This is not a posting for pious eyes.  The most shocking of then pales in comparison to what we can find online within seconds today, but it was shocking then.  And is not for pious eyes.

The Red Mountain Tribe explained and continues to explain that a large reason for their strike against Max Scherr and the Barb in 1969 was the increase in sleazy sexual ads that Max was placing in the Barb in an effort to increase revenues.

The Tribe was not as sleazy as the Barb but it was neither prudish nor political correct (a term which did not yet have the favor it now has).  In its early issues, it accepted advertisements for sex-related material, and it ran heteroerotic photos, mostly of naked or near-naked women.

 

This article was a feminist criticism of the Phoneix Art Gallery on College Avenue.  The criticism used this photograph and language to shock: “a perfect example of how men find uses to portray women as cunts.  Cunts are all that was to be seen.”   And so on.  From the safety of today, it seems that there may be been some paralypsis at work here.  If you object to an image, don’t blow it up and publish it.  If you object to a word, don’t throw it around casually.  Just sayin’.

I leave the most shocking visual of sex from the Tribe for last:

Can you imagine??????? Garden gnomes having sex.  I will never look at a garden gnome the same way.  There are just some things that you can’t un-see.  Sorry if I ruined gnomes for you too.

And then, quite suddenly, the sexual exploitation stopped.  I showed these photos to my friend.  He was immersed in his seemingly endless analysis of “Paul is Dead” literature.

I asked him to stop worrying about Paul for a moment and tell me what he thought about these ads and photos from the early Tribe.  He said: