Larry Flynt is not worthy of an obituary
Hustler founder and owner of one of the largest pseudo-child-porn sites, barely legal dies.
Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine in the 1970s and significant stakeholder in the Porn industry until his death yesterday, is not worthy of an obituary. Apart from his personal contribution to the hijacking of 21st century sexuality for both men and women (90% of mainstream pornography contains violent acts towards women and is freely available to anyone who has a mobile phone), Flynt was a major proponent in overturning the Child Pornography Protection Act (1996). This Federal Act once restricted child pornography and the employment (I use the term loosely) of models who appeared to be under the legal age of consent. The Act was overturned as a result of Flynt’s persistent lobbying as a member of the Free Speech Coalition (the lobbying arm of the Porn industry), providing him and the industry at large with the ‘freedom of speech’ to employ models that looked like children and young teenagers engaged in sex with much older men.
The result was a mammoth surge in the production of Pseudo-Child Porn (PCP) from 2002 onwards, the year that Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition brought an end to the Child Pornography Protection Act. PCP makes up a substantial if not majority share of the hardcore Porn industry now. One of Flynt’s flagship brands ‘Barely Legal’ (a publication and website devoted to the sexualization of girls who appear to be under the age of consent) became one of his best-selling properties. There are many more like it.
In 1997 Flynt’s image was cleaned up by the Hollywood production of ‘The People versus Larry Flynt’ which earned Woody Harrelson who played Flynt, an Oscar nomination. Gloria Steinem questioned Flynt’s media glamorisation (New York Times 7/1/97) and argued he would not have received the same respect had he lobbied as a Klansman or Nazi for the same “First Amendment Rights”. What was left out from the film, she argued, were standard Hustler images of women beaten, tortured and raped, which sadly are synonymous with mainstream Porn today.
I’m glad I am still alive and have the right to speak out against the sex industry, which has female and child sex trafficking at its root and, at the very least, threatens the heart of sexual and loving relationships in the modern age. I hope that if I am recognised for anything in my obituary it will be for exerting my right to protest against low life like Flynt.