XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography (25 page)

I asked her what she wanted people to know about the industry. Candida said that society's reaction was a catch-22. People complain about the low quality of porn and pity the "poor"

women who work under such awful conditions, but both of these things are caused by society's repression and intolerance. Until this changes-until society grants sex and pornography the 99

legitimacy it deserves-the industry will never attract a high level of filmmaker, who has a social consciousness. As long as pornography is stigmatized, everyone who works in it will be victimized.

BRENDA LOEW TATELBAUM

Historically, the most important vehicle for pornography has been the printed word. Today, as videos and computers assume a leading role in mass distribution, newsprint has become the main haven for less popular forms of sexual expression about which producers are beginning to feel uncomfortable. This seems especially true of sadomasochism (S/M) -the game-playing foreplay that focuses on dominance and mock violence. S/M, with its leather costumes, whips, and snarls has become less welcome in a video industry trying to reassure society that there is no connection between sex and violence.

Newsprint is also the main way that people with unusual sexual preferences contact each other through personal advertisements. Although home porn-the unpolished amateur videos made and marketed by real people-also addresses this need, it does so through the printed word in the form of newsletters, which establish a sense of community.

The published word, like the broadcasted image, faces unique challenges. No one knows this better than publisher/editor Brenda Tatelbaum of Boston, who publishes the sexually graphic
EIDOS
(Everyone Is Doing Outrageous Sex). Brenda may soon be conducting a one-woman crusade against British customs.

Her troubles began in September 1993, when a female subscriber sent
EIDOS
a notice she had received from British customs; the notice declared the magazine to be obscene and duly confiscated under a law dating back to 1876. Ironically,
EIDOS
would be entirely legal if published domestically in England. Brenda wrote a letter of appeal to the British government-the only official course open to her-then contacted such organizations as Feminists Against Censorship and the Libertarian Alliance -- to no avail. Indeed, the feedback she's received from some feminists has been hostile.

One feminist organization attacked her for running personal classified ads. Although the spokeswoman had never read
EIDOS,
she accused Brenda of putting women in jeopardy, because criminally intentioned people might answer the sexually oriented ads placed by women.

Brenda assured her that in ten years of publishing, such a situation had never arisen. But the woman remained adamantly hostile. Rather than being angry in return, Brenda was baffled. She kept repeating to me, "I just don't get it. They say I'm promoting violence against women. They say images are criminal. I just don't get it."

Brenda is paying the price for promoting an alternate view of sexuality. This is an increasingly unpopular thing to do. As she explained, "With the increasingly centralized distribution of information worldwide-everyone is getting the same messages and images, whether from the newsstand or TV. There is a wall going up against secondary or alternative sources. The alternative press is being driven more and more underground." Soon, there may be only one societal sanctioned view of human sexuality.

In mid-July '94, Brenda's distributor faxed her a letter declaring his intention to refuse further shipments of
EIDOS.
Perhaps because the magazine is popular among Brits with alternate lifestyles, it has been tagged for special treatment. The distributor feared that if shipments of
EIDOS
slipped through customs, officials might raid his home and confiscate not only that periodical, but his entire inventory.

When Brenda called the British Consulate, she discovered she would be liable to arrest if she flew to England and tried to transport
EIDOS
on her person. From former run-ins with U.S. mail 100

authorities, she knows they often "misinterpret" the law to fit their own needs. Accordingly, she is planning to touch down on British soil with the offending material and hold what she hopes will be a reasonable conversation with the officials there. Four alternative publishers in England have promised to run ads publicizing her plight. They are trying to rouse support for Brenda's plans to confront British customs and picket the place, if necessary. When
Penthouse
faced the same sort of repression from British customs in the seventies, it had the resources to fight in court and win. Brenda has to rely on moral suasion.

With this conflict in my mind, I opened my first issue of
EIDOS:
Volume 7, Number 3-the tenth anniversary issue. Its cover sported the photo of a dominant woman dressed in what appeared to be a lace and leather corset. A muzzled man crouched between her spread legs, one arm wrapped around her ankle. In one hand the woman held a paddle; the other hand had a firm grip in the tangles of the man's hair.

The inner pages contained letters from
The Progressive
and North Carolina State University, as well as the request for a sample copy from the Institute of Scientific Information of the U.S.S.R.

Academy of Sciences; news clippings with information on sexually oriented news items, such as the ongoing abortion struggle; and notices of seizure by British customs. There was an extensive poetry section with titles like "Pussy Feels Like" and "Ablution." Fourteen pages of book reviews covered topics from anti-war to all versions of erotica. The middle section advertised such products as stationery that sported a personalized nude photo, a video entitled
Daddy and
the Muscle Academy,
and several sexually oriented computer bulletin boards. There was a feast of specialty phone services, with names like "The Whip Line" and "The Venus Line," which was devoted to "CrossDressers and their Admirers." And, then, there came the pages of personal ads, some with revealing photos.

What distinguishes
EIDOS
from dozens of other sexually graphic periodicals is the philosophy of Brenda Tatelbaum, who selfconsciously identifies with nineteenth-century free-love periodicals, such as
Lucifer, the Light Bearer.
The credo of
EIDOS
is spelled out in each issue: Our commitment to the Global Sex Village and the Global Grassroots Sexual Freedom Movement is based upon the following rationale: 1) To provide a forum, in the Thomas Jefferson tradition of a First Amendment `wall of separation' for an international community of consenting adult individuals of all erotosexual orientations, preferences and lifestyles, who value their Sexual Freedom, Freedom of Sexual Self-Expression, Freedom of Personal Choice and Privacy Rights; 2) To advocate, ensure & promote the constitutional, civil and human rights of all Americans and global producers/consumers of erotica; 3) To encourage further growth of the erotic arts, sciences and erotosexual lifestyles as a means to achieve an undisputed adult genre and standard of living.

From the start of our interview, Brenda laid the philosophical groundwork for her position. She objected to the word
pornography,
referring instead to
EIDOS
as "sexually explicit material written by and for adults." "Pornography," she insisted, "carries too much baggage." She sees
EIDOS
as documenting sexuality -the dark side, as well as the enlightened one.

EIDOS is
an alternative to the slick, commercially motivated magazines like
Penthouse
and
Hustler.
It is the sort of publication that comes out because the people believe in sexual freedom so much they would operate at a loss, if necessary.

For Brenda, the commitment dates back to the early eighties, when she was writing erotic poetry and giving live readings. This was a period when women's study groups and periodicals were still talking about female eroticism and sexuality. Back then, she was putting out a publication that resembled a literary/art magazine on slick paper, with a color cover and little advertising.

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Nevertheless, it was attacked as smut. Brenda remarked, "No one in the community was upset with what I was doing; they were more upset that the police searched my home without a warrant." Ten years later, the atmosphere has changed, and Brenda doesn't believe people-especially feminists-would stand up publicly to defend her anymore. "It is as if all the sexual freedom that came before had never been."

Brenda knows that much of the new censorship comes from antiporn feminists, whose "propaganda has been foisted on the public, especially the myth that crime and violence are related to sex."

I asked if she had ever been coerced into a pornographic act. "When I was married, of course, there were times when I didn't want to have sex. I agreed to when I didn't really want it, but that's basically it." Does she know of or has she heard of women being forced into sex acts by men using pornography? "I have never heard of such an incident. I have never been contacted by someone who conveyed such an incident to me. No."

I asked about S/M and bondage-activities that had been prominently displayed in the issues of
EIDOS
I'd read. "Is S/M more prone to violence than normal sex?" Brenda's reply was adamant.

"The goal of S/M is to
not
go beyond the limits that have been set by the people involved," she assured me. "The scenario is laid out in advance; people know what to expect and there are certain code words that they use. If the code word is evoked, then that's that."

Brenda receives no support from feminists. This, despite the fact that she is a member of NOW

and a pro-choice activist. It was when abortion rights came under attack by Reagan/Bush that Brenda first came into contact with the leaders of NOW in Boston. Many of the interactions were not pleasant. One day, a past president of the chapter stopped Brenda on the street; standing nose-to-nose, she looked Brenda in the eye and declared, "It is very difficult for me to take anything you do seriously." Brenda was stunned, "I thought to myself, Òh my God, what is this, out of nowhere.' I never spoke a word about it to anyone for years, but it kept crossing my mind."

Was this a typical reaction from NOW members? "NOW is quite happy to take my money, so I will be a member. But as far as my input on erotica ... here, in the Boston area, they don't want me to be part of their workshops."

Brenda actively lectures on her own, but the circumstances are often skewed against her.

Recently, for example, she was asked to speak on sexual freedom by the Women's Center at Northwestern University. The situation wasn't quite what Brenda had been led to expect. "I got there and they showed me a flier that had been posted on the wall. I hadn't realized that the night before Gail Dines of Wheelock College had been there in the same room presenting her slide show of pornography."

This is a slide show of tortured and mutilated women, often shown by antiporn feminists as a prelude to a speech. Audiences naturally react with horrified indignation. The show is similar to the slides of mutilated fetuses that pro-lifers present, also as a prelude to discussion. Pro-choice advocates routinely denounce this tactic as unfair. They are not above adopting it, however, when it serves their own agenda.

The college paper
The Northeastern News
described this show: "She [Dines] cited
Hustler
magazine as a major contributor to the ìncredible holocaust against women going on today.'

Dines showed the enthusiastic 50-member audience graphic photography of a staged pool-hall gang rape that appeared in that magazine ... those photographs were tame in comparison to some of the others projected on the wall behind Dines. Other images featured women being tortured with ropes, pliers, vacuum cleaners, and high-heeled shoes."

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Brenda had been given no indication that she was part of a two-night debate on pornography and violence. "I had prepared a speech, not a debate.... I thought about it and decided that I wasn't going to deal with their issues, but to address sexual freedom
as I bad been asked to do. I
decided to establish the rich history of individualist feminist voices in abolitionism, suffrage, abortion ... and how they were hounded by public opinion and censors. I went on for an hour and concluded that there really should be a course on the subject of sexual freedom."

In covering Brenda's presentation, the university paper reported, "She listed women's publications such as
On Our Backs
and
Taste of Latex
as examples from `the wonderful world of sex scene publishing.' Over 30 people were part of Tatelbaum's original audience, which dwindled to 11 by the end of her speech." The coverage ended by concluding that Brenda did not address the issues.

Brenda gave me her account. "The women in the audience were angry because I totally ignored the issues of the night before. They didn't want to hear that there is a history of women suppressing women that no one knows about. No one challenged me, but some people-quite a few people-walked out."

Not surprisingly, Brenda believes that feminism's focus on politics is enslaving women sexually rather than empowering them; by denying sexuality, women lose their power. Brenda cited the Anita Hill sexual harassment case, during which now Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was accused of slipping a pubic hair into Hill's drink: "It is amazing to me that an Anita Hill-educated, successful, a beautiful woman-could be so devastated or brought down by a pubic hair put in her drink. What has happened to women's instincts for survival?"

Are things getting better or worse for sexual expression? Although Brenda expressed great relief at the Religious Right's no longer having such influence in the White House; she followed up with an interesting statement. "I did [Morton Downey's] show three times and when the show was eliminated-mostly by pressure from the left-that important forum for the alternative voice was gone."