Sex (book)
Sex is a 1992 coffee table book written by American singer Madonna, with photography by Steven Meisel Studio and Fabien Baron. It was edited by Glenn O'Brien and published by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway. The book features adult content including softcore pornography and simulations of sexual acts including sadomasochism.
Madonna developed Sex after Judith Regan of Simon & Schuster publishers suggested a book of erotic photographs. She wrote it as a character named "Mistress Dita", inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It was influenced by punk rock and fashion figures including Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. The photos were shot in early 1992 in New York City and Miami, in locations including hotels, burlesque theaters, and city streets. The book includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, and socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The cover is made of aluminium, spiral bound and wrapped in a boPET sheet.
Madonna's publishers were apprehensive about the release and the book's commercial potential. It was released on October 21, 1992, the day after Madonna's fifth studio album Erotica. A CD single was also packaged with the book which contained the song "Erotic", a song similar in composition to her similarly named single "Erotica". It sold over 150,000 copies on its first day in the United States, and topped the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks. In a matter of days, Sex went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies worldwide and remains the best- and fastest-selling coffee table book. It also remains as one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time.
Sex attracted extensive media attention and backlash, but Madonna remained unapologetic. Though it initially received negative reviews from fans and critics, who felt she had "gone too far", later reviews have been more positive, with academics deeming it a defining phase in Madonna's career. Sex is noted for its social and cultural impact and is considered a bold post-feminist work.
Background and development
According to Giselle Benatar of Entertainment Weekly, two versions explain how Madonna came up with the idea for the book. One is that she conceived the idea of an erotic photography book during the shooting of the film A League of Their Own in the summer of 1991. The other is that Judith Regan, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, armed with a proposal for a collection of photo-erotica, flew to Los Angeles in March 1991 to meet with Madonna and her manager Freddy DeMann. She verified Regan had not approached other celebrities with the concept as she was only interested in the project if it was a unique idea. By the end of the meeting Madonna had agreed "in principle" to do a book titled Madonna's Book of Erotica and Sexual Fantasies. She told Regan that DeMann would call her and work out the book's details. However, Madonna never got back to Regan who assumed she did not want to go ahead with the idea. Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg has never confirmed nor denied Regan's claim that they had an agreement.According to Benatar, Madonna began working on Sex before wrapping up shooting A League of Their Own. At first, Warner Bros. Records and the executive directors of Time Warner were reluctant to allow Madonna to publish such a book, but finally agreed. Madonna had to sign a contract that forbade the book from including images of child pornography, bestiality, or religious imagery. Not long after signing the agreement, Madonna founded Maverick, a multi-media entertainment company in partnership with Time Warner. Since by contract she had total artistic control over any work released by Maverick, who were now the book's publisher, the agreement she signed with Time Warner over the content in Sex was null and void.
Sexs stylized, sado-masochistic look had a range of influences from punk rock, to early fashion iconoclasts like Guy Bourdin and his surrealism, and Helmut Newton. Photographs from Brassaï's 1933 book Paris de nuit also inspired several of the book's series of images. The book was also influenced by Robert Mapplethorpe's infamous three-part XYZ portfolio, particularly the X portfolio. Madonna had considered using X as a title during the formative stages of Sex, but she changed her mind when promotion for Spike Lee's film Malcolm X began.. She would go on to tell Vogue magazine: "We were gonna call it X but then the whole thing with the Malcolm X movie started. At first I thought, 'Fuck it, it's a really good symbol and I thought of it first'. But I realized it might be confusing or look like I was copying Spike . Besides, Sex is almost as powerful: it's universal, it doesn't need translation – and it's only two letters more than X."
Madonna hired top-notch talent for the book's development, and counted on the help of friends from the music, film and fashion industry. She hired Fabien Baron as the art director, fashion photographer Steven Meisel, editor Glenn O'Brien, make-up artist Francois Nars and hairstylist Paul Cavaco. Madonna originally wanted the book to be an oval shape to simulate a condom, but its printing and manufacturing would have been too expensive. Meisel would later comment: "Madonna and I can keep up with each other", noting "I'm doing things to make people think too. It's not really to antagonize or to push people's buttons. It's really to present another way of seeing things."
During the photo sessions for Sex, photographer Steven Meisel was accompanied by art director Fabion Baron who filmed the shoots on Super 8 film for use in the music video for the song "Erotica". The photo sessions took place in New York City and Miami. Locations in New York City included the Hotel Chelsea and Times Square's all-male burlesque Gaiety Theatre whose dancers participated in one of the book's photo sessions along with porn star Joey Stefano and actor Udo Kier. Many of the Miami photo sessions took place at Madonna's Coconut Grove mansion that she had recently purchased before beginning the Sex book project, while other sessions were done on several beaches and streets close to her home. One morning during the four-day Florida shoot Madonna was prancing naked around her 14-bedroom house in Miami when someone jokingly suggested she go out on the street, which she did on two occasions – topless with Vanilla Ice and completely nude while pretending to hitchhike. According to Baron on the street "cars screeched to a halt, motorists whistled, and one entranced cyclist fell off his bike". During the photo shoots Baron said, "'d do something crazy and then we'd come up with something even crazier". One of the most shocking photographs features two women in post-punk attire flanking Madonna with one of them holding a knife to her crotch. It was considered too violent to be used. While the book was being produced some of the photographs were stolen but were quickly recovered by the FBI. According to New York magazine, there were approximately 80,000 photographs taken for the book; only a handful of them were used. It took 15 days to print the book. The total production process took about eight months. Warner Bros. commented that Sex was very difficult to produce, requiring contributions from many printing companies. They noted that to make a profit the book needed to sell at least 350,000 copies.
Design and content
Wrapped and sealed in a polyethylene terephthalate Mylar bag, Sex has 128 pages and is spiral bound with an aluminium cover that has the word "Sex" stamped in the middle and a warning label. The front page shows Madonna against a sky blue backdrop. Three different types of paper were used for the printing. Madonna and Baron & Baron Inc., who also collaborated with her designing the cover art for her fifth studio album, Erotica, oversaw the design. As this was Maverick's first project, the packaging was crucial. Madonna had no faith in Warner Book's "mass-market" publication process, however, so Baron suggested they transfer the packaging job to Nicholas Callaway's bespoke Callaway Editions. Charles Melcher, the book's co-publisher with Callaway, said they usually published "exquisite art books, $100 high end, beautiful things". It was a challenge for them to process Madonna's ideas into reality. The artist wanted the packaging to be sealed, so the reader had to tear it open to read the book. They considered various kinds of clasps before deciding on a sealed bag as a reference to a condom package. The metal cover was Madonna's idea. She was inspired by the 1979 album Metal Box by Public Image Ltd. Melcher recalls, "We were talking about materials for the cover, and we went into her kitchen. pointed at the metal plate at the back of her stove and said, 'I want something like this'. I was very impressed with the way she interacted with her world to source things". The company bought about of aluminium, roughly a pound for each book. The designers oversaw the production of the front and back covers, which were stamped and anodized while the aluminium was rolling on a press.The book opens with the introduction: "Everything you are about to see and read is a fantasy, a dream, pretend." Throughout Sex, Madonna offers poems, stories, and essays. She used the pseudonym "Mistress Dita" as an homage to German actress Dita Parlo; her friends in the stories are Bunny, Dex, Stella, Chiclet and Stranger. According to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, a big part of the book reads like a letter to a pornographic magazine. Madonna wanted to explore the notion of power in Sex. Melcher said she wanted to talk about "gentle and hard, soft and violent . She was playing out all those elements in her book. That was reflected in the materials: uncoated, soft paper on the inside and hard metal coating on the outside".
Like the text—which was mostly printed on the photographs—they are highly sexual and depict nudity, simulations of sexual acts, bondage, homosexuality and analingus, with accessories such as knives, whips, masks and chains; however, intercourse is never shown. Actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Madonna's then-boyfriend Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg, and nightclub owner Ingrid Casares and unknown models are featured in the book. Its heterosexual photos involve only Madonna and Vanilla Ice. Madonna herself is featured partially or completely naked. One of the book's most famous photographs shows a naked Madonna hitchhiking in Miami. The book also reflects Dita's perspective towards her own sexuality. She writes that her "pussy" is a temple of learning and exposing it, is really an homage to it. "It's hard to describe it smells like a baby to me fresh and full of life. I love my pussy, it is the complete summation of my life." Sex contains statements like "ass fucking is the most pleasurable way to get fucked and it hurts the most too". "There is something comforting about being tied up. Like when you were a baby and your mother strapped you in the car seat. She wanted you to be safe. It was an act of love". "I wouldn't want a penis. It would be like having a third leg. it seems like a contraption that would get in the way. I think I have a dick in my brain". Dita also points out "A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want". Since they recovered stolen pictures during the making of Sex, Madonna thanked the FBI for "rescuing photographs that would have made J. Edgar Hoover roll over" in the book's credits.