Feminism and the porn industry, the strange couple of the new HBO series

Joyce, a young feminist living in Los Angeles in the vibrant ’70s, is determined to launch a magazine that champions women’s rights, but her only option is to ally herself with Doug, a low-budget porn publisher whose only interest is to make a lot of money.

From this strange combination of feminism and pornography, the fictional magazine “Minx” is born, which gives its name to the series that hbo max It will premiere on March 17.

The story, which is inspired by the creation in 1973 of the publication “Playgirl”, humorously shows the clash of these two worlds and that of the antagonistic personalities of the protagonists, embodied by Ophelia Lovibond and Jake Johnson.

Some contradictions that are more than enough to create all kinds of comic situations in which Joyce’s puritanical feminism is constantly challenged by an extremely lax environment for her.

“She is not aware of how limited and fragile some of her ideas are, how closed they are,” Lovibond tells Efe, before explaining that Joyce feels uncomfortable with that limitation, “which feeds back the idea that she is not being very feminist if she doesn’t approach all aspects of herself.”

To confront his convictions is mainly Doug, but also the rest of the characters in the story, such as Bambi (Jessica Lowe)Tub (Idara Victor) and Richie (Oscar Montoya) who work for Doug, or his sister Shelly (Lennon Parkham)much more open to the sexual world.

“It wasn’t hard to find a rhythm” when acting with Johnson, explains Lovibond, since “we were very lucky, precisely because, although the characters are very different, their main objective is the success of ‘Minx’, although for very different reasons” .

For Johnson, working together was easy because the characters they both portray are close to their own personalities.

“The on-camera and off-camera dynamics felt similar at times when we were shooting scenes,” Johnson tells EFE.

Through this dynamic and these contradictions, Lovibond explains, Joyce’s “understanding of that world” is enhanced and relaxed.

And the spectator, “in some way, can accompany her on that trip”, ditch.

A story inspired by “Playgirl” magazine

As Johnson explains to EFE, “Minx” is a “totally fictional” story for which the series’ creator and executive producer, Ellen Rapoport, was inspired by “Playgirl.”

In 1973, the magazine “Playgirl” was born in the United States, aimed at the female public in response to publications such as “Playboy”, which even took the new header to court for considering that it infringed its registered trademark, although they later reached a agreement.

“Playgirl” struggled throughout its run to survive and find new publishers and new audiences, such as trying to appeal to gay audiences.

The magazine was created by Douglas Lambert, a California nightclub owner who saw an opportunity to create a nudity publication for women’s consumption at the height of a new sexual revolution.

At its most successful, in the late 1970s, it sold 1.5 million copies per issue.

Within its fictional world, “Minx” also echoes several events of the time, such as the appearance in the publication “Cosmopolitan” of a photograph of actor Burt Reynolds dressed only with a cigarette between his teeth, the first male nude on a center page.

Johnson remembers a video about “Playgirl” and the reactions to the magazine that producer Ellen Rapoport sent them when they were discussing the series project.

“The reaction that people had about male nudity was so funny that we became convinced that if we approached that it could be a great show,” he concluded.

“Minx” also stands out for the dynamism of the dialogues, the characterization of the time and the lively and careful costumes of the characters, and also shows some of the dark aspects of this industry, such as machismo, corruption and exploitation, but always filtered by the ironic or comic tone of the series.