I’m as earthy-crunchy as the next tree-hugger…but even I was stopped cold by the sign on the other side of this porn shop here in Columbus, Ohio. “Recycle Your Porn,” one sign exorts while another proclaims “We Buy Used Magazines and Videos.” Uh, does anyone really want a used porno mag, given what such magazines are usually “used” for? And do I even need to point out the wry double-entendre apparent in a porn store sign that advises you to “Enter in Rear”?
Ahem. Next slide, please.
My folks’ neighborhood is seedy by just about anyone’s standards. Although the names have changed over the years, the strip club on the corner of my parents’ street has been there as long as I can remember, and the porn shop on the street where we used to live has been there since I was a child. It’s a given that the Mirage (or the Driftwood, or the Oasis) will be hiring dancers whenever I come home: in the past, in fact, Chris and I have joked that this would offer me a reliable fall-back career if the whole professor thing doesn’t work out. (For the record, if anyone saw Teri Hatcher trying out her pole-dancing moves on Jay Leno last night, let me assure you that I dance just like that. Or not. I’ll leave you to wonder about that.) It’s a sad commentary, I think, that the three most “booming” businesses in my parents’ neighborhood are a porn shop, a strip club, and the various “freelancing” ladies who strut their stuff on Main Street looking for “customers.” Do we really need to recycle such seediness? It seems there is a never ending supply.
Sep 25, 2004 at 3:42 pm
I live in the porn capital of the U.S. if not world (okay, probably not world but who knows). That was a statistic I didn’t really want to know about. I like the statistic about Chatsworth (San Fernando Valley, CA) being the most horsey neighborhood in the Valley. Thankfully the porn places are reasonably easy to ignore, even though there’s an XXX store very near our favorite Indian restaurant. What’s odd is that this isn’t a particularly seedy part of the Valley. In fact, this is one of the more desirable and affordable places to live. Here, porn and a decent neighborhood exist together fairly peacefully.
LikeLike
Sep 26, 2004 at 12:22 pm
I’m no prude but i’ve often wondered why porn is necessary. I have no trouble getting all sorts of creative desires without the visual stimuli.
LikeLike
Sep 28, 2004 at 3:25 pm
Corrina, is Chatsworth the porn capital in terms of production, sales, or consumption of porn? It’s interesting that you mention the juxtaposition of porn & upscale, safe neighborhoods. Although my parents’ neighborhood is seedy, the next suburb is very ritzy. Although Bexley doesn’t have porn shops of its own, I’d have to believe that the folks who are paying for sex & videos aren’t *only* the poor folks who live near my folks: I’d have to think that some of the ritzy neighbors drive down the street when they want to go “slumming” in a sexual sense.
Karlo, I’m certainly not an expert when it comes to porn, but I know that some folks are more visually-oriented than others. That being said, there’s plenty of erotic art & literature that is suggestive without being obscene. As for me, I find my mind to be my most powerful erogenous zone, so leaving something to the imagination is a turn-on in my book. But apparently enough people buy (and recycle) porn as to make this particular shop successful.
LikeLike