In my inbox this morning:
>
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13650
>
> Sex Aid: Porn to Save the Third World
> Steve Almond, Nerve.com
> July 22, 2002
>
> It's not every day that I'm offered the chance
to tour a sex factory.
> In point of fact, I'd never been offered the
chance until a couple of
> months ago, when I visited my friend Sean in
North Carolina. Sean
> works as a copywriter for Adam & Eve, the
nation's largest
> adult-oriented mail-order company. A&E's
headquarters is a
> nondescript building outside of Chapel Hill,
just past an artificial
> lake with several geese. It's full of the
standard corporate stuff:
> cubicles, workers hunched before computer
monitors, bulletin boards
> with perky blood-drive announcements. Only when
you take a closer
> look do you start to see the nature of the
office tchotchkes: dildos,
> photos of porn stars, the odd butt plug.
>
> One of Sean's jobs is to write the blurbs that
go on video boxes.
> This requires him to watch half a dozen movies
a day, fast-forwarding
> through the sex scenes so he can get a sense of
each film's deeper
> ambiance and setting. The porn no longer
arouses him, he says,
> though, given that he's heterosexual, the gay
stuff is still a little
> tough to watch. (He'd just finished up Ass
Angels 3 when I visited.)
>
> Sean's tour of the facility included the
administrative offices of
> A&E's film division, which does not house an
actual studio - the
> movies are shot in Los Angeles - but did
include two women cheerfully
> talking P.T.A. politics while splicing
money-shot scenes together.
>
> The company's warehouse is 40,000 square feet;
it contains, in
> addition to videos and DVDs of every possible
persuasion, the largest
> selection of lubricants and sex toys in the
world. On the day I
> visited, Sean was quite excited about a new
device which, when
> affixed to the end of the tongue, aids in
cunnilingus.
>
> Attractively enough, the TongueJoy* Vibrator is
not the most unusual
> thing about Adam & Eve. That would have to be
Phil Harvey, who
> founded the company three decades ago as a way
to generate seed money
> for family planning programs in the developing
world. Despite a
> steady campaign of harassment from the
religious right and the U.S.
> Department of Justice, Harvey has become one of
the most unlikely
> Robin Hoods in the annals of American business.
By selling sex
> products to the world's richest citizens, he's
been able to
> distribute cheap contraception to the poorest.
>
> He agreed to speak with me from his office
outside Washington D.C.
> I'd never talked to a real, live porn czar
before, so I wasn't
> entirely sure what to expect. (A grubby
self-promoter along the lines
> of Al Goldstein? A loudmouth martyr à la Larry
Flynt?) Harvey,
> sixty-four, is neither. He speaks in a flat,
midwestern accent. The
> language he uses is often academic, bordering
on technocratic. The
> very tag "porn czar" is decidedly un-Phil.
>
> After graduating from Harvard in 1960, Harvey
enrolled in the Peace
> Corps. He was drafted instead, and served a
brief stint in the army,
> after which he traveled to India to supervise
feeding programs for
> the charity CARE. "I possessed what I would
call a normal youthful
> enthusiasm to save the world," he says, one he
attributes both to
> Kennedy-era idealism and to a passion for other
cultures. His
> experience in the subcontinent radicalized him.
"I was in charge of
> the pre-school feeding program. Every year we
would increase the
> benificiary roles and every year we'd sit back
and realize we were
> farther behind than when we started. It became
very clear to me that
> shipping food from the U.S. to India was nuts.
That if the industrial
> world really wanted to be helpful to countries
like India, voluntary
> family planning was the way to do it."
>
> CARE officials were less than enthralled by the
idea, so Harvey
> returned to the States to earn a masters degree
in family planning
> administration at the University of North
Carolina. In Chapel Hill,
> he met a British doctor, Tim Black, who shared
his vision of making
> contraception available on a mass scale in the
Third World.
>
> The two men launched a mail-order condom
business. Sending condoms
> through the mail was illegal in 1970 due to the
Comstock Law, which
> classified them as obscene. "But we decided to
go ahead and take our
> chances," Harvey says. "As a result of the fact
that no one else was
> doing this, the orders just poured in. Tim and
I had no idea what to
> do. We never had any intention of making money.
We were out to save
> the world."
>
> But both men quickly saw the potential. They
could use the profit
> from their mail-order venture to seed their
overseas programs. This
> led to the establishment of a non-profit,
called DK International.
> (The organization is named after the late D.K.
Tyagi, one of India's
> first crusaders for family planning, who
befriended Harvey during his
> years in New Delhi.)
>
> Meanwhile, the mail-order business continued to
grow. "We tried to
> get our customers to buy leisure wear,
shipbuilding kits, belt
> buckles, model airplanes," Harvey recalls. "But
they just yawned at
> that stuff. Every time we put something with
erotic appeal in the
> catalog, the bells would ring."
>
> Adam & Eve continued to boom throughout the
'70s and '80s. In May of
> 1986, however, the company hit a major
speedbump. Thirty-seven
> federal agents with guns on their hips raided
its North Carolina
> headquarters. "The government's strategy was a
direct frontal
> assault," Harvey recalls. "They went after a
whole lot of companies
> who distribute erotic material and managed to
shut a number down.
> They tried to get us to plea bargain, but we
said we're not going to
> do that." What ensued was an eight-year legal
battle with the Justice
> Department, which ended in a not-guilty
verdict. (Harvey details the
> debacle in his new book, The Government Vs.
Erotica, Prometheus
> Books.)
>
> Harvey is often asked how he squares his
philanthropic work with his
> role as a purveyor of pornography. "I don't see
a conflict," he says
> bluntly. "As the publication of my book made
clear, I'm proud of what
> I sell and I have no reservation about
publicizing it. Why be
> defensive? I sell products that provide sexual
education and sexual
> pleasure. Period. And I must say that in
twenty-five years, we have
> never, to my knowledge, lost a grant or
donation because of my work
> with Adam & Eve."
>
> That said, Harvey says that there was a time,
during the '80s, when
> "some material crept into the catalogue,
bondage magazines and so
> forth, that I didn't feel comfortable with."
This, along with the
> federal crackdown, led him to institute a
meticulous review process.
> Today, all the products Adam & Eve sells are
submitted to a panel of
> sex educators and therapists who have to
certify that the materials
> are "non-prurient" and "appeal to a healthy
interest in sex" before
> the company will sell them. Any kind of
coercion or violence, for
> instance, is verboten.
>
> "I'm an ardent opponent of the (Andrea)
Dworkinites," says Harvey.
> "This idea that men are all foul beasts and
women are all victims - I
> just think that's a load of crap. It turns
women into a victim class
> and I cannot think of any worse vision of
women. The fact is,
> mainstream pornography gets a lot of people
upset because women are
> portrayed as lusty without being bad. They are
enthusiastic
> participants . . . Most money shots, I would
say, are in bad taste,
> But that's my taste. If they pass the screening
process as being
> consensual sexual acts, I don't worry about it
a lot."
>
> What Harvey does worry about, and considerably,
is the way in which
> contraception is still stigmatized in the
United States. "It's
> perfectly fine to show two people locked in a
heated embrace in some
> glossy magazine," he notes. "As long as there's
no condom in sight."
> Ironically, he says, condom use (for
intercourse, at least) has
> become de rigeur in the adult film industry.
>
> Still, Harvey is well aware of the fact that
his mail-order business
> owes its existence to America's sexual
hypocrisy. "If we weren't so
> conflicted about our sexuality, there'd be
dildos on the shelves of
> every Wal-mart. Obviously, the shame people
feel has created a niche
> for us."
>
> Lucrative "niche" empires aside, Harvey's chief
concern remains the
> state of his overseas programs. These ventures
are chiefly funded by
> foundations and foreign governments. There is
no direct link to Adam
> & Eve, other than Harvey himself. (Over the
past two decades he
> estimates that he has donated $40 million of
his own money to the
> cause.)
>
> Just how many condoms do his programs
distribute?
>
> "That's easy," he says, tapping at his
computer. "Just a sec. Okay,
> here it is: 364,741,409. That's for last year.
We also distributed
> just under twenty-three million cycles of
pills, plus injectibles and
> IUDs."
>
> And just think: without the religious right, he
couldn't have done any of it.
>
> Steve Almond's debut collection, My Life in
Heavy Metal, will be
> published in April 2002 by Grove Press. This
article originally
> appeared on Nerve.com.
|
