Robin Byrd, the Sex Godmother of Millennials, Says the Internet Ruined Porn

千禧世代的性启蒙教母 Robin Byrd：互联网毁了色情业

If you lived in New York City during the 1980s or 1990s, and you happened to stumble on Channel 35 after 10 pm, you would have seen her: a busty woman with dyed-blond hair in a black mesh bikini, beaming broadly as she gyrated against an adult film star or simulated fellatio on a half-naked male stripper. 如果你在 80 或 90 年代生活在纽约市，且恰好在晚上 10 点后转到 35 频道，你一定会看到她：一位染着金发、穿着黑色网眼比基尼的丰满女性，正笑容满面地与一位成人电影明星贴身热舞，或是对着半裸的男脱衣舞男模拟口交。

You knew her theme song (the rockabilly “Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box”), and you would have been able to repeat her catchphrases (“Lie back, get comfortable,” “don’t forget to wear your rubbers,” etc.). 你一定熟悉她的主题曲（那首摇滚风格的《Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box》），也能随口说出她的口头禅（“躺下，放松点”，“别忘了戴套”等等）。

That woman was Robin Byrd, now 71, a former adult film star who became a local celebrity with her eponymous public access show, which ran from 1977 to 1998 (and still airs in reruns, provided you have old-school cable). Featuring a garish heart-shaped set and decades-old phone sex ads, The Robin Byrd Show featured Byrd interviewing a porn star or exotic dancer, who would then perform a striptease complete with unnecessarily lingering close-up shots. She’d close the show by dancing to her theme song (during which Byrd would, more often than not, juggle a pair of comically oversized breasts). The show was charmingly low-budget, with Byrd giving her guests tapes of the show instead of paying them: “I called it tit for tat and dick for dat,” she tells me. 这位女性就是现年 71 岁的 Robin Byrd。她曾是一位成人电影明星，凭借同名公共电视节目成为当地名人。该节目从 1977 年一直播到 1998 年（如果你有老式有线电视，至今仍能看到重播）。《Robin Byrd 秀》以俗艳的心形布景和几十年前的电话性爱广告为特色，节目中 Byrd 会采访色情明星或异国舞者，随后嘉宾会表演脱衣舞，镜头还会配上不必要的长时间特写。节目结尾，她会伴着主题曲跳舞（期间 Byrd 通常会玩弄一对夸张的假乳房）。这档节目预算极低，却有一种迷人的魅力。Byrd 不给嘉宾报酬，而是给他们节目的录像带。她告诉我：“我管这叫‘以乳换带，以屌换带’（tit for tat and dick for dat）。”

As beloved as Byrd is in New York City, a new HBO documentary makes it clear her impact was much wider. Directed by Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam (two self-described “Byrd-watchers”), Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story, streaming on HBO Max Tuesday, hails Byrd as a sex-positive icon who advocated for freedom of speech and the LGBTQ community, promoted safe sex during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and led a landmark lawsuit against Time Warner Cable when it tried to censor her show. The movie is also a love letter to the analog era of smut, with Byrd becoming something of a meme long before the age of dial-up. 尽管 Byrd 在纽约市备受爱戴，但一部新的 HBO 纪录片表明，她的影响力远不止于此。由 Jyllian Gunther 和 Stephanie Schwam（自称是“Byrd 观察者”）执导的《Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story》于周二在 HBO Max 上线。该片将 Byrd 誉为性积极主义的偶像，她曾倡导言论自由和 LGBTQ 群体权益，在 HIV/AIDS 流行期间推广安全性行为，并在时代华纳有线电视试图审查她的节目时，领导了一场具有里程碑意义的诉讼。这部电影也是写给模拟色情时代的一封情书，Byrd 在拨号上网时代到来之前，就已经成为了一种“迷因”。

WIRED spoke to Byrd about the documentary, internet porn, her advocacy, and, of course, how she wore boobs as a hat. 《连线》杂志就这部纪录片、互联网色情、她的倡导工作，当然还有她如何把假乳房当帽子戴等话题采访了 Byrd。

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. （以下采访内容经过编辑，以求清晰简洁。）

EJ DICKSON: When Stephanie and Jyllian approached you with the idea of making a documentary, what was your initial response? EJ DICKSON：当 Stephanie 和 Jyllian 带着制作纪录片的想法找到你时，你的第一反应是什么？

ROBIN BYRD: I had many offers before, but it didn’t feel right. And Stephanie and Jyllian, they were Byrdwatchers [Byrd’s term for fans of her show]. I raised them. They used to sneak it when they were teenagers. They got it. It was during a Mercury retrograde, and Mercury retrograde involves communication. It’s a time to renew and redo and rethink. I realized I’m not getting any younger, and my story needs to be told by the right people. ROBIN BYRD： 之前也有过很多邀约，但感觉都不对。而 Stephanie 和 Jyllian 是“Byrd 观察者”（Byrd 对她节目粉丝的称呼）。我是看着她们长大的。她们十几岁时就偷偷看我的节目。她们懂我。当时正值水星逆行，水星逆行与沟通有关。这是一个更新、重做和反思的时期。我意识到自己不再年轻，我的故事需要由对的人来讲述。

New York magazine compared you to Mister Rogers. Would you ever, in a million years, have expected to be compared to him? 《纽约》杂志曾将你比作罗杰斯先生（Mister Rogers）。你曾想过自己会被拿来和他做比较吗？

Well, I compare myself partly to him, and also Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson. There used to be a lady called Shari Lewis who had this puppet Lamb Chop. I was raised with that. I was raised by the TV. And look at that, I became the TV. 嗯，我有时会把自己比作他，还有 Ed Sullivan 和 Johnny Carson。以前有位女士叫 Shari Lewis，她有个叫 Lamb Chop 的木偶。我是看着那个长大的。我是被电视养大的。你看，最后我竟然成了电视里的人。

Your show ran for more than 600 episodes. Do you have a favorite guest or favorite episode? 你的节目播出了 600 多集。你有最喜欢的嘉宾或最喜欢的一集吗？

The first time I had on [a trans person], nobody in the studio knew that she had a dick and she was gorgeous. And I had a gay male actor on, and when he saw her, they got into a huge fight in front of the camera, so I had to sit in the middle of them. It didn’t make sense to me, and I didn’t know that he was going to act that way. But there was discrimination in the gay world, just like there’s discrimination in the straight world. 第一次邀请（跨性别者）上节目时，演播室里没人知道她有男性生殖器，她当时美极了。我还请了一位男同性恋演员，当他看到她时，两人在镜头前大吵了一架，我不得不坐在他们中间。这让我很费解，我没想到他会那样做。但在同性恋世界里也存在歧视，就像异性恋世界里一样。

The show famously ran phone sex ads, but I didn’t realize until I watched the documentary that you owned the phone sex line that was advertised on the show. How did that come about? Do they still exist? 你的节目以播放电话性爱广告而闻名，但我直到看了纪录片才知道，节目里广告的电话性爱热线其实是你自己拥有的。这是怎么回事？它们现在还存在吗？

I realized the bills are coming in, and we have to pay the money for the crew, for the studio, for the time. So I started my own phone line, but I didn’t want to be the one talking to them. To this day, they’re still running, and I still get a small amount of nothing money from them. When Spectrum switched to streaming, they didn’t include my channel, and my income from my phone lines had gone down 50 percent. It’s just entertainment for people that are lonely. But at least they’re there, for people who want to talk to another person. 我意识到账单不断寄来，我们必须支付工作人员、演播室和播出时间的费用。所以我开了自己的电话热线，但我不想亲自接听。直到今天，它们仍在运行，我还能从中得到一点微薄的收入。当 Spectrum 转为流媒体服务时，他们没有包含我的频道，我电话热线的收入下降了 50%。这只是为孤独的人提供的一种娱乐。但至少它们还在那里，为那些想找人说话的人提供了一个出口。

In the ’90s, you were parodied by Cheri Oteri on SNL. How did you feel about her impression? 90 年代，Cheri Oteri 在《周六夜现场》（SNL）中模仿过你。你对她的模仿有什么感觉？

I loved it. I was so happy they paid homage to me. They contacted me, and they wanted permission to be able to imitate me, and they got it. They re-created my costume. They even re-created my sign. I felt like I’d arrived and went national. I wanted to go on the show myself, and when Cheri said, “I’m Robin Byrd,” I’d come onstage and say, “No, I’m Robin Byrd,” but I think I was too much of a local celebrity. 我很喜欢。他们向我致敬，我感到非常高兴。他们联系了我，想要获得模仿我的许可，我同意了。他们还原了我的服装，甚至还原了我的招牌。我觉得自己终于“出圈”并走向全国了。我当时想亲自上节目，当 Cheri 说“我是 Robin Byrd”时，我就上台说“不，我才是 Robin Byrd”，但我当时可能还是太像个“地方名人”了。

And you gave her your lip gloss. 而且你还给了她你的唇彩。

Yes, I did. She said she believes I should be in the Smithsonian, or at least the lip gloss. 是的，我给了。她说她认为我应该被史密森尼博物馆收藏，或者至少那支唇彩应该被收藏。

The movie focuses a lot on the analog era of porn, before the internet. What do you think has gotten lost in the transition to digital? 这部电影重点关注了互联网出现之前的模拟色情时代。你认为在向数字化转型的过程中，我们失去了什么？

It was soft, it was artsy. It was an art form. I only had one camera, a Nekagami that belonged to the studio. And digital is very harsh. It’s like the difference between an old-timey bulb and an LED. It was very distant, very cold. I didn’t like it. 那时候很柔和，很有艺术感。那是一种艺术形式。我当时只有一台摄像机，是演播室的一台 Nekagami。而数字技术非常生硬。就像老式灯泡和 LED 灯的区别。它显得非常疏离、非常冰冷。我不喜欢。

In the documentary, Michael Musto says you retired in the late ’90s because you felt the internet was too unwieldy and difficult to control. Is this true? 纪录片中，Michael Musto 说你在 90 年代末退休是因为你觉得互联网太难以驾驭和控制了。这是真的吗？

The internet is open to the world. Here in New York City, where I was born, bred, and raised, people got it. But to be open on the internet to some rural religious towns—they wouldn’t have gotten it. In New York, we accept everybody, and we accept everybody to do their own thing as long as you’re not hurting anybody. But in other parts of the country, they don’t like that. 互联网是向全世界开放的。在纽约市，我出生、成长的地方，人们能理解我的节目。但如果通过互联网向一些乡村宗教城镇开放——他们是不会理解的。在纽约，我们接纳所有人，只要你不伤害他人，我们接受每个人做自己的事。但在美国其他地区，他们不喜欢这样。

What are your thoughts on the porn industry today in general? 你对当今的色情行业总体有什么看法？

I’m not that close to it anymore. It was something that I did that I left behind. The stars weren’t stars anymore. They were jus… 我不再那么关注它了。那是我过去做过的事，我已经把它抛在身后了。现在的明星已经不再是明星了。他们只是……