Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Health & Body

Column
Unhappy meal
How to eat yourself to death.
By Mary Roach
[12/03/99]

Urge: Naked World
Clitoral creams and sex cues
NexMed contributes to female orgasm with topical cream; humming helps, too.
By Hank Hyena
[12/03/99]

The culture of secrecy
Docs make mistakes, but proposed regulations to make them talk about it won't change that scary fact.
By Dr. Jeff Drayer
[12/02/99]

Health Urge: Nancy Chan
Betrayal, his and hers
How can I think about my lies when Matt's are taking up all the space?
By Tracy Quan
[12/02/99]

Urge: Naked World
Kiwis elect world's first transsexual legislator
Having gotten over "the gender thing," New Zealand teaches a lesson on tolerance and maturity.
By Hank Hyena
[12/02/99]

Complete archives for Health & Body

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Ho-hum," ye of the porn-connoisseur persuasion might say. And you'd be on target, save for the fact that the young girl on the receiving end of this beef-jockey's mindless rutting looks all too young. With her short dirty-blond locks, small breasts and slight, almost boyish frame, she could easily pass for 16. Actually, according to her character Susan's voice-over in this episode from Hustler's new Barely Legal video series, she could pass for even younger.

"I was 18, but I didn't look a day over 13," explains Susan pre-coitus, taking off her schoolgirl uniform in the back seat of a limo.

Susan's "first time" will be with her stepbrother Todd, a goofy brown-haired guy who's supposed to be younger than Susan, but actually looks to be in his early 20s. Thus, for a $3 rental, you get almost-incest and almost-underage sex -- this in just one of several segments involving Barely Legal's adolescent-looking nymphs.

Though the Barely Legal video, a spinoff from the highly successful porn mag of the same name, is a popular rental, ranking No. 20 in Adult Video News' Top 40 Rentals as of Nov. 22, it's hardly alone in the field. Scan the racks of your local porn parlor and the series titles read like a bobby-sox chaser's wet dream: Virgin Stories, Cherries, Rookie Cookies, Cherry Poppers, Young and Anal, Cheerleader Confessions and the memorable Young, Dumb and Full of Cum. AVN even dedicated its September 1999 issue to the genre with a "Back to School" cover showing two "carnal cuties" in saddle shoes and plaid skirts.

Back in 1993, Barely Legal was the first specialty magazine to gleefully exploit the male appetite for very young girls, showing just-turned-18 lasses tearing off their skirts and bobby socks to press the flesh of adoring bi-classmates. A plethora of copycats with names like Hawk, Tight and Barely 18 now compete with Barely Legal for readers. Nevertheless, Larry Flynt's X-rated version of Teen Beat remains the ne plus ultra for jailbait aficionados.

"Barely Legal came about as an idea that an employee of the company had," explains Flynt from his neo-Victorian office high atop the black, oval building in Beverly Hills that bears his name. "I attribute its success to the fact that dirty old men are always attracted to pretty young girls. The primary reason we decided to do the video series is because the magazine was so successful and we knew we would have that success with the video."

Did Flynt and his lawyers have qualms about putting out a product that features spread-eagled women impersonating spread-eagled teeny-boppers? Does Barely Legal encourage pedophilia? Might it be subject to legal action under the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act, the law aimed at extending the definition of child pornography to the simple depiction of minors engaged in lewd acts?

"No," he replies. "Because we don't photograph anyone under the age of 18. The median age is 18-22 ... There's a lot of difference between a Barely Legal girl and a child. I associate pedophilia with children. And these models are not children."

Yet the fantasy being sold through magazines and videos like the Barely Legal line is sex with teenagers. Flynt says that "awkwardness in young models who appear to be of an adolescent age, although they are over 18, has a certain amount of appeal to our readers."

Next page | "You don't really appreciate young girls until you get a little older"