Are we watching porn burn out or just the death of print pornography and its male pioneers?
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Playboy has decided to drop the nudes. I haven’t looked at a Playboy for decades, but the news is still a shock. The iconic mag is really going to be about the articles now.
It’s like an all-you-can-eat irony buffet.
At 89, Hugh Hefner is practically dead. Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse, died in 2010. Al Goldstein, founder of Screw Magazine, died in 2013. Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, is the baby at only 72.
What can’t be argued is that the proliferation of pornography has had an incredible influence on our culture.
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They were leaders during the Sexual Revolution. There’s opinion everywhere between romanticism and demonization concerning their roles and women’s “choice” to participate. What can’t be argued is that the proliferation of pornography has had an incredible influence on our culture.
We want our visionaries and rule breakers to be clean of contradiction. It’s not going to happen. Life is messy and no one’s sheets are clean. These are controversial men—both rebellious pioneers and scoundrels drunk on exploitative empire.
Those who aren’t dead already will be dead shortly. Part of me smiles in glee that they are returning to stardust.
Sex, especially in America, is a BIG DEAL. Which is dumb. We still mostly handle it two ways: shameful denial or hyper-distorted exploitation. Both suck. Humans are sexual beings. The dogmas of religion and capitalistic freedom have warped human sexuality to the point where reality has little room.
Go to hell abstinence or Photoshop, 12 inch penises and double D silicone breasts. Choose.
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Go to hell abstinence or Photoshop, 12 inch penises and double D silicone breasts. Choose.
I was 11 years old when I stole my first Playboy from a drugstore. Dolly Parton was on the cover. Gleeful anticipation turned to angry disappointment when I found no nudes of her inside. I hid the mag under the shed in the backyard and pursued its pages in secret for weeks.
Through my teenage years, I collected and purged many a porno mag. After one of those purges, I found my younger sisters flipping through them on the side of the house. They’d dug them out of the trash. I was horrified and ripped them out of their hands.
Then the porn video revolution came. Tapes and cable channels challenged print’s foothold. But you still had to pay, so the threat wasn’t great.
Then came the Internet. Pandora’s box of porn opened and OMGWTFBBQ IT’S ALL THE PORNS ALL THE TIME. Now we are dealing with consequences like adolescent erectile dysfunction and porn addiction. I worry that one day my 11 year old son will sit in front of a computer, Google “boobs,” and have his face melt off just like the Nazis who stared into the Ark of the Covenant in the movie Raider’s of the Lost Ark.
Good times.
So, porn isn’t dying. The honky paperporn warlords are dead. Porn has gone über turbo electric. With just a connection and a couple of clicks, a porn wonderland awaits. Admission is free.
Internet killed the porno mag and sexual reality has dimmed to a flicker.
Enjoy the consequences.
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Photo credit: r2hox
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Porn is clearly not dead just living in another realm. I applaud playboy for not going the way of just hustler or worse. I think porn is way overrated. Just watching a bunch of folks having sex is silly in my view. I ain’t no pride for sure but really if that’s what turns your crank have at it. I agree with John above. As long as it’s consenting adults all around and nobody gets hurt then do be it. Live and let live. I find judgmentalness to be far more damaging to both participant and observer than other folk… Read more »
Jenny McCarthy wants to be the last nude centerfold before Playboy shuts down the pictures.
She first appeared in Playboy in 1993.
http://ca.eonline.com/news/706509/jenny-mccarthy-on-playboy-s-no-nudity-plans-it-breaks-my-heart-i-will-be-wearing-my-panties-at-half-mast
And below is a round up of famous folks who have also posed for Playboy
http://ca.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/02/the-50-hottest-celebrities-whove-posed-for-playboy/
They are still hunting down all the bad people who forced the women above to pose nude!
I have no qualms with workers in the sex industry, legal or otherwise, as long as they are doing so as adults and of their own consent.
But it’s still male dominated and exploitation is occurring, especially in prostitution because it’s underground. I do wonder about the life history of the women who work in the sex industry but I don’t think by default that they are all “broken.”
Diz – Could you please tell me which part of my perspective is sex negative? I don’t think my concerns suggest that I think sex is bad, that I think men are bad, that I think people shouldn’t have sex or even that I don’t think people shouldn’t film sex. My perspective may not be made of rainbows and kittens but neither do I qualify it as ‘sex negative’. Unless you can show me something I’m not seeing. Which I’m open to. I honestly feel that in this regard, men win and women are just the ones loosing here. Objectification… Read more »
I don’t really see how women lose unless you’re thinking that men will no longer find average looking women attractive so men are no longer entering relationships. In that case though, how do men win? If being in a relationship is the ultimate happy ending, then men don’t necessarily win, they just possibly lose less. To me, it’s like any other forms of entertainment. It’s a fantasy or escape. You enjoy it and maybe like with movies you temporarily suspend belief. Of course, that’s only temporarily. How many guys really believe that the stripper he’s paying is really interested in… Read more »
Long live the objectification of women for men’s ultimate sexual pleasure and interest. That’s certainly not going away. In this arena, men win, women loose, time an time again. If a foreign alien society came down from outer space, they would certainly think that women exist souly for the aid of male masturbation and not the reverse.
That’s a pretty sex negative view. You should talk to female porn stars sometime to see how they feel about the way people engage sexually.
And do you have the same beef with women’s fashion magazines? Or sport magazines that glorify the human form of both men and women?
Porn dying? Um… Playboy can’t sell print magazines any more, that’s what’s happening. And yes porn on the net is free, and yes, I’m certain my 14 yo son has google his share of boobs… and we go on. I am pretty disappointed that Playboy is going clean. Not that I’ve seen one in years. Why would I buy a print magazine except when getting on a plane that has no free wifi? i wouldn’t. The last print mag I subscribed to was Wired. Long live the digital world. Good by tree-based media. I do have to say I still… Read more »
Is porn dying? No.
The internet may have killed print media altogether, but that doesn’t explain why Playboy went non-nude. Playboy was like a rated R movie at least prior to the 1990s even then I don’t remember close ups of labia or anything like that. Playboy had 2 choices. Raunch it up and go hard core, which didn’t match it’s image either or go mainstream. To paraphrase Mr. Miyagi porno do yes survive. Porno do no survive. Porno do maybe some nudes squashed just like grape.