HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015420.jpg

Here, then, for better or worse, are my contributions to American
culture that did manage to catch on, or at least may be on their way.

1. In 1958, pornography was gradually becoming legal, but at that
stage of the game, the Supreme Court was unwilling to allow 1st
Amendment protection of “hard-core” porn—as opposed, I assumed, to
the term I invented, “soft-core porn,” which was obviously more
respectable, though it seemed kind of sneaky, pretending to be squeaky
clean. So I decided to satirize the concept with a new feature in The Realist:
“Soft-Core Porn of the Month.”

For example, phallic symbolism in newspapers and magazines was a
key ingredient of soft-core porn. Sample: A close-up of a stickshift in a
1965 Volkswagen ad was accompanied by the question, “Does the
stickshift scare your wife?” Soft-core porn now refers to limited sexuality,
as seen in network TV dramas and hotel-room movies that feature jiggling
breasts and buttocks but no genitalia. The way to recognize soft-core porn
is that it gives men a soft-on.

2. On the afternoon of December 31, 1967, several activist friends
were gathered at Abbie and Anita Hoffman's Lower East Side apartment,
smoking Columbian marijuana and planning a counter-convention for the
Democratic Party’ s event the following summer in Chicago. Our fantasy

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015420