Peter Bart is worried about porn. “The drop in porn rentals and sales is worrisome on several fronts,” he writes in Variety.” Till now, porn has been a recession-proof business. Further, with the country already in a dispirited mood, the fact that porn has gone limp may indicate a true plunge in consumer confidence.”

Bart devotes about 400 words to the adult film industry’s woes, then awkwardly segues into a discussion of Judd Apatow’s “crusade to defy the code by making the full-frontal phallus an important co-star of all his films.” The basic thrust of the piece: fetishing erections is so five minutes ago. The limp penis––and, significantly, the mocking laughter it apparently induces in girls––is the symbol of our recession-depressed times.

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