I know of one family friend's seven-year-old who walked into the pole outside the club on his way home from school because he and his little mate were ogling the picture of the rude lady.Now of course there are several issues to be considered in a story like this, gentle readers. There's the obvious (from the article):
This external public display of soft porn contributes to the unwanted sexualisation of children and contributes to normalisation of the sex industry in the [sic] their minds, particularly in young women.But this evening I'd like to focus on the less obvious. I'd like to focus on the never-spoken-of danger that boys and men of all ages through all of recorded history have had to contend with: the inability to watch where they're going when anything remotely connected to sex crosses their field of vision.
There are no reliable statistics kept regarding this phenomenon. In fact it's almost like the authorities would like nothing better than to pretend that this affliction didn't exist; this tragic affliction which is shared by every man ever born, including Adam! Think about it for a moment. How many times have you read about (or perhaps even witnessed!) some guy tripping over the curb, or walking into traffic, or stepping off a cliff...? Could this many otherwise healthy boys and men just simply be awkward or clumsy or even stupid?
There may be some men out there too overcome with shame to admit that they have this terrible affliction or that it has ever affected them. They're liars. Every damned (for surely we are "damned") one of them. The stories I could tell, the tears and the blood (my own, of course) I have shed... The shame...
Don't blame us. Don't hate us. Don't condemn us. It's genetic--we can't help but LOOK...
I'm a supporter of men looking out loud (see under resorting to internet porn), although I would think too many encounters with lampposts would tend to remove the encountering party from the gene pool.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah - I was thinking of the reported heavy use of internet porn in the states with a large Evangelical demographic.
ReplyDeleteHey Rick!
ReplyDeleteYes, I, too, have at times fallen prey to the true "Peter Principle" and I'm damn sure that I am in no need of any 12 step program to "fix" my sorry ass. And, yes, many men and boys and men/boys are too full of shame to ever admit that they always make sure to look out the window of their subway car as it pulls into the 181st street station because they know that a poster of Scarlett Johansen is on the wall...at a certain spot...out a specific window.
I KNOW there are creeps like that out there.
Anyway, thanks for commenting on my post, been pretty rough over here this past year so I have been on spiritually drained hiatus. Going to try to keep consistent for the near future.
But that's hard to do when everyday there is more news of some other former bedrock company going under and/or begging the government for money to meet their payroll.
But, as long as I'm free up here (I'm pointing at my head) then I am sure I'll get through.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteThe more clever of us learn the subtle art of "looking sideways," and avoid some of the more embarrassing (and painful) aspects of our affliction. ;-)
Porn is another thing altogether, since it (generally) has to be sought out. Back on the savannah and in the forests I don't imagine there were many instances of guys being distracted by pages of Hustler blowing in the breeze as they chased down some animal...
I get your point, though, and it's interesting how most of the somewhat bizarre search terms that land people on this blog originate from places dominated by fundamentalist Islam.
Larry,
Sadly, there is no cure, no matter what the preachers say. And who'd really want it if there were? Fortunately, we can learn to *appear* less obviously deranged.
Good to hear from you and hope that everything is OK these days.