Hustler's BL: By Popular Demand
Written: Sep 01 '02 (Updated Sep 02 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Attractive Girls, All Natural
Cons: Overplays 'First Time' Fantasy
The Bottom Line: BARELY LEGAL, what sex-ed should have been.
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| tbthorn's Full Review: Hustler's Barely Legal Magazine |
WARNING: The following is a review of an adult magazine and contains references to strong sexual content. By continuing to read this review, you agree that you are not offended by such material and are of legal age to view adult content.
Sub-genres: Coming of Age, Barely Legal
Hardcore: No
BARELY LEGAL Comes of Age
After my recent review of HUSTLER'S TABOO, one of the dedicated Category Leads in Magazines informed me that HUSTLER'S BARELY LEGAL was in desperate need of reviews. My perverse sense of civic duty compelled me to oblige. For those that aren't porn-savvy, BARELY LEGAL dedicates its pages to the young women who have recently celebrated their 18th birthday and their new-found right to pose nude.
It isn't surprising to find BARELY LEGAL on the Magazine's Hot List; the so-called 'teen' genre is probably the fastest growing fetish in adult commerce. In an age when the American dream involves coupling a middle-aged man with a hot young twenty-something, BARELY LEGAL is a natural success. The fetish itself is nothing revolutionary, but has enjoyed renewed prominence in the age of the internet and a culture that identifies with such films as American Beauty.
Exhibit A
Not being one to callously discuss a trend's popularity without quazi-scientific validation, I had my friend Google! assess the popularity of several fetishes on the web for comparison:
Search Term*...........Hits
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"Teen Sex"...............659,000
"Nude Teen".............371,000
"Teen Hardcore"........275,000
"Barely Legal"............94,800
"Voyeurism".............350,000
"Dominatrix".............307,000
"S&M".....................225,000
"Foot Fetish"............190,000
"Exhibitionism".........173,000
"Golden Shower"........73,200
Being the science geek that I am, I also performed several control searches to ensure that the results are not due to random word association. To address the possibility, I arbitrarily replaced one search term with the word avocado:
"Teen Avocado".................0
"Avocado Sex"..................2
"Nude Avocado"................2
"Avocado Teen".................0
"Avocado Fetish"...............1
"Avocado Shower".............9
Although this study is not scientific enough to warrant statistical analysis, it appears that the teen fetish is indeed surpassing many of its more traditional counterparts in cyberspace. The fact that "Avocado Sex" and "Avocado Fetish" actually returned hits is worthy of further study, but I'll save that for another review.
* All searches were performed as exact phrase matches.
Contents
Pictorials: Each issue includes about 10 pictorials of BARELY LEGAL girls in a variety of locations, from poolside to bedside. In an overt attempt to emphasize their youth, BARELY LEGAL provides its girls with props that oft include cotton panties, lollypops, plaid skirts and stuffed animals. Every photo spread is captioned with a brief glimpse into the subject's horny young life. Surely falsified, the sensationalized biographies portray a naughtiness that contrasts with the images that are ripe with innocence. Not to be undersold, BARELY LEGAL attracts the hottest young women around. They're also known to throw in some girl-on-girl now and then.
First-Time Letters: You won't find debate about the war on Iraq or healthcare reform, but you will find explicit letters recounting the first times of barely legal girls. While the letters have erotic potential, they are probably bogus. I mean, how many 18 year-old girls read BARELY LEGAL and then share their most intimate experiences with the porn-loving public? Besides, they don't even print an address for readers to send letters to. Aside from a first name and a city, there isn't any indication that they are even letters at all -- to avoid claims of misrepresentation, I suppose.
Advice Column (Girl Talk): Apparently, this is where young women get answers to their burning questions about sex and intimacy. Letters written from the perspective of 18 year old girls are answered by girls from previous issues of BARELY LEGAL, so-called tart-to-tart advice. Although they actually print an address for correspondence, I still think the whole thing is bogus. There are more likely places that teenage girls would go for advice. The letters and responses are probably written by men with too much free time on their hands.
Feature Stories: Each issue contains one or more feature stories that read like extended letters. The tales are written from a barely legal girl's point of view, recounting a recent sexual experience in graphic detail. The stories play on common fantasies, such as cheerleaders or sex with older men. Perhaps they'd be more arousing if they weren't so obviously fake. Not to trash them too much, the stories are at least marginally better than the competition.
Video Reviews: BARELY LEGAL gives you the low down on several recent teen fetish videos. The reviews certainly don't compare to the ones you'll find here at Epinions. Then again, you probably won't find these titles in the Epinions database. Rather than stars, the videos are rated as 1-4 pacifiers -- a practice that I find tacky. Perhaps they could have chosen a more tasteful rating system based on pom-poms, lollypops or cotton panties. Not surprisingly, they give their own videos rave reviews.
Amateur Pictures: Like many other adult magazines, BARELY LEGAL hosts a monthly photo contest. Girls will receive $250 for each picture that gets printed. Not bad, but you can find these on the internet.
Girls on Men: Each month, BARELY LEGAL gives one of their girls the opportunity to write an op-ed piece on the state of men. More or less, this is just another pseudo-letter put into editorial form.
Ads: Although the ads for phone sex and porno flicks make up a decent chunk of BARELY LEGAL, there is still plenty of content. Some of it is even buried amongst the ads to get you to flip through them. BARELY LEGAL is par for the course here.
Photography
Shot under such pseudonyms as Bob Twigg and Falcon Foto, the photographs are precisely the quality you might expect from an industrial leader like HUSTLER. Technically solid, generally tasteful and, above all else, lots of it.
Writing
The letters and stories not only appear to be fake, they also seem to be written by the same person. I'd never seen a woman's vagina referred to as a cooter or a ginch, yet this is the vocabulary that frequently turns up in BARELY LEGAL. Someone definitely needs a thesaurus for his birthday. In all fairness, the stories and letters are at least as erotic as those you'll find in other adult magazines. I just can't get past the image of a middle-aged man in his parent's basement, typing with one hand and holding a cigarette in the other. Ick.
Still Softcore?
Despite HUSTLER's trend towards hardcore sex, BARELY LEGAL remains a predominantly softcore magazine. While their pictorials show girls playing with their toys or other girls, they don't include men in any of their photo features. It might seem that they are trying to preserve the untouched image of their girls, but in reality they save the hardcore material for HUSTLER's BARELY LEGAL HARDCORE, which sells for $15.99 an issue. I should note that some penetration is depicted in their reviews of adult videos and the advertisements.
100% Natural
The most refreshing aspect of BARELY LEGAL is the tendency to feature girls that are completely natural. You won't find many fake boobs, bleached blondes or booth tans in these pages. At a time when most adult magazines center around baked, dyed and siliconed beauties, BARELY LEGAL remains 100% natural.
Ethics 101
Legality and morality are two separable issues. While BARELY LEGAL abides by all current US legislation, including the portions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPAA) that have been declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, the morality of their enterprise is a matter of opinion and a topic for a different venue. Although BARELY LEGAL presents its girls as legal adults, not all magazines and internet sites follow their lead. To remain on-topic, I'll simply point you to some resources on child pornography and virtual child pornography that you might find useful:
Anti-Child Porn Organization
http://www.antichildporn.org
US Supreme Court Decision Declaring CPPA Unconstitutional
http://www.cdt.org/speech/020416cppa.pdf
About.com Article on Virtual Child Pornography
http://crime.about.com/library/weekly/aavirtualchildpornography.htm
DISCUSS: About.com Forum on Virtual Child Pornography
http://forums.about.com/ab-crime/messages?msg=342.1
Value
BARELY LEGAL is comparably priced to HUSTLER's other titles at $7.99 per issue or $39.95 for an annual subscription (12 issues). If the teen fetish is your bag, then BARELY LEGAL is probably worth the cover price and definitely worth the subscription price. Unlike the anorexic trend of most hardcore magazines, BARELY LEGAL seems to be getting thicker; and the quality of HUSTLER's magazines is rivaled by few.
Final Comments
Years back, I would turn to BARELY LEGAL in search of girls closer to my own age and to avoid the thirty-somethings with pigtails that most mainstream magazines feature. Although little has changed in BARELY LEGAL over the years, it just doesn't have the same appeal for me. My 4-star rating reflects the quality and content of the magazine from the perspective of a potential consumer rather than my current attitude. Perhaps the best and most tasteful of the teen fetish mags, save maybe Playboy's COLLEGE GIRLS, BARELY LEGAL is worth a look for those in search of young women that are totally natural. HUSTLER quality at a HUSTLER's price.
Similar Magazines Worth Checking Out
Hustler'S HOMETOWN GIRLS
Playboy's COLLEGE GIRLS
Recommended:
Yes
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tbthorn
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Member: Tom
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Reviews written: 196
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Vacation (vA-kA-shun) 1. Eating too much 2. Drinking too much 3. Getting a tan
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