Image by Tanguero.
Reader DB points me to S-E-X at Daily Kos, which is a fantastic buffet of sex, politics, “fellationships” and current events. It’s great Sunday reading. Snip:
We are a sexually schizophrenic nation.
We don’t talk about it in polite company. It’s something to do behind closed doors, shades drawn. We blush and giggle at those who don’t have the decency to do the same. And those who embrace it, proudly and publicly, are scandalous exhibitionists, crossing lines of social etiquette. We don’t want to see it, we don’t want to see others enjoying it, and god forbid we should talk to children about it.
And yet.
Reality shows on TV celebrate it. Famous children market their own brand of lingerie for their fellow tweens. A nation was riveted by the salacious details of the president’s sexual relations fellationship, even as parents fretted about how to explain it to the children.
We tsk-tsk the taboos, even as we hunger for the details. Tiger Woods cheats on his wife and checks into rehab, while a disappointed nation shakes its collective finger at him, all the while absorbing the sordid details of all of his many lovers. Girls going wild together on spring break is hot; a kiss between two men at the American Music Awards garners a thousand complaints.
Recently, the RNC embarrassed itself — again — when it was revealed that it had spent nearly two thousand dollars at a “bondage-themed club” in West Hollywood. The first obvious point of the story was the inappropriateness of spending donors’ dollars in a fashion that clearly did not reconcile with the public puritanism policy of the party, but the media delighted in giggling about bondage and “simulated lesbian acts.” As if bondage and simulated lesbianism isn’t something enjoyed every day, every where, by all sorts of people, some of whom are undoubtedly Republicans. As if no straight men watch The L Word for the girl-on-girl action. (…read more, dailykos.com, thanks DB!)
An intriguing article. Thanks for the link.
It seems to me that those of us who are more open about our sexuality do enjoy throwing our hands up in the air at the more repressed folks, decrying them and asking them WHY OH WHY? But the hypocrisy is hardly surprising. I think there are very few out there for whom the taboo is not titillating. We want what we cannot have, what we’re not supposed to have, what it’s oh-so-very-wrong to have. We are a nation born out of Puritanism. Is it really any wonder that denial of our true natures is so prevalent?
I suppose having frank, open conversations about the subject is the best way to go about fixing this. But I’m not entirely convinced we’ll be happy when everyone in the world loves and accepts everyone else. If what I want in the bedroom isn’t naughty anymore, will I still get wet?
“Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16680-porn-in-the-usa-conservatives-are-biggest-consumers.html
You can take my porn from my cold dead grasp…
Unbelievable!
An excellent bottom smack at collective social hypocrisy. I surfed over to the full article, read it with a nodding head, and then noticed something. Towards the end of the piece, a quote from David Brooks, an Op-Ed colunist for the New York Times was used to bolster Angry Mouse’s point, with the following statement from Mr. Brooks assuring us all that
“This isn’t just sermonizing. This is the age of research, so there’s data to back this up.”
Hmmmm.
Was it not just two posts ago that a very rabidly angry young woman verbally and visually chastised you to do some ‘research’, implying that there is some sort of research out there in science land to back up her strongly felt vitriol? I would have to watch the video again to pinpoint the precise statements to that effect, but my testicles just re-descended from that the first viewing, so I’m not anxious to experience that again.
So what is this ‘data’ whereof these people speak? Mr. Brooks tells of ‘Teams of Researchers’ backing up his viewpoint, but we never get a link or resource to check for ourselves. Ms. Ashley-Anne (What I really want is for Violet to hold me down and paddle me until I squeal, which is why I acted like a poorly behaving sub to get her attention) Thompson starts regaling us with strange ‘facts’ concerning dopamine levels in the brain and problems with addiction. This implies that their is research here as well, resources of which that are also sadly missing in her YouTube demagoguery.
I suspect that I already know the answer to this, and you probably do too, but frankly if I handed these unsubstantiated claims to any reasonably decent college professor, I most likely would have to take the course over again.
Keep up the good work Violet, the world needs you.