In the 1970s, Bob introduced Guccione, owner of a porn magazine penthouse (and arch-rival of Hugh Hefner), Viva: a porn magazine for women, made by an editorial team that mostly consisted of women. Sounds progressive, but not if it were up to Guccione. He mainly wanted to sell a sexy magazine: naked photos on glossy pages. But in the middle of all that nudity was also a bunch of brown pages where the feminist editors wrote about what they thought was important: sexual freedom, politics, literature: “We were poorly paid and nobody read what we wrote. That was what set us free.” Stiffed remains somewhat on the surface with this story Vivabut that is precisely why it is so easy to listen to.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 24, 2023.