Susie Bright's Journal

Spend Your Last 9 Months Floating— Finish Off as an Orgasm!

I found out from Paul Krassner that George Carlin's daughter, Kelly, quoted my obit during her family memorial.

I'm so touched! It's just not the same without him around.

Carlin had the most perfect last words on dying:

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus?

"I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating......and you finish off as an orgasm."

On my audio show this week, I reminisce about Carlin, and then— on another subject!—  talk about the past and current state of "inter-racial" porn, which is like The Theater of the Absurd, antebellum-style:

Listen to an excerpt

Listen to the whole show

$2 a show, for a year; why not? LINK
 

To my amazement, John McCain has decided to make his entire TV campaign about stimulating the imaginary, yet titillating "horror" of Obama sullying the specter of white, and particularly, blond, womanhood. Any one of his ads that juxtapose Barack with Paris or Britney feel like they came right out of a peep show arcade. It's out of the Karl Rove playbook, to be sure. This is the guy whose entire "oeuvre" consists of perverse race and sex baiting. Focus on the other guy's cock, and your election is in the bag. I can't wait 'til he dies, and the "Rovian Porn Archives" are revealed. I'm sure his rivals the Vatican's.

Finally, in my Try This at Home" mailbag, I get a letter from a listener who asks, "Hospital Sex. Am I crazy, or does it really happen? Is it weird to be horny while recuperating from surgery?"

Darling, it's the most natural thing in the world...

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions and feedback about the show to susie@audible.com. (Episode 352, Aug. 8, 2008)

Photo Credit: Laurel & Hardy in The Battle of the Century, 1927. Over 4000 real pies were employed in the climactic battle of the custards.

The History of "Black" and "Inter-racial" Porn Videos

Yesterday I heard from a feminist PhD candidate who is looking into the history of black actresses in porn.

To my amazement, she'd discovered that a million years ago (1986!) I'd written a story about the phenomenon of "black and inter-racial" videos in the porn biz for Adult Video News. She asked me if I could dig up a copy.

In traditional porn parlance, "inter-racial" used to imply "Black And White." Period.

Before the 90s, you didn't have any such thing as "multi-culturalism" in porn. There weren't any scenes with a Latina actress/Asian actor— or a bi-racial triad. This was before the amateur explosion, before the Internet, before DVDs.... you know, the Jurassic Age. "Black" sex movies were a tiny niche that were primarily sold to regional markets; no one talked about them.

All the directors of these films, at that time, were white— often people who dreaded their assignment:

Drea remembers her astonishment when she found out that a lot of her viewing audience assumed that she was black. In fact, Drea is a blonde who grew up in a  segregated Chicago neighborhood. She remembers, "When Harold Washington first got elected (Chicago's first black mayor), my father was going to get a gun and shoot himself."

"After every black video I'd make," says Drea, "I'd always say, 'I'll never shoot another Black video again. Never.'"

In porn starlet interviews from these early days, they'd pose questions like, "What Won't You Do on Camera?"

The most common reply from a blond ingenue would be, "I don't do anal, and I don't do blacks." Instead of greeting that statement with laughter or disbelief, everyone would just say, "Oh yeah, of course."

As for black actors, the situation, as you'll read in my story, makes Blacksploitation film look like William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator.

And... the real treat in all this, if you hunt around, is the single "Black Power" porn film that was made in 1974, called Lialeh. It was produced by Aretha Franklin's drummer at the time, Bernard Purdy. Purdy furnishes a soundtrack that puts most porn films to shame, as you can imagine. (See video clip here). Classic Woodstock Soul Meets The Panthers! I can watch this cult classic today and still get the biggest kick out of it.

When I started researching the story, I was taken aback by the prejudices and superstitions in the business. Everyone was so frank about their own racism, frustration, and cynicism. Porn biz people were outspoken about what Hollywood people had learned to keep to themselves, and off the record. If any of it blows your mind, don't imagine that these industry diehards were exceptional!

In 1987, no one wrote about porn for the mainstream press. I was the first to interview many of these people on any topic, let alone politics. AVN was produced in Pennsylvania at the time, just a small operation, and they were horrified by what I turned in. They killed the original story, and ran an aborted-version instead. It's a trade magazine, designed to promote and champion the industry— they weren't interested in critical views. I was... 20-something, naive, crushed.

So here it is, the quaint original...  I hope you'll forgive my youthful stylings and typewriter errors, but it sure has a lot to savor:

Download Susie's  Inter-Racial and Black Videos.pdf (6198.5K)

Also, if you're interested in this subject, and want a little more analysis, read my own favorite story on the subject, "White Sex".

The Spitting Truth with Chelsea Girl

  Interview with Sex Blogger, Chelsea Girl

Download this free sample of In Bed with Susie Bright!

Here's the iTunes link.

Susie talks with legendary sex blogger, "Chelsea Girl." They discuss "viscous porn-starry spit," stripteasing your way to a scholarly interest in Victorian erotica, and Chelsea's always-revealing web diary, Pretty Dumb Things.

If you like this sample and want to hear more, you can subscribe (for $2 a show) to my weekly show at Audible.com. I'm offering a 12-episode season on iTunes to give new listeners a taste!

My Daughter, My Sister, My Mom— The Porn Star

Today, on my In Bed podcast, I've made a special hour and a half compilation of my most personal interviews and oral histories of women in the porn business.

The Bizarre Destiny of Linda Lovelace,

Peep Show Secrets with Carol Queen,

Masturbation Guru Betty Dodson on her insights into younger lovers,

How Candida Royalle went from "shut up, you're just a porn star," to the pioneer of women's erotica,

The Truth About Traci Lords,

How Tristan Taormino made the first Anal Sex movies with a Woman's Point of View,

Greta Christina on fisting, the nature of "extreme" porn, and why the porn industry gets nervous about just how far women's fantasies go.

Listen to an excerpt

Listen to the whole show: LINK

$2 a show, for a year, why not? LINK
 

It starts with my memories of Linda Lovelace, whom I encountered in some of those "Only in LA" moments that define the 1970s for me. I witnessed her crowning stage moment at Cal Jam 1 on my first acid trip, in 10th grade...just for starters!  The phenomenon of her career and my own early impressions of porn are inseparable. I recorded this before her untimely death.

Another personal history here is my memories of Traci Lords. I covered Traci as a Penthouse film critic, (and, bizarrely, appeared with her in the same movie, The Grafenberg Spot), before her revelations that she was working as an underage performer.

The other audio segments are frank interviews with my friends about their personal and professional lives in the sex business.

I've been sisters and colleagues with these women for many years... we don't put on an act, or dress up the facts. There's no politically-correct, cheerleading for porn—trying to make it cute for the mike. You may have never heard women talk about sex this way, and if you have, you're going to feel in very good company!

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions and feedback about the show to susie@audible.com.

Photo Credit: Honey Lee Cottrell, 1984, Kathy Andrew's first leatherwork studio, for On Our Backs

Tristan's Sex Toy Guide for the New Year!

I was too lazy to write my own erotic gift guide this year.

I read Tristan Taormino's list, and realized I wanted to just xerox hers, and send it off to the North Pole for immediate fulfillment! I'm presenting Tristan's top choices here, with a little editorializing by moi.

Tristan writes:

"Porn-loving lesbians are in luck: Adult movies by, for, and featuring real dykes are enjoying a resurgence, so you can stuff the stockings of the queer women in your life with lots of DVDs this year:

The Feminist Porn Award–winning In Search of the Wild Kingdom ($34.95) is a mock-umentary about San Francisco queers.

Early to Bed's Special Delivery ($29.95) and Comstock Films' Ashley & Kisha ($27.95) both star real-life couples.

Belladonna's Evil Pink 2 features super-hot girl/girl sex ($37.95).

These aren't just the best "lesbian" movies... they are the most innovative, interesting, and memorable porn that ANYONE is making. I cried in the interview section of Ashley and Kisha. I laughed my ass off at Wild Kingdom and Special Delivery, which takes place in a vibrator warehouse. And what can you do with Belladonna— besides try to keep up?

How To Make a Sex Movie You Give a Damn About

This past year, a friend turned me onto Comstock Films, a unique erotic movie company who make in-depth erotic documentaries that center on the story of one couple and their relationship.

Each couple are very different: age, race, gender-matchups, personal style. It's like the reinvention of the Melting Pot, with sexual chemistry as the starting point.

I say they're "documentaries," because even though you would easily call these movies "porn," or "erotica," they're also the kind of thing you might see at a film festival— or some PBS series, if Public Broadcasting suddenly woke up tomorrow and went X-rated. It's MasterFuck Theater!

I was so intrigued with their work, I had to find out who "Comstock" was. I knew it had to be someone witty enough to give their company the name of the most famous Puritan of the  20th Century, the man who founded the original "New York Society for the Suppression of Vice."

The auteur I was looking for turned out to be the pseudonymous Tony Comstock, a prolific blogger as well as filmmaker, who was kind enough to give me an interview:

SB: You're...  a straight guy? After watching Ashley and Kisha, I'm ready to give you the Black Lesbian Awareness award. Who interviews the lovers in your movies?

Circus Sex and the Chuch Lady Sex Addict

Today, on my In Bed podcast:

Christian Female Sex Addicts: the New Pandemic!

It's the Religious Right's latest problem: Too many otherwise-decent women are suffering from sexual addiction.

"You never would have thought that the woman sitting next to you in Sunday school might be viewing porn," says outraged Pure Life Ministries author Kathy Gallagher. "But with the growth of the Internet, the gap between what men and women do in secret has been drastically reduced."

Read the whole  story in Pam's House Blend....

Next on our show, I talk about the latest reader review in Random Honest Porn Review, which analyzes the phenomenon of "circus freak" porn movies that are modeled on the success of the Hollywood Jackass craze.

Listen to an excerpt:

Listen to the whole show at Audible.com: LINK

Get the show free for a month: LINK

Finally, in my Try This at Home mailbag, a listener offers her theories and examples of pet names for women's sex toys.

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for free show coupon cards to susie@audible.com.

 

Penetrating Gay Porn with Jeffery Escoffier

This week on my audio show is part two of my discussion with sex historian Jeffrey Escoffier. We blurt out gay film secrets, discuss why straight male porn stars enjoy queer sex, how to achieve the perfect double-penetration shots, and the manner in which exhibitionists get ahead in the film industry.

Listen to Susie and Jeff's interview: LINK

Listen to the whole show: LINK

Get my In Bed audio show free for a month: LINK

 

Jeffrey wears many hats, but one of his most distinguished is as the editor of a reference book I use on a weekly basis: Sexual Revolution. It's a collection of the seminal (and ovulastic!) documents of modern sexual liberation: Susan Sontag’s "Pornographic Imagination,"  Al Goldstein’s notorious review of Deep Throat,  Anne Koedt’s classic "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," Norman Mailer’s "The Homosexual Villain," Helen Gurley Brown, Lenny Bruce, Erica Jong, Lawrence Lipton, Masters & Johnson, Betty Dodson, Gayle Rubin, Timothy Leary, Henry Miller, Huey Newton, Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir— whew! I find new gems to mull over every time I read it.

Finally at the end of this week's show, in the "Try This at Home" mailbag, I get a letter from a listener who finds cheap thrills on freeway overpasses, and right in the middle of her dental checkups. Sexual revolution is indeed a guerilla enterprise!

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for girly cards to susie@audible.com. (Episode 312, October 5, 2007)

A Mouth Like Mine

This week on my audio show, I premiere an excerpt from my new audiobook, The Best American Erotica 2007.

It was hard to pick which story to sample; they're all so good. I chose an excerpt from Daniel Duane's A Mouth Like Yours, read by the velvet Richard Brewer.

Yes, this is the same Daniel Duane who wrote one of the most compelling surf memoirs of all time, Caught Inside. This story is about a different, yet equally dedicated obsession!

A Mouth Like Yours: Listen

Next up, I talk with sexual historian and scholar Jeffery Escoffier about the beginnings of the gay porn-film industry, which in many respects defined modern American porn, period. Who knew... that Stonewall and Deep Throat were preceded by gay porn-makers who were unsatisfied with beefcake magazines and unrealistic portrayals of gay life?

Listen to my interview with Jeff: LINK

Listen to the whole show: LINK

Get a free month of my audio show: LINK

Jeff and I talk about perversity, porn chic, and straight guys who do gay porn. If you have any curiosity about the history of American porn, this is a must-listen. We'll do part two next week!

Finally, in the "Try This at Home" mailbag, I can't resist talking about another close shave— and I bet it won't be my last!

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for girly cards to susie@audible.com. (Episode 311, September 28, 2007)

The Banality of Colonel Schultz’s Private Bitch

A NYT story today, in their Jerusalem Journal, reports on a new documentary, Stalags: Holocaust and Pornography in Israel, which reveals that the much-disgraced "SS Camp" porno-books that thrilled and shocked their countrymen since the early 60s, were created by Israeli authors who mined an apparently unbeatable combination of horror and titillation in the wake of the hair-raising Eichmann trial.

The Times writes: "The most famous Stalag, I Was Colonel Schultz’s Private Bitch, was deemed to have crossed all the lines of acceptability, prompting the police to try to hunt every copy down."

At the time they were published, the Stalags were introduced as if they were translated from English, the memories of American soldiers who'd been tortured by big-breasted Nazi dominatrices. But as you can see from the interview with their original publisher, Ezra Narkis, it was all a big P.T. Barnum-style set-up.

Just to show you how touchy the subject is, journalist Debbie Nathan alerts us that the NYT censored their print edition to exclude a quote from an Israeli scholar, who insisted there were “no Jewish whores” at Auschwitz. The professor was trying to say something reassuring, but the fact that she used a phrase like "Jewish whore," in any context, clearly freaked out the Times' editors.

Nathan writes:

What should we make of this? “There were no Jewish whores” goes beyond simply saying [there were] none in Block 24. It’s a more comprehensive denial of debauchery and sexual victimization of Jewish women at Auschwitz. Which could be some small comfort to Jews, and you’d think the editors would want to preserve it. On the other hand, the point of this troubling piece is the extent to which Jews – like everyone else – often fantasize the darkest terrains of sexuality, including, sometimes, by using their own historical tragedy as grist (again, not unusual across cultures). [The scholar's] sentence, with its titillating word “whore,” just might add to the mill.

The Stalag pulps were banned in Israel, after selling like hotcakes, but the icons endured. Witness the revealing clip of an Israeli reserve officer talking about these stories as an essential part of his boyhood fantasy life.

Some of the torrid myths of these pulp novels were so influential on the public's mind that they became part of the public school curriculum— and, with the film's release, the angst over their veracity and "message" is a hot topic all over again.

Depending on your distance from these historical events, the memory of the boomer-exploitation Stalags may seem like the cruelest nausea, guiltiest pleasure, or most hilarious kitsch you've ever seen. They have their own lunatic cinematic dimension, with films like "SS Hell Camp," which are still banned in much of Europe.

One thing I have in common with the late Andrea Dworkin is that whenever we would get off a plane in a new country, we would seek out a sample of the nation's pornography. Why? Because it's like stepping into the sticky pool of a community's greatest historical burden.

The basics of erotic representation are people in various states of undress, fucking and sucking and rubbing and kissing. For many viewers, this is stimulating enough on its own.

But so often, erotic expressions are surrounded by a story, a fascination — and this is where cultural memories come into play.

While Dworkin was outraged that old-school Israeli porn sought out the frisson of Nazi uniforms and camp-style S/M scenarios, for me, that discovery was poignant, and reminded me of its parallels around the world.

The U.S., for example, has a black/white interracial  obsession unmatched by anyone else, and it's a direct result of our legacy of slavery and the Civil War... which, you'll remember, ended 144 years ago. It goes to show that as long as something remains in the sexual imagination, it proves that the guilt and and unresolved issues have never died.

In overwhelmingly Catholic countries like Mexico, you'll see the wildest and most banal pornography featuring actors dressed as priests and nuns.

In Japanese porn, the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and surrender to the Allies provoked a new image: the specter of masochistic male castration and the eroto-humiliation of impotence. It has no Judeo-Christian aspect; it is entirely rooted in the tradition of war, honor, male power, and its shameful submission.

The irony about the current state of Mideastern porn— if one can call it a genre!— is that it's no longer consumed with Nazi insignias, but rather a next-generation view that incorporates all the hysterical racism between Jewish and Islamic culture. Doctrinaire Muslim communities have "secret" anti-Semitic porn, while Israeli erotic angst pools around images of evil (yet sexy) Arabs, with requisite historical nods to Germanic predecessors.

It begs the question, if human beings didn't create massive tragedies, horrible wars, and cruel betrayals, what on earth would we manufacture for the taboos of our erotic lemonade? The unbearable is matched by its erotic catharsis. I guess we'd always come up with something.