Internet Killed The Porn Magnate?

April 8, 2002 2:20 AM

Internet Killed The Porn Magnate? "...but the explosion of pornography on the Internet in ever more customized ways may accomplish what the Meese commission on pornography, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Andrea Dworkin, the antipornography activist, failed to do: the shuttering of Penthouse. "I'm delighted that Mr. Guccione may be going out of business," Ms. Dworkin said. "The problem is that he is being replaced, quite possibly, by something that is much worse.""
posted by owillis (20 comments total)

Whatever Jerry and Andrea are against, I'm in favour of. But that photograph of Bob is scary. What's wrong with his face? He looks like an orange runaway monkey who can't remember the name of his circus.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:06 AM on April 8, 2002

I'd like to be a porn magnet... *low humming noise* C'mere baby.
posted by RokkitNite at 8:34 AM on April 8, 2002

I can relate... Before the internet, I used to pick up a porno mag now and again, but I'd have to say that in the last five years or so, I haven't bought a single one. On the internet, the porn is better, and it's free (Penthouse now costs like $7.95 an issue).

Unfortunately, though, you can't 'enjoy' your internet goodies while laying in bed. ;)
posted by eas98 at 9:18 AM on April 8, 2002

Does anyone else think that article reads like an obituary?
posted by spilon at 9:53 AM on April 8, 2002

i second your sentiment mr cardoso.
what an unmoral combo dworkin and falwell make, *shudder*.
posted by asok at 10:16 AM on April 8, 2002

spilon, it is an obit of sorts.

And I mourn afresh the loss of Omni, which fueled my interest in science and science fiction during my teenage years.
posted by alumshubby at 10:47 AM on April 8, 2002

....Aaaaaaand another thing: What Guccione is saying about the Internet goes double especially for the "Penthouse Forum," now that we have USENET where people can try to top one another's tales (real or imagined) essentially to a worldwide audience, essentially for free.
posted by alumshubby at 10:49 AM on April 8, 2002

Yes alum, Omni was a good mag. I also subscribed for quite a while as a teenager.

As for not being able to enjoy your internet porn in bed: You need to get some wireless running in your domicile, on your laptop.
posted by a3matrix at 10:52 AM on April 8, 2002

Andrea Dworkin should be put in stocks.
posted by johnnydark at 12:57 PM on April 8, 2002

Omni, now that one I will miss.

Why could Guccione not have made his money off that and not porn? I have awful memories of an old boyfriend forcing me to look at Penthouse pictures -I was only 18.
Not very edifying to say the least. And that was how my boyfriend saw women-as Guccione saw them-airbrushed objet'd art and nothing more. One reason I broke my engagement with said boyfriend later on....

I look at that picture of Guccione now and I actually feel sort of sorry for him. Ill with throat cancer, financial trouble...but he is the one who made the choices in his life.
He could have made different ones....
posted by bunnyfire at 1:35 PM on April 8, 2002

He could have made different ones [choices]....

I imagine he's had a far more enjoyable life than you and I put together. Certainly, he didn't have ridiculous, constrictive morals weighing down every action he made in life.
posted by eas98 at 1:53 PM on April 8, 2002

Yeah! And I bet he didn't have a horrible urge to spew intolerant hate all across blue space either.
posted by Apoch at 1:59 PM on April 8, 2002

I don't know-did he ever ride an elephant in Chiang Mai Thailand?
I have. I have done lots of enjoyable things and haven't had to exploit anyone else's body in the process....on the other hand I have also had a friend-to be fair to Bob G. not one of HIS models-but this friend was forced by her family to be photographed for pornographic purposes. Her pics are still out there, folks. A lot of the pornography that is out there for purchase was not posed for voluntarily. So I have a LOT of reasons for not liking the industry. It's like a rock. You pick it up and look underneath it, you are gonna see a lot of vile and putrid things underneath that otherwise you would have no idea were there.

I don't hate Bob Guccione. I wish that he had used his business talents to make magazines like Omni instead of the skin mags....because the fruit of the skin mags wasn't sweet. It was bitter down to the core. But I don't expect you to understand, really, I don't.

My poor friend. She understands, more than you or I ever will, I guess.
posted by bunnyfire at 2:10 PM on April 8, 2002

Andrea Dworkin should be put in stocks.
posted by johnnydark at 12:57 PM PST on April 8
Yer a kinky bastard! :)
posted by thirteen at 2:22 PM on April 8, 2002

I don't know-did he ever ride an elephant in Chiang Mai Thailand?
I have. I have done lots of enjoyable things and haven't had to exploit anyone else's body in the process....

I wonder what the elephant would have to say about that.
posted by anapestic at 4:16 PM on April 8, 2002

well if you have to get technical about it, I hated the elephant ride. I stayed on for about 2 minutes. My friends went on for the hour ride, while another friend and I were content to watch the free elephants munch bananas and hang around and do nothing. The scenery was incredible and even tho I was out a considerable amount of baht for the ride I didn't feel cheated at all.

The fact that the poor elephant's head was scarred horribly from what had to be horrific beatings was the final straw for me...either he was a vicious beast or more likely that's how they get trained. Either way solid ground seemed the place to be. *end of thread hijack*
posted by bunnyfire at 4:56 PM on April 8, 2002

Skin mags never did it for me, but the internet does. He didn't lose my business, but I'll miss knowing that he's here to irritate the people who didn't like him.

this friend was forced by her family to be photographed for pornographic purposes

I'm afraid to respond to this statement.
posted by tcobretti at 7:32 PM on April 8, 2002

no, it wasn't me. the woman grew up in a family in which that was one of the LEAST horrible things that happened to her. Trust me, you wouldn't want to hear the rest of the story.
posted by bunnyfire at 8:16 PM on April 8, 2002

Penthouse was always the least fun of the big three porn rags. It had neither Playboy's smoking-jacket-and-martini-panache or Hustler's raunchy populist exuberance and funny as hell cartoons. The only thing that made Penthouse unique was the "Forum" section, but that's been produced in better form by horny fifteen-year-olds on Usenet. So, good riddance, I say, and hopefully Spin will be next.
posted by jonmc at 8:33 PM on April 8, 2002

I agree, good riddance to Penthouse. I gave up on it years ago, not so much because of the dead-alien photos but because I didn't like the urination of which Guccione is so fond. And the quality of Omni seemed like it peaked early. ("The future ain't what it used to be")

Throat cancer? Ouch. It's one of the more curable types (if it doesn't invade elsewhere) but still it's not good. Especially in one's latter years.
I don't want to get into a Goddamned morality debate, but I perceive an attitude of "screw him, he deserves what he got" and I find that sort of judgemental attitude more offensive than any depictions of sex or even urination. But I'll refrain from sermonizing.
posted by StOne at 9:45 PM on April 8, 2002