Bettie Page and Beastiality

Being a Seattle girl, I’m pretty close to the issue in # 3. Seattle is a mere hour or so from Enumclaw, the location of the incident that sparked the whole animal-fucking-is-legal debate. If you think the horse-fucking-phenomenon was a big joke in the rest of the country (world?) then imagine how big it was here. Not familiar with the story? Take a look:
http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=38000

Pay close attention to this line:
“They know that because the entire incident was caught on videotape, one of more than 100 tapes police took from the farm.”

Some claim to have a copy of the video of Mr. Pinyan’s unfortunate incident. I have not clicked the links to see if they are legit. I am having a hard time deciding whether it’s more upsetting to be wildly morbidly curious, or deeply disturbed and disgusted. But now you can decide for yourself:

http://seattle.metblogs.com/archives/2005/08/sinking_to_new.phtml
(the link to the video is in the comments)

As for the legality of the act, it does seem that it is legal. But there are rumors that our local government plans to remedy that with some new legislation…as soon as they are finished with the more important issues such as making sure strippers stay 4 feet from their customers at all times.

Just becasue something is legal to do, doesn’t mean that some news hungry district attorney won’t try to proesecute it, and end up costing half a million bucks and untold stresses fighitng in courts. Look at the extreme associates case, I don’t think what they shot was illegal, bad taste perhaps, but not illegal. However it is still being tried and costing Rob Black a ton of cash, time, and relationships in the industry (although people I have spoken with have told me that his grabbing ass and shenanigans like that have really cost him the relationships more than the movie in question).

If you apply the financial thikning of the car companies in “fight club”, something like a=amount of money spent on production, marketing, etc plus b=amount of money and time fighting it in court, would need to exceed c (amount of money made from a film’s sales), then I believe the business model just doesn’t add up.

While beastiality may be one of the untapped taboos, and many people may check it out and watch a few videos of it, I do not belive enough people would actually pay for the content via the web or DVD. Even witht the texas sodomy case specifically mentioning that beastiality should be a matter of PETA and not for the governemnt to get involved with, I still think that the social stigma will keep people from actually purchasing beastility flicks in any profitable numbers.

Certainly there will always be an interest in taboos such as beastiality, there will be plenty of people exploring it, in both fantasy and reality, wether it be written stories or film or whatever, but getting people to pay for it would require garuntees of complete anonymity, and with all of the nsa phone taps and crap like that going on, stories of underage webcammers turning over payment records of thier voyeurs and like, I would not expect a taboo such as beastiality going any further than some private kennel clubs trading videos and the few that people put beasty vids on the torrents for free.

I am sure some sales would be made, I am sure every college frat party would have one playing in the background, and many people who harbor secret fantasies of such acts would certainly enjoy watching other people doing it, but would there be 500,000 copies sold? Could you get stores to carry it, even if it was proved legal?

A well done beasty flick may be one of the biggest bootlegged videos on the planet, but I do not think that the sales would outway the legal hassles, even if not illegal. Larry Flynt went to the supreme court fighting for his magazine and for better porn for the masses, but the masses were supporting him with a million sales a month or something right?

When you say sex with animals is legalin Washington, are you talking about Washington state? or D.C.? Why do you say it is legal there? The Texas Sodomy case made it sound that if it was in the privacy of your own home then it would be legal anywhere in the whole country…

Steve: “I believe the business model just doesn’t add up.”

This, I agree with. But I’m not sure it’s because not enough people would pay for content; I bet for sheer curiosity’s sake, people would.

Even though it might be legal to film in Washington, there can’t be enough places outside Washington where it’s legal to own said film.

I don’t know what taboos are left. Crush, maybe?

Elizabeth, I do think there would be plenty of sales to make money, and there would be probably be a ton of sales, but then the market would get divided with other companies putting out content, and then you would have to wiegh in the possible $500,000 it could cost to go to trial. If you had a successful title that sold 50,000 copies, would that pay for the trials, lawyers, and headaches? Not quite, especially if the market became divided between several companies.

With the current administration’s war on porn, the fbi porn squad, and attorney generals trying to get local prosecutors to censor things they don’t like (nowthatsfuckedup.com), it would also be a tough sell to the local video stores, which are increasingly fighting battles to stay open.

With the Texas sodomy ruling I don’t think it would be illegal to own such a film, they would have to try to go after the prodcuers for an obscenity charge, and if the film was willing participants of say a dog and girl, they would have a tough time getting a conviction to be upheld I believe.

Heck you could use the literary value of the Miller test and make it a historical thing; back in the Jamestown time period / colonial times, when they actually have records of many many bestiality events during colonial times.

But in my expereince just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean you can afford to prove it. Even extreme associates is going bankrupt fighting ONE case.

Hey, You’re back in LA! does that mean you’re gonna send my fleshlite now?