“Lesbian Chic”: Bound and Anne Heche in Wild Side (Erotic 90’s, Part 15)
At the beginning of the 90s, lesbians were a punchline for a male-gaze-oriented media, an easy target for expressing the anxiety that women might not need men after all. By the middle of the decade, w...
12 Sep 20231h 14min
Introducing: Glitter & Might
In Glitter & Might, a new series exploring the intersection of show business and politics, bestselling author Shawn Levy unpacks the story of Lew Wasserman, the shadowy legend who lorded over Hollywoo...
25 Aug 20233min
Showgirls, Jade, and the fall of Joe Eszterhas. (Erotic 90’s, Part 14)
Joe Eszterhas’s tenure as the hottest screenwriter in town ended with two notorious 1995 flops: the NC-17 rated Showgirls (directed, like Basic Instinct, by Paul Verhoeven) and Jade (produced, like Sl...
27 Jun 20231h 36min
The Last Seduction, Disclosure, & Fear of the Female Boss (Erotic 90’s, Part 13)
The 90s were obsessed with what magazine writer Tad Friend would describe as “do me feminism” – and the attendant fear that men could be victims of female sexual aggression. Two films from 1994 marrie...
20 Jun 20231h 16min
Sliver and Sharon Stone as Superstar (Erotic 90’s, Part 12)
Sharon Stone and Joe Eszterhas’s post-Basic Instinct reunion film was one of the most troubled productions of the 90s. A post-Hitchcock tale of sexual surveillance given a technological update for the...
13 Jun 20231h 21min
Indecent Proposal (Erotic 90’s, Part 11)
Are men okay? Several films from 1993 answered that question with a resounding no. One of the highest grossing movies of its year, Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal was misunderstood as a gimmick, and i...
6 Jun 20231h 31min
Sex, Erotica and Body of Evidence (Erotic 90’s, Part 10)
In the early 90s, Madonna was the biggest pop star in the world, and she used – and in the minds of some, squandered – her star capital to launch a multi-media exploration of sexuality: the album Erot...
30 Mai 20231h 28min
Red Shoe Diaries and sex on TV in the 90s. (Erotic 90’s, Part 9)
While the MPAA’s confusing and hypocritical ratings decisions were leaving filmmakers flummoxed in the early 90s, cable TV was opening up new possibilities for erotic content. Today we will offer a br...
23 Mai 20231h 9min
