Deep Throat at 50: The Controversial Film that Pushed Porn Into the Mainstream
(Link): Deep Throat at 50: The Controversial Film that Pushed Porn Into the Mainstream
Reviled by many and celebrated by others, the surviving children of those involved speak about a complicated legacy
June 10, 2022
by David Smith
It intrigued celebrities, mortified conservatives, divided feminists and changed pornography forever. Deep Throat, which premiered in New York 50 years ago on Sunday, is probably the most controversial – and profitable – film of all time.
The X-rated movie starred Linda Lovelace as a sexually unfulfilled woman whose long-lost clitoris is found by a doctor buried in her oesophagus, prompting long, surreal and, some would say, boring scenes of fellatio with a series of men.
Deep Throat provoked a fierce backlash from an unlikely alliance of feminists and religious groups and drew scrutiny from the FBI. Its director was arrested and it was variously banned, unbanned and rebanned during obscenity trials that ensured more people were eager to see it (it was not shown at a British cinema until 2005) while its star claimed she was violently coerced into making it.
Half a century on, some regard it as a milestone in America’s cultural and sexual revolution. Others, even before the internet and #MeToo movement, viewed the 62-minute film as paving the way for the mass proliferation of pornography, exploitation and objectification.
Andrea Dworkin, for example, a feminist who at one point allied with Lovelace in an attempt to outlaw pornography, argued in a 1993 speech about its dehumanising effects that “when a woman has a penis thrust down to the bottom of her throat, as in the film Deep Throat, that throat is not part of a human being who is involved in discussing ideas”. Erica Jong said she was “appalled at how offensive” the concept was.
The film’s director, Gerard Damiano Sr, never set out to change the world but did think he was on the right side of history. The former hairdresser used to listen to his female clients discuss how difficult it was to express themselves sexually.
…Deep Throat was the first pornographic film embraced by a mainstream audience, drawing fashionable viewers such as Warren Beatty, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Jacqueline Onassis. Film-maker John Waters recalled in the 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat: “Deep Throat was a badge of the new freedom.” The trend was summed up as “porno chic”.
A 1975 investigation by the New York Times found that the mafia helped bankroll pornographic films such as Deep Throat and reaped huge profits from their distribution. Gerard says of his father: “He first partnered with the mob and so there was some fear of retribution. He felt that he was lucky to get away with his life.
…But Lovelace – born Linda Boreman – had a complicated and troubled relationship with Deep Throat. She said later she only made the film because her husband at the time, Chuck Traynor, threatened her with violence. In 1986, testifying to Congress about the dangers of pornography, she said “virtually every time someone watches that movie, they’re watching me being raped”.
… Christar and Gerard are restoring their father’s films such as The Devil in Miss Jones, Memories within Miss Aggie, Let My Puppets Come and The Story of Joanna. To celebrate 50 years of Deep Throat, they are taking part in screenings and panel discussions across America and the world. They cannot quite be sure how it will be received in the era of #MeToo.
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(Link): Wife Kills Husband in Argument Over Porn
(Link): OnlyFans Isn’t A Safe Platform for “Sex Work.” It’s A Pimp.
(Link): Former Deacon at Douglas Wilson’s Church Indicted for Possessing Child Pornography
(Link): Google Play Will Remove Sugar Dating Apps Fostering Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
(Link): The Oxymoron of Ethical Porn via End Sexual Exploitation
(Link): Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Gospel of Shame-Free Sexuality by W. Hill
(Link): Anti-Porn Activist: ‘Ethically Sourced’ Porn ‘Sounds Like an Oxymoron’
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