Overview

Struggling to survive in post World War II Germany, Beate Uhse (1919 2001) a former Luftwaffe pilot, war widow, and young mother turned to selling goods on the black market. A self-penned guide to the rhythm method found eager buyers and started Uhse on her path to becoming the world s largest erotica entrepreneur. Battling restrictive legislation, powerful churches, and conservative social mores, she built a mail-order business in the 1950s that sold condoms, sex aids, self-help books, and more. The following decades brought the world s first erotica shop, the legalization of pornography, the expansion of her business into eastern Germany, and web-based commerce. Uhse was only one of many erotica entrepreneurs who played a role in the social and sexual revolution accompanying Germany s transition from Nazism to liberal democracy. Tracing the activities of entrepreneurs, customers, government officials, and citizen-activists, Before Porn Was Legal brings to light the profound social, legal, and cultural changes that attended the growth of the erotica sector. Heineman s innovative readings of governmental and industry records, oral histories, and the erotica industry s products uncover the roots of today s sexual marketplace and reveal the indelible ways in which sexual expression and consumption have become intertwined.

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9781283159715

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