Penthouse has caved...

[Halo_n_horns]

Recently I picked up a copy of Penthouse magazine and was completely appalled!!! The magazine was completely void of all the boundary-pushing photography that I had come to enjoy over the last ten years or so. The pictorials were barely more explicit than Playboy and about as unimaginative.

I immediately sent an e-mail to the editors or Penthouse and commented about the issue in question.

Their reply to me started with, "In the current political climate ..." well, I'm sure that after someone starts a statement with that you just know what's coming next. They went on to say that this was the "new" format of Penthouse magazine, bip, bip, bip, blah, blah, blah.

What the hell is this country coming to when a publication that was once an institution of "sex, politics and protest" suddenly loses its balls, bite and backbone because of the "political climate?!"

I thought that I had saved the correspondence with them but apparently I did not. I told them that if this was their "new direction" then they may as well rename themselves "Playboy II" and become complete sellouts.

Am I the only that feels frustration over this?

 

[sophia jane]

Am I the only that feels frustration over this?

Nope. I'm with you completely.

 

[R. Richard]

My understanding is that Penthouse is on the verge of bankruptcy. Apparently Bob Guccione's kid is trying to run Penthouse and it is just not working. That may have something to do with the change in editorial policy.

 

[Pure]

P'house has been expected/slated to 'bite the bullet' for some time now. Too tame; killed by the 'net. If I want to see pussy, I don't want to be looking through a vaselined lens.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

I've heard about the bankruptcy thing a few times now, but with different scenarios happening behind the scenes. Whatever the case, they're killing that magazine, and caving in because of a "political climate" won't do them anymore good than simply shutting down the publication altogether.

I really get the feeling that we're seeing the last months of that magazine.

It seems like there's a number of ways they could pull it out, but being that they didn't respond to my last e-mail to them on the subject, I'm guessing that keeping the magazine alive isn't at the top of their list of priorities.

 

[Op_Cit]

This has anything to do with political climate. It's just business.

The internet (and sites like these) put a massive dent into their demand base. Penthouse failed to adapt to change. They created a website, but then put a premium price (as I recall) on it. Not smart business. Look at Wired magazine: subscription base but still a free web version with daily content changes. Penthouse didn't do the math that says 1 million customers at $1 per month beats 20,000 at $10 /month.

I can be pretty certain about my analysis because I used to buy Penthouse.

As for sellout, they're just thrashing around trying whatever to recover the old business days of wide profit margins. This won't work, and they'll either change, scale back massively, or go under. That's business.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Op_Cit, I can feel pretty secure with your analysis because I used to buy Penthouse also.

 

[Op_Cit]

Op_Cit, I can feel pretty secure with your analysis because I used to buy Penthouse also.

Ahem, I only bought it for the articles and political commentary...

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Ahem, I only bought it for the articles and political commentary...

Yeah. Didn't we all...

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . If I want to see pussy, I don't want to be looking through a vaselined lens.

I am not a connoisseur, of course, but isn’t pussy better, seen through Vaseline?

I know I always prefer a bit of lubricant.

 

[tolyk]

This is why I love Canada. We have Swank Magazine. Awesome pictures and very interesting articles.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

This is why I love Canada. We have Swank Magazine. Awesome pictures and very interesting articles.

We have Swank also. I might have to switch to them or Hustler maybe.

 

[tolyk]

We have Swank also. I might have to switch to them or Hustler maybe.

Wasn't entirely sure if you did or not. Great magazine.

 

[sweetnpetite]

I was wondering the same thing when I bought a Cosmo this month.

They had an article on the "V-Zone" and a little thing later on about "you're pair"

In Jr. High you read Cosmo because it was frank and honest. Now- it's gone Jr. High. ARe we not adults? Can we not stand to read the words vagina and breasts?

Do they have a new editor who is 12- or is this the fallout from nipplegate?

 

[Halo_n_horns]

I was wondering the same thing when I bought a Cosmo this month.

They had an article on the "V-Zone" and a little thing later on about "you're pair"

In Jr. High you read Cosmo because it was frank and honest. Now- it's gone Jr. High. ARe we not adults? Can we not stand to read the words vagina and breasts?

Do they have a new editor who is 12- or is this the fallout from nipplegate?

It seems that all of it is somehow related to "Nipplegate." Publishers left and right seem to be signing over their genital fortitude and their rights to free speech in an effort to both appease and make some money off of the Bible-thumping, holier-than-thou contingents that are currently plaguing and ruining our country.

Publications are softening instead of standing up, the freedoms that this country were founded on are under attack and beginning to seriously buckle, being a person who has signed over the majority of the control of your own life's choices seems to be the "in" thing.

And for whatever inane reasoning, people are simply letting it all happen? Has the US really become that feeble-minded?

What do others think is going to happen with all of this? What do others want to see happen with all of this?

Does anyone really give a shit or am I typing for the fuckin' practice?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

My post from the "Gonzales" thread: https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=318188


Here's how'll go after obscenity:they go after a few high-profile targets, internet sites or publishers etc. on whatever charges they can find - obscenity, child porn, income tax/security violations, interstate commerce, OSHA, dog leash law, technicalities, whatever - and just generally harass them and make their lives miserable and cost them money, maybe levy a few stiff fines. Porn sites become risky investments and banks won't finance them. Funding dries up and people get out of the business.

When's the next time you expect to see a naked tit on network TV? Not any time soon, I'd bet. The FCC has the networks running scared, and they did it without resorting to the courts or defining obscenity or anything like that. They did it by fiat. They did it by scaring the sponsors who won't have anything to do with anything the least bit controversial.

I have personal exprience with an adult publisher who had to fold because they were unable to obtain financing in this "current political climate." No one was threatened, no one was busted or fined. The banks just don't like the way the political wind is blowing and they won't stick their necks out for the right to free expression.

BDSM is wildly popular on the net. I write for an illustrated site in which pretty much anything goes EXCEPT we're not allowed to show depictions of people in bondage engaging in M/F sex, and you can look all around the web and you won't find any pictures like that, at least none from sites based in the USA. Why? Because the site owners are afraid that the government will crack them for depictions of non-consensual sex, which is considered rape, which the government considers obscene and prosecutable. And who wants to put their neck on the block and find out if they're covered under the first amendment or not? Who's got the money to fight the government all the way up to the Supreme Court?

Don't think that the government has to go through legal channels to impose its will. They have plenty of muscle, and if Laurel and Manu suddenly thought they were facing even the possibility of stiff fines for running this site, what do you think they'd do? What would you do?

---dr.M.
__________________

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Well said. Thanks.

 

[Dar~]

When penthouse goes under, will forum cease to exist??? I love forum . . . *sniff*

 

[Halo_n_horns]

My wife and I love the Penthouse Forum also. When I had that brief correspondence with Penthouse they recommended that we start buying that as well as the regular Penthouse issue. They also suggested that we start a subscription to their website as well.

I told them that my wife and I enjoyed the fun balance of the regular newsstand issues and therefore saw no reason to start buying the other issues or subscribe to a website that we couldn't enjoy together except while sitting in front of the computer. What the hell fun would that be???

I'd be curious to see if all of their other publications like Forum, Girls of Penthouse, etc., would dry up because of the primary publication drying up and dying. I'm sure they would, those are after all just spinoffs of the original.

When it boils down to it they're just not being imaginative or ballsy enough to really do anything interesting with that publication. From where I'm sitting, they could do some awesome things to reel in the readers. What a shame.

I'm surprised I'm not seeing more responses to this. Considering that there are two or three parts of that magazine that are related very closely to what is submitted to Literotica, it seems that everyone here, readers and writers, have something at stake by publications like this caving instead of standing up for themselves.

In the literary post apocalyptic world where freedom of speech and self-expression has been abolished by the then completely uninhibited religious right-wingers, there will be no place for whiners longing for the good old days.

Good luck and best wishes to us all.

 

[DirtyJJ]

I'm surprised I'm not seeing more responses to this. Considering that there are two or three parts of that magazine that are related very closely to what is submitted to Literotica, it seems that everyone here, readers and writers, have something at stake by publications like this caving instead of standing up for themselves.

I have been away from Lit for a while, but your post has enticed me to respond - I did not know this about Penthouse but I think it's very disappointing. I have enjoyed that magazine from time to time (and I am female), particularly the pictorials because of their explicitness.

This is just one more step in a disturbing trend; I share your concern about it. I was furious a few weeks ago when the House voted to raise the indecency fines - this seemed to almost happen quietly without a lot of backlash, which I find maddening and scary. What's worse, there were only about 30-something congressmen who voted against it. This is just one more step down a slippery slope, and I feel almost hopeless against it. It doesn't seem like many people are worried or care (I don't mean here on Lit, I mean in general).

This "new political climate" is crap.

 

[davidwatts]

I haven't bought (or thought) about Penthouse for quite a while. It was a ground breaker in its time, but now it seems like we've already jumped the shark as far as porn can go. Penthouse was always more cutting edge than Playboy, but now, when you can get a gynological lesson with the click of a mouse, there has to be something more there to get people to buy it.

Playboy still has the ability to get interesting interviewees, whereas nobody seemed to want to stick their neck out and be seen in Penthouse in any great numbers. That's all that's left in Playboy for me anyway, as I am appalled by looking at siliconed and airbrushed females, and I usually left the mansion parties bored to the gills. Who wants to watch James Caan hump a lamp anyway?

 

[TheWriter]

I mean no offence to anyone when I say this - but while your nation may have been founded by men of the Enlightenment, it was settled by puritans. And those roots just seem to run deeper, or are at least more popular amongst the religious right.

Just as my nation was founded by squatters, but settled by convicts, there are problems that arise from that deeper and longer history.

 

[R. Richard]

Don't think that the government has to go through legal channels to impose its will. They have plenty of muscle, and if Laurel and Manu suddenly thought they were facing even the possibility of stiff fines for running this site, what do you think they'd do? What would you do?

---dr.M.
__________________

Good points in your post Dr. M. I think you already see what Laurel and Manu do. They do not allow anything that even approaches undeage sex. They do not allow sex with four footed animals. Any story that involves incest in any way is automatically an incest story.

I agree with the approach Laurel and manu seem to be using. I want a place to publish my writing and they are walking a careful, conservative path to make sure that I have a place to publish instead of trying to push into places that might just get Literotica shut down.

JMHO.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Good points from everyone. It really is a sad state that our government and the so-called "righteous" are alienating so many people by arbitrarily telling them what they can and can't read, say, view or listen to, let alone what some have already made it illegal to do in our own beds.

It really seems like the US is becoming a country full of mindless lemmings. There's far too many who have signed over control of their lives to a government and its very wealthy supporters who would much rather have a mindless, status quo than a country of individuals.

The simple truth that all too few seem to think about or even fewer seem to stand up for is that there is NO single way of life that is right for everyone. As much as the Bible-thumpers would like to disagree with that little fact, it's supported infinitely by something that is much more broad spectrum than any religion is capable of accommodating: Human Nature.

I live right across the street from two people who prior to moving across from us were professed devout Mormons. Since meeting us, and without any direct discussions concerning personal beliefs, they've been coming around in very obvious ways to realizing what their own human natures are about, and their definitely not about the King James or any other overbearing scribing. As a matter of fact, in the not-too-distant future the four of us are all going to be taking a night together and hitting the titty bars here in town. They're curious to see in person how much my wife and I enjoy buying the lap dances for one another, and I'm certain that we'll be buying a few dances for them as well.

In a roundabout sort of way this all related. This is all about individuals being able to enjoy their individual rights as long as they're not causing harm to anyone else. Penthouse was never in jeopardy of causing harm to anyone, but rather helping others to enjoy certain aspects of who they are by default.

What's next? Scripture being quoted in Hustler Magazine? The latest fall habit fashions being displayed in Playboy? The Roman Catholic Church places ads for redemption in Nugget Magazine (I'd like to see that one for the novelty of it)?

An even bigger question might be, if there are so many people who feel that their rights are being trampled, or that their rights are at very least in danger of being negated by these wannabe religious dictators, then are so few voices being heard? Are we destined to become the same kinds of lemmings that are already trying so hard to take away the things that we enjoy?

I think it's time to find work in Amsterdam...

 

[Pornofan420]

On the subject of BDSM and sex imagery at the same time, there's an incredible movie called The Fashionistas starring Rocco Siffreddi. Rocco plays a fashion deigner from Italy who gets involved with American designers who do edgy, BDSM inspired designs.

The amazing thing about this movie is just the very fact that it shows people tied up to posts and whipped AND engaging in full on MF and FF sex in the same scenes. Hot stuff too, including a scene with Rocco himself tied up and dommed by the ladies.

Some of the fetish fashions weren't really my thing (I'm a basic black leather and denim kinda perv), but the sex and the SM was just off the charts HAWT!

The link above will take you to an image of the cover photos. That's Belladonna in the hood with the chains. That scene alone was worth the rental fee to me.

I'm glad to see SOMEONE making a daring push for freedom of sexual expression in the "current political climate". That Puritan national heritage is so much fun. :|

I believe it was Garrison Keilor who said "My ancestors were the Puritans. They came to this country looking for greater religous restriction than was available in England at the time."

[EDIT] I also used to subscribe to Penthouse. I loved the hot pictorials and the really great writing. But if they're nothing more than Playboy 1.5 now... ugh.

Swank, you say..... hmm.