Gallery
OnlyFans & Porn Star Say Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton Trailblazed Before Ray J
The sex positivity movement, the rise of OnlyFans, the move to make feminism a more inclusive space for sex workers; these are all great strides forward. Perhaps a press conference today would not dare ask Britney about her breasts or Pamela Anderson about her sex tape, but how much have we really changed? Though we now think differently – legally speaking at least – about , which have become more and more of an issue since the growth of the internet and the advent of smart phones, how far have we really come in the way we view a woman’s sexuality?
In our current digital world of nudes leaks and OnlyFans subscriptions, it’s hard to imagine one single sex tape holding anyone’s attention for more than a couple of days. But things were different in 1995, the year when actress Pamela Anderson and drummer Tommy Lee privately recorded themselves being intimate on their honeymoon. By the following spring, the footage was circulating around the world, without their permission. Their recording (less than an hour long) is arguably the precursor to a whole era of leaked, private content. Maybe even . With guns, money, violence, and sex, it became, for the two stars, the story that wouldn’t end.
As is their nature, urban myths tend to shift over time, adapting to fit new cultural mores. The above summary (based on an interview with Pamela Anderson in Tommyland, Lee’s memoir) is not exactly the wedding depicted in Pam & Tommy, a new scripted series by Hulu. The miniseries trades the bikini-contest girls for BFFs, and there is no dick tattoo. Billing itself in ads as “The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold,” it promises an account of the couple, their quickie marriage, and their infamous sex-tape leak under the guise of cultural restitution (a trendy for ). It’s a reevaluation of the media’s treatment of Anderson, one that’s meant to square specifically with Gen-Z and millennial viewers steeped in strains of online feminism.


















