When I started asking questions about American Sex, I realize I should have been more specific. But I was in the middle of a debate on Gay Marriage and it would have been an unnecessary and overburdened diversion. But part of the question that I was begging has a lot to do with the sexiness of sex and the happiness of sex. Which is to say that if sex could generally be seen as unsexy and unhappy then a lot of the libertine attitudes that I am able to perceive with regards to American attitudes about sex would be more clear.
In otherwords, people don't agree with the availability of porn (as distinct from pornography) in popular culture on principle, they agree with it because it's sexy and sexy things tend to make people happy. I think I can make the point clearer when I post this video.
This video is not particularly repulsive to me, nor is it funny. But I don't think anybody would say that this could pass for edifying entertainment precisely because it's not sexy. I have no idea what song or performer is the origin of the big guy's parody / imitation. I simply have removed myself from that part of pop culture. But it is very easy for me to imagine that this is the kind of stuff that very popular, fun and sexy. But it is completely empty and I think the emptiness shows through by substituting in someone who is the opposite of what is considered fun and sexy. I think, in this vein, of people who claim that fat men with hairy backs have 'no right' to go to the beach in speedos. At the same time I'm the one who would claim, that whomever the original performer of this song and dance is, she is stupid. How can I say it's stupid? Because here is another person doing it and it doesn't work.
Similarly, if ordinary or unsexy people were shown doing all of the porn that is in our popular culture, people's defense of it which often turns on the false principle of 'free speech' would be revealed to be hypocritical.
Understand that this is very similar to one of my arguments against Gay Marriage in that people exemplify their defense of it with the most fun and sexy people they can think of with no regard to what's actually going on. It's not about the content, it is about the social acceptability of the role model. Speaking of which, let's look at this from another angle. Tom Cruise.
I happen to have known a kid who could do Donald Duck imitations at summer camp when I was 14, which rather underscores 'the luck of the rich' I was briefly exploring today. But in this case, here you have a very good looking man who can hold your attention saying essentially nothing. Compare this brief video if you would to Kevin Spacey's talent on display in his famous interview at the Actor's Studio. It's probably not fair to compare the two interviews, clearly one is glammed up in black and white as part of publicity for Cruise' upcoming film on Nazi Germany. Nevertheless it demonstrates how well the medium covers the message and how much nothingness is allowed into the popular culture because of the sexiness of participants in empty activity.
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