Dean Hanson
Reviewer: R.W. Hulme
Time changes everything – just consider how the DVDs of 70s-era Sesame Street are rated PG-13 because of the ‘embarrassing’ way they tackled issues like race. What was fine for us as kids is now considered ‘unsuitable’ for our own children. That ‘evolution of acceptability’ is the inspiration behind Taschen’s glossy hardcover Sex to Sexty.
Sex to Sexty was a notorious men’s magazine from the 60s and 70s, featuring vulgar, offensive, politically incorrect and sometimes downright disgusting cartoons and comics. Taschen’s release is a totally unashamed celebration of ‘the most vulgar magazine ever made,’ reprinting decades worth of Sex to Sexty’s most celebrated smut.
A large, heavy book, Sex to Sexty is crammed with over 400 pages of reprints, including notorious covers and cartoons separated into themes. Want to find some risqué cartoons trivializing familial relations? There’s a whole section of ‘em. Racial stereotypes? From “Soul Sisters” to “Red Indians,” you’ll find whatever it is you’re looking for.
If such cartoons were published today, the outcry would be deafening. However, flicking through Sex to Sexty, the style and jokes are so dated and quaint it comes across as somehow ‘innocent.’ There’s a charming naivete to the illustrations that somehow make them inoffensive, even when they’re tackling totally outrageous subjects.
Sex to Sexty is like a time machine, revealing what attitudes were really like 30 or so years ago. Vulgar humor is often the most honest, so it’s rather humbling to see how our parent’s generation trivialized hot-button topics like underage sex and racism.
Christians and conservatives are always complaining about the loosening of society’s moral fiber. Sex to Sexty is a pretty clear illustration that the opposite has taken place. Sure, we might be more open about sex and sexuality in the 21st century, but when it comes to issues like racism, equal rights, feminism and protecting children, we’re more conservative than our parent’s generation could ever have imagined.
So in some ways, Sex to Sexty is a wonderful coffee-table reminder of the positive way in which society has progressed. Then again, in a totally different way, it’s a delightfully smutty read that will give you hours of guilt-tinged sniggering.
It’s lewd and it’s loud—in many ways, it’s downright despicable—but Sex to Sexty winds up being a curiously compelling compilation that adults of all ages will find irresistible. As you’re flicking through it, though, just remember: It’s okay to laugh—as long as you feel bad about doing so! SextoSexty
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