CBS Sunday Morning today actually did a five minute segment on "Mommy Porn."
Worse still, it included quoted passages from such books and an author using Barbie, Ken and Tina dolls to demonstrate sexual positions (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BILL GEIST, CBS (OFF-CAMERA): Small town America. Quaint shops. Churches. Folks rocking to and fro on front porches.
GEIST: Desiree.
DESIREE HOLT, “MOMMY” PORNOGRAPHER: Yes.
GEIST: Hi, how are you doing?
HOLT: I'm doing fine. How are you doing, Bill?
GEIST: Fine day.
HOLT: Yes, beautiful day.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Desiree Holt is a 76-year-old grandmother.
GEIST: Just doing some reading out here?
HOLT: Just doing some reading. Going over one of my books.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): And an author.
HOLT: “Grace was sure if they touched each other the elevator car would spontaneously combust.”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): She read me a passage.
HOLT: “The heat of his skin radiated through the smooth fabric of his shirt scorching his hands and raising her own body heat even more. Somehow they disposed of her boots while Ben unzipped his fly freeing his [bleep] and scrambled in his wallet for a condom.”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): No drunken sailor ever said worse.
HOLT: “’[Bleep] me.’ she breathed. ‘You bet I'll [bleep] you,’ Ben breathed in her ear. ‘I'll ride you like one of those wild bulls.’”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Grandma, please. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Desiree Holt, her pen name, is the prolific author of erotic romance novels also known as Mommy Porn, a genre enjoying surging sales. Why the boom?
HOLT: The nice thing with the e-readers, you can read anything on it and nobody knows what you're reading. You could be reading one of my books. You could be reading Shakespeare.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): The privacy of the e-reader plus the “50 Shades of Gray” trilogy with 70 million of the sensual books sold have brought packs of panting readers to erotic romance. What do Desiree’s kids say? Her daughter Suzanne.
SUZANNE: I say my 76-year-old mother writes porn and we support her. We just don't read it.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Desiree's son gave her a title.
HOLT: The porn queen of the Texas hill country.
GEIST: So these are all yours?
HOLT: Yes, these are all the ones that are in print.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): She's written more than 140 of these novels since 2007, which works out to nearly one every two weeks.
HOLT: Here's “Cocked and Loaded” because it's about a sheriff.
GEIST: [Laughs] Of course.
HOLT: This was supposed to be a threesome. “How can I get in here?”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): She's accomplished this almost single-handedly with a little help from Tina, Ken, and Barbie...
HOLT: Oops. That won't work that way. That's why I have the dolls.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): ...whom she employs to determine what carnal acts are humanly possible.
HOLT: Sometimes it gets complicated, especially if I’ve got Barbie and Tina and Ken.
GEIST: Beautiful. Do you have more of these dolls? I hesitate to ask.
HOLT: No, I only have three at the moment. I broke two of them I'm sorry to say.
GEIST: Oh you did?
HOLT: Yes.
GEIST: That tells you something, doesn’t it?
HOLT: It does tell me that I'm trying too hard. Something wrong. Either that or the dolls need to be more flexible.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Most of Desiree’s books were put in print by Ellora’s Cave, an Akron, Ohio. publisher specializing in erotic romance. CEO Patty Marks says sales are at an all-time high.
PATTY MARKS, CEO ELLORA’s CAVE: We have like 800 authors and 5,000 titles. But we sell between 150,000 and 200,000 books a month. Authors get paid really well royalty-wise. We have an author that hit over $1 million this last year.
HOLT: You're kidding.
MARKS: Oh, no.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Okay, Dana, get flirtatious.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): A cover shoot was taking place as we spoke.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You can touch his chest and stuff like that.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): After a while, I became a little offended.
GEIST: Why do publishers always put hunky guys like this on their covers? Why don't they try normal people like me? It could work.
GEIST: What are you reading?
HOLT: It's called “Rodeo Heat.”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Back in Texas hill country, the porn queen rocks on.
GEIST: What's a nice grandmother like you doing writing books like that? Aren't you supposed to be knitting or something?
HOLT: I tell you, I stuck myself in the finger with a knitting needle.
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Desiree prefers porn, I mean, erotic romance.
HOLT: I think that mainstream readers have tended to shun erotic romance not understanding what it is. I think too many of them equate it with pornography which it isn't.
GEIST: No?
HOLT: They don't understand that they're love stories, that they're romances, that they're relationship stories. “The sexual heat between them, the sense of anticipation filled the small space completely.”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): So, let's all sit back…
HOLT: “His tongue was everywhere.”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): …and have grandma read us a story.
HOLT: “…electricity shooting straight to her [bleep].”
GEIST (OFF-CAMERA): Ooh!
HOLT: “His mouth was hot and greedy.”
This actually aired at 9:54 AM, likely before many people were heading to church.
Is pornography REALLY a suitable subject for a news program on Sunday morning?
(HT @KristinnFR)
