The idea of sexy but non-explicit scenarios is packed with potential, but it's not a new idea; not even to porn consumers. Burlesque, vaudeville, Benny Hill, Swedish erotica, and the Carol Connors "Erotic Adventures of Candy," and "Candy Goes to Hollywood" features -- to name only a few -- used and continue to use flirtatious innuendo to prime their erotic pumps.
While violence and aggression have and can play a part in what gives softcore entertainment its appeal, relying upon it for a punch line seems especially adolescent and, cowardly, uncreative, and morality tale heavy.
"We like to pretend that we're miles and miles away from pornography," James confessed to the media," but we're not."
Gunn and brothers may be geo-located near the porn heartland - and may even have watched enough porn to nurture this latest manifestation of Hollywood's desire to create pornographic material without actually becoming pornographers - but "Nailing Your Wife" is nothing to be proud of. Instead, it is just another example of Tinsel Town's wanton hypocrisy and love for claiming the moral high ground by punishing honest sexual expression with violence, however comic.
Future walks on the not-so-wild-side will feature esteemed female performers including Belladonna and Sasha Gray; neither of whom will become naked. Whether or not their characters will survive their non-sexual encounters is yet to be seen.
(Previously published on YNOT.com & HuffingtonPost.com)
-- Since writing this, I have had several people inform me that I do not "get" the joke and that the Gunns join me in my opinion concerning society's hypocrisy regarding sex/violence.
My response is that if this is so, then the Gunns need to work harder to make their joke clear, because while the mainstream may "get" it, no one I've spoken with in the adult industry (especially those of us who pay attention to politics) are laughing. We're too busy watching our friends and fellow professionals called up on obscenity charges and fearing for our lives and livelihoods.
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