Porno Chic and the Sex Wars: American Sexual Representation in the 1970s eds. by Carolyn Bronstein and Whitney Strub (review)

Porno Chic and the Sex Wars provides in-depth historical analysis of 1970s era pornographic films and print culture and describes efforts to preserve these important cultural artifacts. A constellation of factors led to the heightened visibility of hardcore pornography in the 1970s. The stag films and seedy theaters of earlier eras gave way to full-length features and more mainstream dissemination. For some audiences, this signaled progressiveness and sexual liberation; for others, it represented a backlash to the advancement of women's rights and the blatant exploitation of women's bodies and sexuality. This newfound openness led to further advances in the pornography industry and ignited the sex wars. This golden age of pornography is the focus of this edited collection. Prior academic analysis had narrowly focused on a few key films and aspects of pornography of this era. Porno Chic corrects this deficit. In their introduction, Bronstein and Strub provide a concise and clear overview of the history of pornography, as well as the sociohistorical context of the era. They then divide the collection of essays into four parts: film, magazines/print culture, the political contexts of pornography, and preservation efforts.

Four essays provide the discussion of pornographic film. Most impressive is Whitney Strub's "From Porno Chic to Porno Bleak," which describes the rise in media-mediated messages and images of an urban crisis in the 1970s. Pornography of the era promoted the notion of urban crisis by featuring public displays of sex: X-rated film theaters, street walkers, and, most importantly, public sex in alleys, parks, and dark streets. Laura Helen Marks's essay focuses attention on the analysis of the 1975 film The Passion of Carol, an adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The heart of the piece is the detailed analysis of three primary sex scenes representing Christmas present, past, and future. Marks's analysis in these sections is thoughtful and complex, highlighting both the cultural moral and domestic dictates of mainstream society and the countercultural position of women's independence. JenniferC. Nash's essay focuses on Desiree West's career as a black pornographic film star, her treatment in social media, and the positionality of West's body as a site for exploitation in typically subservient roles or as an example of how the black body had come to be a target of white consumption. Nance Semin Lingo provides a concise essay and careful timeline of the life and career of Linda Lovelace, framing Lovelace's authentic voice by tracing her life through a series of catalysts that shaped her trajectory.

Carolyn Bronstein opens the discussion of magazine and print culture with an impressive analysis of Bob Guccione's Viva magazine. As Bronstein makes clear, Guccione was ill-equipped to walk the line between new forms of prosex femininity and the antiphallocentric faction of the women's movement. Bronstein links the demise of the publication to the attempt to produce erotica for women in a culture unaccustomed to such focus and to Guccione's own androcentric and heterosexist vision. Nicholas Matte traces the development of Female Impersonators (a glossy magazine) into FI News (a pornographic newspaper) that featured trans femininity and female impersonation. Gillian Frank describes how Anita Bryant and other conservative women promoted an invigorated and Christian sexualization of marriage. Frank notes that these conservative authors drew from the world of pornography for suggestions on capturing a husband's sexual interest while proclaiming their moral ascendancy over "smut." Elizabeth Fraterrigo then provides a lengthy overview of Hugh Hefner's Playboy enterprise and the fine line that his daughter, Christie Hefner, straddled between her status as a self-proclaimed feminist and her opposition to radical feminists in the sex wars.

Three essays tackle the political context of the era, beginning with Leigh Ann Wheeler's examination of the role...