Rise of Porn Culture and Abu Ghraib

Over at Broadsheet on Salon is a great interview with Carmine Sarracino, the coauthor of: “The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go From Here

You write in your book about the Abu Ghraib scandal. What did it reveal about American sexuality?

What it revealed is that when these people wanted to humiliate the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, they thought in terms of porn. That in itself is noteworthy. The language of humiliation is the language of sexual humiliation in porn. The upshot of it is that the prisoners were cast in the role of the “bitch” in humiliation porn.

Which is traditionally the female role, right?

That’s really what they did. They turned them into females, knowing that it was one of the most horrible things they could do, culturally. It’s a commentary on American identity in most cultures. Part of the Great Satan label is not only our military might but also our going into a culture that’s very inhibited and very modest with a culture of porn.

Read the rest of the interview at Broadsheet on Salon