[Originally cross-posted over at The SmackDog Chronicles]
Ah...the people who will never learn the George W. Bush Doctrine:
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...don't get fooled again."
It may have been funny for Nelson X, the "Retail Merchandising" columnist for Adult Video News (the print edition), to run his mouth last month two months ago about how using racist stereotypes to sell interracial porn would be a depression-killer for the adult industry. We all know what happened with that controversy, don't we??
But now, it seems that Nelson may have bit off a bit more than he could chew this time around...and he's finally paying the price for his lack of progressive vision. And for being a general dickhead.
For the April 2009 issue of the print edition of AVN, Nelson the Wanker decided to train his guns on the subgenre of Big Beautuful Women (BBW), featuring women who have more than their share of skin attached to their bones. Basically, he gave props to some of the mainstream studios that specialize in that subgenre, for upgrading the image of such large ladies from the gutter of bad "fat girls" jokes.
It probably would have succeeded, too, if Nelson X would have held his tongue and not imposed his own gutter biases.
Some samplings therein:
In the past, BBW movies were treated with about the same respect fat girls get in real life. Shot on a shoestring budget, most featured morbidly obese women getting poorly screwed by desperate crack-heads on a black tarp in some producer’s garage. Today, however, topnotch production values have been added to the genre by many of the industry’s mainstream studios, allowing those too embarrassed to actually be seen with fat chicks the opportunity to jerk off to them in the privacy of their homes.
Hmmm...so BBW fans are "too embarrassed" to be seen with "fat chicks"...but would gleefully rub several out in seeing them engage in sex on screen or on the Internet. Embarrassed by whom, dude??? Idiots like you who can't think of women not fitting the 36DD-24-36 model of Barbie health as worthy of respect and desire?? (Not that I or anyone else should have anything against Barbie or porn models who fit that phenotype, granted...but I don't think that the Goddess distributed sexual arousal and beauty simply by body type...and nothing says that large women can't get their freak on any less than the Playboy models can.
Ahhh, but Nellie's only getting started....he gives examples of "mainstream" porn studios featuring BBW's, and promptly gives his biases away:
Zero Tolerance provided the BBW genre with a much needed makeover in 2007’s Waist Watchers. By replacing the moo-moo with a wardrobe that includes high-end lingerie, provocative fetish wear and bikinis, ZT has successfully showcased the heifer as glamour model throughout four volumes. Meanwhile, sister studio Black Ice offers up plenty of plussized sistas of its own with the series Heavy Weights, Crazy Big Booty, and Cream Filled Phatties.
Oooooooooh....the "heifer"?!?!?!? Gee, Nelson, is that how you see heavier women as?? Not human beings with desires and feelings, but....cattle?!?!?!
CJ Wright Productions serves up extra pounds of white meat in the interracial series Vanilla Thick Shakes and Bumpin’ Body Phat; and his new line Body and Soul caters to dark meat lovers. Distributed through Justin Slayer International, the studio has built a loyal following by giving fat-hungry fiends exactly what they want: fat chicks doing the same shit skinny bitches do.
Yeah, because only "fat-hungry fiends" (I assume he must mean other fat people) must enjoy watching them engage in sex freakery....the rest of us are only for "skinny bitches" like Jesse Jane or Sasha Grey or Madison Young.
But hold on, it gets better later on:
At a time when the country’s broke and people have given up on lofty goals in favor of what’s attainable, Homegrown Video and Sensational Video remind us that the girl-next-door doesn’t look like Jesse Jane and will, indeed, blow any loser for the cost of a Wendy’s Baconator.
First off, jackass, we already know that most girls next door don't look like Jesse Jane...but they don't necessarily look like April "Fatty D" Flores, either. That's why we don't sexualize them in the first place.
Secondly....why the reach for a Wendy's Baconator?? I mean, Burger King's BK Broiler wasn't good enough for 'ya??
And thirdly....way to reduce every single BBW model/performer to a mindless slut who will simply blow everybody on demand. What...jealous that none of them will willing blow you??
One more excerpt to reveal the stooopid that reeks within Nellie's brain:
White Ghetto doesn’t skimp on the lard when dishing out movies such as Biggest Fattest Ultra Obese and World’s Biggest Fattest Cream Pie Gang Bang. Along with wrangling up the biggest bovines in the business, White Ghetto’s catchy titles make it a big mover of fat girl product.
"Bovines", "heifers", "Baconators".....sounds like Nellie's talking more about farm animals sent fo slaughter, rather than real life people projecting their sexual desires.
Fortunately, there are people who actually do respect BBW's....and BBW's who aren't afraid to bite back.
April Flores happens to be of the latter. She performs and produces BBW vids under the handles "Fatty Delicious" and "Fatty D", and for her, there is nothing funny or hilarious about her work; it is about empowering women who may not exactly look like Lisa Ann or Tera Patrick and who want the same rights to express themselves as fit people are assumed to have.
To put it simply, April was slightly more than a bit put off by Nelson X's remarks, and let him and AVN have both barrels at her own blog.
And in the most offensive statement in the article, he says that these movies “remind us that the girl-next-door doesn’t look like Jesse Jane and will, indeed, blow any loser for the cost of a Wendy’s Baconator.” I have no idea exactly what he means, but this is highly offensive. I bet the writer was really proud of himself when he typed that sentence. He thought he was being clever by including a hamburger reference while disrespecting fat girls in the same sentence! Bravo, Mr. X!
He goes on to say that a certain production company doesn’t “skimp on the lard” for their movies because they “wrangle up the biggest bovines in the business”. Another cow reference? I am starting to believe that this article was not written a professional, but by a 7th grade boy with a fetish for cows.
The reason I am so upset is because I have met so many amazing plus sized women in the industry. They are proud, hard working, sexual, smart, business minded women. My fabulous peers and I deserve the same respect given to the thinner women written about in the magazine. Being a plus sized girl in this industry takes strength, courage and nerve. This article could’ve been pretty effective, groundbreaking even, but instead the writer took it as his opportunity to let us all know how much he does not enjoy bigger women.
[I've seperated the following from the rest of April's excerpt and bolded it for the statement it offers.]
Aside from BBW porn being a means for fat lovers to jack off to, it’s also very important in helping other curvy girls in becoming comfortable with being sexual and expressing their sexuality. I can not explain in words how wonderful it feels to read an email or meet a woman in real life who THANKS me for being out there representing fat girls. I’ve heard many women’s struggles with feeling beautiful and desired. They tell me how seeing women who look like them makes them feel better about their bodies. In my world THIS is the respect fat girls get in real life and THIS is the respect I give all my plus sized sisters.
And THIS is the respect that any decent person should give these women.
It seems also that April wasn't the only one who was raging, either. A reader of Fatty D's blog fired off an email to AVN founder/publisher Paul Fishbein protesting Nellie the Wanker's smackfest, which he republished as a comment in April's blog:
Hi,
My name is Chris and I am very dissatisfied with the words your managing editor decided to use for one of his articles on BBW models and movies. His name is Nelson X. The most offensive thing he said was that the movies “remind us that the girl-next-door doesn’t look like Jesse Jane and will, indeed, blow any loser for the cost of a Wendy’s Baconator”
I among other people are very angry at his comments. My wife is plus sized and believes that people who say the things that he said are ignorant. I just can’t believe that this even got published.
thank you for your time.
The response from Fishbein, if he follows up on it, does give me hope that someone is actually listening:
Hi-
After some research I agree with you. This was in bad taste. We are changing (stronger) an already announced policy and making it enforcable so this won’t happen again. We have plenty of plus-sized employees and, ironically, the write ris anything but a thin person. We are ensuring that this type of shoddy, distasteful “journalism” does not happen again.
May we print your letter? And feel free to call me if you’d like to discuss further.
Thanks
Paul Fishbein
That's actually more than a bit encouraging.
Fatty D also has followups here and here...and see also Violet Blue, Lux over at Fleshbot, and Good Vibrations for more reaction.
The preeminate sex blogger Always Aroused Girl (AAG) decided to take it one step further: she promptly posted at her blog a reprint of Nelson X's article, yet radically revised to speak in a much more progressive and much less assholery tone. It's so perfect that I will go ahead and reprint it in full here, but go ahead and check AAG out through her own blog, too, just for the traffic.
In the past, BBW movies received far less respect than they deserved. Shot on a shoestring budget, most featured ample women getting screwed (badly) by less than stellar actors and in the very lamest locations. But now things are changing. Today many of the industry’s mainstream studios are devoting top-notch production values to these films, allowing those who love larger ladies the opportunity to jack off to women who embody their ideal of feminine beauty.
After exchanging actresses’ nondescript, loose-fitting clothes for high-end lingerie, provocative fetish wear and bikinis, studios now showcase Rubenesque women as glamor models. This trend crosses all racial and fetish lines. Choices abound for men who prefer their thick chicks black or white and getting nasty with men who are black or white. Studios are building loyal followings by demonstrating what some of us have known all along: Large women have as much fun in the sack as do their thin counterparts.
Many studios dish out extensive libraries of titles for resellers intent on increasing BBW sales. They coax awesome performances from the most gorgeous curvy chicks in the biz, making it easy to serve up these sexy products to consumers who crave them.
At a time when the country’s broke and people turn toward more realistic and less idealistic thoughts, videos featuring lovely big women remind us that a performer don’t have to look like the stereotypical porn-star in order to leave her fans begging for seconds.
Other than the mixed subject/verb agreement ("doesn't, not "don't"), a perfect tribute to BBW performers and their fans.
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