Hustler (magazine)

Hustler is an American pornographic magazine that comes out each month, put together by Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). It started in 1974, growing out of the Hustler Newsletter, which founder Larry Flynt originally created as a cheap way to advertise his strip clubs. The magazine had a shaky beginning but hit a peak circulation of around 3 million in the early 1980s; that number has since fallen to about 500,000. Hustler was one of the first big American magazines to show explicit photos of female genitalia and simulated sex acts, setting it apart from more restrained publications like Playboy. In the 1990s, Hustler, along with some of its rivals, started including images of sexual penetration and oral sex.

Today, Hustler is still seen as more explicit and deliberately lowbrow than well-known competitors such as Playboy and Penthouse. It regularly features hardcore content, including sex toys, penetration, oral sex, and group sex. Larry Flynt Publications licenses the Hustler name to the Hustler Casino in Gardena, California, which Flynt owned personally through his holding company El Dorado Enterprises. Other licensed ventures include the Hustler Club chain of bars and clubs and the Hustler Hollywood store chain, which sells adult videos, clothing, magazines, and sex toys. The chain’s flagship store, once on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, was demolished in 2016. Both licensed businesses are run by LFP’s partner, Deja Vu.

**Founding** The business began in Cincinnati, where Larry Flynt and his brother, Jimmy Flynt, opened a club in 1969. Jimmy wrote a $5,000 check to pay for that club and was listed on the masthead of the magazine’s first issue in July 1974. Larry fired his brother in 2009, after which Jimmy started his own business, Jimmy Flynt’s Sexy Gifts Stand. A former Hustler staff member described their relationship by saying, “Larry is the show, and Jimmy makes it go.”

**Publisher** Hustler is officially published by LFP, Inc., which also makes pornographic films. The initials “L.F.P.” originally stood for “Larry Flynt Publications.” A Canadian version of Hustler is published by a Quebec-based firm. This edition is not owned by Larry Flynt but is licensed to use material from the American version. It generally copies the look and tone of the U.S. magazine, with added Canadian content. In 1999, the Canadian edition sparked a minor controversy by asking readers to send in sexually explicit stories about Sheila Copps, a left-leaning Liberal cabinet member. There have also been Australian, British, and South African versions of the magazine. During a bookstore signing in July 2011, Flynt said that less than five percent of his income comes from the print magazine and predicted it would not be around in two to three years.

**Regular Features** One regular feature is the “Asshole of the Month” column. Each month, a public figure is chosen for harsh criticism as that month’s “asshole.” An illustration shows the person’s head coming out of a cartoon donkey’s anus. After Flynt’s imprisonment in 1977 and his claimed conversion to evangelical Christianity, he promised to reform this feature, but as of 2024, no change has appeared. The centerfold is called the “Hustler Honey.” Sometimes the models are pornographic actresses using pseudonyms; in the mid-1980s, actresses and strippers appeared under their real names.

Hustler ran the comic strip “Honey Hooker” starting in 1975. In each installment, Honey had graphic sexual encounters with any man or woman she met, whether in American colonial times or a Super Bowl locker room. This feature was meant to compete with Playboy’s “Little Annie Fanny” and Penthouse’s “Wicked Wanda.” Unlike those, Honey Hooker was explicitly a prostitute, matching Hustler’s grittier, less romantic view of sex. The “Beaver Hunt” section shows explicit nudes of amateur models submitted by readers.

Another heavily criticized feature was the “Chester the Molester” comic strip. Each month, Chester, a cartoon middle-aged pedophile, joyfully raped or molested young girls. After growing criticism, the strip became “Chester and Hester,” with Hester as an unattractive middle-aged woman and Chester’s partner. Following Flynt’s claimed religious conversion, he introduced “Chester the Protector,” a reincarnation of Chester who protected young girls from rape and seduction. The regular feature “Ads We’d Like to See” re-creates ads for everyday products in sexualized or violent ways. For example, a 1980 issue included a parody of Dewar’s Lite Label Whiskey featuring Kenneth Bianchi, the Hillside Strangler, with his greatest accomplishment listed as Cindy Lee Hudspeth, whom he raped and murdered in 1978. He is quoted as saying, “You gotta treat ‘em rough….” This section was widely criticized for admiring men who committed sexualized crimes against women.

Besides regular features, Hustler occasionally published special issues. Examples include the “All Meat” issue from 1978, whose cover showed a naked woman being fed upside down into a meat grinder. In 1977, the magazine’s front page read “First-Time Ever Scratch ‘N’ Sniff Centerfold.”

**Controversy and Criticism** In 1984, conservative academic Judith Reisman received a grant from the Department of Justice to complete a study at American University concerning the cartoon.