Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Question about porn for the "older" crowd

fresnelly · 02-10-2007, 10:47 AM

Ah, the good old days. Let me count the ways...

1)My first memory - probably while in elementary school - we visited a family friend who had grown children so we had nobody to play with. This led to snooping in their basement and I found some cheap porn mag. I remember clearly that all the women's photos had yellow stars printed over their vaginas. Somehow that made it even dirtier.

2) A friend of mine in elementary school (grade 3 or 4) showed me his dad's collection of Penthouse magazines. They were kept neatly in a box under the basement stairs. That was awesome and I agree with Psycho Dad that the Forum letters where the best part of the magazine. ...and I never looked at the basement stairs the same way again.

3) In grade 6, my best friend and I found a stranger's stash in a plastic bag out in a vacant lot. We pored over those for days. It was the 80's and I still remember this awful girl/girl spread where the two women where completely covered in gold and silver body makeup with neon glam wigs. They also had coloured stripes and lightning bolts painted on them as well. Ick.

4) A couple I babysat for kept a stash of Penthouses under the bathroom sink. My brother who had sat for them before found them first and let me know. After the kids would go to bed, I'd carefully pull them out to read and do my best to return them as if undisturbed. Needless to say, I often volunteered to work for them.

5) Three movie anecdotes:

A friend in elementary school showed Zapped, starring Scott Baio at his birthday party. That was a revelation, and I wonder if his parents knew what they had rented.

Once my mom took me out to rent a movie (on beta of natch) and I found Hot Dog, the sexy ski movie, mislabeled with a PG rating sticker. I watched that in awe with my finger on the on/off button of the TV in case my mom should walk in. She was pretty suspicious I think.

On a sleepover with a friend, we conspired to rend Porky's III. We got his mom to write us a note saying we could rent a Restricted movie, promising it was going to be something innocuous. I can't remember what the decoy movie was, but the plan worked. Again, the thrill of acquiring the porn and not getting caught was as much a thrill as seeing it. I still remember how nervous I was at the cashier.

6) In my teens, I relied on Television. There's a Toronto TV station that has always refrained from censoring movies - though they do bleep out "Mother" and leave the "Fucker". Two of the most explicit I recall where Tomboy and Desert Hearts. Now they even show soft-core late on Friday nights - all as part of basic cable. The other option back then was the Italian channel. While not explicit in those days, there was always the chance of toplessness in their late night films, so I often sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night to hope.

7) With the advent of Pay-per-view cable, another avenue opened up. I could never actually acquire it, but back then it played scrambled, and once you got used to it, you could often make out what was going on. You just have to appreciate your women technicolour green and divided across several frames. I remember that the distortion often went away during the non-sex scenes, so I've always wondered if it was someone's job to sit there and manually scramble the naught bits.

Reading this you might think I'm some kind of sex-fiend, but my sex drive and history is pretty average and healthy. I honestly find most porn content kind of boring. This contrast tells me that the real drive is to be in control of our own sexuality. This can't be ignored.

02-10-2007, 10:47 AM	#13 (permalink)
fresnelly Functionally Appropriate Location: Toronto	Ah, the good old days. Let me count the ways... 1)My first memory - probably while in elementary school - we visited a family friend who had grown children so we had nobody to play with. This led to snooping in their basement and I found some cheap porn mag. I remember clearly that all the women's photos had yellow stars printed over their vaginas. Somehow that made it even dirtier. 2) A friend of mine in elementary school (grade 3 or 4) showed me his dad's collection of Penthouse magazines. They were kept neatly in a box under the basement stairs. That was awesome and I agree with Psycho Dad that the Forum letters where the best part of the magazine. ...and I never looked at the basement stairs the same way again. 3) In grade 6, my best friend and I found a stranger's stash in a plastic bag out in a vacant lot. We pored over those for days. It was the 80's and I still remember this awful girl/girl spread where the two women where completely covered in gold and silver body makeup with neon glam wigs. They also had coloured stripes and lightning bolts painted on them as well. Ick. 4) A couple I babysat for kept a stash of Penthouses under the bathroom sink. My brother who had sat for them before found them first and let me know. After the kids would go to bed, I'd carefully pull them out to read and do my best to return them as if undisturbed. Needless to say, I often volunteered to work for them. 5) Three movie anecdotes: A friend in elementary school showed Zapped, starring Scott Baio at his birthday party. That was a revelation, and I wonder if his parents knew what they had rented. Once my mom took me out to rent a movie (on beta of natch) and I found Hot Dog, the sexy ski movie, mislabeled with a PG rating sticker. I watched that in awe with my finger on the on/off button of the TV in case my mom should walk in. She was pretty suspicious I think. On a sleepover with a friend, we conspired to rend Porky's III. We got his mom to write us a note saying we could rent a Restricted movie, promising it was going to be something innocuous. I can't remember what the decoy movie was, but the plan worked. Again, the thrill of acquiring the porn and not getting caught was as much a thrill as seeing it. I still remember how nervous I was at the cashier. 6) In my teens, I relied on Television. There's a Toronto TV station that has always refrained from censoring movies - though they do bleep out "Mother" and leave the "Fucker". Two of the most explicit I recall where Tomboy and Desert Hearts. Now they even show soft-core late on Friday nights - all as part of basic cable. The other option back then was the Italian channel. While not explicit in those days, there was always the chance of toplessness in their late night films, so I often sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night to hope. 7) With the advent of Pay-per-view cable, another avenue opened up. I could never actually acquire it, but back then it played scrambled, and once you got used to it, you could often make out what was going on. You just have to appreciate your women technicolour green and divided across several frames. I remember that the distortion often went away during the non-sex scenes, so I've always wondered if it was someone's job to sit there and manually scramble the naught bits. Reading this you might think I'm some kind of sex-fiend, but my sex drive and history is pretty average and healthy. I honestly find most porn content kind of boring. This contrast tells me that the real drive is to be in control of our own sexuality. This can't be ignored. __________________ Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life Last edited by fresnelly; 02-10-2007 at 10:54 AM..