After being offline all weekend helping a friend get hitched at the Russian River, Hacker Boy and I are getting water at Safeway and he surprises me with that thing you never expect your pale, lanky, broody very boyish companion to say — “Hey, is that the new issue of O?”
It was — and I snapped the above picture in a Russian River cafe — of the O Magazine July issue celebrity contributor’s page with me and Queen Latifah! w00t!!!! They called me a “brazen blogger”, a label which I will never live down from my friends, oy. And that’s a photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid, with credit and the LS URL in the fold — and now we’re in Safeways across the *nation*. What’s even more exciting is that it’s a big hyooge two-page article (by me) about porn for women. Do you have any idea how much the anti-porn pundits would kill for an opportunity like this to say the exact opposite about women and porn? Take that, Pure Life Ministries, Bush administration, anti-porn feminists of the past three decades. A salvo has been fired, a flag firmly planted. My book, The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn, is now in O. How crazy-amazing and progressive is that of Oprah!? Very, I think. Especially when you consider the lineup of recommendations I have in it, like:
* Comstock Films
* Sugar DVD
* Green Cine
* Bleu Productions
* The Bi Apple
* Cult Epics Vintage Erotica
* Tristan’s Chemistry
* Candida Royalle
We’re winning. Just sayin’. Now I have to go scream into a pillow for a little while. Thank you for the post title, Eve. :D
Update: This is so great: Scott blogged this with sweetness and included his original photo — and my photo of his photo, so taste the delicious meta! Thank you Scott!
Update 6/20: Thank you soo much to everyone who has sent me email about this. You have *no idea* how much it means to me right now. Jonno my Jonno, gave me the big juicy props on Fleshbot, making me need to stock up on candied ginger vodka and puppy treats for Pride weekend. (And yes, Thomas, I’ve always wanted to be under Queen Latifah too.) But this one, this email started the waterworks:
Dear Violet,
There aren’t words for how grateful Peggy and I are for the support
you’ve show this quixotic endeavor of ours. I don’t know if you
remember, but before you named “Marie and Jack” as one of the top 5
erotic films of 2003, not even Good Vibrations was interested in
carrying it. (Actually, they weren’t even interested in looking at it!)
Now here we are, four years and four more films later. Not only can
you get our films at GV, but now you can get them at Amazon,
Blockbuster, Barnes & Noble and a bunch of other places that “don’t
carry films like that.”Your “O” article is a huge accomplishment. Of course I don’t have to
tell you that. You’re the one who’s stuck to your guns through thick
and thin, you know how the kind of dedication it takes, you know that
everyday something happens that gives you every reason to give up.But you didn’t.
And now you have “planted your flag,” and planted it right at the
very heart of our society. If you haven’t done it already, page
through the July issue. Ignore the edit and just look at the
advertising: Buick, Visa, State Farm, Oil of Olay, Met Life, Clairol,
Covergirl; the list goes on and on and on.This isn’t just the mainstream, this is the very middle of the
mainstream, and there you are, gently inviting women to consider that
maybe, just maybe, everything they’ve been taught to believe about
themselves, about what nice girls do and don’t do, is wrong; and then
showing them a way to see themselves as full human beings, entitled
to enjoy the richness of who they are.You’re not mine to be proud of, but I can’t help myself. I’m so proud
of you, so proud of your dedication to the fight, so proud that you
can be both a fierce warrior and a gentle teacher. And of course I’m
proud to call you my friend!Yours very sincerely,
TC
