Last year pop star Prince, who earned the ire of critics for racy song lyrics in the 1980s, condemned the modern trend towards overt sexuality.
"Now there's all these dirty videos. We're bombarded," Prince said to the surprise of many fans. "Back then [in the 1980s] the sexiest thing on TV was Dynasty, and if you watch it now it's like The Brady Bunch."
The importance of Reavill's book is that his argument does not come from the right. He is an open liberal. He makes a point of saying that he does not favor censorship or government regulation.
He also says that he is not a prude or anti-sex.
"I enjoyed everything New York in the 1980s could throw at me when I worked at Screw. It threw quite a lot. It was a pre-AIDS, very hedonistic scene and a real `go-go' town," he said.
Reavill's point is that pornography then was kept firmly in its place: Films and magazines that were purchased by adults who sought them out.
"There was quite a strict segregation of porn images and the mainstream" -- a segregation, he says, that no longer exists.
Reavill's stance has cost him. Old friends from his pornography days have reacted badly, labelling him "just another suburban dad," and Maxim is no longer commissioning him to write pieces.
But Reavill's response is that there is nothing wrong with wanting to clean up mainstream American culture and keep sexuality where it belongs: In private and away from children.
"People will say you can switch off the television," Reavill said. "But you can't do that. Just walking down the street you are bombarded with sex. This is the channel you can't switch off anymore."
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