“I’m a huge Rialto Report fan and I’ve been hoping for years that they would one day get to do an in-depth interview with Traci Lords. After this misguided podcast, the chances are slim to none.
I find Traci’s story fascinating (I remember first reading about it in a much more nuanced way in the book ‘The Other Hollywood’) but here, it’s presented like some kind of amusing cocktail party anecdote. The tone of this podcast is both condescending to its audience (there’s a lot of hand-holding, as another reviewer pointed out) and offensive to Traci, treating her life like fodder for a fun, naughty good time.
The first full-body cringe came when the host said that Traci’s sexually abusive stepfather “filled the hole” left by her violent father, but when she said the sentence, “He beats her up before passing out in his own vomit,” in a chipper tone, that was it. It’s one thing when these anecdotes are recounted by the people who lived them (like Motley Crue in ‘The Dirt’) but the way this podcast makes light of Traci’s experiences without her consent is in extremely poor taste.
The decision to ask Ashley West, a British man, to read excerpts from Traci’s memoirs, written in the first person, is also completely misguided. It’s distracting and it constantly takes you out of the story. Was April Hall (or any other American woman, really) not available?
I love The Rialto Report precisely because it gives people who were involved in the porn industry an opportunity to describe their experiences in their own words. This is the opposite of that.”
maxellcdr via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
07/26/20