In Bed With Bob Guccione: Me, #MeToo, and the Ethical Challenges of Writing Porn History

Abstract

Can we separate art from the artist who created it? This essay discusses the debate over art created by morally problematic men, especially those revealed through the lens of #MeToo activism as sexual abusers. From a historical perspective, how should we regard the pornography produced by men like Bob Guccione, whose Penthouse magazine reached millions of readers from 1965 on and became one of the most important texts shaping 20th-century post-war American sexual discourse? What are the ethics of engaging with media texts built on the objectification of women's bodies, and do we cause new injury by bringing those long-hidden historical publications into current discourse? I share my experiences studying Guccione's life and the magazines he published, emphasizing the case of Viva, a lushly photographed, high-end title that blended radical feminism with full-frontal male nudity in an adventurous 1970s magazine for women. Viva complicates the idea, drawn from contemporary cancel culture, that art produced by abusive creators should be ignored.