Smut: A Sex Industry Insider (and Concerned Father) Says Enough Is Enough

by Gil Reavill

Smut has become the new secondhand smoke: It confronts you against your will where you least want to encounter it, and it?s impossible to protect your children from it. Nothing made this clearer than... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595230122
• ISBN13: 9781595230126
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Sentinel
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

To Be Taken With a Grain of Salt

This book reminds me in some ways of the book "Ordeal," by Linda Lovelace. In it, she says that she was forced to do the movie "Deepthroat," in addition to many other unspeakable acts. Later in life, however, she was a minor porn celebrity who hawked various adult products and movies. So is "Ordeal" to be totally believed? Enter Gil Reavill, a former writer for publications like "Screw" and "Penthouse," to name a few. In "Smut..." he paints a vivid picture of how pornography and the sexualizing of America is having an adverse effect on our society. Television, mainstream movies, magazines, books, the internet and advertising in general are all being affected by smut. But aren't most people aware of this? The old cliche "one can't see the forest for the trees" comes to mind when describing this book. Sometimes we actually have to be told what we are seeing and experiencing to actual be aware of it. In that regard the book completes it mission: we are surrounded with sex and pornography, yet can do little about it. The Janet Jackson episode is frequently mentioned throughout the book. After the initial outcry, what has really changed? Not much in the author's opinion. The book is worth a read because the reader is forced to think about the consequences behind what is now normal. How quickly do we now look away from scantily clad girls on billboards? How quickly do we delete sexually explicit emails? How many times do we rewind Victoria's Secret commercials (for the TIVO-ly inclined)? Returning to Linda Lovelace, my only question is: Is the author a true convert, or just a publicity hound? As in Lovelace's case, only time will tell.

Fascinating

This fascinating book is the work of Gil Reavill, an author and journalist who has worked for such publications as Screw and Penthouse magazines. Mr. Reavill is a proponent of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and fully supports the existence of the porn industry that he has been employed by since the early 1980s. However, American culture has changed markedly since Mr. Reavill went to work for Screw magazine, and the pornographic imagery and concepts that were once relegated to the dark corners of society have now moved into the mainstream. In this book, the author pleads for the right of the porn industry to exist, but also pleads for the right to not be subjected to the porn industry. Throughout the first and second parts of the book, he shows how pornography has become ubiquitous in American culture, making it impossible to shut it out from out children's lives. In part three, he explains why we are where we are, and why so many support the porn industry with militantly blind obedience. And finally in the fourth part of the book he explains what we can and should do to protect ourselves and our children from pornography (including learning to use the v-chip). Overall, I found this to be a fascinating book. The "chattering class" will be quick to dismiss the author and his opinions for any and every reason, but he does do an excellent job of presenting his credentials in discussing the issue, defining it, and suggesting moderate and reasonable action. If you are troubled by the R-rated talk and images that appear to be ubiquitous in our society, and want to see an insider's view, then I highly recommend this book. Mr. Reavill is to be congratulated for his excellent work, and his stance on a subject where his pocketbook would normally suggest his quiescence. I give this book my highest recommendations!

thank god someone's finally talking truth

A thoughtful, interesting, mind-blowing book. Neither right nor left, but instead highly intelligent and original. Free-thinking and true.