Taking as its focus soft-core pornography and its impact on the sexuality of young men, this book is intended as a contribution to the developing discussion of heterosexuality, and its cultural representation, within sociology, gender studies and media studies.

Hardy's book was conceived as a response to the bitter divisions among feminists over pornography, and as an attempt to disrupt the entrenched pattern of polarity in critical discussion of sexual representation. The harm which pornography is thought to cause women is obviously mediated through men, and yet the male perspective, until now, has not been sought or stated. Drawing on in-depth interviews with young men about their experience and interpretation of pornographic material, the book shows that they have a keen awareness of the pleasures which censorship would curtail and yet at the same time, a strong pervasive sense of danger attending to the use of pornography.