factor in increasing "demand" for sex trafficking.{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128111020/http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/isht/events/2011/month_02/GailDines_28.php | archive-date = 28 November 2011 | url = http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/isht/events/2011/month_02/GailDines_28.php |title= "Intersection between human trafficking and pornography": a conversation with Gail Dines | publisher = Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School |date= 28 February 2011 | access-date = 23 February 2011 }}

File:This House Believes that Pornography does a Good Public Service - The Cambridge Union.webm, 2 February 2011, from 00:11:57.]]

In February 2011, Dines was invited, with fellow anti-pornography activist Shelley Lubben, to debate Anna Span, a pornographic film director, at the Cambridge Union, when it proposed the motion: "This house believes that pornography does a good public service."{{cite AV media | people =For the proposition: Anna Span, Jessi Fischer and Johnny Anglais. Against the proposition: Dr. Gail Dines, Dr. Richard Woolfson and Shelley Lubben. The Cambridge Union Society | title =This house believes that pornography does a good public service | medium =Video | publisher = The Cambridge Union Society, via YouTube | location =Cambridge | date =17 February 2011| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4CsVzBvFN4 }}{{pb}}

{{Cite news|url=http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Porn-debate-to-spice-up-Cambridge-Union.htm|title=Porn debate to spice up Cambridge Union|publisher=Cambridge News|date=11 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303233816/http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Porn-debate-to-spice-up-Cambridge-Union.htm|archive-date=3 March 2011|df=dmy-all}} Dines did not sway the house, which decided 231 in favour to 187 against, with 197 abstentions.{{Cite news |url= http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700111495/Cambridge-University-Union-Society-decides-porn-is-a-good-public-service.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110220080207/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700111495/Cambridge-University-Union-Society-decides-porn-is-a-good-public-service.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 20 February 2011 |title= Cambridge University Union Society decides porn is a 'good public service'| first= Tad |last=Walch |work=Deseret News |date=18 February 2011}} Dines said her opponents won because the chamber consisted mostly of "18–22 year old males who are using pornography on a regular basis".{{Cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2011/02/110218_pornography_debate.shtml|title=Debate: Does pornography provide 'a good public service'?|first=Dan|last=Damon|work=BBC News|date=18 February 2011}}

Dines expressed opposition to the academic journal Porn Studies when it was founded, arguing that the "editors come from a pro-porn background where they deny the tons and tons of research that has been done into the negative effects of porn," and that they're "cheerleaders" for the porn industry.{{Cite news|last=Cadwalladr|first=Carole|date=2013-06-15|title=Porn wars: the debate that's dividing academia|language=en-GB|work=The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/jun/16/internet-violent-porn-crime-studies|access-date=2020-07-08|issn=0029-7712}}

Dines' book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality (2010) has been translated into five languages and adapted into a documentary film.{{cite web |title=Research Associates, Gail Dines, Ph.D. |url=https://violenceresearch.wvu.edu/executive-board/research-associates/gail-dines |website=West Virginia University, Research Center on Violence |access-date=3 April 2025}} The book received mixed reviews, with some lauding it as "compelling" with "thoughtful analysis of pornography's infiltration into the American economy, its detrimental effects on the sexual and emotional health of women and men, and its ability to perpetuate both sexism and racism."{{cite web |last1=Veronica |first1=Arellano |title=Library Journal |url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pornland-gail-dines/1100313383 |website=Barnes and Noble, Editorial Reviews |access-date=3 April 2025}} Publisher's Weekly noted that Dines' book "raise[s] important questions about the commoditization of sexual desires" but that "solid argumentation is lacking."{{cite web |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8070-4452-0 |title=Nonfiction Reviews|date=5 April 2010 |work=Publishers Weekly}} Her writing has been criticized by other academics, including Ronald Weitzer of George Washington University. In an essay, "Pornography: the need for solid evidence" (2011), Weitzer alleged that Dines' work (specifically Pornland) is poorly researched and in strong opposition to the existing body of research on pornography.{{cite journal|last=Weitzer| first=Ronald |author-link= Ronald Weitzer |title=Review Essay: Pornography's Effects: The Need for Solid Evidence | journal= Violence Against Women | volume = 17 | issue = 5 | pages = 666–675 | doi= 10.1177/1077801211407478 | pmid=21511821 | date = May 2011 | s2cid=220342944 }} In "A Feminist Response to Weitzer" in the same journal, Dines wrote that her book had used theories and methods of cultural studies developed by, among others, Stuart Hall and Antonio Gramsci.{{Cite journal | last = Dines | first = Gail | title = A Feminist Response to Weitzer | journal = Violence Against Women | volume = 18 | issue = 4 | pages = 512–520 | doi = 10.1177/1077801212452550 | pmid = 22865620 | date = April 2012 | s2cid = 1122327 }} Also in 2011, after Dines wrote about the porn industry in The Guardian,Dines, Gail (4 January 2011). [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/04/pornography-big-business-influence-culture "Porn: a multibillion-dollar industry that renders all authentic desire plastic"]. The Guardian. Lynn Comella, women's studies professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, excoriated the book as "downright toxic", accusing her of failing "to address counterevidence".{{Cite news |first=Lynn |last=Comella |url=http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2011/feb/02/feminists-gone-wild-response-porn-critic-gail-dines/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207012502/https://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2011/feb/02/feminists-gone-wild-response-porn-critic-gail-dine/ |archive-date= February 7, 2011 |title=Feminists Gone Wild! A response to porn critic Gail Dines |date=February 2, 2011 |work=Las Vegas Weekly}}

Robert Jensen reviewed the book favorably, saying it describes how "porn culture has been a setback to gender justice" and that while "the worst racist stereotypes have been eliminated from mainstream movies and television, they flourish in pornography".{{cite web |url=https://robertwjensen.org/articles/review-of-pornland-how-pornography-has-hijacked-our-sexuality/ |title=Review of Pornland: How Pornography Has Hijacked Our Sexuality |author=Robert Jensen |date=June 2010 |work=ROBERT JENSEN (website) |accessdate=November 17, 2024}} Robert Muller in Psychology Today says that her historical survey of the porn business is well researched, but that her connecting pseudo child pornography and actual child molesting in particular uses bad research, and concludes "Despite a bent toward sensationalism, the book will help female and male readers question their beliefs about sex and also question where those beliefs come from.{{cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-about-trauma/201408/pornland-how-porn-has-hijacked-our-sexuality |title= Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, A Book Review |author=Robert T. Muller |date=August 28, 2014 |work=Psychology Today |accessdate=November 17, 2024}}

In 2007, Dines wrote an article about media sensationalism related to the Duke lacrosse case after appearing on a CNN interview. After receiving vulgar hate mail, Dines addressed the media's failure to appreciate the complexity of sexism and racism in the case, writing, "This obsessive focus on the woman is not particular to this case; routinely the media focus on the women victims, with a certain prurient interest. Instead, we should put some of the focus back on the men in this case, as we know much about their behavior that night that is not under dispute. They saw the hiring of two black women to strip as a legitimate form of male entertainment. They didn't see the commodifying and sexualizing of black women's bodies as problematic in a country that has a long and ugly history of racism." {{cite web |last=Dines |first=Gail |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0119-21.htm |title=CNN's "Journalism" is a fool's paradise |publisher=Commondreams.org |date=19 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618114452/http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0119-21.htm |archive-date=18 June 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} Writer Cathy Young criticized Dines' comments in an op-ed piece for Reason Magazine suggesting there existed a double standard, i.e. that "the same feminists who rightly tell us that a rape victim should not have to be an angel to deserve support apply such a different standard to men who may be falsely accused of rape".{{cite web| last = Young |first = Cathy |url=http://reason.com/archives/2007/04/16/last-call-for-rape-crisis-femi |title=Last call for "rape-crisis" feminism? |publisher=Reason.com |date=16 April 2007}}

In 2016, Dines and one other Jewish professor filed discrimination complaints against Wheelock College with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in relation to claims that the college's diversity efforts were not inclusive enough of Jewish students.Krantz, Laura (15 February 2016). [https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/14/jewish-professors-claim-discrimination-wheelock/AkqnshLDRhn9T0BXUTYf4J/story.html "Professors file complaints claiming bias at Wheelock"]. The Boston Globe. After writing a letter in 2014 in pursuit of Jewish students' interests, the professors said their lives were made miserable, and they became the focus of antisemitic attacks.Flaherty, Colleen (5 October 2016). [https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/10/05/jewish-professors-wheelock-college-say-they-were-subject-campaign-harassment "Locked Out of the Conversation"]. Inside Higher Ed.[https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/jewish-profs-sue-boston-college-for-anti-semitism-1.5405125 "Two Jewish Professors Sue Boston's Wheelock College Over Alleged anti-Semitism"]. Haaretz, 16 February 2016. The college said the complaints were "without merit".

• Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America{{citation | last = Wild | first = Jim | contribution =List of contributors: Gail Dines | editor-last = Wild | editor-first = Jim | title = Exploiting childhood: how fast food, material obsession and porn culture are creating new forms of child abuse | pages = 116–129 | publisher = Jessica Kingsley Publishers | location = London | year = 2013 | isbn = 9780857007421 | postscript = .}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |title=Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Critical Reader |editor1-first=Gail |editor1-last=Dines |editor2-first=Jean |editor2-last=Humez |year=2011 |orig-year=1995 |publisher=Sage publications |location=California |edition=3rd |isbn=9781412974417 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/genderraceclassi0000unse_r5q3 }}
• {{cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | title = Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality | publisher = Beacon Press | location = Boston | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780807044520 }}
• {{cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | title = Pornland: Comment le porno envahi nos vies | publisher = Editions LIBRE | location = Paris | year = 2020 | isbn = 9782490403165}}
• {{Cite book|title= Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality |last1=Dines |first1=Gail |last2=Jensen |first2=Robert |last3=Russo |first3=Ann |author-link2= Robert Jensen |year=1997 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9780415918138 }}
• {{cite thesis |degree= Ph.D. |last= Dines-Levy |first= Gail |date=1990 |title= Towards a sociology of cartoons: a framework for sociological investigation with special reference to "Playboy" sex cartoons |publisher= Salford University | url = http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14736/ | oclc = 53564519 }} [http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14736/1/D094604.pdf Pdf.]

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | contribution = Grooming our girls: hypersexualization of the culture as child sexual abuse | editor-last = Wild | editor-first = Jim | title = Exploiting childhood: how fast food, material obsession and porn culture are creating new forms of child abuse | pages = 116–129 | publisher = Jessica Kingsley Publishers | location = London | year = 2013 | isbn = 9780857007421 }}
• {{Cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | contribution = Stop porn culture! | editor1-last = Tankard Reist | editor1-first = Melinda | editor2-last = Bray | editor2-first = Abigail | editor-link1 = Melinda Tankard Reist | title = Big Porn Inc.: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry | pages = 266–267 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781876756895 }}
• {{Cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | contribution = The new Lolita: pornography and the sexualization of childhood | editor1-last = Tankard Reist | editor1-first = Melinda | editor2-last = Bray | editor2-first = Abigail | editor-link1 = Melinda Tankard Reist | title = Big Porn Inc.: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry | pages = 3–8 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781876756895 }}
• {{Cite book | last1 = Dines | first1 = Gail | last2 = Whisnant | first2 = Rebecca | last3 = Thompson | first3 = Linda | author-link2 = Rebecca Whisnant | contribution = Arresting images: anti-pornography slide shows, activism and the academy | editor-last = Boyle | editor-first = Karen | editor-link = Karen Boyle | title = Everyday pornography | pages = 17–33 | publisher = Routledge | location = London and New York | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780415543781 }} (With Karen Boyle.)
• {{Cite book | last = Dines | first = Gail | contribution = King Kong and the white woman: Hustler magazine and the demonization of black masculinity | editor1-last = Whisnant | editor1-first = Rebecca | editor2-last = Stark | editor2-first = Christine | editor-link1 = Rebecca Whisnant | title = Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography | pages = 89–101 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2004 | isbn = 9781876756499 }}
• {{cite book| last = Dines | first = Gail | contribution = From fantasy to reality: unmasking the pornography industry | editor-last = Morgan | editor-first = Robin | editor-link = Robin Morgan | title = Sisterhood is forever: the women's anthology for a new millennium | pages = [https://archive.org/details/sisterhoodisfore00morg/page/306 306–314] | publisher = Washington Square Press | location = New York | year = 2003 | isbn = 9780743466271 | title-link = Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium }}

{{refend}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Gail Dines}}

{{Wikiquote|Gail Dines}}

• [http://gaildines.com/ Gail Dines' website]
• {{C-SPAN|9274139}}

{{Feminism}}

{{Radical feminism}}

{{Subject bar|portal2=Society|portal3=Erotica and pornography|portal4=Biography|portal5=United Kingdom|portal6=United States}}

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Category:1958 births

Category:Alumni of the University of Salford

Category:American feminist writers

Category:American people of English-Jewish descent

Category:American women academics

Category:Anti-pornography feminists

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Category:British emigrants to the United States

Category:20th-century British Jews

Category:English feminists

Category:Jewish American feminists

Category:Living people

Category:Academics from Greater Manchester

Category:Radical feminists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:Anti–human trafficking activists

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American Jews

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Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers