Girls Gone Wild
So I’m reading in the news about how the AMA has done a study which revealed a lot of college women like to get really drunk and have less-than-careful sex on spring break trips. The AMA, naturally, feels obliged to warn young women about the health risks involved in these activities and to urge college administrations etc to endorse “alternative” activities.
Now, leaving aside the small detail that only 27% of the women surveyed had even gone on a spring break trip (which shows that no matter what the perception of these trips is, they are definitely not the norm for college women), what troubles me is how, in our society, the “powers that be” seem determined to stamp out every occasion that gives license to carouse. Back in the day (and I’m talking about really back in the day, through thousands of years of human history - not just the last couple of industrialized centuries) there were publicly sanctioned occasions for riotous celebration, often involving drink or drugs and promiscuous sex: May Day festivals and harvest fairs, courtship processions and Saturnalias celebrating the pagan gods of every culture.
I would not deny that there are risks involved in the modern celebration of spring break, and certainly it’s commonsensical to urge young women to take care of themselves at all times. Still, in today’s world a public health warning is a small step away from legislation (how many states have passed laws against public smoking, even in bars?) and I have to wonder what harm we are doing, to our culture and to the human spirit, by denying the need to cut loose. It seems to me we’ve always had these occasions because something in us needs that break from good sense, that opportunity to disregard the rules of respectability.
Hey, we are in a world where republicans believe it is more important to keep us from having sex, than it is to prevent women from getting cancer. (Google “republicans block HPV vaccine”) Horny feminists like us are currently an exception, although I think growing due to the Internet… but most of the girls on Girls Gone Wild type things I do not think are *in control* of the situation… not to mention that none of them actually get PAID for flashing. Sometimes the porn industry irks me!
Comment by Tamara — March 20, 2006 @ 3:48 am
I saw that story about the HPV vaccine Tamara, and found it disturbing, especially as I have a young daughter who would be one of the targets of the fundies oh-so-solicitious attention. There are a lot of areas in which I feel the policies of the religious right conflict with what’s actually in my children’s best interests. And sadly, this is not such a free country that I have the liberty to disagree fully, by acting on my beliefs. That sounds so mysterious, lol! I just mean, for example, that I would prefer to teach my kids about responsible drug use by, say, smoking a joint with them when they get to be teens…but if I dared to do that I’d be headed for jail.
I think it boils down to a distrust of any sensual pleasures, be those pleasures drugs, sex, or even food. To the religiously minded, the only allowable pleasures are the “spiritual” ones - which of course, they have declared a monopoly on. GOD FORBID anybody find any spiritual satisfaction in the pleasures of the flesh!
I expect you’re right about the “Girls Gone Wild” video girls not really being in control, but I don’t know if I would go so far as to say I think they’re being truly harmed by it. (Just speaking of the girls in the “Gone Wild” vids here, not girls who actually get forced into anything) I mean, don’t we all have a few youthful stupidities under our belts? As somebody in the industry I find it deplorable, but if I be honest that’s because if these girls are giving it away, it makes it that much harder for us to sell it. I just want to say to them “honey, if you give away the milk for free he won’t want to buy the cow!” :-p
Does that make me some kind of postmodern victorian?
Comment by Cherie — March 20, 2006 @ 7:38 am
No, not victorian, but I don’t know that it’s true either. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it first, would you? Frankly, speaking as a guy, I am much more likely to not only buy the milk but a new fridge to keep it in, if you know what I mean. Hell, my wife and I fucked before we were married. Fucked a LOT actually. And we still got hitched, 10 years later still quite happy (and fucking!).
Speaking to the bigger issues, I wish society would get a little more relaxed, and allow women to express their sexuality more openly. Guys would appreciate it that’s for sure, not having to play games and shit. It’d be great if we can get to where a woman could walk up to a guy and say “hey you’re cute wanna fuck” and not be socially stigmatized.
Plump Lvr
Comment by PlumpLvr — March 21, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
I am in total agreement with that Plump Lvr. I can’t imagine promising to spend my life with somebody without testing our sexual compatibility first!
But just speaking as somebody who’s in the business of selling porn…having some girls doing it all for free does make it harder for the rest of us to make a buck. That said though, I think the proliferation of homemade porn on the net is, on the whole, a good thing.
Comment by Cherie — March 21, 2006 @ 5:13 pm