You Say You Want A Sexual Revolution
I remember watching a documentary on how the porno industry exploded in the 1970s with Tom Byron, I think it was, talking about he was expecting one day to be costarring with Robert DeNiro in a threesome.
While DeNiro has made some controversial movies, I seriously doubt he ever considered the notion of appearing in an adult movie, even though one of his famous characters, Travis Bickle, from Taxi Driver, spent his free-time at porno houses.
For the most part, it started out as “stag movies” shown on movie projectors at men’s social club meetings or bachelor parties. I’ve seen some of those old-fashioned black and white movies and they looked cheaply made. Most of the faces of those participating weren’t seen, for obvious reasons.
As Hollywood was being handcuffed by the Hays Code, there were still restrictions on “adult” movies, i.e. those nudie beach black and whites as well as gay male movies which mostly had barely clad to fully nude men doing athletics.
When the Motion Pictures Association of America set up a ratings system in the 1960s, X was labeled for more adult-themed movies. While movies like Deep Throat, Debbie Does Dallas and Behind the Green Door got the X rating, so did other movies such as Midnight Cowboy, which by today’s standards is now just rated R. It was the first and only movie to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Deep Throat, which is barely an hour long, became a surprise hit, but it’s been long reported, the movie was made with backing of organized crime. This was after 20th Century Fox took a gamble and made Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, an outrageous satire of Hollywood and fame with nudity and sexual content.
Myra Breckinridge had a scene in which Raquel Welch strapped on a dildo anally raped a man. Today, it would be called pegging if done consensually.
For some, the cinematic walls broken down in the 1970s needed to be restored and higher and stronger. In 50 years, we’ve really taken so many back steps that when Titanic came out in 1997, so many people were upset that Kate Winslet’s breasts were in a PG-13 movie. They didn’t seem to matter that hundreds of real people, including women and children, who died in the sinking were being exploited for entertainment.
Robert Stack once said there was less concern over the violent content of the old TV show The Untouchables than other things. Toilets couldn’t be shown in TV shows. Married couples couldn’t even be shown in bed together unless they were seated with their feet on the floor. I Love Lucy broke down some barriers with that whole arc where Lucy is pregnant.
But there were still many hurdles to overcome.
Hays Code 2.0
Social media seems to have the same type of double standard of the classic days of television of allowing children to pose with dead animals they hunted for sports but I’ve known people who’ve had their beach pics taken down because someone was in a bikini. And no kids were present in the photo.
That brings me to this issue with OnlyFans over the last week or so that alerted its content creators they could no longer produce sexually explicit material as of Oct. 1 as they banking institutions were establishing strict guidelines.
I’ve been meaning to do a post about this but glad I waited because of of today, Aug. 25, they have told people that they have “assurances” the website won’t enforce its stricter guidelines.
But for how long? And has the damage already been done?
Some people before this have turned their back on OF. Back in March, when Bhad Bhabie, aka Danielle Pregoli, aka the “Catch Me Outside” girl from Dr. Phil, established an OF account when she turned 18 and it made a lot of money in a few days. Bregoli has said she won’t show any nudity. The fact, that so many people were quick to sign up to see a recently turned 18 woman exposes that our society is opposed with young barely legal women.
Just as Britney Spears and the Olsen Twins were pretty the topic of dudebros and pervos counting down to 12:01 a.m. on their 18th birthdays, it seemed Pregoli found herself part of the next generation Maybe she likes the attention. I don’t know. I don’t care for Dr. Phil. But that’s a matter for another post.
Some people refused to do anything more with OF because it exposed how eager men (and women) are to see someone finally of age. And unfortunately, that’s the topic people bring up to rationalize why all adult-themed content should be banned in America because it encourages child pornography and child sex trafficking.
The Dark Web Rises
As a former journalist who covered way too many sex assault cases, some involving children, I am willing to do anything that stops the sexual exploitation of children, but if sexual explicit content involving minors is on OF or PornHub, maybe they need to employ better administrators rather than punishing everyone else.
Contrary to what people might think, but much is being done by Silicon Valley and the adult-themed production companies of San Fernando Valley to keep child porn from people even if it’s the result of an accidental search. Google, Microsoft, Apple Computers, etc., have worked endlessly with law enforcement and legislators since the 1990s to set up algorithms that pretty much keep people from finding the materials.
You basically are looking for it on the dark web so there’s no way to argue that you were doing a Google search of popular names of girls as your partner is expecting.
And legislators have worked to pass laws that keep people from being charged with crimes for sending pictures of little Timmy’s first time on the potty or little Maddie’s first bath. Images have to be used in a sexually explicit matter. People won’t get in trouble for sending Pop-Pop baby pictures because he can’t make it up from Sarasota.
Legislators have made some headway in making sure those who take explicit pictures of children and trade them face the maximum penalties. I covered a child porn case in which this, for lack of a better word, scumbag asshole, took sexually explicit pictures of his toddler daughter or niece. Since he was using a camera that had been manufactured overseas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office added extra charges and he got about 25 years.
Child abuse and sexual exploitation is a huge issue. And if anything has come out of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is how much our judicial system really doesn’t care. Saying that adult-themed content will lead others to commit acts of child sexual abuse or sexual assaults on adults is a scapegoat. People have these tendencies in their sick, demented minds to sexually assault and abuse people regardless of what form of entertainment is available.
Most child predators actually use kid-friendly material to lure their victims. They’re not all driving around in windowless panel vans with a stack of nudie magazines in the back. Sex trafficking is a serious problem, but most people are victims by those they knew and trusted.
They Come As Your Friends
Let’s be honest, our religious organizations have done more to exploit and allowed sexual predators to operate. There was rumors of a youth minister in a town near where I live who may or may not have had child pornography. No charges came of this in either state or federal court, that I knew of.
(And quite frankly, I’m a little worried about any grown man who wants to be a youth minister of any church. Whatever the end goal is, in my opinion is just wrong.)
I also knew of a guy in his late 20s who was the leader of a local Christian organization at the college I attended. He was just a little too bizarre for me when I met him. Other people felt the same about him. But yet, he still was liked and admired by other young impressionable (and gullible) students in their late teens. People are willing to turn a blind eye to a Christian-based church or organization, but yet want to point the finger and throw out accusations at other religions.
For years growing up, it was often a joke that Catholic priests were child molesters, until the Boston Globe‘s Spotlight team exposed the corruption in the Boston area that showed other cases all over America and the world.
And school has just started in many states. There is a growing problem with sexual predators at colleges and universities but they also exist in grades K-12. It’s not always men who are the predators. I’ve heard from several people that in the 1960s-1980s, it was almost common for many female teachers to have inappropriate relations with their male students. That was before the case surrounding Pamela Smart and especially Mary Kay Letourneau in the 1990s brought it out.
Yes, some young men in middle school or high school may want to get freaky with their teachers. I’ve even seen some female teachers relish the attention they get from young men. I was covering an event at a middle school and the teacher not only knelt down to reveal her tramp stamp tattoo but when the boys who were 13 or 14 made comments, she laughed them off.
I heard from angry parents and guardians that their kids are expected to adhere to a dress code but the teachers don’t. One of them said, the women in “Skinemax” movies dress more conservatively.
Don’t Punish The Messenger
Earlier this year, a woman in California named Crystal Jackson was the center of controversy when it was discovered her OF account which she operates under the name of “Mrs. Poindexter” had angered some parents at the parochial school her children attended. Jackson operates the account with her husband, who encouraged it as she was struggling with menopause. Jackson or Mrs. Poindexter is actually a very nice and friendly woman. I even found out we have a mutual friend, but I’m not saying who.
This destroys another myth that has been perpetuated by zealots opposed to pornography and adult-themed material that all women are under the influence of drugs, either voluntary or involuntary. This might have been the case in the 1970s and 1980s when substance abuse was more common in all forms of entertainment, mainly the music industry and mainstream Hollywood. (I also don’t doubt reports that Linda Lovelace of Deep Throat was forced by her husband, sometimes very physically, to act in the movie.)
From what I’ve seen from many people with OF accounts, they are very common Americans you’d pass by in the supermarkets and on the streets. I think that’s part of the appeal. Despite what Hollywood and others have told us, most men prefer more natural women.
Also, OF and other platforms, such as Chaturbate and Fancentro have been places for members of the LGBTQ community to, for lack of a better word, expose themselves to a wide number of people. I think more men are actually bicurious or even attracted to transgendered women.
In many ways, online platforms enable women and the LGBTQ community to control their environments. They have so much to worry about offline, that in the Internet world, they have more power. Many creators can make a lot of money off it and that brings me to my next point.
A Brave New World
It seemed only natural during a global pandemic the likes we haven’t seen in about 100 years, people would take big advantages of the advanced technology we have. I’ll be blunt and say my first e-mail account was when I signed up as a first-year student in Georgia Southern University in September of 1997. Technology was still limited.
In one generation, it’s exploded. You can talk to people all over the world at no extra charge sometimes. So, if people were expected to set up zoom calls for their kids to attend and they couldn’t attend meetings because they couldn’t go many places, why not use that extra time to make some extra money?
It’s crazy as a capitalist society we destroyed the Middle Class and we’ve turned people into the Working Poor. When I was growing up in the 1980s, it was still common to have a regular job and have a few extra amenities. But over time, it became harder.
I’m not going to lie. The most I’ve ever made in one year wasn’t even $30,000 and I have a college degree. Many other Gen Xers and Millenials like myself found themselves expecting to do more for less, even though we were told our college degrees would guarantee us quicker promotions and better salary and benefits.
The worst part we were told by Boomers to get a side job to afford what they had. So, when people decided to set up a camera and take some pictures of themselves nude and playing with sex toys, they discovered they could make that extra money all from the comfort of their homes.
And let me say this to any Boomer or person under 55 who still lives within 1,500 yards of their parents’ house, it is extremely hard to find a job regardless of what your qualifications are. Take it from someone who used to work in middle-management, they are looking for any reason NOT to hire you and it may come down to something trivial as your name sounding familiar to another person already working there.
Those who work in the food-service industry as well as big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target are usually working on “open availability” which limits anyway they can work more than one job because their schedules are always changing.
Some found a better way to make even more money as a content creator for OF than working in an office where they are subjected to abuse. If someone works a few hours a day and makes custom POV videos for people who are paying them more than what they make in a week, then so be it.
This is capitalism, isn’t it?
No, not when it benefits people who aren’t rich. I mean, the whole thing with Robinhood and Game Stock proved the regular public can’t nor are expected to make money on the stock market.
There are about 2 million content creators on OF and they have generated billions for the website in just a few years. For some creators it is their only source of income. And let’s not criticize the people who do it. Apparently, a lot of people are buy the content, so it’s obvious that they want it.
And for those who have more money at their disposable, they can go out and buy more things or use the money on needed items to boost the economy.
But there are those who only want people to work if they can set the guidelines and standards for where they work and what they do. I know, not one single Boomer even in their youth, would work any of the job duties expected for the pay some today receive.
We’re Not Going To Take It Anymore
In closing, Americans have to come to two hard realizations about this country. One, Americans are fed up being criticized for how they dress and how they are expected to look. Laws have been passed to ban saggy pants but law enforcement are allowed to shoot unarmed people for non-compliance.
We love sex. It’s in our advertising and it’s mainstream. We shouldn’t be criticizing people their dress or their choices in relationship goals. We always want to criticize women for the way they dress saying it will corrupt young men. Maybe we should teach men to stop viewing women as sex objects. Just because some young woman wears a T-shirt with a bare midriff and low cut blue jeans in the summer doesn’t mean she’s DTF and she shouldn’t be called a “slut” or a “tramp.”
Two, (and this is harder for many of the Boomers and Xers poisoned by Reagan and the Republican Party), our system isn’t working. It stopped working in the 1970s. What we thought America would become under communist Soviet Russia, it has become under capitalism in its present form. The rich get richer and everyone else is expecting to give a little more to the companies where they work.
In other countries, others work in order to live. But here, you’re expected to live in order to work. People don’t have to answer dozens of questions on an applications in other developed countries.
People don’t want to return to the workforce especially as the Delta variant of Covid seems to be resembling the onset of Covid in the Spring of 2020. Republicans want an authoritative theocratic government. And they’ll do whatever they can to get it.
It starts out with slow things like OF, setting up a platform to grow by exploiting people, and then changing things up a little bit at a time to keep more money. I seriously doubt many creators will return and I wouldn’t doubt other people are busy working on a better platform that respects and rewards its creators better.
Time will only tell.
Zane Says 