Jeanette Winterson reads porn: “Feminism seems to have had no effect on pornography. There is
much more of it than in the 60s and 70s, and it has become
both mainstream and acceptable. I travel a lot, here and abroad,
and at airports and railway stations, I have noticed the old top
shelf is often double the size and halfway down. What does this
signify? That more men buy porn than ever before? That men are
shorter than they used to be? That women want it in their face?
That pornography is just a lifestyle magazine?

Reading the message is not easy. In the white corner are the
likes of Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon who have
argued, with varying degrees of success, in the American courts
and media, that all pornography is violence against women. In
the red corner are the good-time guys, such as Hugh Hefner,
Paul Raymond, Richard Desmond, who claim it’s just business
as usual and the girls enjoy it. Desmond has recently bought
the Express, further blurring the line between business and
exploitation. When a porn baron takes over a national
newspaper, how do we read the signs?” Books Unlimited