Reflecting on a Decade of Culture Reframed: An Interview with Founder & CEO Dr. Gail Dines

Dr. Gail Dines founded Culture Reframed more than a decade ago, driven by the evidence that a culture of pornography is harmful to young people and a belief that a research-based, public health approach is the most effective way to fight against these harms. Since then, Culture Reframed has become the go-to science-based organization raising awareness around the significant negative impacts of pornography — fueled by the billion-dollar pornography industry — and developing programs and presentations that educate and empower people and organizations to help combat them.

Through a global network that includes child welfare professionals, legal and judicial professionals, health-care workers, parents, educators, and more, Culture Reframed has helped shift the narrative around pornography from an issue dismissed as “victimless” to one rightly seen as a global public health crisis.

As Culture Reframed celebrates a decade of growth, Dines shares how she got into this work, the accomplishments she’s most proud of, and where Culture Reframed is headed in its next decade.

Dr. Dines, could you share with us how you got into this work?

When I was 22, I was writing my doctoral thesis in sociology on the ways gender stereotypes of girls undermine their capacity for educational success. As I was mapping the thesis, I went to a presentation by a group called Women Against Pornography. Little did I know that this would change the trajectory of my professional life.

I was stunned by the level of cruelty, violence, and misogyny (and this was over 40 years ago!). The images were so violent and misogynistic, I remember thinking that girls and women simply could not flourish in a culture where pornography was the blueprint for most mainstream images of sex and intimacy. I couldn’t sleep that night. I came to the conclusion that, as I could never unsee those images, I had to research the impact of such images on females, males, and the culture. The resultant thesis explored the ways that the ideologies underpinning those images flow into all aspects of our culture. I was the first person in the UK to write a doctorate on the sociology of pornography, which meant I had to start from scratch because there was limited research on the harms of pornography. When I moved to the United States in 1986 with my husband and baby, I was lucky enough to find an academic position in an institution that was very supportive of my work.

As I look back over the many years I have been researching and writing about pornography, I still can’t get my head around the reality that the culture has been hijacked by this predatory industry that shapes the sexual templates of young people all over the world.

I often say that I learned as much from my students as they did from me because they were living in the belly of the beast. As I look back over the many years I have been researching and writing about pornography, I still can’t get my head around the reality that the culture has been hijacked by this predatory industry that shapes the sexual templates of young people all over the world. How did we get to the point that the very worst of misogynist images have become the wallpaper of young people’s lives?

How did this early research translate into the formation of Culture Reframed?

Culture Reframed grew out of a presentation I did to a group of women philanthropists who were so moved by the research on the effects of porn on young people that they offered to provide seed money to build a nonprofit. Ten years ago, almost no nonprofits were dealing with the harms of porn, so I convened a multidisciplinary group of scholars, medical experts, and activists to explore how we could tackle the problem in the most useful way. It became clear that taking a public health approach, which by its very nature is multidisciplinary, was the obvious way forward because pornography is one of the major public health issues facing our young people.

As you reflect on Culture Reframed’s work and progress over the last decade, what milestones, events, or successes are you most proud of?

Without doubt, our greatest achievement has been to shift the global discourse about pornography from one that sees it as “victimless” to one that centers the social, emotional, and behavioral harms of porn on young people. Pornography is no longer the punchline in a joke, but rather seen as a public health crisis, especially when it comes to young people. Our work has wrestled away the power of the porn industry and its lobbying organization (The Free Speech Coalition) by opening up a discussion that demands solutions to this crisis.

We are much stronger together, and the beauty of the public health approach is its ability to come at this problem from multiple perspectives that coalesce into a movement.

Our goal is to build research-based programs that both educate and raise awareness about the harms of pornography. A public health approach breaks down the silos that often limit our capacity for success. Groups that usually don’t talk to each other about the harms of porn, such as domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, Child Advocacy Centers (CACs), educators, criminal justice experts, and medical experts, are now, thanks to our work, developing partnerships to tackle this problem. We are much stronger together, and the beauty of the public health approach is its ability to come at this problem from multiple perspectives that coalesce into a movement.

How has Culture Reframed’s work evolved in the last 10 years?

Our programs and presentations are science-based yet accessible. As we have grown, we have expanded our programs and presentations to the primary groups tasked with safeguarding young people — parents/caregivers, educators, legal, and medical professionals — and partnered with groups that have a stake in providing a porn-critical lens to young people. While there are many such partners, I want to highlight our work with Child Advocacy Centers (CACs). The more than 950 CACs across the U.S. are the first port of call for kids who have been sexually abused. We worked with more than 25 CAC consultants to develop the first comprehensive online program that provides protocols for forensic interviewers and multidisciplinary CAC teams to explore the role pornography plays in the abuse of young people. The response has been overwhelming, with many CAC professionals saying they now understand why they are seeing the level of sexual violence against children escalating.

How have you seen the work to address the harms of pornography on youth gain traction over time? What role do you think Culture Reframed has played in that?

As one of the very few science-based porn-critical organizations, we get requests from governments and policymakers all around the world to provide testimony, write reports, and give presentations and keynotes at conferences. We helped pass the Age Verification Bill, which requires everyone who goes on a porn site to verify that they are 18 or over by a third-party organization, in 24 U.S. states. In Louisiana, the first state to pass this law, we worked with State Representative Laurie Schlegel, a sex therapist, to build bipartisan support. That bill was the blueprint for the other 23 states.

I was an expert witness for the Department of Justice in a 2013 case that upheld federal regulation 2257, a law forcing the porn industry to document that all people on set are over 18. Inexplicably, the Judge changed his ruling five years later and rendered 2257 toothless, but we continue to fight on.

Over the years, we have witnessed a shift in the way young people feel about porn.

Over the years, we have witnessed a shift in the way young people feel about porn. Culture Reframed is inundated with emails from young men and women seeking help to detox from porn. Women and girls feel desperate because the only men they meet are porn users, and porn snakes its way into the relationship, not just sexually, but also in how men treat them in general. Young men are also rebelling with the growth of online support sites that help them stop using porn. In a way, the porn industry has sown the seeds of its own destruction by becoming so cruel, violent, and brutal. At Culture Reframed, we provide these young people with an alternative ideology that makes them feel supported and not alone.

What organizations and individuals have been instrumental partners in this work?

Embracing a public health framework means it is crucial to collaborate with the many people and organizations working to keep young people safe and healthy in their homes, online spaces, schools, and communities. These collaborative partnerships demonstrate the efficacy of the public health model when addressing the harms of hypersexualized media and pornography.

To give some specific examples:

• Our work with parents and caregivers responds to the need for parent awareness and education and provides the practical strategies parents need to help young people navigate this pornified culture.
• Our continuing collaboration with educators has been instrumental in the development of our porn-critical sex education curriculum, which includes much-needed training modules for teachers.
• Our work with CACs and child protection agencies in the U.S. and Europe has helped address the need for more education and training on the harms of porn on youth. These ongoing collaborations have de-siloed our field and brought a porn-critical analysis to the forefront of those charged directly with the safety and well-being of children, from forensic interviewers, law enforcement, and legal and judicial professionals to pediatricians, health care workers, and digital wellness organizations.
• And finally, our commitment to peer-reviewed scientific research has allowed us to work with highly credentialed researchers who provide the empirical data on which our organization stands.

What is your vision for the future of Culture Reframed in the next 10 years and beyond?

We continue to expand on our work and grow our influence around the world. For this, we will need to increase our capacity so we can respond to all of the requests we receive. I see Culture Reframed as the go-to organization for policymakers, parents, and professionals. We want to work with policymakers to develop innovative ways to regulate the porn industry at the points of production and consumption, forcing this industry to adhere to policies that are in line with other predatory industries. Given the growth in Age Verification Legislation, this seems a doable task.

We also want to bring together other scholars and activists in the field to see that we need more research. For example, there is very limited research on how pornography and hypersexualized media impact girls and young women. We also need research on the ways boys and men can refuse to participate in porn culture. What we know from studies is that this group is deeply harmed by pornography, so rather than mopping up, we want to develop strategies for prevention.

What do you think the personal costs have been to you after doing this work for so long?

There is no way anyone doing this work is unaffected by it. We swim in the very worst of the culture and expose ourselves to images that are extremely difficult to watch. Having said that, over the years, I have built a supportive network of friends and colleagues who show up immediately when one of us is going through what we call “porn hell.” Working with the excellent team at Culture Reframed provides me with daily support. We take care of each other. We all feel that we have no choice but to do this work because once you understand the severity of this crisis, you are driven to help fix it. Doing nothing would be a recipe for disaster.

I feel extraordinarily lucky to be a part of this group that fights to make the world a better place for our young people.

To live a life of purpose is to live a life filled with meaning, energy, and yes, joy. When I was a young woman thinking through what I wanted to do with my life, studying, writing, and speaking about pornography was not on my list of life goals. But I never, not for one day, regret this. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be a part of this group that fights to make the world a better place for our young people. I feel this on a personal level, as a mother and grandmother, and as an activist who refuses to give up.

Learn more about Dr. Dines’ career as an anti-pornography scholar, author, and activist.