Editing Larry Flynt (section)

== Allegations of incest, misogyny, and racism ==
Flynt's daughter, Tonya Flynt-Vega, accused him of [[Sexual abuse|sexually abusing]] her as a child.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pye |first=Michael |date=April 5, 1997 |title=The women versus Larry Flynt |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |language=en |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-women-versus-larry-flynt-1265464.html |access-date=February 20, 2021}}</ref><ref name=Flynt-Vega-Schwartz-1998/>{{rp|page=16}} In the 1998 book, ''Hustled: My Journey from Fear to Faith'', Flynt-Vega writes about her father showing her images from ''Hustler'' and while he did so, he began touching her, had her remove her bathing suit, assaulted her orally, then showed her his erection and tried to penetrate her. She writes, "The pain was intense. I know I was hurt. Dad had not penetrated [me]."<ref name=Flynt-Vega-Schwartz-1998>{{cite book |last1=Flynt-Vega |first1=Tonya |last2=Schwarz |first2=Ted |year=1998|title=Hustled: My Journey from Fear to Faith |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0664221140 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUIjmU0p3roC&q=intercourse |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|pages=116–117}} She described an exchange with her father after he knew she planned to publish a book describing his abuses of her: "He called me at work one day and said 'If you don't back-off that book, I'll send somebody to wring your [expletive] neck.' ... He's 'Mr.&nbsp;Free Speech', but he's threatening to kill somebody for writing a book."<ref>{{cite web |first=Frances Grandy |last=Taylor |date=September 19, 1997 |title=Daughter of ''Hustler'' publisher to speak in New Haven |website=Hartford Courant |language=en-US |url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1997-09-19-9709190485-story.html |access-date=February 19, 2021}}</ref><ref name=Flynt-Vega-Schwartz-1998/>{{rp|page=67}} Flynt denied his daughter's accusation of sexual abuse on several occasions,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Tonya Flynt-Vega speaks about abuse |date=October 30, 1997 |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com|url=http://azdailysun.newspapers.com/image/516380494/|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Arizona Daily Sun|language=en}}</ref> but he did acknowledge he had not been a good parent to Flynt-Vega. "She's looking for attention, and she's looking to get back at me, as her father, for not being there when she really needed me," he said in one response.<ref>{{Cite news |title=A cry of sexual abuse |date=April 21, 1997 |page=14 |newspaper=Dayton Daily News |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/409133692/|access-date=June 17, 2021|via=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref>{{verify inline|reason=Paywall, could not definitively verify headline|date=May 2024}} In another interview, he stated, "Anyone who knows me knows my sexual preference. It's not children, especially my own."<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 8, 1996 |title=Larry Flynt |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-1996larry-flynt/34977518/ |access-date=September 23, 2024 |work=The Los Angeles Times |page=79 |language=en |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

''Hustler'' cartoonist and humor editor Dwaine B. Tinsley created the comic feature called "[[Chester the Molester]]". It was a monthly part of the magazine for 13&nbsp;years. In the comic, the main character endeavors through various means to molest and otherwise sexually assault girls and women. In 1989, Tinsley was arrested, charged with molesting his daughter from age&nbsp;13–18.<ref>{{cite web |title=People v. Tinsley |website=Findlaw |language=en-US |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1845750.html |access-date=February 19, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Hustler cartoonist arrested on molestation charge |agency=Associated Press |website=AP News |url=https://apnews.com/article/6a12fd4ed54fd5d4d62bd2ec37123a63 |access-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Laura |date=November 16, 2017 |title=When the 'Chester the Molester' artist got arrested for molesting, why was anyone surprised? |website=Timeline |url=https://timeline.com/chester-molester-dwaine-tinsley-ce8f3cb025a4 }}</ref> Tinsley was convicted of that charge on January 5, 1990.<ref>{{cite news |title='Chester the Molester' cartoonist convicted of child molestation |agency=Associated Press |website=AP News |url=https://apnews.com/article/916c35470c8599df19f7ae7421ce1870 |access-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref> His conviction was overturned in 1992 when an appeals court ruled that the jury should not have seen cartoons drawn by Tinsley.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 27, 1992 |title="Chester Molester" case overturned |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-larry-flynt-1/155886647/ |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |page=10 |language=en |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> The prosecutor in the case ultimately decided not to retry Tinsley, who served 23 months of a six-year sentence.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 18, 1992 |title=Molestation case won't be retried |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-larry-flynt-2/155886805/ |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=The Los Angeles Times |page=428 |language=en |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Flynt claims he did not ask Tinsley about the conviction and "Chester the Molester" cartoons drawn while in prison continued to appear in ''Hustler''.<ref name="freedom-fighter" /> He also defended Tinsley, calling him "a genius" and "at one time in America in the Seventies and Eighties the most brilliant and recognized cartoonist in America."<ref name="freedom-fighter">{{cite news |title=Larry Flynt: Freedom fighter, pornographer, monster? |date=December 6, 2011 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |language=en-UK |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/larry-flynt-freedom-fighter-pornographer-monster-2289592.html |access-date=February 20, 2021}}</ref>

In addition to child molestation, the [[rape]] of adult women is a common theme in many of his magazines, including ''Hustler''. A photo pictorial titled "The Naked and the Dead", depicted an imprisoned woman being forcibly shaved, sexually assaulted, raped, and electrocuted.<ref name="freedom-fighter"/> In the January&nbsp;1983 issue of ''Hustler'', there was a photographic pictorial called "Dirty pool". It depicted a woman on a pool table being sexually assaulted and [[gang rape]]d by four men. In early March&nbsp;1983, 21&nbsp;year-old [[Cheryl Araujo]] was gang raped on a pool table by four men in [[New Bedford, Massachusetts|New Bedford]]. At the time, some coverage took on [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] overtones, blaming the crime not only on the victim but on the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] community as a whole. Flynt created a fake postcard featuring a naked woman on a pool table with the caption, "Greetings from New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Portuguese gang-rape capital of America."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bruney |first=Gabrielle |date=May 18, 2020 |title=Cheryl Araujo's sexual assault, revisited in Netflix's ''Trial by Media''; put victim-blaming in the spotlight |magazine=Esquire |lang=en-US |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a32585426/cheryl-araujo-trial-by-media-true-story/ |access-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref><ref name="freedom-fighter" />

Criticizing the sanitizing scope of the 1996 film ''[[The People vs. Larry Flynt]]'', feminist [[Gloria Steinem]] detailed his depictions of misogyny: "What's left out [of the film] are the magazine's images of women being beaten, tortured, and raped; women subject to degradations from [[Zoophilia|bestiality]] to sexual slavery." Steinem also addressed what she saw as the hypocrisy of him being regarded as a protector of everyone's free speech, noting "other feminists and I have been attacked in ''Hustler'' for using our [[First Amendment]] rights to protest pornography."<ref>{{cite news |title=Larry Flynt, a hero? Hardly |newspaper=Tampa Bay Times |place=Tampa Bay, Florida |language=en |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/01/12/larry-flynt-a-hero-hardly/ |access-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Steinem |first=Gloria |date=January 7, 1997 |title=Hollywood cleans up ''Hustler'' |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/07/opinion/hollywood-cleans-up-hustler.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212183617/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/07/opinion/hollywood-cleans-up-hustler.html |archive-date=February 12, 2021}}</ref> The film's director, [[Miloš Forman]], a native of the former [[Czechoslovakia]], rebutted these and similar feminist critiques, stating that if he had used such extreme pornographic content, he would not have been able to make the film, which was rated "R". Forman, whose parents were victims of the [[Nazis]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cieply|first=Michael|date=April 14, 2018|title=Milos Forman, 86, Dies; Won Oscars for 'Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Amadeus'|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/obituaries/milos-forman-dead.html|access-date=June 18, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> said he made the movie "out of admiration for the beauty and wisdom of the American Constitution, which allows this country to rise to its best when provoked by the worst".<ref>{{Cite news|date=February 12, 1997|title=Director Defends 'The People vs. Larry Flynt'|work=Christian Science Monitor|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1997/0212/021297.feat.film.1.html|access-date=June 18, 2021|issn=0882-7729}}</ref> Others also viewed the film as [[historical revisionism]], portraying a heroic Flynt. ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' noted the "magazine's racist and anti-Semitic overtones – one ''Hustler'' cartoon showed a black man reaching for a watermelon on a giant mousetrap – is also nowhere to be found."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' sparks protest |date=January 27, 2014 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |language=EN |url=https://ew.com/article/2014/01/27/people-vs-larry-flynt-sparks-protest/ |access-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref> His daughter Tonya also spoke out against the film.<ref>{{cite news |title=Tonya Flynt-Vega vs. Larry Flynt: Daughter is anti-porn crusader |date=January 13, 1997 |agency=Times-Union |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel |place=Orlando, Florida |language=en-US |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1997-01-13-9701120386-story.html |access-date=February 19, 2021}}</ref>

In real life, Flynt did not shy away from rationalizing his publication of taboo content and humor, claiming that his goal was to "offend every single person in this world at some point", and pointing out that "If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me then it will protect all of you, because I'm the worst."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lavin|first=Cheryl|date=December 27, 1996|title=The Redemption of Larry Flynt|work=The Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-12-27-9612270302-story.html|access-date=June 17, 2021}}</ref> He defended himself against allegations of misogyny, stating that he supported abortion rights, same-sex marriage and equality, while at the same time offering harsh assessments of his feminist critics and embracing the magazine's crude, sometimes bigoted depictions.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Flynt speaks on feminism |website=The Campanil|url=http://www.thecampanil.com/Flyntspeaksonfeminism/|access-date=June 18, 2021|language=en-US}}</ref>

Feminist author [[Laura Kipnis]] compared Flynt to the ribald, French Renaissance satirist [[François Rabelais|Rabelais]], saying that she saw ''Hustler'' "as really dedicated to violating the proprieties that uphold class distinctions", and calling it "one of the most class-antagonistic publications in the country".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bruning |first=Fred |date=December 26, 1996 |title=Larry Flynt glides past in a gold-plated wheelchair.  |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-larry-flynt/155886928/ |access-date=June 18, 2021 |page=117 |language=en |via=Newspapers.com |newspaper=Newsday (Suffolk Edition)}}</ref>