How the Joy of Sex was illustrated (BBC) {observing 40th anniversary}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Cordelia Hebblethwaite
BBC World Service

Forty years ago, a London publisher was working on a groundbreaking sex manual - a "gourmet guide" to sexual pleasure, with copious and detailed illustrations. But how could this be done tastefully and legally?

Think of The Joy of Sex and chances are your mind will drift to an image of a man with a bushy beard and a woman with hairy armpits.

It's not a photograph, but the nearest thing to it in pen and ink.

In early 1970s Britain, photographs would have been too risque. But hand-drawn illustrations based on photographs? Maybe society was ready for that.

"We were a bit nervous when we took this on," remembers one of the book's illustrators, Chris Foss.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15309357




While I suppose this might have passed in GD, it seemd safer to post in The Lounge ...

[RedCloud]

1. This has the makings of the greatest thread ever!

I am proud to be first.

I was held captive, a veritable prisoner of war during the Sexual Revolution. :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:

there I said it. :blush:

[Brickbat]

2. I remember paging through TJOS with two boys when we were all about 12-13, and then again when

someone brought it to school when I was a junior. We all laughed until we cried at the hairy armpits.

[riderinthestorm]

4. Jeez, better check my copy is still "hidden" in my underwear drawer from my 15 yr old's prying eyes

(rider shambles off to check....)

[JohnnyLib2]

3. Found our old copy in a storage box recently!

Dang, a lot of things were easier in the 70s..... :evilgrin: