Because You Never Asked

     (This essay is the third of a series including "Pornography", "Tits and Ass" and "Feminism".)

     Such detached, objective perusal of my culture's sexual dance has brought me to the following conclusion: if a language has a concept such as "pornography" in its vocabulary, the culture it operates in is pornographic. One cannot objectively-intellectually view the incessant sexual stimuli parading up and down Main Street without coming to the realization that we are living in an integral, constant, perpetual peep show. One must eventually ask; is there much difference between the topless dancer and the brigades of spandex asses flaunting their topographies in a daily display of peacock-like sexual ostentation? Aren't they just varying degrees of the same mind set? "Pornography" is everywhere.

     Those most concerned with the evils of pornography --- the fire and brimstoners, the frustrated PTA mothers, the bull crapping politicians --- are wasting their time attacking prostitution, the diffusion of hairy genitals, "titty bars", and the like. These are time tested institutions that have always existed, even in supposedly prudish societies, and will continue to exist as long as the sexual urge is throbbing. Such venues could even be considered reasonable outlets for the normal frustration human sexuality produces. People using these services generally do so with their minds clear and their goals narrowly directed. They are not the problem.

     The real problem is out there in the everyday world, in the daily ebb and flow of our lives where there is an incessant, indefatigable avalanche of sexual suggestion that is so pervasive and unobtrusive, I'm not sure we are consciously aware of it anymore. Like the modern day noises we don't even notice --- the traffic clatter, the power grid hum, the pop music whining away in the background --- it is constantly there in high heels, tight blouses, short skirts and cleavage, insidiously gnawing into our perception of things. This perpetual sexual insinuation cannot help but cause excessive degrees of frustration, regardless of your amorous success rate. Frustration causes negative behavior such as violence, anger, spite, lack of focus, etc. This frustration, caused by a society that might be described as overly concerned with sex, is not healthy. We must better segregate our sexual energy from the rest of the actions we take as human beings. Can our emotional capacities endure more sexual seepage into all facets of our consciousness?

     "Look at the ass on that chic."

     This is not a call for sexual abstinence, nor am I advocating a "new age" Puritanism or Victorian constipation. Two people genuinely aroused by each other should satisfy themselves. What I am suggesting is that "things sexual" are taking up too great a percentage of our outward perceptions. We must be given more opportunity to live free from this tyranny. If we are not allowed to go 5 minutes without the intrusion of a sexual thought, we will perish trying to satiate ourselves. If you find this an attractive option, you will be sorely disappointed. You will not perish "a la Errol Flynn", living out your fantasies. You will destroy yourself doing everything else such sexual tension creates. You will compete, cavort and posture, and your unfulfilled urges will lead you into a variety of anti-social, or, at the very least, negative acts. In short, it won't be fun.

     Which brings me to . (see essay, "Feminism").