Has anyone else read the Traci Lords book "Underneath It All"?

[bobthedrummer]

or whatever it's called? Wasn't it the Reagan era when the entire porn industry took off (perhaps fueled by cocaine)? I know that a lot of kids got caught up in a lot of sick criminal relationships in the 1980's.

Lolitas, and their male counterparts, really flourished openly in that decade.

In any event, hers is a familiar story and I'm glad she is helping youngsters caught up in criminal porn.

Sad. When I was a teenager there was a group of 100 or so of us that expressed our sexuality within our group and not for $$$. We didn't have dirty old men and women directing us. That was the 60's though.

We dropped a lot of acid then too.

Traci Lords still has a lot of attitude imo.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. I think the whole thing of porn and the 80's was more an issue of

technology and VCRs becoming widely available in homes for the first time than anything else.

[bobthedrummer]

2. I lived to see the sexual revolution turn into the sex industry!

:crazy:

[truthspeaker]

10. there's a metaphor for the whole flower child generation!

[tcfrogs]

3. Porn took off with the VCR/Beta

Would have happened if Carter won in '80.

One thing you can't "blame" (if that's even necessary) on Reagan.

:)

[markses]

5. Definitely the VCR

The whole rub of porn (har har har) before that was going into a sleazy theater with sleazy characters doing sleazy things. Now, everyone gets to do they own sleazy thing in the privacy of their own homes. Score one for free enterprise.

[bobthedrummer]

6. I may have been unclear-I was refering to the exploitation of children

as sex objects, that was a Reagan era sociological marker imo.
It's only gotten worse since.

[markses]

4. I once talked to Traci Lords on the phone regarding a financial matter

Having to do with her company (at the time...circa 1998). She was very personable and seemed to understand the situation very well. I was blushing the whole time.

[bobthedrummer]

7. It is sad when a mother and a daughter compete for an evil bum's affection

Yet that's what happens in dysfunctional families where a lot of these exploited kids come from.

[Kat45]

8. Some girls in my HS class were working as hookers at the time!

(meaning while they were in high school) This was in the seventies.

[cedahlia]

9. I did

God, what a rough life that woman had! I liked her even before reading the book, but after reading it, I have even greater respect for her. I really admire the strength she had through all the bullshit, and also her dedication to the fight against the exploitation of children.

Cool gal. :thumbsup:

[CanuckAmok]

11. I worked with her (not in porn!)

I have a paranoid theory that she's older than she admits, and that she lied about her age in order to:

a) generate publicity for herself, and

b) immediately destroy the legal distribution of her porn work, when she went int 'legitimate' productions.

Just a theory.

[Ganja Ninja]

13. I remember seeing a documentary on her and that was the theory

a lot of her co-workers had. When she turned 18 she outed herself so her films would have to be pulled from the shelves and the publicity would help her make the jump to the non-porn film industry.

[CanuckAmok]

14. I'm taking it a step further...

I think she was 18, not 14, when she got into porn...

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. I don't think all of her films were pulled though

My cousin had a video store and I remember that it was a big story about her films being pulled. But he mentioned that some of her sex films were legal and stayed on the shelves (those made after she turned 18).

[noonwitch]

12. I thought it was the VCR that made the industry what it is

Although, if I remember, one of the points made in that movie with Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlburg was that once porn started being produced for the VCR rental market, that the quality of the movies went downhill. Whatever that means, since the only porn I've seen is of laughable and dubious quality, with the possible exception of "Caligula".

[lazarus]

16. on the flip side

Christy Canyon's just written an autobiography. She has a totally different take on it. She says she was never victimised, and felt that porn "empowered" her.

Canyon also said in a recent interview that Bush was never elected, but if he's installed for a second term the porn industry and every other segment of American life will be hurt.