For more than four decades HUSTLER has been a stalwart defender of free speech, unabashedly exposing not only the erotic beauty of the human body, but also the darker corners and discomfiting truths in our society. We have often been criticized, and prosecuted, for the uncompromising graphic displays in our pages. But sometimes it takes shock to peel back the layers of polite obfuscation and evasion around “sensitive” subjects.
In “HUSTLER’s Guide to VD” (December ’76 and October ’82), we detailed the rav-ages of untreated venereal diseases—not only in words, but with explicit photos that could leave no reader nonchalant about the risks of unprotected sex. In ’78 we sur-veyed the prevalence of torture around the world—in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and, sad to say, the United States. We have reported on teen pregnancy, suicide, AIDS and the hypocrisy of the U.S. war on some drugs but legal tolerance for one of the most insidious: tobacco.
