“Adult superstores such as this are popping up all over rural America — brightly lighted, pointedly clean, as well-organized and well-stocked as Wal-Mart. Remote freeway off-ramps are now X-rated in Quaker City, Ohio (pop. 563), and Nelson, Mo. (pop. 212), in Montrose, Ill., and Perry, Mich. The Lion’s Den chain operates 29 stores in the Midwest, including this one off Exit 272, near the cows and hay bales of Dickinson County. In these small towns, the arrival of big, brash porn shops has been utterly unexpected — and divisive. Debates about morality, obscenity and privacy have played out at church suppers and planning commission meetings — and sometimes, in court… Many locals find themselves deeply conflicted. A hairdresser says adult stores are wicked, then admits she might like to try a few products to spice up her relationship. A sales representative says he supports free enterprise, but he hates to see his town collecting sales tax on obscenity.” —Wichita Eagle (US)

Ah, the irony! Here in New York, we used to have a certain civic pride in our smut. We were Sin City. We had Times Square, where the main thoroughfare was lined with peep booths, porn theaters, pimps, prostitutes, pushers. For twenty-five cents you could watch a video in a stall the size of a phone booth. For five bucks you could ogle strippers — and for a tip of the same amount, you could sometimes even cop a feel in Show World’s notorious “touch booths.” It was a glorious time, a heyday of sleaze — and then Mayor Giuliani came along. He really did a lot to improve the city, such as ridding it of squeegee guys (annoying interlopers who would harrass you with the “service” to clean your car windows at every red light — for a “tip” that amounted to extortion). But he also cleaned up Times Square and, in doing so, practically sanitized the whole city.

Meanwhile, look what’s going on in the burbs and, even more incredibly, in the sticks. Sin City has been replaced by Sin Country. There are porn parlors where you can park your car next to cow pastures — cows! It’s incredible. Apparently there are compelling social and economic reasons that porn shops are popping up across America. Rural areas usually don’t have laws prohibiting such shops, because they never anticipated having them. Space is cheap. Thanks to highways, customers are plentiful. The manager of the Lion’s Den in Newton, Iowa, told the reporter: “There’s no competition within 40 miles of me. We’re doing great.”

This wave of porn parlors is creating all sorts of new juxtapositions — not just porn and cows, but clashes of outlook and worldview. In the city, such establishments hardly cause anyone to bat an eyelash. When you live in a big metropolis, you see so much weird stuff on a day-to-day basis anyway that you become jaded. What’s a little flesh in comparison to all the other strung-out freaks you see? But out there in the countryside, where the bible reigns among the “simple folk,” sensibilities aren’t quite so jaded. You get those juxtapositions like the hairdresser who wants the very sex toys that she believes wicked. You can almost imagine the whole heartland rising up with a conflicted cry, “Spank me with that Bible belt!”

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