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| This artwork used to be a lot more explicit. (Illustration from Body & Soul) |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).
The article: "Not So Easy—This Life." Originally published in Body & Soul (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 6, no. 1, February/March 1972. No author credited.
Excerpt: "There is no such thing as an easy change over from the small town life to the big city life. And she learns fast that many of the parental horrors were founded on fact. She is a walking target for any character when the streets become dark. She is a sure lure for a pickup in the cocktail bars. . . . And she is certain to have one hell of a time locating a job before her money runs out and she would be forced back to the tank town from where she came."
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| There are plenty of career opportunities for women. |
Reflections: "Not So Easy—This Life" has been included in the section of When the Topic is Sex dealing with Ed Wood's views on various social and political issues, and I guess it could be loosely interpreted as Ed's take on women in the workplace. In truth, however, this article flits from topic to topic so often that it's difficult to summarize. Let's say that, in the broadest sense, it's about career opportunities for women, including stripper, prostitute, nude model, and porn star.
Women used to be content with staying at home, going directly from school to marriage and family. Their parents took care of them until they were 18. Then their husbands took over. But now, thanks to the sexual revolution, they're entering the work world. What is there for them to do? Ed points out that there are numerous unskilled and entry-level jobs for men out there, but not so many for women. The guys are even starting to move in on those coveted secretarial positions.
Ed then describes a small town girl leaving behind her worried parents and boarding a Greyhound Bus for the big city. Once she's there, if she's lucky, she might snag a job as a file clerk. If she's not so lucky, a waitress at a greasy spoon. If those don't work out, then what? If she's pretty enough, says Ed, she might become a topless waitress or a hooker. Not many girls dream of becoming prostitutes, but the pay and the hours aren't bad, Ed reminds us. The topless (and sometimes bottomless) joints, meanwhile, are a great place to make business contacts, especially for lesbians.
Maybe a young woman will discover that being a model or actress is more her speed. Plenty of career opportunities there. "Magazine publishers are always in need of new faces and new figures and every new girl who is willing to take her clothes off has an automatic job," Ed says. Meanwhile, adult movies provide work for men and women. Interestingly, Eddie doesn't even mention theatrically-released feature films as a possibility here, even though he'd already been making them himself by the time he wrote this article. Instead, he only talks about silent 8mm and 16mm loops, made "for bars, coin operated machines and home distribution."
All that remains is for Ed Wood to bring this article home with some kind of stirring conclusion, the moral of the story if you will. Here's how he sums it all up:
But there is the market, and we might find that the girl doesn't have to pack up and head home simply because some office job was not open to her. And if she is smart, while she is making the photos and the films she will be taking a course with some business school . . . thus when her day as a model is over, she will have the studies needed to fall back on. And that goes for the guys as well. Where there's a will there's a way, as long as it is always remember that it's not so easy—this life!
Keep your chin up, little missy. Can't get that secretarial job you wanted? Don't worry. You can strip your way to success!
Next: "A Tax on Sex" (1975)