The Man, and his ideas about my sex.

Unfortunately, I spent the morning reading Polemical Introduction, my punishment for missing class. I have not delved into Reading Lolita in Tehran, so I apologize for not writing on this week’s assignments.

In his most recent blog, Kevin brought up the American aversion to sex. In regards to censorship, I think this is a pertinent observation and topic. Why is it that we censor something as natural as the human body, but gory, bloody war scenes and horror flicks are appropriate for anyone accompanied by their parents? Why did exposing Isabella Rossellini offend Ebert so much? The answer is obvious. This is the work of the Man.

It is in the Man’s best interests for us to fear our own nudity and sexuality. In the spirit of Great Art, I watched “House Bunny” this weekend. “Natalie” tells the Playboy Bunny to cover up with a robe because the other girls don’t even know what their own bodies look like, much less her perfectly engineered breasts. The line is funny because the girls are awkward. But really, is that any reason to not know your own body? Only Playboy Bunnies can enjoy their Birthday Suites, and are considered sluttish for doing so? Why are we told to be ashamed of nudity? Why IS pornography so damn lucrative?

Love and sex are subversive. The Man has labeled them “dirty” to prevent the Good Citizens for indulging in them too frequently. When we are in love, our body releases dopamine, the same chemical released when snorting cocaine. It is a bad cubical worker who is doped up on dopamine. Better make him scared of nudity. Confine sexual advances to dark bars. Wrap it up with rules and expectations. Give it a rating of R in the movies. A pamphlet I picked up once made the observation that it is difficult to convince someone with a lot to live for, someone in love, to risk their life. Politically it is to the Man’s best interest to glorify war and demonize sex. His movies attest to this.

How do we go change any of this? Change our perception of nudity and sex? Change the media’s use of sex? How do we change any of this censorship? Change, Yolande, the importance of thorough investigative reporting? How do we change the media we have been handed?