They say everybody uses porn. They’re wrong. People don’t use pornography: it uses us. And you don’t have to watch it to be one of its victims.
In this thought-provoking and timely book, Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel expose how the multi-billion-dollar pornography industry has humanity gripped in a chokehold. From rewiring our brains and normalising sexual violence, to shaping new protest movements, the pornographic revolution has achieved a stunning and near-total victory.
The triumph of the pornocrats is made more sinister by society’s widespread acceptance that ‘all men watch porn’, the denial of its devastating harms, and a lack of political will to curb the power of the global pornography business.
The authors answer the questions that politicians and policymakers are too scared to ask. Why, despite over half a century of feminist gains and lessons in schools on ‘consent’, do today’s school children display more sexist attitudes than their parents and grandparents? Do women really want to be choked and humiliated in bed? How can we fight back and reclaim sex, love and relationships?
Drawing on the latest research, Pornocracy charts how the neurological shifts caused by porn use reverberate through society. The book also warns of a dystopian future where AI-powered porn and sextech threaten to reduce us all to masturbating meat puppets on an algorithmic production line.
Provocative and powerful, Pornocracy tells the story of how pornography fundamentally changed—perhaps forever—what it is to be human.
Industry Reviews
"A terrifying, urgent and necessary book that reveals the cost to all of us of living in the world that porn built. You won't read anything more important."
Helen Joyce, author of Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women's Rights
Pornocracy is a searing indictment of pornography's pervasive influence on how we have sex, see each other, and live our daily lives. With clarity, evidence, and passion, it documents how pornography teaches sexism, harms relationships, and feeds sexual violence."
Professor Michael Flood, author of Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention
Pornocracy is a howl of resistance against the machinery of mass degradation. In this compelling and urgent work, Bartosch and Jessel lay bare how porn is reshaping our brains, our relationships, and our culture. We're at a crossroads: one path leads to deeper dehumanisation; the other demands we reclaim sex, love and dignity. Read this book. Then choose your side."
Derrick Jensen, ecophilosopher and author of Language Older Than Words and Endgame
"Every parent and every lawmaker should read this book. Pornocracy is enlightening and terrifying — vividly showing how the pornification of our culture is hardwiring our brains into a dystopian view of sex, women and children that threatens our whole society.
If you think it's prudish to worry about Pornhub or Only Fans, this book will tell you why you're wrong and why we need to act now-before it's too late."
Julia Hartley-Brewer, broadcaster and journalist
"A gripping account of how this dangerous industry has risen to such heights that it is now determining our cultural norms."
Julie Bindel, The Spectator
"Excellent... makes an unanswerable case against a gruesome industry."
Victoria Smith, The Critic
"A terrifying wake-up call."
Jenny Lindsay, The Scotsman
"Anyone who reads Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel's new compendium of horror Pornocracy cannot fail to be convinced."
Poppy Sowerby, UnHerd
"In Pornocracy, Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel drag the subject kicking and screaming into the spotlight, forcing the reader to look at the inherently disgusting issue in depth."
Entertainment Focus
"The problems that the book describes feel urgent, desperately in need of a solution to protect young people and the entire future of love, sex, and romance."
The Dispatch
"Pornocracy is a provocative and essential read for anyone concerned about the future of sexuality, relationships and society."
Baroness Gertin, The House
"Every lawmaker and educator in the land – and anyone naive enough to think pornography is essentially a harmless pastime – should be forced to read this gripping indictment of the billion-dollar global industry and its insidious stranglehold on human desire."
Daily Express
