Beautiful site. Would recommend a visit, though beware, you may have an overwhelming urge to travel.
Also a good inspection of our increasingly hyper-sensual culture/nation. Thanks bro daniel for the link. Is a worthwhile read, and something that friends and I have talked about on quite a few occasions.
12 comments:
sometimes i feel really liberal and think that if we'd just get de-sensitized to things, then we wouldn't have trouble. I've been told that is wrong, and I feel a bit dichotomous (two-sided/split) about it though because my own standard *tends* to be, "if they're comfortable with it, I'll be comfortable with it" and that standard has served me well. usually.
I really am two-minded about it. What does the stereo-typed "denmark" look like again? Does it function as a nation? What negative effects has 'open-mindedness' had on the the culture morally? Here's some semi-logical possibilities: casual relationships; increased abortion, single-family homes, uninhibited prostitution, relaxed treatment of child abuse cases, youth-centric culture.
I don't think the above list has to be true though, and I believe, perhaps naively, that some 'liberal countries' may be better morally than the US. I feel like the US (or at least Los Angeles) has a fixation, not shared by all of the rest of the world (at least, to the same degree). I'm not sure... what do you think?
obviously, there is need for clarification. In particular the phrase "if they're comfortable with it, so am I.." because I do NOT mean that with regards to the sexual/sensual industry. Not at all! What I mean is.. hm.. what DO I mean? Well, to summarize, I guess just saying that I'm a bit more liberal minded, yet, with considerable reservations about the fact.
I'm similiarly unsure as to what my response is. On the one hand, there is my easy 'moral' reaction: of course this is just straight up bad and America is going to Hell in a handbasket. However, it is true that the human body is attractive because God made it so. So, maybe a more refined response is to say: yes, the motivation for porn is good, since the human body is a beautiful thing. However, the problem with porn is that it ultimately makes the human body boring and consequently life becomes that much less fun.
I kind of think the latter response is pretty good. It gives a valid rationale for resisting porn that doesn't just boil down to being a kill joy, but actually amounts to being a joy enhancer.
Consequently, the response to the pornifying of our culture is, if the artist really thinks porn is boring in the end, to demonstrate that modesty is more interesting.
Hmmm...
"So, maybe a more refined response is to say: yes, the motivation for porn is good, since the human body is a beautiful thing. However, the problem with porn is that it ultimately makes the human body boring and consequently life becomes that much less fun."
I think it is a little deeper than that. P0rn is quite a bit more than just showing the beauty of the human form. Artistic nudes do that well, and very few people are up in arms about that. Porn is about sexuality, and not just that. It is about animal sexuality. It smudges the sexual lines in relationships, and the ultimate goal is "anything goes". The fact that women are beautiful is the fundamental attraction, but the real pull is not an apreciation of that beauty. The hook is the desire for more and the hint of satisfaction.
The problem with p0rn is that it makes real life sexuality seem boring, but only offers emptiness and insecurity.
As a woman in Los Angeles, I hate being inundated with the overt p--nification of our fine city. It's just annoying to me, because I don't think seeing it over and over desensitizes a person. But I'm not wired like a guy is. What it speaks to me, though, is less of a "oh, won't someone think of the children?" and more of a lack of creativity. The article (the original) mentions that sex has for eons been used to sell stuff like beer. It's gotten to the point where you perhaps ARE desensitized to it...I just roll my eyes, and I think the industry has noticed that and as such I think is starting to create more creative approaches that don't just try to hit base levels. But that's just IT...there's no creativity anymore in using that method to advertise. It's just gotten so prevalent that it's annoying. I truly hope on a creative level, anyway, that as a culture we start encouraging more esoteric and truly creative methods of getting a point across rather than finding something blonde and buxom to do it for us. Bah! I appreciate being appreciated, but can't something ELSE be used to sell a car? Sorry, that was sort of OT of what you were talking about with regards to morality, but all your points were made and were good. I'm just adding my two cents, even though it's in another denomination.
Did that make ANY sense at all? The condensed version: hyper-sexualized culture bad, more creative, thoughtful culture good, Suzanne needs to rethink the fourth cup of tea...
in response to some of Suzanne's comment:
I don't think that more creativity in advertizing is a very good ploy. Everything gets old, the conventional ways of modestly advertising just doesn't work nowadays, at least not well in comparison to the competition's advertising which may be less modest.
A bit of my angst is against advertising period. Our culture runs on advertising (at least, a large portion of the internet does). The newspaper is 50% advertising space, magazines as well. Billboards. TV commercials. It really is a LOT of advertising. Billions of dollars worth.
One of the reasons I love to travel is because other countries have so little advertising. Where I've been in England had few billboards, and where they were; they were much smaller (and for suzanne's benefit: usually quite creative or beautiful). Most advertising I saw abroad was the bus-stop type; 1 and a half foot/2foot tall. It's really nice not being advertised to once in a while.
oh, and I agree with Daniel. Eric, you had some good thought provoking ideas in yours as well. I never had a doubt that the US was secular. It just surprises me when it shows some resistance to the fact.
i think non-creative cultures aren't bad. you can't keep youth from being creative, they'll do it, but the more you commercialize creativity, the less attractive spontaneous creativity looks " 'cause it's just too hard to compete".
Our culture is not so creative as it is ambitious and corporate.
Hey Luke,
I should have added that advertising in general is annoying. Seeing a billboard every five seconds on the 10 or 60 freeways is what is most tiresome. So, I agree with you there. But creativity goes beyond the artistic and the corporate. Yes, we are ambitious, but without ambition not much of anything could get done. Ambition is good, when directed correctly. As is corporation, if you think of it in the sense of a "body" (corporal) taking something and working together with it. But there are two sides to everything, a good and bad, as you mention in the first post you made. I still think creativity is necessary in any culture, for solving new problems, creating new inventions, and of course - making people aware of those solutions and inventions (advertising). Innundation of anything, however, is excessive to the point of annoyance and offensiveness. I too love Europe, but not because I felt I found fewer advertisements (the Metro in Paris is plastered with them)..they were just more interesting to look at.
Oh right, pr0|\|. Sorry about that Luke. I bumped up your site stats though:)
Yep, that beautiful site really did make me want to travel. You were right.
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