soft-core culture

This post is inspired by an article I read today called As soft-core sensibility spreads, critics warn of effects.

...Not too long ago, pornography was a furtive profession, its products created and consumed in the shadows. But it has steadily elbowed its way into the limelight, with an impact that can be measured not just by the Internet-fed ubiquity of pornography itself but by the way aspects of the porn sensibility now inform movies, music videos, fashion, magazines, and celebrity culture.

...What is new and troubling, critics suggest, is that the porn aesthetic has become so pervasive that it now serves as a kind of sensory wallpaper, something that many people don't even notice anymore. The free-speech-versus-censorship debates that invariably surround actual pornography do not burn as hot when the underlying principles of porn are filtered more subtly into the mainstream. And those principles, critics say, often involve reducing women to subjugated sex objects while presenting men in dominant roles.

While I've been somewhat aware of this for a while, it has been brought back to my attention in recent months. Recent rap songs I have heard are almost exclusively about paying homage to strippers and other, um, 'paid women'. (I generally like to listen to most rap music, which is one of my guilty pleasures, but it is losing its appeal as it slips into unintentional self parody like this.) In the summer there seemed to be a trend among 13 year olds to out-do each other in proclaiming their sexuality on their shorts' posteriors. How many times a year is the Victoria's Secret fashion show on primetime? It is everywhere, pervasive, subtle, the creeping increase in overt sexuality.

But I'm not here to blame. I can't fix it, you can't fix it, and the only solutions I hear offered won't actually work, or are worse than the disease, or both. The point is in my reaction, and my understanding of the world.

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that it has taken this long. I have been hearing my whole life about how we are becoming no longer a Christian nation; I honestly wonder if we ever were. The latest stats I have heard say that something like 3/4 Americas say they are Christian, but less than 50% attend church, and the number who have actual spiritual activity in their lives is a single digit percentage. Few people even know what the teachings of Jesus are, let alone incorporate them. We are a nation that gives lip service to something we corporately do not believe. And sex sure looks a lot better than this stifling set of rules that most people think is Christianity. So what I don't understand is how we have managed to stave off the level of latent sexuality so long.

So the level of sex is rising, and is unlikely to slow down. What does that mean? A lot.

For one thing, it may mean more openness to God. As much as shallow sexuality is extremely attractive and addicting, it is shallow. I think that as people delve deeper into it, some will begin to butt up against the bottom and find it repulsive. I think this may be easier for women (more on that in a bit) but is possible for anyone. And that is where the believer can come in, offering the very opposite of sex: relationship.

Socially speaking, I think this means a huge step backward for women. I have heard a very weak argument that porn actually helps the women's movement, it goes something like this: "Porn is pretty much the only industry where women make more than men. Oh, and lots of women move into the production roles too. Oh, and it lets women take control of their sexuality." Even if I were to believe that the very small percentage of people making porn (and thus theoretically taking control, which I won't get into) were enough to justify the first argument, I think it requires some pretty thick blinders to think that that is the end of the story.

It should come as no surprise to any thinking person that a pornography saturated culture affects our minds. I recently pulled this from a completely random diary-style blog:

now, i know that many women view pornography as degrading to women and i have to disagree vehemently. the porn industry is the only industry in the world where women make more money than men. period. how is that degrading? the porn industry is the only industry that recognizes the talent of women and honors them accordingly... for you women who read this, if you really want to get to know your man. watch porn. lots of it. study it. examine it. embrace it... men spend a billion dollars a year on porn. a billion. why do we do that? because you won't do what the porn stars will. that's why.

Essentially, he (Scott Copeland) thinks that the only industry that recognizes female talent is the porn industry. Or to rephrase, the only talent women have is sexuality. And if you are over 30, or over weight, or won't do whatever the latest fetish is, or are in any other way 'imperfect', you have no talent. You have no value. Because women are, in the porn mentality shared by most men, objects. And the reason porn stars are more valuable objects than the women in real life, is that they will do those porn-star activities.

I hope you can see my frustration in this. I believe in relationships, real, healthy, vital relationships. Christy and I have a marriage based on trust, a deep-rooted love for each other, mutual submission. If I take her for anything less than fully human, begin to reduce her to some object, then I fail to submit to her, and the mutuality fails. And the love is not so deep rooted. And the trust is gone.

Yet daily I am bombarded with the cheapened sexuality used in media (and I hardly even watch TV!) And everywhere I go, women dress in ways inspired by Jessica Simpson, who apparently is taking inspiration from porn stars and strippers (watch 30 seconds of "these boots were made for walking", then go wash your mind out with soap.) And I constantly notice little bits of teasing exposed flesh. And it is a constant battle that can't really quite be defeated. And sooner or later I have to ask how much I am affected after all.

And I am sure it affects women. In general, I am surprised more women don't have eating disorders. Over and over I hear of young women wanting to look like porn stars, because that's all that men want. I would love to argue with them (I find the average porn star body quite repulsive) but it is hard to argue when sooooo many men hit the strip clubs and watch porn. Some demented distortion of the female form, available only with body-deforming plastication of the body, is apparently now the beauty ideal. That's pretty bad, but it totally misses the worse issue. The reason women want to look like that: because it is what the men want! The whole of pornography is set up to give the man whatever he wants, while switching the woman back to a servile role.

So much for women's lib. So much for Paul's notions of mutual submission. Welcome to the new society. Same as the old society.