tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post2920690839048661483..comments2024-03-09T08:58:57.961-05:00Comments on Everything is Interesting: Okay thenJulie H. Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-86238956691810356912010-10-27T22:35:38.497-04:002010-10-27T22:35:38.497-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-18455111752465380572010-10-27T22:35:35.962-04:002010-10-27T22:35:35.962-04:00Nathan, thanks for leaving a comment. As I wrote,...Nathan, thanks for leaving a comment. As I wrote, this was a short post. The topic could take up an entire blog and never end. I agree with you in that our culture is crazy (not your words). But the split you wrote of - it is insane. What would you expect from an essentially shame-based puritan culture seemingly obsessed with titillation?Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-29595330563664149682010-10-27T17:53:08.805-04:002010-10-27T17:53:08.805-04:00It's amazing to think about the mainstream cul...It's amazing to think about the mainstream cultural split-attitude about sex and sexuality. On the one hand, it's used to sell everything under the sun. On the other hand, many people can barely talk about it at all with each other, let alone get past whatever hangups they have around sex being "dirty" or taboo. And then you have those who can only talk about sex and sexuality in very clipped, perhaps provocative, but ultimately very shallow terms. It's rare to find discussion, art, or even pop culture that can express the actual depth present in sex and sexuality.Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13920234350446745482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-82989802496756899822010-10-27T11:57:07.801-04:002010-10-27T11:57:07.801-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-36382851804347797432010-10-27T11:56:41.555-04:002010-10-27T11:56:41.555-04:00So much to respond to! I never thought of the Gold...So much to respond to! I never thought of the Golden Girls as "provocative." I used to take offense at the premise of it being funny that "old women" could be sexual. <br /><br />As to your question "why did I go right to sex?", I think that part of what I was asking is why we differentiate between the sensuous and the sexual, as if crossing that line was taboo (though they are different - I am not sexually attracted to beans). There's so many answers to this question, and many of them bring up more questions. As for Nimoy, I applaud him for his book, but the fact that he said he's not sexually attracted to these women is actually offensive in this context. It is true that finding overweight women sexually attractive is considered something of a perversion in the "white heterosexual" culture. <br /><br />At what age do we consider sexuality (and sensuality) null and void? If I think carefully about this, I will say "it depends." The "older man" can be viewed as sexually powerful until he becomes "elderly." With women, all bets are off, though with both men and women, it seems that status and power can keep one's sexuality "legitimate" well into older middle age. I do think that once a woman is past child bearing age, we tend to think of her as sexually dead. 'Tis true, though, that we bristle at thinking of elderly people as sexually active. I know a woman in her early 80's who has spend the last two decades going to senior centers to talk about safe sex. There's a lot of sex going on in retirement communities, and STDs right along with it, but no one wants to talk about it. 'Tis distasteful to most to even think of it, like imagining one's parents doing the nasty when we first learn of sex and saying "ewww!" Seeing that sentence, I must say that the expression "doing the nasty" brings up how, really, I think all of us are pretty well inculcated with the notion that sex is dirty, so if figures that we, as a culture, delineate a very small window of acceptability in portrayals of it, and thinking about it, that are considered okay. <br /><br />I did know that some Justice had said "I know it when I see it" but was too lazy to find out who it was. Thanks! Though I do see that I judge in this way, I don't buy it either, for context, and frame of reference is everything.Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-11574982262588506552010-10-27T08:57:42.910-04:002010-10-27T08:57:42.910-04:00Oh, you beat me to my idea! I was reading about th...Oh, you beat me to my idea! I was reading about the possibility of you photographing nude young men, and I thought "Why not nude old men?" That would be quite a project and, in the hands of the right photographer, not just provocative, but also a thing of real beauty. <br /><br />At what age, would you guess, our culture declares one's sexuality void? I know people in their 70s and even 80s who have hinted to me that they still have enjoyable sex lives. Yet, to most people, the little old lady next door, or her grouchy old curmudgeon of a husband, are somehow deemed asexual by default. That's part of why the Golden Girls was so provocative. Sure, you had Blanche, the "slut," who was actually younger than the rest of the "girls," but all of them "got it on" at one point or another, including batty old Sophia. <br /><br />And why did I go right to sex? As you noted, sensual and sexual are not the same thing. I imagine those nude old men projecting both power and vulnerability. Maybe a showing off of battle scars kind of thing. <br /><br />As for porn, you're not alone in declaring "I know it when I see it." That's what Justice Potter Stewart famously said when the Supreme Court considered the question. But you probably knew that, and were channeling him, there. I'm not sure I buy it, though. My erotica, or even fine art, could easily be someone else's pornography. Or even, as I catch myself becoming a bit more prudish, at least in my personal sensibilities, if not in my political beliefs, vice verse. <br /><br />Speaking of unconventional nudes, have you seen <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Full-Body-Project-Photographs-Leonard/dp/0979472725/ref=sr_1_1??%20ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288183891&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">this</a>? Go, Spock! Nimoy felt the need to explain, in an interview about the project, that he wasn't sexually attracted to any of those women, but did find them beautiful. (God forbid anyone be sexually attracted to fat women. That would make you a "chbby chaser." But I'm being unfair to dear Mr. Nimoy, who I rather admire, for this project and in general).jmcleod76https://www.blogger.com/profile/17756115118582961551noreply@blogger.com