THE POLITICS OF PORNOGRAPHY (a.k.a. INSIDE DEEP THROAT)

 

 

Courtney Love, the controversial rock widow of the late Kurt Cobain who played Hustler publisher Larry Flynt’s doomed wife Althea in the critically-acclaimed film The People vs. Larry Flynt, once said of pornography how she regarded as an art form that’s, as she put it, “kinda gross.” Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, ruling in the 1964 Supreme Court case Jacobellis vs. Ohio that stated Ohio could not prohibit the showing of a controversial French film called The Lovers, made his by-now-infamous statement that (my paraphrasing) he didn’t know what pornography was but he knew it when he saw it. Pornography has undoubtedly become more “mainstream” than it was just a few decades ago, although, of course, there’s still a segment of the population, a sometimes very vocal segment, that still opposes it. Pornography or so-called pornography used to be regulated to stag films and seedy movie houses and didn’t start becoming more “mainstream” until the 1972 release of the by-now-classic Deep Throat starring the late Linda Lovelace. And that “dirty” film more than likely would have gotten nowhere near the, for lack of a better world, acclaim were it not for the actions of one Larry Parrish. Now just who in the world is Larry Parrish?

I’m glad you asked!

Larry Parrish is a prosecutor who, during the seventies, brought ex-porn star the late Harry Reems up on a trumped-up “conspiracy” charge for starring in Deep Throat. I myself did not know who Larry Parrish was until I had watched the documentary Inside Deep Throat about the film wherein Mr. Parrish was interviewed wherein he gave his same old tired anti-porn/anti-sex diatribes that he gave back when he was prosecuting Harry Reems—that, of course, is not his Christian name!—where Larry actually made the pronouncement how he would “rather see dope on the streets than pornography.” (This, of course, reminds me of when Oprah Winfrey, during one of her own anti-porn/anti-sex diatribes on her show, asserted her firm belief that so-called porn/sex addiction was one of the biggest if not the biggest “problem” facing this country even though Oprah herself has seemingly promoted so-called porn on her own show and in her magazine, which I will, of course, get into more in a bit.) Though Mr. Parrish did initially manage to “convict” Reems on said “conspiracy” charge, which left the door wide open for virtually any overzealous prosecutor to bring the exact same “charge” to any actor performing in any film, Harry’s highly dubious conviction was thankfully later overturned. But, at this point, I think some background information is in order.

For those who’ve never watched the film (including, believe it or not, myself), Deep Throat stars both Reems and the late Linda Lovelace—who would later become an ardent anti-porn crusader herself who had even claimed to have been forced at gunpoint to “perform” in the film--wherein Miss Lovelace introduced the sexually-repressed populace to the joys of fellatio—i.e. oral sex, oral lovemaking, head, blowjobs, sucking-off, pick your own favorite jargon!—hence the phrase Deep Throat. As I pointed out, the movie came out (pardon the pun!) at a time before pornography or so-called pornography became “mainstream” at least a decade before the popularization of home video—when one had to actually go out to a movie theater if they wanted to go see a “dirty” movie—and, of course, decades before the advent of the porn-saturated Internet. Richard Nixon—yes, Mr. Watergate himself!—had irately rejected the findings of the President’s Commission On Obscenity & Pornography that Lyndon Johnson had appointed back in 1968 that found no scientific link between so-called porn and deviant sexual behavior, declaring in Nixon’s usual thunderously pompous way how so-called porn “could poison the wellsprings of American and Western culture and civilization” and also how “American morality is not to be trifled with.” Of course, with Tricky Dick, as with so many other self-appointed moralists who aim to dictate the sexual mores of an entire nation, “morality” in the bedroom clearly did not extend to “morality” within the Presidency. (And, for those who would like a more thorough explanation of what I’m referring to, Google—which you can use for something other than downloading free pics of a woman fellating a horse!—the word “Watergate” to see what I’m referring to, all right?)

Going back to Larry Parrish, from Richard “If The President Does It, Then It’s Not Illegal!” Nixon’s comparing “the pollution of our culture” to “the pollution of our once pure air and water” and the Supreme Court—which was packed with Nixon appointees—ruling how the states can decide on their own laws and/or regulations regarding the sale and/or distribution of so-called pornography within their own borders, i.e. the highly ambiguous and totally arbitrary “community standards,” Parrish apparently felt emboldened to go after the rather lowly porn actor Harry Reems (but not, for some reason, Linda Lovelace or even the director of the film who was also interviewed for the abovementioned documentary, Gerard Damiano, who were both granted immunity by Parrish for their testimony against Reems; go figure!). However, as one can plainly see, Larry Parrish, Richard Nixon nor any of the countless other moralists who have come (again, pardon the pun!) after them have been unable to stop the, for lack of a better word, blitz of pornography or so-called pornography which has erupted (there again, pardon the pun!) since the release of Deep Throat—which by today’s “standards” would no doubt be regarded more as a Disney flick than an out-and-out smut film!—which has since gone on to “earn” an estimated $600 million, making it reputedly one of the if not the highest-grossing flick of all-time.

Going back to the the aforementioned documentary, Larry Parrish put his foot in his mouth again when he had insinuated how prosecutors and government officials should further go after those who manufacture and/or distribute so-called pornography by declaring how (my paraphrasing) if we can only get those pesky terrorists out of the way! Ironically, were it not for sanctimonious assholes like Larry Parrish, Richard Nixon, et al, I have little doubt that porn would not have become the multibillion-a-year business that it is today and has even become socially acceptable (at least somewhat so). Put another way, if Larry Parrish— and his goody-two-shoes ilk—didn’t have their self-righteous heads stuck so far up their self-righteous asses and had just kept their blessed mouths shut about Deep Throat, then maybe--just maybe!--it would have only played in a couple of seedy movie theaters and would have been forgotten about shortly thereafter. So, thanks for all the smut, Larry! You are a true Red, White & Blue—emphasis on blue!—American!