There are people not of our generation, (we’ll call them grown-ups for now) who ask the question: how are you people so focused on sex? The question really is: how can we not be?
More television shows, commercials, movies, songs, music videos, even popular literature focuses more on sex than it ever has. It’s impossible to turn on the TV or radio, open a magazine or webpage without having some obscure sexual image shoved in our faces. It goes without saying that if I open a magazine and have some actress’s boobs staring right at me, I’m bound to let my mind drift to some overly sexual plane of existence.
We have been brought up in a culture that expects displays of overt sexuality. This is by no means to say that we should all go around naked (it’s too cold for that anyway) or doing it in public, but people tend to be very nonchalant with vulgar acts (like thrusting, grinding, touching inappropriately) in public, but only with people that they’re not ‘with’ or know to be ‘with’ by the public. This is very strange. I can grind up on a stranger at a party and it’s acceptable, but as soon as it gets serious, people start making accusations of public displays of affection. We live in a strange world, but this is what has become expected by the public, because this is what the public sees happening in the media.
Many would argue that the sexual culture we live in is caused by the public, rather than the media. This puts us in a ‘which came first’ situation. We may very well never know, but for the mean time, the two continue to play off of each other and my thoughts are poisoned by images and knowledge that I never asked for but am forced to look at.
Or I could stop reading, watching TV, listening to music and interacting with people. But that doesn’t sound like much fun. Or does it? (It doesn’t)
So what are we to do? A lost generation looking for a less forcibly sexual existence. Is that what we’re even looking for?
I don’t think so.
What we need is a more openly sexual existence, one where people are thinking about sexual issues because they want to. Because they’re genuinely curious. Not because they’re forced to think about certain aspects of it by the media.
Which brings me back to something I said in my first article. I love feedback, I love suggestions, I love hearing what you people are thinking about what I’m thinking. My email address is nrr001@mdaniel.edu . Please send me anything you have to offer. I look forward to hearing from you.
