“When [Disgrace] published the ‘Ruff Sex’ portraits in On Our Backs in 1989, I ran one photo as the centerfold - a girl gang bang that showed it’s femme bottom in the outer reaches of sensation. It was an amazing construction of a classic girl fucked into insensibility by strangers who carry that ‘don’t know or care’ air about them. The magazine was immediately returned by most of our retailers, and never made it though the mail to others. ‘Ruff Sex’ was seen as the unthinkable - a lesbian oxymoron. How could women be so rough with each other? How could there be a ‘victim’ and her tormentors? How could they ‘use’ her that way? And to top it off, how could these women be such remorseless exhibitionists as to perform the whole scene for the camera? None of these questions would be relevant if it weren’t for the assumptions that we have about female sexuality: deferential, gentle, nurturing, modest. We are surprised to see women put their bodies to the test sexually, to go to the extreme - although this is exactly what a woman’s body is made for: extremes, endurance. One thing about women who are into masochism is the stamina factor - the endurance, and the yearning for release through endurance. Perhaps the greatest feat of ‘Ruff Sex’ is the players look out of control - as candid and spontaneous as spit-”
Susie Bright, Nothing But The Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image (1996), photo from Love Bites (1991) shot by Del LaGrace Volcano
