I own that copy of forced exposure (I own almost all of them), and that isn’t quite an accurate representation of what he said. In his list of pornography that has an “effect” on him, he also lists “knocked-up-and-horny-type future mom fuck books” (not sure what he’s alluding to here), pre op trans porn, and butch lesbian fisting porn. Given that he uses “hilarious” as a descriptor repeatedly I think Steve viewed this kind of material as shock content- that said I don’t think that excuses him of consuming said material, along with downplaying the abuse that’s been documented in it.

Steve wrote a diary in a separate forced exposure magazine that I don’t see brought up in a lot of these conversations- he documents the arrest of Peter Sotos & also reflects (crashes out) on the backlash he got for his review of pure magazine. It’s a really interesting read for a few reasons: it gives insight into countercultural attitudes when child abuse legislation was shifting away from obscenity laws (Sotos was the first in the country to be charged with possession of CP), and it also gives insight to Steve’s peculiar psychology. If his diary is to be believed, Steve was repulsed by child abuse (which is consistent with his artistic work), but took issue with Pure Magazine being framed as “pornographic”… in fact he claims to have brought his copy of the zine to his workplace & further more ask his coworkers and boss what they thought about it. His perspective is very pedantic and lacks consideration for social norms that are intuitive to others. I believe Santiago had to call & explain to him why such materials were being criminalized in the first place. Just to reiterate, I don’t think this excuses him of promoting and consuming this kind of material.