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Those of you who deal with naughty pictures might be interested in the
following...

------ Forwarded Message
From: research@museumofsex.com@museumofsex.com
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:31:03 -0500
Subject: Museum of Sex -Request for Participants, Upcoming Exhibition

The Museum of Sex in New York is developing an upcoming exhibition on
historical stag films, an important part of American history. To assist
our efforts, we wish to interview men who have viewed these films and can
give us their personal (anonymous) account.

As the early precursors of modern porn, these stags were silent 10-minute
b/w 16mm films that depicted explicit sex acts between men and women.
Usually these films were created in secret, by private individuals. Most
included a basic plot and some had humorous ?inter-titles? (blank slates
with writing) between sequences.

Produced between 1907 and the mid-1960s, these historical stag films
typically were viewed in an all-male group environment such as a men?s
club/lodge or a fraternity. These stag ?events? would feature many of
these short films. For the most part only American-made stags were
screened, but sometimes foreign produced stags were included in the
line-up.

The Museum of Sex would like to interview men who attended at least one
stag event in the 1950s and/or 1960s in an all-male club or fraternity
environment setting. Men will have an opportunity to tell the story of
their youth (with complete respect to their anonymity) and add to the
academic study of the stag film genre.

We offer a small financial reward to interested male participants and/or
anyone who can put us in touch with such individuals.

If you are interested in being interviewed, please contact Sarah, assistant
curator, at 212.689.6337 x103, or email research@museumofsex.com

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 12-01-2004, 06:40 PM:
 
The Museum of Sex would like to interview men who attended at least one stag event

hey, what about us women?! geez.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-01-2004, 06:52 PM:
 
Do women go to stag 'events'?

There are all sorts of stories (the vast majority uncorroborated and uncorroboratable) doing the rounds as to the production and existence of pre-1910 porno shorts in Britain. They were known as 'smokers' (so-called because men watched them in the 'smoking room' of Victorian and Edwardian houses, presumably after their wives had retired - and given what films were made of in those days, rather them than me!). Believe it or not one of the most prolific producers is said to be Cecil Hepworth, and the films in question weren't soft core either. Coded references to these films can be found in trade papers from the period, though the extent of their production and distribution is almost impossible to judge. AFAIK, none of these films survives in archives. Given the potential social stigma involved, their owners probably disposed of them soon after viewing - if not during the viewing, should their cigars get too near the projector!
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-01-2004, 07:44 PM:
 
Hey Steve,

Do you still have that stack of 16mm films ??????

Mark
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-01-2004, 07:52 PM:
 
Museum of Sex? Has it gone out of style? I do remember going to the Beate Uhse Erotik-Museum in Berlin about 5 years back. (IIRC Beate Uhse was/is a woman who runs an upscale chain of sex toy shops). The museum was interesting but somewhat dull unless you like things like African fertility carvings.

Do stripper events qualify as "stag" parties? If you believe the internet (and who doesn't?) women everywhere are partaking. Google the term "cfnm" (for clothed female nude male).
 

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 12-02-2004, 01:08 AM:
 
why I'm telling you all this I dont know..

I remember a story about what women in the 1920's/30's would use for anti-aging/anti-wrinkle products.
One 'item' they used was young men. They would take them to a movie theater to watch a film (usually in the back row), give them ye ol' hand job, and then take the fluids, if you will, and put it on their faces, as they believed young men's semen was an anti wrinkle ointment.

eewwwwww just thought you'd like to know that

Wasn't Hugh Hefners first idea for his now famous magazine actually a Stag and not a bunny? I swear I heard that somewhere.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-02-2004, 01:45 AM:
 

quote: Steve Kraus

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IIRC Beate Uhse was/is a woman who runs an upscale chain of sex toy shops

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Was. If I remember correctly, she moved on to the eternal shagging grounds in 2001. It is interesting to note that her products came from a spirit of not marketing women as objects, but of providing education and toys for couples to enhance their sex life in the still quite prudish post-war (during which she was one of very few female fighter pilots BTW) era.
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-02-2004, 09:49 AM:
 
Allison: I don't think I can top that.

But on the theme of supposed healthful benefits from erotic stimulation I will re-mention that a hundred or so years ago women went to physicians to be treated for a condition known as hysteria, the treatment being, to put it bluntly, having the doctor masturbate them to orgasm. ( Hey, it's a God-given right, yes?)

The doctors hands were tiring and they soon improvised motor-driven stimulators to take over, and thus the vibrator was born. This was documented a ways back in one of the engineering journals of the IEEE. The author later expanded her article into a book.

Just to stay on topic note that the "cover" was blown when these devices appeared in early erotic films:

IEEE Abstract:

quote:

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Abstract:
The case of the electromechanical vibrator, as a technology associated with women's sexuality, involves issues of acceptability rather than legality. The vibrator and its predecessor technologies, including the dildo, are associated with masturbation, a socially prohibited activity until well into the second half of this century. Devices for mechanically-assisted female masturbation, mainly vibrators and dildoes, were marketed in the popular press from the late nineteenth century through the early thirties in similarly camouflaged advertising. A history of the electromechanical vibrator is presented. The electromechanical vibrator emerged in the 1880s as a medical instrument designed to mechanize massage techniques used by physicians since antiquity. Among these was vulvular massage to orgasm as a treatment for hysteria in women. The sexual character of the therapy was camouflaged in medical rhetoric which characterized female arousal as a pathological syndrome from which relief was obtained in the `hysterical paroxysm'. Manual massage was fatiguing and slow, however, and water and steam-powered methods capital-intensive; when portable vibrators powered by line electricity became available at the turn of the century they quickly became dominant medical massage technology until the appearance of vibrators in erotic films in the 1920s eroded the instrument's social camouflage

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The truth according to historian and author Rachel Maines is that though these tools were advertised as chiropractic devices, their salubrious effects were overshadowed by their more ecstatic applications. In her book The Technology of Orgasm, Maines, who spent time researching at the Bakken Library, traces their origins back to the Victorian medical treatment of “hysteria,” a condition thought to be caused by a woman’s failure to come to orgasm. Victorian doctors treated the “disease” by massaging their patients’ genitals, and turned to the electrical gizmos to make their jobs a little easier. According to Maines, as electricity became available across the country, these vibrators saw new domestic uses, though ads for them only hinted at anything beyond simple chiropractic relief.

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Minneapolis is full of fun, secret stuff!
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-02-2004, 06:28 PM:
 
I'd like to see the steam powered one!
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 12-02-2004, 08:32 PM:
 

quote: Allison Parsons

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hey, what about us women?! geez

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Allison, if they were for women, they wouldn't be called stag parties.
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 12-02-2004, 08:56 PM:
 

quote: Steve

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I'd like to see the steam powered one!

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quote: Tim Reed

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Allison, if they were for women, they wouldn't be called stag parties.

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hehe, your right. But I'm sure that secretly women wished there were Doe parties in town.
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-02-2004, 11:17 PM:
 
So host one.
 

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Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 12-07-2004, 10:11 PM:
 
We have a small snippet of black and white 16mm film in the booth which appears to match this description. It's definitely porn, and appears to have text cards. There's no soundtrack, either. It's perforated on both sides, as well. I would estimate it's probably about 30 seconds to a minute worth of film, from the size of the roll.
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-07-2004, 11:58 PM:
 
Scan it and have Joe turn it into an animated GIF.

BTW, is there a flaw in the original request? It presumes 16mm yet give dates that would surely predate that gauge.
 

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