Robert Rosen (2) (1952–)

I read this as background research for a novel I am writing set during the so-called golden age of porn which is roughly the years 1972 through 1984. The author worked for High Society, Swank and was the editor of D Cup magazine as well as some others. The book was somewhat engaging and gave me an insiders view of the industry, an industry he views with disgust yet worked in it for sixteen years ( he started in the early 80s ) so I don't know if this is a moralistic posture or his real show more opinion...If something is truly soul corrupting wouldn't you leave? He wasn't a total loser. He's not much in the looks department, but he's a decent writer. So my take is that this is posturing because he didn't leave the industry until he was fired. This was at a time ( the 90's ) when porn magazines had become completely unprofitable anyway because the internet had stolen the market...an industry he shows no interest in.

He lived for a while with one of the female editors of a well known porn magazine...I was surprised by how many skin mags had female editors...a women he describes as someone who got cranky if she didn't have an orgasm at least every 7 hours. I found it ironic that so many skin mags had female editors because this time period was the hay day of the second wave feminist and WAP movement ( Women Against Pornography ). She also tried to unsuccessfully hide her occupation from her sixteen year old daughter who at sixteen worked at the ticket booth of a Times Square porn theater.

He shows the anti-porn folks as the true hypocrites ( and criminals ) that they were( are ) especially Meese - who Dante would have consigned to a very low level in hell and Traci Lords who should be the poster child of game theory because she gamed the system so thoroughly to her own advantage...a woman so self-consciously wanton that a judge even said that child pornography laws weren't meant to cover a person like her.

If you are looking for erotica, then look elsewhere because this is more a personal history of the U.S. porn magazine industry...unless of course you were home schooled in a fundy home...in which case you may find it shocking that people like to view pictures of other people having sex in every possible way imaginable. But, if want a history, then it's definitely worth reading.

I am only giving it 4 stars because it falls apart a little at the end and could have been more thorough in my opinion. But, there aren't a whole lot of insider accounts of this industry, so its worthwhile. He also wrote a book on John Lennon. Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon which I have not read. show less