Clik here to view.
1989: sex, lies and videotape: Rob Lowe and James Spader (Erotic 80s Part 12)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.American independent film is launched into the mainstream by Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies and videotape, starring James Spader as an impotent man...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Erotic 80s archive
Here in 2022, there is more public conversation about the nuances of human sexuality–and sexual abuse and harassment–than at any time in modern history. And yet, sex has all but disappeared from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
1988: Prologue: Porn, Feminism & the folly of NC-17 (Erotic 90s, Part 1)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Erotic 80s began with a prologue about the short-lived heyday of the X rating, pornography, and feminism. Erotic 90s begins with a prologue about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pretty Woman, Sleeping with the Enemy and Julia Roberts in the early 90s...
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.The first blockbuster about sex of the 90s, Pretty Woman both reinvigorated Richard Gere’s career, and turned Julia Roberts into the biggest female...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“The actress everybody wants to fuck”: Theresa Russell and Sondra Locke...
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.An enigmatic sex symbol dating back to the 70s, Theresa Russell made a play for Hollywood stardom in the late 80s and early 90s, making a number of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thelma & Louise (Erotic 90s, Part 4)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.One of the most controversial movies of the 1990s, Thelma & Louise pushed every hot button of the new decade: date rape, sexual harassment, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Blanks From Hell: Fatal Attraction’s Children (Erotic 90’s, Part 5)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.In the five years after the release of Fatal Attraction, Hollywood scrambled to make one movie after another about homes and workplaces invaded and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Basic Instinct (Erotic 90’s, Part 6)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.One of the biggest hits of 1992, Basic Instinct was sold as Michael Douglas’s return to Fatal Attraction territory, but its success owed to an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Murphy Brown, Dan Quayle and Damage (Erotic 90’s, Part 7)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.In the early 90s, one of the biggest scripted shows on TV was Murphy Brown, starring 40-something Candice Bergen as a product of the 60s whose...
View ArticleClik here to view.
90s Lolitas, volume 1: Drew Barrymore, Amy Fisher and Alicia Silverstone...
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Culture in the 90s was obsessed with the sex lives of teenagers. This is a theme we will come back to several times throughout the season. In this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Red Shoe Diaries and Sex on TV in the 90s. (Erotic 90’s, Part 9)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.While the MPAA’s confusing and hypocritical ratings decisions were leaving filmmakers flummoxed in the early 90s, cable TV was opening up new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Madonna: Sex, Erotica and Body of Evidence (Erotic 90’s, Part 10)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.In the early 90s, Madonna was the biggest pop star in the world, and she used – and in the minds of some, squandered – her star capital to launch a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Indecent Proposal (Erotic 90’s, Part 11)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Are men okay? Several films from 1993 answered that question with a resounding no. One of the highest grossing movies of its year, Adrian Lyne’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sliver and Sharon Stone as Superstar (Erotic 90’s, Part 12)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Sharon Stone and Joe Eszterhas’s post-Basic Instinct reunion film was one of the most troubled productions of the 90s. A post-Hitchcock tale of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Last Seduction, Disclosure, & Fear of the Female Boss (Erotic 90’s, Part 13)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.The 90s were obsessed with what magazine writer Tad Friend would describe as “do me feminism” – and the attendant fear that men could be victims of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Showgirls, Jade, and the Fall of Joe Eszterhas (Erotic 90’s, Part 14)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Joe Eszterhas’s tenure as the hottest screenwriter in town ended with two notorious 1995 flops: the NC-17 rated Showgirls (directed, like Basic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Lesbian Chic”: Bound and Anne Heche in Wild Side (Erotic 90’s, Part 15)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.At the beginning of the 90s, lesbians were a punchline for a male-gaze-oriented media, an easy target for expressing the anxiety that women might...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Crash and David Cronenberg (Erotic 90’s, Part 16)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.One of the only high-profile NC-17 releases post-Showgirls, David Cronenberg’s Crash was the kind of dark adult art film that the rating was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lynch Family: Boxing Helena & Lost Highway (Erotic 90’s, Part 17)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.One of the most notorious – and least seen – erotic narrative films of the 90s, Boxing Helena was the misbegotten passion project of Jennifer Lynch,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
90’s Lolitas Volume 2: Adrian Lyne’s Lolita (Erotic 90’s, Part 18)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.In the previous decade, Adrian Lyne had made two movies (Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal) that had grossed over $100 million in the US alone....
View Article