I am a Tangent...

... Okay, so maybe I'm not physically a tangent but my mind operates on them. For example:

I was watching several installments on Youtube of the Phill DeFranco Show, it's basically a video blog by a guy named, ironically enough, Phill DeFranco. If you haven't checked him out I highly recommend it. It's worthy not because I agree with his opinions most of the time, there are some I don't, however he succesfully uses satire and humor to explain his logical positions on topical events, something that I obviously would give kudos for.

Anyway, during one of his video-blogs he mentions that one of the chicks from Mtv's "The Hill" (whatever the fuck that is) has nude pictures of herself on the internet.

Wait! WHAT??? Are you telling me that one of the many paragons of virtue and wholesomeness parading on Mtv has been corrupted by an evil media and has stooped to such degredations???

No, I'm saying that yet another one of the unfortunately Real human beings that schlep themselves for money has of course done the inevitable. Maybe you noticed I used the phrase "Schlep themselves for money" instead of the more appropriate term "WHORE". Whore would be a perfect fit because that's what the word means. Someone is doing something not out of enjoyment but for the love of money. Not a shock.

Having said that, due to the fact that I am a big dumb male, I googled it and looked for myself.

This is where the tangent comes in and why it should scare all of you that I can speak and can lawfully interact with people. Here I am looking at pictures of a nude woman and the first thing that pops into my head is not, "My my, what an amazing rack" but "What a bunch of fuckin' hypocrites femanists are"......

.... Yeah, I know, I need help.....

The reason I say this is because the imagery and the circumstances surounding them reminded me of a discussion on pornography or sexual imagery and whether or not it's exploitive.

The answer is OF COURSE it's exploitive. That's called marketing: "Gee, what could we do that will attract a large consumer market and make us a ton of money? ..... I got it.... Guys are a bunch of hormonally driven basketcases willing to shell out great gobs of cash for a cheap thrill and the chance to see a nipple-slip right? So, lets publish naked pictures of chicks and ask for money in exchange".

BAM, and there's how the largest profitable enterprise on the globe got started.

Back on topic (I warned you about the tangents). I recalled every time I had ever heard a femanist (or at least someone promoting themselves as a femanist) said out of one side of their face, "Men taking nude photoes of women and profiting off of them is exploitative and degrading to women. Devaluing their worth to make a cheap buck", while out of the other side of their face proclaiming, "A woman who chooses to promote herself in such a way is empowering herself by taking control over how she's perceived and taking advantage of a corrupt population".

Right.

Obviously I'm paraphrasing, the quotes are for effect. But, I kind of remember being told a long time ago that someone who accepts money to do something morally corrupt is a whore. Made sense to me then, makes sense to me now.

The biggest whore,,, er... empowered woman I've heard of lately is a chick that is apparently selling her virginity online to pay for a college education, AS A FAMILY COUNSELOR!!?!!?

Now correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the end result what matters and not so much the perception of the event leading up to it?

I mean, if presenting a human being as an object of sexual desire was degrading to them before, then why isn't it still degrading even if they are having more of a say in the bargaining process? I thought the whole point they were trying to make is that if you objectify women and make them appear to developing males as nothing but tools of sexual gratification then you are devaluing them to the point of being subserviant. I thought that they blamed the escalating rate of sexual assaults on the porn industries portrayal of the female form as simply a really nice hand with which to masturbate without having any real say in the matter. It was my understanding that to look at a female and to see nothing but a meat-sack set upon the earth to enjoy physically but to ignore otherwise was debasing and contributed heavily to the domestic violence problem in our country.

Did I fuckin' miss something?

Does it matter how big the check is?

When I was in High School I had a Law Enforcement class that lasted the whole year and was taught by a teacher who had been a patrol-officer and then detective for the Houston PD. He had a marvolous way with words and for setting up the unwary for a logical tumble. One day, while talking about the upcoming prom he got into the topic of how much prom costs from rentals to purchasing dresses and hotel rooms and every thing else. After he got everybody flowing on his path of inequity he posed the following question to the girls, "If Tom Cruise offered you $10,000 to take you to prom, would you take it?" Huge yelps from the class of positive sentiment.... he continued... "If he mentioned that the price included sexual favors later on, would you accept it then"... there was a short time of silence before some yes' were uttered. Apparently some of them thought of the sexual favors as being a bonus tagged onto the money and NOT as what they would have to do FOR the money.

Seeing no vocal opposition to his indecent proposal the teacher lead into his discussion of Vice with, "Congratulations, you're all whores. I apparently just had to name the right price".

I mean, considering that it appears that more and more people are accepting porn as a legitimate business, then why isn't prostitution being legalised wholesale? Isn't it basically the same thing? I guarantee you if you picked up a hooker, went to the hotel room, made it very clear that you wanted NO physical contact but just wanted to jerk-off while she slowly undressed.... You'd still get pinched for solicitation of prostitution. What you proposed is not any diferent from porn. Just because the chick isn't physically there, just because there are many levels of mediators for the haggling of monies between the poser and the jerker, doesn't mean that the situation isn't identical.

While I was discussing this blog with my wife a minute ago she made the comment of, "If you object to porn so much then why do you partake of it occasionally". My dismay was with her misinterpretation of my intent. I'm NOT opposed to pornography.

I've been looking at porn in one way or another since I was 8 years old. My dad had a bunch of Playboy and Penthouse magazines. When I was just getting old enough to remember such things I recall seeing my dad reading a Playboy on the sofa while sitting next to my mother. I was LITTLE, like 5 or 6. That was the last time I saw the mags in the light of day until I found them packed into boxes a few years later. I got the impression that while it was okay for grownups, it wasn't something that kids should see.

It was kind of like my dad's firearms collection, I could see them from a distance, they were described and explained to me but I was told I couldn't handle them until I was older and proved responsible enough.

Now, in the absence of a conscientious upbringing I could very well have given into the same kind of debase view of sexuality that a lot of my freinds did. I could very easily have slipped into the frame of mind that sex was simply a pleasurable physical act that held no greater meaning.

Fortunately I had loving parents who appropriately modelled what an affectionate relationship is. There wasn't any kind of open discussion about physical sexuality but neither was it avoided. I wasn't told sex was "bad", I was told sex had serious consequences. I wasn't told that my privates were "dirty", I was told that they were personal and there as an appropritae time and place that they should be exposed. They didn't scare me away from sex but they certainly warned me heavily about what taking it for granted or abusing it could do to me. Plus, my sister became pregnant when she was 17. Not because of my parents attempts at counsel but at her wanton disregard of that counsel. As a result I got to see first hand what kind of life altering issues could arise from sex.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't celebate, but I was sure as hell careful. Now, I was also LUCKY from time to time. Mistakes are made and thankfully I was blessed during those occasions.

..Another tangent... Sorry...

Nope, I'm not opposed to pornography. I'm opposed to hypocrisy. Don't tell me that a company has unfare business practices and then change your mind coincidently enough after a large contribution to your organization has been made from the same maligned company. That is basically what has happened to the femanist movement.

Come to think of it, it's the same thing that's happened to a lot of organizations. Fund raising becomes so important that the lobbying for funds soon turns into litgation for funds. A threatened lawsuit with the idea that an out-of-court settlement can be added to the coffers for a "righteous" endeavor supporting the cause.

Yet another tangent. I'm sure that once the Feds figure out how they can profit as much off of the "illegal" drug trade as they do tobacco and alcohol and muscle out the "illicit" and "unregulated" competition, we'll see marijuana at least legalized.

It's all just greed whether it's about cocks or chronic.