And anyway, Ashley and I aren’t in the business of deciding what’s right and wrong. We are investigators, not judge and jury. And we don’t see Traci’s story as a morality play. Our subject is a complex human being, and our portrait of her is rendered in the subtleties of light and shade. I will, however, say this: We regard Traci as a feminist icon, and she captured this status in the least likely way imaginable. Moreover, her story, properly told, provides the key, we believe, to understanding late-20th-century and early-21st-century American pop culture. Allis, Tim (May 3, 1993). "Reborn Yesterday". People. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved March 15, 2016. In 1991, Lords starred in the thriller Raw Nerve and the action crime film A Time to Die. Lords appeared in such popular TV shows as Roseanne, Married... with Children, MacGyver and Hercules. She continued modeling and walked the runway for fashion designers such as Janet Howard and Thierry Mugler. [43] 1992–1996: Breakthrough, 1000 Fires and Melrose Place [ edit ] Treviano, Jorge (January 2012). "Traci Lords the Dancefloor". GayCalgary.com. GayCalgary Magazine. p.46 . Retrieved June 4, 2020.

Because my mind is in the past (the mid-eighties) and in the gutter (the porn biz) for reasons that will become clear, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the September 1984 issue of Penthouse . How to convey the magnitude of the frenzy? As of 2020, Lords continues to act, and has had a number of films released over the last couple of years. Broeske, Pat H. (January 31, 1988). "A Model of Fitness". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 15, 2016.Traci Lords of First Wave". Sci-fi Channel. June 26, 2001. Archived from the original on September 3, 2007 . Retrieved March 15, 2015. Yes, most certainly there is a hysteria about sexting. Yes, some attitudes have changed so that seemingly every instance of nudity is a sex crime. Williams, Scott (January 22, 1998). "Traci Lords - 'Profiler' In Courage". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020 . Retrieved March 13, 2016. I live in New York, but I’m in L.A. all the time for work. And when I’m there, I always make it a point to drive Mulholland, my favorite street in the city. It traces its serpentine path through the Santa Monica Mountains, and you’ve got, on one side of you, a spectacular view of Hollywood, home of the movie industry, and on the other side, a spectacular view of the San Fernando Valley, home of the porn industry. And if the geographical separation between the two industries is narrow, the psychological isn’t even that. The porn industry is overtly about what the movie industry is covertly about: sex and fantasy, objectification and exploitation. It’s the movie industry without the pretense. Or the hypocrisy. I felt," Williams said of the moment she learned that she'd appear in Penthouse, "like I had been raped."

Kaan, Gil (January 6, 2021). "BWW Interview: John Waters' Fav Traci Lords - Now a Woman BEHIND BARS". BroadwayWorld.com . Retrieved May 8, 2023.

As Guccione was prophetic about Williams, so Williams was prophetic about Guccione. She'd drop that suit against Penthouse less than two years after she filed it. At the time, her manager and then fiancé Ramon Hervey gave this as the reason: Williams accepted that the signature on the model release form was indeed hers and that while "she always believed the photographs were meant to be private and that Penthouse was ill-advised to publish them, she now recognizes that Penthouse had an absolute right to have done so." But in 2014, on Oprah's Master Class , Williams gave this as the reason: when she was ten, an older female friend had molested her. Her lawyer informed her that this would come out at trial. Not wanting to put herself or her family through anymore public ugliness, she let the matter go. In 1989, a philosophical-sounding Williams told a reporter that revenge against Penthouse would ultimately be hers: "So many people have gotten burned by those people that I think they'll eventually get it in the end and die a slow, painful death."