Enraged accusations such as 'man hating feminist' have been hurled at Gail Dines for her emphatic stance on the tough stuff of pornography.
Dines is professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College, Boston, and the author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. She comes well credentialled and with 20 years of research under her belt.
Dines was in Australia for the Sydney Writers and Festival and appeared on the ABC's Q&A this week. Her anti-porn message has been attacked with pitbull-like ferocity.
Admittedly Dines pulls no punches. She was here to tell us that the voracious consumption by young men of 24-hour on-tap, hardcore internet porn is fouling their minds with sadistic and hateful views of women and sex. Women, said Dines, are feeling increasing pressure to behave and look like porn stars, which had led to the banishment of pubic hair and the rise of the full Brazilian wax.
Dines contends that consumers of porn are coming to expect that real-life sex ought to replicate the contrived marketed fantasy of the enormously erect man indulging in aggressive and often painful (for the woman) sexual congress. This is the sexual revolution down to the wire: sans tenderness, sans intimacy, sans love and sans human vulnerability.
What can only be described as a feminist fight ensued over assertions of what was 'old' and 'new' feminism, while tweeters barracked from the sidelines. The attacks on Dines centred on two themes. She was denounced as demonising men; and of promoting a wowserish, anti sexual liberation stance.
The first point is reminiscent of early critiques of feminists as 'man haters'. The second implies that all open and unfettered approaches to depictions of sex are progressive, and that any moves towards 'censorship' is retrograde and inhibitory of a healthy sexuality.
Dines argues that the hardcore porn industry promotes a damaging view of sex that shapes young men's (and women's) fantasies and expectations of how sex should be, at the cost of healthy intimacy. While she makes her point with some feisty statements, she raises important issues.
No-one would wish to return to the sex education model of the 1950s, which erred on the side of suppression and sterility. But neither is the opposite extreme, of sex that eliminates all emotion other than aggression, a desirable alternative.
I am not in favour of censorship. It does not work, and the lines drawn can be arbitrary and absurd, and can result in the withholding of important stories, facts and communication. I see erotic art, literature, movies, theatre and sensuously arousing depictions as being an important part of our consciousness, with the potential to enrich all our lives.
What of artistic revelations of violence, including sexual violence? In the context of engaging with the true reality of violence and the harm it brings, these revelations can help promote our understanding, compassion and values. Such images have prompted us over time to evolve our civilisation, through, for example, promotion of human rights, gender equality and denunciation of torture.
Positive portrayals including erotica can inspire and guide us by enhancing our perceptions and extending our narrow world view.
But like junk food, the fantasies in most hardcore porn are not good for us. They turn women and men into objects used in an emotionally disconnected fashion, and sex into a purely visceral activity.
I have seen clients who are addicted to internet pornography, who in fact prefer this to engaging with their wives or partners. It is quick and easy, and we can become habituated to it. Needless to say it can wreak havoc in a relationship.
Many women employed in the porn business are damaged physically and emotionally in the making of porn. Regulation is important, and consumers must ask whether support of this business is ethical, just as they might be concerned about the use of child labour in the production of consumer goods.
None of which is to say that we must never view pornography. Like fast food we may occasionally 'indulge' or, in my view, succumb. Too much junk, however, at the expense of the higher quality stuff of intimacy, can be harmful. Just as we encourage our community to eat more wholesome food, we also need an abundance of education and portraiture of healthy sexual relationships.
Lyn Bender is a psychologist and social commentator.