Pam and Tommy's Sex Tape

02/19/24 • 60 min

Before Paris or Kim, there was Pamela. Original martyrs of the sex tape leak, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee are only now receiving their apology (via Hulu miniseries). But who knew that this “voyeuristic dive into the guileless intimacy of two tabloid darlings” would change the way we consume p*rn forever? In this episode, Hannah and Maia track the decline of p*rn, from its high culture “p*rno chic” days, to its low culture era on VHS, and the way Pamela’s sex tape kicked off two decades of peeping Tom culture on the internet. With the rise of vlogging today, the question arises: can a life be p*rnographic? Or better yet, without Pamela, would we have Emma Chamberlain? Special tangent includes: Maia getting excited about “Bob Marley: One Love”.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES:

Pamela, a love story (2023), Netflix

Amanda Chicago Lewis, “Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Sex Tape” (2014), Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/pam-and-tommy-the-untold-story-of-the-worlds-most-infamous-sex-tape-194776/

Hillyer, Minette “Sex in the Suburban: Porn, Home Movies, and the Live Action Performance of Love in Pam and Tommy Lee: Hardcore and Uncensored.” (2004), Porn Studies

Chuck Kleinhans, “Pamela Anderson on the Slippery Slope” (2001), The End of Cinema As We Know It .

Mark Gimen, “Sex Sells, Doesn’t It?”, Salon (1999)

https://www.salon.com/1999/12/01/ieg/

Frank Rose, “Sex Sells”, Wired (1997)

https://www.wired.com/1997/12/sex-3/

Susie Bright, “Pammy and Tommy’s Honeymoon Video”, Salon (1997)

https://www.salon.com/1997/12/05/pamela_2/

Erica Gonzales, “Pamela Anderson Writes a Plea Against Porn”, Harper's Bazaar (2016)

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/news/a17495/pamela-anderson-porn-op-ed/

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES:

Pamela, a love story (2023), Netflix

Hillyer, Minette “Sex in the Suburban: Porn, Home Movies, and the Live Action Performance of Love in Pam and Tommy Lee: Hardcore and Uncensored.” (2004), Porn Studies

Chuck Kleinhans, “Pamela Anderson on the Slippery Slope” (2001), The End of Cinema As We Know It .

Mark Gimen, “Sex Sells, Doesn’t It?”, Salon (1999)

https://www.salon.com/1999/12/01/ieg/

Frank Rose, “Sex Sells”, Wired (1997)

https://www.wired.com/1997/12/sex-3/

Susie Bright, “Pammy and Tommy’s Honeymoon Video”, Salon (1997)

https://www.salon.com/1997/12/05/pamela_2/

Erica Gonzales, “Pamela Anderson Writes a Plea Against Porn”, Harper's Bazaar (2016)

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/news/a17495/pamela-anderson-porn-op-ed/

Previous Episode

The End of Vine (ft. Izzy from Be Kind Rewind)

When Vine died, the angels cried. No but seriously, in this era of late-stage internet, when it feels like politics, groupthink, and all around bad vibes are all exploding at once, it makes sense that we’re yearning for a simpler time. Who wouldn’t miss the innocence of silly, 6 second videos made for no reason other than to make us laugh? But was Vine as awesome as we remember, or are our memories a bit rose-tinted? In this season 3 finale, Hannah and Maia are joined by Izzy from Be Kind Rewind (otherwise known as BestieTM) to reminisce about Vine’s cultural impact, and Izzy’s experience working for the company. Digressions include: a debate about whether Vine is the Quebec of social media giants, Maia trying to explain jokes to listeners, and Hannah’s “continual brain farts”.

SOURCES

John Herrman, “Vine Changed the Internet Forever. How Much Does the Internet Miss It?” The New York Times, (2020)

Janko Roettgers, “Twitter is Shutting Down Vine” Variety (2016)

Julia Alexander, “The golden age of Youtube is over” The Verge (2019)

Brian Patrick Eha, “Why Vine Was a Bad Match for Twitter” The New Yorker (2016)

Mike Isaac, “Twitter’s 4-Year Odyssey With the 6-Second Video App Vine” New York Times (2016)

Hua Hsu, “Vine and the New Gatekeepers of Self-Expression” The New Yorker (2016)

Katie Rogers, “5 Vine Stars Share Why They Loved, and Outgrew, Platform” The New York Times (2016)

Romano Santos, “In Memory of Vine, Which Crawled so Tiktok Could Fly” Vice (2022)

Mat Honan, “Why Vine Just Won’t Die”, Wired (2013)

Lizzie Plaugic, “Vine was an underrated source of joy on the internet. Is it me, or does the internet feel less happy today.” The Verge (2016)

Taylor Lorenz, “A Vine Reunion? Video Apps Clash and Byte Join Forces.” The New York Times (2021)

Aja Romano, “You may not have understood Vine, but its demise is a huge cultural loss.” Vox (2016)

Brian Feldnman, “The Untold Story of What Happened After ‘Back at it Again at Krispy Kreme,’ The Best Vine of All Time”, Intelligencer (2016)

Next Episode

Sasha Grey: The Internet's First Porn Star

If you were a teenage boy in 2008 and you didn’t have a “God Bless Sasha Grey t-shirt”, did you even exist? Ever since indie sleaze darling, Sasha Grey, burst onto the porn scene in the mid aughts, its become a bit cooler to say hey, “I watch this.” But while Sasha represented a feminist shift in the industry, her fringe sexuality may have played into a dangerous trend in internet porn. In this episode, Hannah and Maia ask the important question: should Sasha be The Pied Piper of PornTM, or can we find a Sasha grey area? Listen for tangents such as: the Tina Fey-aissance, and Stanley Kubrick’s lost film: “Squirt Gangb@ng”.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES:

Dave Gardetta, “The Teenager & the Porn Star” Los Angeles Magazine (2006).

Stephen Heymen, “Grey Matter” New York Times (2011).

PopMatters Staff, “The New Breed: Sasha Grey, Atelecine, and the New Morality” PopMatters (2010).

Rebecca Saunders, “Grey, gonzo and the grotesque: the legacy of porn star Sasha Grey”, Porn Studies, vol. 5 (4) (2018).

Karley Sciortino, “Going Deep with Sasha Grey” Slutever (2014).

Eran Shor & Kimberly Seida, ““Harder and Harder”? Is Mainstream Pornography Becoming Increasingly Violent and Do Viewers Prefer Violent Content?” The Journal of Sex Research (2018).

Brandon Stosuy, “Sasha Grey: Dawn of the Porn Star” The Fanzine (2006).