Sexploitation

Sexploitation or "sex-exploitation" describe a class of independently produced, low budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and/or gratuitous nudity. The term is often considered to designate a subgenre of exploitation films as a whole. Sexploitation films were generally exhibited in urban grindhouse theatres, the precursor to the adult movie theaters of the 1970s and '80s that featured hardcore content. The term softcore is often used to designate non-explicit sexploitation films after the general legalization of hardcore content. Nudist films are often considered to be subgenres of the sex-exploitation genre as well.

White coaters

In the late 1960s, American obscenity laws were tested by the Swedish film, I Am Curious (Yellow). Because of the ruling by the United States Supreme Court, allowing the film on the basis of its educational context, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a number of sexploitation films which were widely refered to as "white coaters" because of the fact that a doctor would give an introduction to the graphic content, dressed in a white coat. Language of Love and other Swedish and American films capitalized on this idea until the laws were relaxed. [1]

Notable sexploitation directors

Russ Meyer
Doris Wishman
David F. Friedman
Joseph W. Sarno
Michael Findlay
Radley Metzger
Andy Milligan
Jesus Franco
Jean Rollin
Stanley Long

References

RE/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films RE/Search Publications, 1986 by V. Vale, Andrea Juno, ISBN 0-940642-09-3
Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs, ISBN 0-312-13519-X