[Ads-l] Porn star (slight antedating)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Excellent, Garson, thanks so much.

On Sat, Jun 1, 2024 at 8:14 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nice work, Bonnie. The meaning of "porn star" varied in early uses.
> Here is the OED definition.
>
> [Begin OED excerpt]
> porn star NOUN
> A person who is famous for performing in pornographic films.
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 1969 an article in a feminist journal used the phrase "porn stars"
> to refer to authors such as Henry Miller and Norman Mailer whose
> writings were deemed pornographic by some critics. This sense differed
> from the one specified in the OED.
>
> Date: November 1969
> Periodical: No More Fun & Games: A Journal of Female Liberation
> Issue 3
> Article: "Sexual Liberation": More of the Same Thing
> Author: Roxanne Dunbar
> Date on Article: October 1969
> Start Page 49, Quote Page 52
> Database: Internet Archive
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Another aspect of the myth is that people are disgusted by pornography
> because they are "hung-up" about sex. After all the female body is a
> beautiful sight--nothing to be ashamed of. Do those who have made a
> cult of Lenny Bruce think that pornography is good and liberating? Do
> they really think people are "repressed" for not "appreciating" Henry
> Miller and Norman Mailer as well as lesser porn-stars? It might be
> that people are reacting against what is behind pornography, and are
> not just hung-up.
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 1971 Playboy magazine used "porn stars" in a way that matched the OED
> sense.
>
> Date: October 1971
> Periodical: Playboy
> Volume 18, Number 10
> Article: The Porno Girls
> Start Page 138, Quote Page 148, Column 1
> Publisher: Playboy, Chicago, Illinois
> Database: Internet Archive
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Although some observers feel that the new generation of porn stars is
> motivated partly by a desire to scandalize its elders, many young
> performers express serious concern that their parents might discover,
> and be hurt by, their activities.
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Fri, May 31, 2024 at 9:49 AM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> <b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > OED has a 29 June 1973 usage for its earliest example.
> >
> > Here are some slightly earlier ones. (I've tacked on an example of "porno
> > star," which seems to have preceded "porn star," but it's obviously "porn
> > star" that stuck.)
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > Porn Star's 'Mom' Photo Goes Defunct [Headline, The Napa Valley
> Register, 3
> > May 1973, p. 1-D,
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-napa-valley-register-porn-star-53/147517938/
> > ]
> >
> > Ivory Won't Scrub Its Porn Star [Headline, New York Post, 11 May 1873, p.
> > 18, via GenealogyBank.com.]
> >
> > Porn Star Loves Newfound Fame [Headline, The News and Courier
> (Charleston,
> > South Carolina), 5 June 1973, p. 4-A, via GeneaologyBank.com.]
> >
> > --------------
> >
> > Porno Star 'Likes Work' [Headline, Victoria (British Columbia) Daily
> Times,
> > 14 June 1971, p. 23, via newspapers.com.]
>
>

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