XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography by Wendy McElroy Read Free Book Online Page A

women on their knees (often in front of other women); and spankings.
    But the fetish market is much more than S/M. There was porn featuring fat people, feet with painted toenails, women with incredibly large breasts, and a Cousin Bubba magazine advertising "Country Corn Porn."
    To tell the truth, as I perused the S/M and other fetish porn displayed, I was not disgusted or distressed. I thought most of it was rather silly.
    THE AVN AWARDS: THE OSCARS OF PORN
    The Adult Video News (AVN) Awards Show is where excellence in the industry is recognized through awards such as "Best Editing for a Film," "Best Actor, Video," and "Best All-Sex Feature." On January 8, it was the hottest ticket in Las Vegas.
    The room held 125 tables, which seated ten people each. My table-number 102-boasted a perfect stereo view of the stage via two huge screens to my right and left. Music boomed loud enough to make the floor quake and conversation impractical. I shared the table with an angry looking woman in a black dress and sequined red jacket. To her right sat a bored looking man. They were an attractive couple in a non-porn fashion, meaning they didn't look either hard or glitzy or thrilled to be there. The woman had an air of slumming.
    From their silence, it was clear I would have to initiate introductions. They turned out to be doing a documentary on the U.S. porn industry. Trying to keep up the conversation, I asked the woman what had surprised her the most about the convention. She answered, "Nothing. There's nothing surprising here. I'm used to working in Hollywood."
    To break the ice, I volunteered, "The thing that surprised me the most was how conservative these people are." This piqued the man's interest, who leaned his elbows onto the table. I expanded, "They all believe that the government will protect them now that Clinton is in power."
    Both nodded agreement. The man admitted to not being "up" on the current state of censorship in the U.S. He asked me for a thumbnail sketch. I obliged, then launched into a critique of the class structure of pornography, wondering aloud where the new blood was. "Where are the Young Turks?" I exclaimed. The lady remarked, "One of them is seated across from you. You should go and talk to him."
    Later I realized my enthusiasm must have irritated her. As the Awards ceremony progressed, the contempt in which she held people in the industry became obvious.
    The Young Turk was named Greg Steel. About twenty-five years old, in a rumpled suit topped off by a Brillo-mop of red hair, Greg's appearance was in sharp contrast to the trendy "I'm into my body" look of the crowd. He provided a natural opening for conversation.
    "You are the only person I have seen," I smiled, "who is wearing an AIDS ribbon. In a sexually aware crowd like this, I expected to see them everywhere." He offered that a friend of his had recently died of the disease and added that he produced gay as well as straight videos. In fact, he was up for an award in a gay category.
    I asked how the "younger generation" conducted business differently than the older one. I learned that contracts were signed in advance; at the actresses' discretion, the actors used condoms; the actresses were asked whom they wished to perform with; scripts were prepared in 24
    advance and distributed to the cast for rehearsal; the minimum fee for a day's work was six hundred dollars. I was amazed; he seemed to approach pornography as though it was a craft, a profession.
    When I asked about politics, Greg gave one of the most intriguing and dismissive answers I received. "I don't concern myself with politics," he said. "It doesn't interest me." Then he added, "Censorship has nothing to do with politics. They don't want to close us down. This is a huge industry and they want a cut of it."
    I started to contradict him-to point out that the Religious Right and antiporn feminists were on a moral crusade. Closing him down was precisely what they wanted. I stopped short. There