Vote for Robert Redford and Susan Sarandon in 2000

By Brenda Loew

Across this nation and throughout the world, pro-pleasure enthusiasts engage in a diverse range of erotic fantasies and real sexual behaviors regardless of age, income level and educational background. That we do so validates the naturally shared human desire for freedom of erotic and sexual self-expression and personal sexual liberty.

At EIDOS, we advocate sexual freedom and personal privacy rights for consenting adults of all erotic and sexual orientations, preferences and lifestyles. We believe that erotic and sexual pleasure nurtures physical, emotional and spiritual vitality and overall well-being. In other words, we believe that feeling good is good for you. We constantly wrestle with First Amendment issues of speech and press freedoms, church-state separation, privacy rights, tolerance for diversity, politics and The System. We try to work through these issues using Sexual Freedom as the flashpoint.

Our pleasure-phobic mainstream culture does not encourage the personal celebration of eroticism and sexuality by real men and women. "We the People" aren't encouraged or expected to seriously and openly talk about feeling good about ourselves, erotically and sexually. For two thousand years, authoritarian western morality has preached that sensual pleasure is evil, wrong and sinful.

Forget about fucking for a minute. Ask yourself, when was the last time you personally participated in a provocative and productive conversation about love, lust, intimacy, romance, commitment, eroticism, sex and sexual fulfillment, in private or in public, with a trusted, respected partner -- or with anyone?

If you think discussing national, international politics or local issues is difficult in 1998, then just try discussing sexual politics or issues related to human sexuality and eroticism!

EIDOS is your voice. Use it. Collectively, you determine the content of this magazine. Don't settle for shallow, stereotypical and often downright arrested models of adult sexuality and eroticism.

At EIDOS, we are committed to standing outside of America's "establishment" media. As a member of the independent press, EIDOS is a conduit between the mainstream media and the radical, fringe underground. EIDOS has the freedom of conscience to unapologetically provide a forum for sex-positive men, women and couples who desire, seek out, celebrate, enjoy and experience consensual eroticism and sexual pleasure in today's hypocritical, repressed society. As early as 1761, John Adams supported freedom of the press but warned "License of the press is no proof of liberty. When a people are corrupted, the press may be an engine to complete their ruin." (John Adams & The American Press: Politics & Journalism at the Birth of the Republic. Walt Brown. McFarland. Jefferson, NC & London. 1995.)

Pretend for just a moment that EIDOS had George Magazine's/JFK Jr's money and connections. Imagine my ability, as publisher and editor, to raise the public's consciousness that:

1) Sexual Freedom is a fundamental human, constitutional and civil right granted to every born person as a political and social guarantee to freedom from unwarranted coercion by government or individuals;

2) Tolerance for unrestricted personal freedom of individual choice in all areas of sexual and erotic life and lifestyle must be respected;

3) Viable, real alternatives exist to the elitist, often unrealistic, legal /religious model which sanctions procreative intercourse for married couples only.

In view of allegations of infidelity against President Clinton, candidates for president in 2000 are probably going to face questions about their sex lives. Yech. How boring!

On the other hand, Village Voice columnist Austin Bunn agrees with me that Robert Redford would make a great president! "I vote Susan Sarandon for VP," Bunn emailed me. Glamorous, sexy and influential Sarandon appeared with Redford in the 1975 film, "The Great Waldo Pepper." Wouldn't Redford and Sarandon be stunning together as symbolic running mates?!

Recently, I spent four hours with Bob Redford's personal publicist. Redford, a longtime icon of liberal politics and activism, is, in my opinion, an American patriot. Many of his films make strong center-left political statements and a number even include subtle depictions of genuinely offbeat adult eroticism and sexuality.

Of the movie, "Out of Africa," set in E. Kenya, Africa in 1913, Lori Leibovich writes, "...what is seared into my mind about 'Out of Africa,'... is one lingering, decadent moment.

In that scene, Meryl Streep, who plays writer Karen Blixen, and Robert Redford, a British hunter and her illicit lover, bask in radiant sunshine on the lawn of Streep's expansive African homestead. Streep is seated as Redford stands her and slowly, lovingly shampoos her blond locks. Streep leans back, her eyes half shut, her mouth creased in a soft, submissive smile, and giggles -- surrendering to his touch and relishing in the simple pleasure of being bathed. She is unabashedly, beautifully, happy.

It's subtle sexy gestures like bathing that too often get lost on film (and in life) in favor of love scenes of the fucking-against-a-wall-in-the-rain variety. Just give me some water, some hands, a dramatic backdrop and two luminous blonds and I'm transported.

And isn't that what the movies are about?"

Leibovich misses one important point: in reality, the "new woman" was emerging during the 1910's. Radical feminist men and women were battling for sexual freedom and equal rights with regards to home, career and marketplace. So, with his seemingly unconventional ideas towards (free) love and marriage, Redford's character, Denys Finch-Hatton, tries to emancipate the educated, dignified Karen from respectable society's traditional social, institutional and sexual restraints:

Streep/(Karen): ...I just thought we would do that someday...

Redford/(Denys): Divorce? How would a wedding change things?

Streep: I would have somebody of my own.

Redford: No you wouldn't.

Streep: What's wrong with marriage anyway?...

Redford: Karen, I'm with you because I choose to be with you...I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. You have a choice. And you're not willing to do the same for me. I won't be closer to you, I won't love you more because of a piece of paper...

Streep: Why is your freedom more important than mine?

Redford: It isn't and I've never interfered with your freedom....

Streep: My God in the world that you would make there'd be no love at all.

Redford: Or the best kind. The kind we wouldn't have to prove.... Are we assuming there's only one way to do this?...

I hope you experience pleasure perusing this issue of EIDOS and find it entertaining as well as politically-culturally alternative, yet relevant to your worldview, life and lifestyle.

Lastly, please vote in the next presidential election -- even if you are tired of the sorry, corrupt state of politics-as-usual.

Just write-in:

Redford/Sarandon in '00!

********

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Brenda Loew's E I D O S Magazine -- ENTERTAINING ADULTS IN THE LOEW TRADITION SINCE 1917. Championing, in the Thomas Jefferson tradition, 1st amendment rights to Freedom of Sexual Self-Expression. Est. 1984. "...you owe yourself a look at least one issue." -- Adult Video News. EIDOS, POB 96, Boston, MA 02137-0096. 617-262-0096; Fax: 617-364-0096; eidos@eidos.org; www.eidos.org EIDOS is a member of the Independent Press Association. 

Freedom isn't Free. The Battle For Sexual Freedom Will Never Be Lost!

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