Blurred Lines

Administrivia--once again, apologies for the scarcity of posts. This time it's because of my new work schedule, which is taking a great deal of getting used to.  I have semi-successfully 'flipped' to a night-time mode (I'll remove the "semi-" when I am only normally tired at bedtime (which is between 9-10am), and not completely exhausted as I am now.
This may sound odd, but I feel as if there is less time in my day now. That's silly--I'm living the same 24-hour day as the rest of you--but when I get home at 6:30am I don't feel like doing anything strenuous and I can't do anything noisy for a while...and then when I get up at seven I prize those hours before my shift the way I so recently loved the early mornings. At any rate, I'm going to put some effort into maintaining this here Breadbin, as once again it is going dusty.

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The song of the summer. You've almost certainly heard it...you might be sick to death of it by now.



Okay, your standard gangsta-rap video featuring nearly-naked vixens moving provocatively, with lyrics suggesting all manner of sexual delight/perversion. This time it happens to be set to a catchy-as-hell  tune. You might think this far too explicit for your tender eyes, or you might think it's all in good fun. I'm not going to criticize you either way. Instead, I'm going to present this:



Now, I ask you: which one of these videos was (briefly) taken OFF YouTube because it was too sexually explicit?

That's right, the parody. Granted, the words are a little stronger--the f word actually makes a couple of appearances--but the video content is pretty much the same, just with nearly naked men instead of women. Talk about 'blurred lines'. Try a little irony, it's good for your blood.

People who know me know--I hope--that I don't treat women (or men, for that matter) as objects. I'm more than capable of appreciating physical beauty in a myriad of forms, but it is not and has never been a big deal for me. So you're gorgeous...good for you, now are you beautiful on the inside, where it actually counts?
I am a human male...I do have fantasies, and they're (whew) steamy. But they're about people, not bodies.  Also, I don't let my little head override my big one: I'm not in grade six anymore.

The objectification of women has bothered me for as long as I've been conscious of it. Since before puberty. It was many years before I noticed that men were occasionally objectified as well, and it's not kosher when that happens, either--but with women it's culturally ingrained to the point where women actually line up to be featured in videos that strip them of their humanity and turn them into wildly gyrating receptacles for the exclusive enjoyment of men. There's a multi-billion dollar diet marketed to women not to make them more healthy, but more "physically attractive"...I put that in quotes because even when I do let my inner caveman out for a stroll, he thinks skeletons are gross. And again, women line up to let that industry fleece them of their money and their self-esteem...because they feel they have no alternative. That's so sad it's actually frightening.

But it's maddeningly pervasive. The same magazines that lament (about twice a year) the objectification of women feature women-turned-objects in every issue, and not just in the ads. A recent controversy over female conductors shows that at least for some men, they're just "cute girls on a podium". Women looking for relationships have to dodge men at every turn looking for fucking; precious few of those men behave as if the women exists not just after, but during the act.

And all in the service not of men but of their sex drives. That would be insulting to men--really, as if sex is all we ever think about--were it not for the fact that so many men act as if sex is all they ever think about.

Again I find myself wondering if I'm really a human being. Because sex is not all I ever think about even in those periods when my libido is high. I'm not a machine: I can only spend a tiny fraction of my life having sex. Moreover, the physical sensation of sex, while certainly pleasant, doesn't seem to me to be something to build your life around. The emotional intimacy, on the other hand, does...but many men act as if that intimacy is something to be avoided. I don't pretend to understand that...