I guess I am posting heavy stuff today...

They're like potato chips, these blogging posts...can't just stop at one.

From Sept. 2004

ALL WORKED UP ABOUT “SMUT CHIC”
By J. T. Benjamin
Copr. 2004; All rights reserved

Late one night last month, I was alone in the house.
My Lovely Wife and kids were away visiting friends,
and I was on the couch, flipping channels, when I had
an epiphany. These moments of clarity usually happen
while the recipient is in a mind-altered state; in my
case, insomnia, Heineken, and home-made buffalo wings.
I was half-watching two or three programs and
debating whether to give up and watch some porn, read
some porn, or find something else porn-related, when
the lightbulb went off over my head.

At some point in the not-too-distant past, smut
entered our cultural mainstream.

I’m not talking about the easy access we have to porn
on the internet, (God, how I love it so). I’m talking
about the fact that, without warning, porn, smut,
erotica, whatever you want to call it, has emerged
from our social closet and is shamelessly parading
around for everyone to see, sample, and, most
importantly, make a few bucks from.

Of course, the premium cable channels have been giving
us softcore porn for years, but these days they’re
offering lots more. HBO features documentary shows
like “Real Sex,” “Taxicab Confessions,” and
“Cathouse,” which profiles life in a legal Nevada
brothel. Showtime now hais in its fourth season
“Family Business,” a reality-TV show which chronicles
the life of Adam Glasser. Mr. Glasser, better known
as Seymour Butts, produces and directs “gonzo” adult
movies ike “Assgasms,” “Through The Sphinct-door,”
and “Tushy Girls Con Carne.” One of his colleagues,
porn movie star Ron Jeremy was featured in a
well-received 2001 documentary, called, oddly enough,
“The Legend of Ron Jeremy.”

If you only get basic cable, TV shows featuring
swinging, S/M and other taboos, and the history of sex
can be found on MTV, VH1, and even the Discovery
Channel.

And if you’d rather turn off the TV and read
something, most of the major bookstore chains such as
Borders offer entire sections of erotic writings.
Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt has a new
biography. So do porn actresses Jenna Jameson,
Christy Canyon, and Traci Lords. The adult film
company Vivid offers, How To Have A XXX Sex Life: The
Ultimate Vivid Guide with tips offered by several of
the company’s actresses.

Moving away from pornographic non-fiction, but staying
in the risqué section, you can try Striptease: From
Gaslight to Spotlight by Jessica Glasscock, Burlesque
and the New Bump-n-Grind by Michelle Baldwin, a
textbook on stripping called Striptease, Lap And
Bellydance Routines by Leah Stoffer, and, of all
things, The S-Factor: Strip Workouts for Every Woman
by Sheila Kelley.

In the news recently, a Texas woman, Joanne Webb, had
criminal obscenity charges brought against her (and
subsequently dropped) for being a saleswoman for
Passion Parties, Inc., which markets and sells sex
toys in the home. Think Tupperware only with dildos.
Of course, former G.O.P. Senate candidate Jack Ryan
had to bow out of the Illinois race when it was
revealed that he’d taken his then-wife, actress Jeri
Ryan, to sex clubs in New York, New Orleans, and
Paris.

And then there’s New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy.
When faced with a bevy of scandals, including aborted
blackmail schemes, payoffs, and rumors of cronyism,
(in addition to his homosexuality and his sham
marriage), McGreevy opted to come out of the closet
and resign. In the twilight of his political career,
McGreevy decided it would be better to go down in
infamy as a gay politician instead of as a corrupt
politician. This is, in my eyes, progress.
Especially for New Jersey.

It’s not just in the mass media, either. This past
July, I sat in on an interesting conversation with a
couple who’d recently attended “Swingstock,” an annual
gathering of swinging enthusiasts in the great
outdoors of Minnesota. Frankly, the shocking thing
about the conversation was not that this couple had
gone to “Swingstock,” or that they were openly
discussing it, but that nobody else was shocked to
hear of their experience. It made for one hell of a
barbecue.

On another personal note, last Independence Day, while
the steaks and burgers were grilling and our kids were
playing together in the back yard, a friend of mine
asked if I could help him find an entertainment
lawyer. It seems he doesn’t want to run afoul of
local obscenity statutes, as he’s trying to get into
the adult film industry.

People everywhere are openly talking about sex,
watching it on TV, reading about it, and trying to
find new ways to indulge in it.

On the one hand, I find the whole situation
deplorable. I’ve spent years carefully crafting a
reputation for open and frank talk about sex. If
everyone else is doing the same thing, my conversation
starters have lost their shock value. Or, putting it
another way, what’s the fun of indulging in deviant
sexual behavior if it isn’t deviant anymore?

On the other hand, if smut has indeed become
fashionable, any open discussion will bring the real
weirdos out of hiding, and we can finally bring up
some truly crazy notions.

For example, the “Understanding Pornography In
Australia Study” has concluded that porn can be good
for you. In an article in Australia’s News
Interactive website, (http:news.com.au), Dr. Alan
McKee, one of the report’s authors, “said porn users
reported it had taught them ‘to be more relaxed about
their sexuality’ and marriages were healthier, while
porn made people think about another person’s pleasure
and made them less judgmental about body shapes.”

And here’s another wacky idea. Salman Rushdie, the
British novelist, argues in XXX:30 Porn Star Portraits,
that the measure of a free society should be made in how
well it tolerates pornography. In his essay, called,
“The East Is Blue,” Mr. Rushdie
says, “Pornography exists everywhere, of course, but
when it comes into societies in which it’s difficult
for young men and women to get together and do what
young men and women often like doing, it satisfies a
more general need…While doing so, it sometimes becomes
a kind of standard-bearer for freedom, even
civilization.”

These are, of course, points I’ve been making for
years.

It’s kinda cool being a trendsetter.