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In HBO Max’s ‘Minx,’ ’70s Feminism and Porn Collide

Itn the 1970s, feminism and pornography had two things in common: each achieved a new level of cultural saturation, and both had profound implications for America’s bedrooms. But they were also fundamentally in conflict over the objectification of women’s bodies and the representation of female sexuality. This constant, but ever-changing conflict has been the focus of op-ed columns over half a century. When TV dips a toe in, it’s usually in the context of a prestige project like David Simon’s HBO period drama The Deuce, about the ’70s Times Square demimonde.

With that in mind, HBO Max’s feminist-porn comedy MinxThe March 17th premiere of “The Big Bang Theory” feels bold. It was released in the same period as The DeuceIt begins at the magazine-publishing conference in Los Angeles. Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond) is an earnest, naive feminist who’s there to pitch her Ms.-but-angrier passion project The awakening of the matriarchy. Doug Johnson (Jake Johnson), is the pragmatic, scruffy publisher for such titles. Secrets of the Secretary. He shows up with his shirt unbuttoned almost to the navel; she’s in a pantsuit, the collar of her blouse just about grazing her chin. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

Of course, Joyce blows it at the conference, scaring off a newsstand’s worth of male media moguls. Doug, an extremely shrewd judge, recognizes something about Joyce that she didn’t see. Soon (too soon, but it’s hard to blame creators for rushing to set the scene now that viewers inundated by content are liable to give up after a slow pilot) she quits her day job at Teen Queen magazine, breaks it off with a boyfriend who wants her to give up on her dream, and sets up shop at the headquarters of Doug’s seedy empire in the Valley. She gets to make her women’s-lib mag—but it has to have naked guys in it, and it needs a better name. The MatriarchyIt is over; live long! Minx.

What follows is a breezy workplace comedy, with will-they-or-won’t-they elements, whose male-nudity quotient rivals that of Euphoria. Ellen Rapoport (creator), works alongside a team that includes Paul Feig as an executive producer. Sometimes, Rapoport can seem too glib when acknowledging some of the worst aspects of the porn business. A throwaway joke about the underage model lands with a bang. It is rare that the larger historical context comes across. It’s hard to tell whether the show means to depict Joyce’s personal involvement in the thriving movement to which she’s devoted her life as, at best, tenuous. Most characters can be described as type, including the prettily upper-crust feminist, the crude working class schlock merchant, the hyper-competent Friday (Idara Vic), and the ditzy centrefolds.

Despite all its flaws I enjoyed it. As its title suggests, Minx at its best is a sexy trifle, and the palpable chemistry between its leads counteracts the uptown girl/downtown boy cliché. Johnson, loved for his playing Neue Girl‘s secretly kind curmudgeon Nick Miller, was pretty much made for his role. Lovibond used him as a model. Minx couldn’t be more seductive.

It appears in TIME’s March 14th 2022 issue.

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