Oh, lurid…

 

@luriddigs

Here's the thing: if you were around in the early aughts (AOL chatrooms, Gay.com, noisy modems), you knew about Lurid Digs. Or at least you had seen some of the images that populated that website. It was at the beginning of the explosion of amateur pornography that took the Internet by storm during those days. 

Self-shot porn was popping everywhere. I think it took off before the big studios took notice of what was going online. People jumped from DVDs into online images in a New York minute. Lurid Digs was much more than just snarky comments and funny statements. It was also a symptom of an agency that had not been seen before in erotica: people were producing their own porn. It was no longer the property of a studio of certain people: porn had gone popular.

Lurid Digs was both an exposé and a celebration of overworked libidos and unchecked sex drives. The men appearing in its pages were caught in all their naked glory and the decor around them was as important as their boners. 

By speculating both on the choices people made about their interior decoration styles and the obviously sexual nature of the photos, the site gave the gawkers a chance to humanize the subjects of their lust while at the same time de-stigmatizing the fact that people liked to take pictures of themselves nude. I think it was a great idea mixing humor and sex. It's the perfect combo.

Sadly, the site is not on Twitter anymore. And there's nothing left of the old site. They were on Tumblr for awhile but you know they sanitized it and now it's just a husk of what it used to be. They are in Bluesky now. But I understand you need an invite to create an account there?

So, sadly we may not have access to Lurid Digs on Twitter anymore. There's still tons of pics on Twitter, though. An online repository of all things fun and sexy. It was a way for men to find their niche in what concerned self-expression (at at time when very few men were willing to objectify themselves and others) and runaway mojo. And bad decor decisions.

XOXO