Opening Statement

When I got to Texas Christian University in 1973, the great controversy was about whether or not men should open the door for women. TCU's population of women was, at the time, almost evenly divided between 70s feminists and traditionalists, or, as they were stereotyped, "Sorority Susies." Now, since dressing up or down was often the case, I was constantly confronted with the dilemma of whether to open the door -- in which case I might well be a male chauvinist pig -- or not to open the door -- in which case I was just a pig to the sorority Susie. This was the subject of intense debate and endless letters in the school paper.

 Finally, I just got sick of it - it was ridiculous to have to answer the Sphinx every time you walked outside -- and I came up with my own, unique solution to this burning issue of the day: I decided that I would simply open the door for EVERYBODY, female or male. If I got the requisite sneer from the feminists, I would simply note that I opened the door for everyone, and the problem rapidly abated. Because, finally, an act of courtesy was NOT the issue. It was the unequal application of the courtesy that was the problem. And that solved it.

 After I moved to Hollywood, and had gotten my writing career underway, I made a lot of money writing sexual fantasy tapes, and writing for men's magazines. I didn't necessarily think it was the most ennobled work, but I also believed that if you're going to be a writer, that means you earn your living by writing, and that was what was available. In 1979, I was told, by a friend at my Tibetan Buddhist Temple, of an editorial job at CHIC, the "classy" sister magazine of HUSTLER. I sent in my resume, and was offered a job at HUSTLER.

 This was a great moral dilemma for me. I didn't have any problem with the sex part, it was just that HUSTLER was SOOOOO sleazy. But the money was too good, and my rent was too much in arrears. So, I was made X-Rated Film editor - having only seen two porn films in my life - and book review editor. My reviewer was a man who would play a significant role in my life ever after, Theodore Sturgeon, the science fiction writer, the model for Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout, and, sadly, known to most of humanity as the originator of Star Trek's catch phrase: "Live Long and Prosper."

 I asked him: "Ted, I HAVE to do this. But why are YOU here?" Ted was, in many ways, a sort of feminist saint, had written a story about homosexuality in 1954 that was impossibly ahead of its time, and was regarded as a sage by everyone from Crosby, Stills and Nash to Carl Sagan. He told me something that I have never forgotten. He said: "Why should I preach to the choir? Here, I get to speak to two million people who I would never be able to talk to if I only took the 'proper' jobs."

 He also told me: "Here, you have to find your own moral compass. Never write anything that you are ashamed of, because, I promise you, it will come back to haunt you."

 And he was right. Unless I had to, I always wrote under my own name, and never tried to hide what I did. I didn't make it an issue, but I was not ashamed of my  actions, because I didn't do shameful things. Of course, there was a lot that was repulsive in porn. There is even more today. I don't intend to defend that horrific stuff, only the right of people to make it. Because I'm not enlightened or wise or smart enough to be the judge, jury and executioner of what other people say and think. That's the philosophy of the First Amendment, and a philosophy I have always embraced wholeheartedly.

 So much of porn is simply reactive: Catholic girls gone bad; directors rebelling against their years as Mormon missionaries. I never had that problem.

 Because I always understood that our society has a deep-seated loathing of sexual matters, and an equal attraction, often for the same reasons. So I always felt that here was a place that I could have a reforming effect if I produced good work. That's what I've tried to do with my career and that's
what I've tried to do with my movie. I still open the door for everybody.

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