While there are important insights in Stoltenberg's discussion of the first two subjects, I find his emotive and overly grand style hard to swallow. Pornography is the arch-enemy of gender justice for John Stoltenberg, and he spends three chapters on the close relationship between pornography and male supremacy. Pornography tells lies about women. But pornography tells the truth about men. Stoltenberg argues convincingly in Refusing to be a man that pornography creates a male supremacist sexuality.
Sexism is eroticised.
Pornography is also one of the main enforcers of homophobia. According to Stoltenberg, gay male porn is no different in selling male supremacy to men. The analysis of pornography in Refusing to be a man is for me the most problematic parts of the book. Stoltenberg's analysis is based on American anti-porn feminism and the work of Andrea Dworkin in particular. Stoltenberg presents anti-porn feminism as if it were feminism pure and simple.