Sex (book)


Sex is a 1992 book written by American entertainer Madonna, with photography by Steven Meisel Studio and Fabien Baron. It was edited by Glenn O'Brien and published by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway. The book features adult content including softcore pornography and simulations of sexual acts including sadomasochism.
Madonna developed Sex after Judith Regan of Simon & Schuster publishers suggested a book of erotic photographs. She wrote it as a character named "Mistress Dita", inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It was influenced by punk rock and fashion figures including Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. The photos were shot in early 1992 in New York City and Miami, in locations including hotels, burlesque theaters, and city streets. The book includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, and socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The cover is made of aluminium, spiral bound and wrapped in a Mylar sheet.
Madonna's publishers were apprehensive about the release and the book's commercial potential. It was released on October 21, 1992, the day after Madonna's fifth studio album Erotica. A CD single with the song "Erotic" was also packaged with the book. It sold over 150,000 copies on its first day, and remains the fastest-selling coffee table book. Sex topped the New York Times Best Seller list and went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Sex attracted extensive media attention and backlash, but Madonna remains unapologetic. Though it initially received negative reviews from fans and critics, who felt she had "gone too far", later reviews have been more positive, with academics deeming it a defining phase in Madonna's career. Sex is noted for its social and cultural impact and is considered a bold post-feminist work. It has become one of the most sought-after out-of-print books.

Background and development

According to Giselle Benatar of Entertainment Weekly, there are two versions that explain how Madonna came up with the idea for the book. One is that she conceived the idea of an erotic photography book during the shooting of the film A League of Their Own in the summer of 1991. The other is that Judith Regan, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, armed with a proposal for a collection of photo-erotica, flew to Los Angeles in March 1991 to meet with Madonna and her manager Freddy DeMann. She verified Regan had not approached other celebrities with the concept as she was only interested in the project if it was a unique idea. By the end of the meeting Madonna had agreed "in principle" to do a book titled Madonna's Book of Erotica and Sexual Fantasies. She told Regan that DeMann would call her and work out the book's details. However, Madonna never got back to Regan who assumed she did not want to go ahead with the idea. Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg has never confirmed nor denied Regan's claim they had an agreement.
, New York.
According to Benatar Madonna began working on Sex before wrapping up shooting A League of Their Own. At first Warner Bros. Records and the executive directors of Time Warner were reluctant to allow Madonna to publish such a book but finally agreed. Madonna had to sign a contract that forbade the book from including images of child pornography, bestiality, or religious imagery. Not long after signing the agreement Madonna founded Maverick, a multi-media entertainment company in partnership with Time Warner. Since by contract she had total artistic control over any work released by Maverick, who were now the book's publisher, the agreement she signed with Time Warner over the content in Sex was null and void.
Sexs stylized, sado-masochistic look had a range of influences from punk rock, to early fashion iconoclasts like Guy Bourdin and his surrealism, and Helmut Newton. Photographs from Brassaï's 1933 book Paris de nuit also inspired several of the book's series of images. The book was also influenced by Robert Mapplethorpe's infamous three-part XYZ portfolio, particularly the X portfolio. Madonna had considered using X as a title during the formative stages of Sex, but she changed her mind when promotion for Spike Lee's film Malcolm X began.. She would go on to tell Vogue magazine: "We were gonna call it X but then the whole thing with the Malcolm X movie started. At first I thought, 'Fuck it, it's a really good symbol and I thought of it first'. But I realized it might be confusing or look like I was copying Spike . Besides, Sex is almost as powerful: it's universal, it doesn't need translation – and it's only two letters more than X."
Madonna hired top-notch talent for the book's development, and counted on the help of friends from the music, film and fashion industry. She hired Fabien Baron as the art director, fashion photographer Steven Meisel, editor Glenn O'Brien, make-up artist Francois Nars and hairstylist Paul Cavaco. Madonna originally wanted the book to be an oval shape to simulate a condom, but its printing and manufacturing would have been too expensive. Meisel would later comment: "Madonna and I can keep up with each other", noting "I'm doing things to make people think too. It's not really to antagonize or to push people's buttons. It's really to present another way of seeing things."
The pictures were shot almost entirely with Super 8 film. Most of the photo shoots took place in New York City and Miami. Locations in New York City included the Hotel Chelsea and Times Square's all-male burlesque Gaiety Theatre whose dancers participated in one of the book's photo sessions. In Miami most of the sessions were at a house Madonna had purchased just before beginning the project, and on several beaches and streets. One morning during the four-day Florida shoot Madonna was prancing naked around her 14-bedroom house in Miami when someone jokingly suggested she go out on the street. According to Baron on the street "cars screeched to a halt, motorists whistled, and one entranced cyclist fell off his bike". During the photo shoots Baron said, "'d do something crazy and then we'd come up with something even crazier". One of the most shocking photographs features two women in post-punk attire flanking Madonna with one of them holding a knife to her crotch. It was considered too violent to be used. While the book was being produced some of the photographs were stolen but were quickly recovered by the FBI. According to New York magazine, there were approximately 80,000 photographs taken for the book; only a handful of them were used. It took 15 days to print the book. The total production process took about eight months. Warner Bros. commented that Sex was very difficult to produce, requiring contributions from many printing companies. They noted that to make a profit the book needed to sell at least 350,000 copies.

Design and content

Wrapped and sealed in a polyethylene terephthalate Mylar bag, Sex has 128 pages and is spiral bound with an aluminium cover that has the word "Sex" stamped in the middle and a warning label. The front page shows Madonna against a sky blue backdrop. Three different types of paper were used for the printing. Madonna and Baron & Baron Inc., who also collaborated with her designing the cover art for her fifth studio album, Erotica, oversaw the design. As this was Maverick's first project, the packaging was crucial. Madonna had no faith in Warner Book's "mass-market" publication process, however, so Baron suggested they transfer the packaging job to Nicholas Callaway's bespoke Callaway Editions. Charles Melcher, the book's co-publisher with Callaway, said they usually published "exquisite art books, $100 high end, beautiful things". It was a challenge for them to process Madonna's ideas into reality. The artist wanted the packaging to be sealed, so the reader had to tear it open to read the book. They considered various kinds of clasps before deciding on a sealed bag as a reference to a condom package. The metal cover was Madonna's idea. She was inspired by the 1979 album Metal Box by Public Image Ltd. Melcher recalls, "We were talking about materials for the cover, and we went into her kitchen. pointed at the metal plate at the back of her stove and said, 'I want something like this'. I was very impressed with the way she interacted with her world to source things". The company bought about of aluminium, roughly a pound for each book. The designers oversaw the production of the front and back covers, which were stamped and ionized while the aluminium was rolling on a press.
The book opens with the introduction: "Everything you are about to see and read is a fantasy, a dream, pretend." Throughout Sex, Madonna offers poems, stories, and essays. She used the pseudonym "Mistress Dita" as an homage to German actress Dita Parlo; her friends in the stories are Bunny, Dex, Stella, Chiclet and Stranger. According to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, a big part of the book reads like a letter to a pornographic magazine. Madonna wanted to explore the notion of power in Sex. Melcher said she wanted to talk about "gentle and hard, soft and violent . She was playing out all those elements in her book. That was reflected in the materials: uncoated, soft paper on the inside and hard metal coating on the outside".
Like the text—which was mostly printed on the photographs—they are highly sexual and depict nudity, simulations of sexual acts, bondage, homosexuality and analingus, with accessories such as knives, whips, masks and chains; however, intercourse is never shown. Actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Madonna's then-boyfriend Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg, and nightclub owner Ingrid Casares and unknown models are featured in the book. Its heterosexual photos involve only Madonna and Vanilla Ice. Madonna herself is featured partially or completely naked. One of the book's most famous photographs shows a naked Madonna hitchhiking in Miami. The book also reflects Dita's perspective towards her own sexuality. She writes that her "pussy" is a temple of learning and exposing it, is really an homage to it. "It's hard to describe it smells like a baby to me fresh and full of life. I love my pussy, it is the complete summation of my life." Sex contains statements like "ass fucking is the most pleasurable way to get fucked and it hurts the most too". "There is something comforting about being tied up. Like when you were a baby and your mother strapped you in the car seat. She wanted you to be safe. It was an act of love". "I wouldn't want a penis. It would be like having a third leg. it seems like a contraption that would get in the way. I think I have a dick in my brain". Dita also points out "A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want". Since they recovered stolen pictures during the making of Sex, Madonna thanked the FBI for "rescuing photographs that would have made J. Edgar Hoover roll over" in the book's credits.

Publication and release

The book's imminent release caused a great deal of controversy. One photo showed a nude Madonna wearing a rabbit's tail, shaving the pubic hair of a naked man, and cavorting outdoors with a dog, suggesting bestiality. The Vatican urged its followers to boycott the book, saying that it was "morally intolerable". Indian customs officials said the book offended the country's public morality. The Press Trust of India, India's domestic news agency, quoted a top customs official as saying the book would be seized under a section of the Customs Act prohibiting entry of indecent literature. Citizens of Alexandria, Louisiana, filed a complaint with the city's police department on behalf of the Rapides Parish Chapter of the American Family Association, claiming Sex violated Louisiana's anti-obscenity laws. U.S. Southern Baptists did not want their Bibles printed on the same printing presses as Sex and threatened to stop doing business with the printer RR Donnelley. The Nashville-based Baptist Sunday School Board, a division of the Southern Baptist Convention, reviewed their $2.1 million printing contract with Donnelley. Board President James Draper said he was infuriated Donnelley printed "such an obscene book". Entertainment Tonight reported Madonna had initiated the mayhem with the explicit content in the music video for "Erotica", walking bare breasted at designer Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show and posing nude in Vanity Fair magazine. A writer for The Sacramento Bee said that since the press wanted "controversy", Madonna was willing to give them "fodder" with her "antiques".
Madonna claimed she was publishing Sex "to liberate America — free us all of our hang-ups". She told Spin: "We live in a very repressed society, and I deal with erotic themes. The point I try to make is: Why should we feel ashamed of our sexuality?". She stated later that the book "does not condone unsafe sexual practices". Nicholas Callaway of Callaway Arts & Entertainment said the book was "inevitably going to be controversial. The book explores every aspect of sexual fantasy. It's hard to calculate the effect, , Sex should be considered 'art'". It was rumored that Time Warner was nervous about the book's release, however, in an interview with Vanity Fair, William Sarnoff, president of Warner Books, said he felt Madonna "should pursue all avenues of creativity as she defines it". The Warner company said they would make sure Sex reached its target audience. They reminded the public the book was safely wrapped in a Mylar bag to prevent in-store peeping and contained a warning label.
Michael Kilian of the Chicago Tribune published a tongue-in-cheek article on October 7, 1992, about the coming release: "Prepare thyself, , The mega-event of the millennium is to occur in precisely two weeks. It's an event far more mega than the November election, the collapse of communism or even the crowning of Leanza Cornett as the new Miss America." Kilian went on to write: "The word on the street is that this is the hottest Truly Twisted personal sexual fantasy picture book in all Christendom, that it goes far beyond all previous Truly Twisted personal sexual fantasy picture books-perhaps beyond all imagining what such a book could be.
On October 15, Madonna threw a pre-release party at New York City's Industria Superstudio having signed all the invitations with "Dita" her Sex alter ego. She dressed as Little Bo Peep carrying a stuffed toy lamb. Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg expressed concern at first about "what the parents of America's impressionable teens will soon be thinking" of Madonna, but said that it "all depends on your idea of lovemaking, which in Madonna's case, should give new meaning to the word erotic".
Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble prepared corporate statements store managers could share with customers who were offended by Sex. Many book stores stated the book would not be sold to anyone under 18 and it would only be on display behind the cash register. Bookstore owner David Epstein said, "The feeling of most people who have ordered the book is that Madonna is something special, that this is cutting-edge art they're not the kind of people who are buying it because it's smut and dirty pictures. People are interested in it as art."

Promotion

Sex was released on October 21, 1992, the day after Madonna's fifth studio album Erotica. A comic book title Dita in The Chelsea Girl and a promotional single titled "Erotic", wrapped in packaging representing a condom wrapper, was included with the book. "Erotic", a stripped-down arrangement of the song "Erotica", offered an alternate vocal take not used on the album version. The initial print run for the first edition was one million copies in five continents and in five languages. The retail price of the book was $50. It broke the record for the number of copies pre-ordered before its release. Callaway pointed out the book was an unprecedented hit, because the print run of an average art book ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 units. He described it as "the largest initial release of any illustrated book in publishing history".
Given the controversy surrounding the book there was no need for Madonna to promote it. One of the few promotions she did, however, was to appear on the cover of the October edition of Vogue, dressed in "Hippie trip" fashion. These photographs were taken by Meisel. On October 22, 1992, MTV aired a special called The Day in Madonna, hosted by Kurt Loder. It profiled the release of Madonna's Sex and her album Erotica, even taking the book to the streets to allow people, including a sex therapist and a group of real-life New York City dominatrices, to view it. MTV also interviewed people who had looked at the book on the day of its release at the HMV music store in New York City. To celebrate its release, the store held a Madonna look-alike contest and set up a booth where people could view the book for one dollar a minute, with the proceeds going to Lifebeat, the music industry organization founded to help fund AIDS research.

Critical and commercial reception

Critics, conservative, feminist and anti-porn groups reacted negatively to the book because of its sexually explicit photographs, which many characterized as hardcore pornography. J. Randy Taraborrelli, in his biography of Madonna, wrote that much of the book appears surprising not shocking. He derided the concept as childish and impetuous. Though Madonna insisted she was trying to demystify sexuality altogether, he believed she just wanted to publish pornographic text and pictures and get away with it: "She was being a brat, not a revolutionary." Author Lucy O'Brien declared the book a bold, harrowing exercise in frustration, and despite Madonna's attempt at invincibility, it appeared to be "a curious act of self-destruction". Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone said "The overwhelming effect of the book is numbing". Describing the photographs as "derivative", he wrote that, "Madonna herself seems far too eager to shock; that, not even prurient arousal, seems the ideal response the book tirelessly seeks. The potency of Sexs subject matter is dissipated by Madonna and Meisel's self-congratulatory – and silly – sense of their own 'bravery,' as if their naughty games were somehow revolutionary."
Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant said some passages from the book were "too dirty to quote... even the funny ones". The Daily Beast said "the book is neither groundbreaking nor particularly sexy Sex is convincing only when it's playful, as when she appears nude in a Miami pizzeria, chewing a slice while a baffled customer looks on. Elsewhere, she's simply undressed with no place to go." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post, in a mixed review, wrote: "Is Sex shocking? Not really. Mostly because it's Madonna, and somehow we've come to expect this from her. Is Sex boring? Surprisingly, yes." British author Zoë Heller of The Independent wrote that it was "the women who once saw Madonna as a witty feminist role model who have been most alarmist about her latest pornographic incarnation... Previously, they say, Madonna played with traditional images of feminine sexuality in a subversive, 'empowering' way. But now, with sado-masochism and rape fantasies, she has gone too far."
Calvin Tomkins, author and art critic for The New Yorker, wrote that "unfortunately, the book is going to be mistaken for pornography". Vanity Fair deemed it "the dirtiest coffee table book to ever be published". Caryn James, in The New York Times, wrote: "There is plenty here to offend the meek, the self-righteous, not to mention the tasteful ". The Times Vicki Goldberg was dismissive, writing, "Unfortunately, not many of the images are very good photographically. Many are just pictures, or just porn." Writing for Spin, Bob Guccione, Jr. gave the book a particularly unfavorable review:
Despite the controversy, which included the book being banned in Japan shortly after its release, Sex proved to be a commercial success, selling 150,000 copies on its release day in the United States alone. Hundreds of copies of the book were pre-ordered, prompting book sellers to say that Sex was "shattering their sales records for advance purchases". A week later, sales exceeded 500,000 copies and it eventually topped The New York Times Best Seller list. Giselle Benatar wrote in her article "Sex & Money", Sex is "the publishing event of the century." A day earlier, Tyra Braden of The Morning Call wrote that she and some friends concluded that the book "might become a collector's item a few years down the road". Sex went on to sell 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Social impact and aftermath

The Sex era is considered by many as Madonna's most controversial and transgressive period. The book, though widely panned by the press, is regarded as one of the factors that shaped the social reaction and criticism of Madonna during the early 1990s. Her fifth studio album Erotica was affected by the negative press surrounding the book. In March 1993, Spin wrote an article praising the book. Months later in Mexico, social communicologist Nino Canún dedicated an episode of his morning talk show ¿Y usted qué opina?, to Madonna. Some members of the audience, among them a priest, presented their arguments why The Girlie Show World Tour by "this morally clueless singer" should not be allowed in Mexico. Later, during the Mexican concert, in response to these comments, Madonna wore a charro sombrero and simulated an orgy with her dancers onstage.
Continuing her provocative work, Madonna starred in the erotic thriller Body of Evidence, which features her fully nude engaging in simulated sexual acts. In March 1994, she was a guest on Late Show with David Letterman, used profanity, and handed Letterman a pair of her underwear asking him to smell it. The release of her sexually explicit works, and the aggressive appearance on Letterman led some critics to see Madonna as a sexual renegade. She also faced a strong negative reaction from critics and fans who commented that "she had gone too far" and that her career was over. Later, in the song "Human Nature", from her sixth studio album Bedtime Stories, Madonna refers to the public backlash the book was still receiving saying "Did I say something wrong? Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex. I must have been crazy", as well as the line, "What was I thinking?".
Madonna later said: "I wouldn't say I regret it. I've made mistakes and learned from them. Most people want to hear me say that I regret publishing my Sex book. I don't. The problem was releasing my Erotica album at the same time. I love that album and it got overlooked." In 2003, Madonna said: "I'm not apologizing in any shape or form I was interested in pushing buttons and being rebellious and being mischievous and trying to bend the rules. There was a lot of irony in the Sex book and I am poking fun at a lot of things and I am being kind of silly and adolescent and I am being very f you, if a man can do it, I can do it." A year earlier, Naomi Campbell said she had "a lot of respect for Madonna being bold enough to come out and do a book on sex. I've never reneged on that."
In 2009, rapper Vanilla Ice, who was Madonna's boyfriend at the time, confessed to being unhappy with the book once he saw it. "My friends were like, 'Dude, that's cool man', but I was like, 'I'm dating her, it's not cool to see your girlfriend with all these other people' It kinda ruined the whole thing. I wonder what her kids think of that book? Here she is writing kids' books now but they're going to see it and go, 'Mommy, what were you thinking?'" Another of the book's models, actress Isabella Rossellini, told Out that she regretted her participation: "I don't think the book worked, even though the photos were extraordinary, and some of them quite memorable. I think there was a little bit of a moralistic sort of 'I'll teach you how to be free!' – and that bothered the hell out of me."
Later reviews of Sex have been more positive. The authors of The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go from Here commented that "the book is particularly interesting in the way that, like many of Madonna's works, it portrays sex in terms of domination and power". Jane Raphaely, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan praised Madonna's "liberated behavior in Sex the fact that she takes all forms of pornography and systematically demystifies it by putting it under her control", in an article in 1996. Brian McNair, author of Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratisation of Desire praised this period of Madonna's career, saying she had "porno elegance" and that "Sex is a cultural phenomenon of global proportions" which "established her iconic status and cultural influence". Priya Elan of The Guardian, wrote: "That the Sex book came after a record-breaking album and tour felt like a shrink-wrapped curve ball. But Madge was expressing something unique." Elan felt the book was part of a "slower reveal that began with confessional tracks such as 'Oh Father' and continued with the many scenes of narcissism captured in ".

Legacy

Several writers consider Sex a bold, post-feminist, work of art, besides being labeled a "cultural book". Martin Amis of The Observer wrote an essay discussing the book's cultural meaning. Critical theorist Douglas Kellner affirmed that with Sex "Madonna became herself, an artifact of pop culture". French academic writer Georges Claude Guilbert described Sex as one of the most successful publicity stunts in history, whereas Russell W. Belk, author of Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, feels its success was a product of marketing. Despite the negative feedback. sales of both albums and Sex generated more than US$500 million for Time Warner and Madonna in 1992. Taraborrelli commented in his book, ', that Madonna's friends knew the book and her behavior were a barrier to shield her from the world. She was tired of the extreme scrutiny from the public and media which she had provoked. Annoyed, Madonna fought back by creating the persona of a renegade, someone so outrageous as to defy explanation, someone found objectionable by most people. Taraborrelli said that in Madonna's view, "she had no other way of fighting back".
According to some writers, Sex also helped Madonna make a name in the porn industry, and earned her the title of S&M's first cultural ambassador earning her praise for recreating "porn-chic". Humberto Quiroga Lavié pointed out because Sex was considered pornographic that helped it to become a bestseller. Steve Bachmann, in his book Simulating Sex: Aesthetic Representations of Erotic Activity pointed out that "perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Madonna's sexual phenomenon is the extent to which her book marked a new threshold in the pornographic franchise". McNair wrote in his book that, "Sex brought out the personal underground to the surface of pop culture". London art critic Sarah Kent wrote in Time Out that the timing of Sex was "impeccable. Obsession about the human body was in vogue. Along with Madonna's book were artist Andres Serrano's "cumming shots" and Jeff Koons' The Jeff Koons Handbook portraying fairy tale pictures of the artist having sex with his pornographic actor wife, Cicciolina.
Sex has also become an important book in the LGBT community. Ben Shapiro, author of Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future, wrote that due to its iconic status "Sex adorns the coffee tables of hundreds of gay men and sperm banks". Mark Blankenship, of the LGBT-oriented website New Now Next said that "literature changed forever" with the publishing of Sex. Madonna's portrayal of lesbian love scenes in the book sparked debates about her own sexual orientation. This was an adjunct to her public relationship with comedian Sandra Bernhard with whom she visited lesbian nightclubs and partied. The LGBT community felt it was an important portrayal for them. They debated whether Madonna was "ripping" them off for publicity. Carolin Grace of Diva said: "Madonna became meaningful in the early nineties, when Sex came out, and at that point lesbian culture was really changing." She felt women were coming out about their sexuality and the book's handling of the taboo issue was "a legacy, our contribution to the show", stressing "he lesbian sub-cultural references borrowed by Madonna aren't our only possessions." O'Brien argues in her book ', the book had a confusing philosophy. According to female critics, who pointed out the vacuousness of Madonna's remarks about porn and abuse, she did not understand that behind the fantasies the "reality is too hard" for a woman to endure, referring to the daily hustles that women have to face in red light districts and brothels. The author felt that despite the courageous premise of genuine exploration of queer sex, the book crossed over into pornography and was a wrong portrayal for the community, while being flippant and commercial. She used the example of the death of pornographic actor Joey Stefano, one of the models in the book, from a drug overdose. Stefano had been thrilled to be a part of the book but was underpaid. Once Madonna and her team were done with the shoot, "they packed up and left the Gaiety... They left behind the mundane reality and the boys who have to deal with it seven days a week". In 2017, Matthew Jacobs from the HuffPost wrote that it was "an audacious thesis statement, calculated enough to piss people off but seemly enough to maintain artistic integrity. No one today would dare emulate it", calling it "the most radical career move a pop star has ever made".

In popular culture

Sex has also become an object of modern culture references. American performance artist Ann Magnuson, who worked with Madonna on the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, released a parody of the book's photo sessions, where she simulated sex with a giant stuffed bear. In 2010, writer-performer Greg Scarnici released a book titled Sex in Drag, which featured over 70 images parodying photos in Sex. In a deleted scene from a 1993 episode of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, aired as part of The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular, Krusty the Clown attempts to market a book like Sex to resolve his financial woes. He is seen in a suggestive pose on the front cover. Unlike Madonna, however, Krusty apparently never appeared fully nude, as he quickly claimed that he used a body double.
In 2008, People magazine ranked Madonna's look and attire at the Sex pre-release party as one of her 50 Looks We Can't Forget. In April 2012, a nude picture of Madonna taken by Meisel was put up for sale. An outtake from the book, it features a naked Madonna lying on a bed, sporting bleach-blonde hair and dark eye make-up, smoking a cigarette partially covered by a sheet. An unnamed collector purchased it for almost US$24,000. In 2011, according to BookFinder.com, Sex was the most requested out-of-print book and remained the best-selling coffee table book of all time. In 2015 Rolling Stone included the book on its list of 20 Great Moments in Rock Star Nudity. Author Keith Harris wrote that "no celebrity had ever commanded control over her own naked image so audaciously".