Today I'd like to talk to you about the joys of pleasure and the inestimable crock of shit that we refer to as respectability . The two are more closely linked than you might think. There's a lot to cover so I'll dive straight in...
Pleasure. The word itself sounds dirty, sordid and sinful. From a young age we are encouraged to believe that pleasure is a bad thing. This is particularly true of pleasures of the flesh. These are the most abominable and unforgivable pleasures and to experience them is to sink backwards through the unmeasured depths of filth from which mankind has laboured ceaselessly to escape. Sexuality is still an extremely sensitive subject and any deviancy from the conventions dictated by nature will set you apart from the rest of the world, brand you as an outsider, despite sex being entirely natural and an inherent part of life. Drugs and alcohol are things frowned upon by respectable people who view them as poisons acting not only against the body of the individual, but the entire anatomy of society. These are all shameful things, aspects of one's life which one must conceal from wider society. Desires for these things are desires to be smothered, suffocated with the ample buttocks of morality and decency.
Why?
I would have thought that society, that civilization, had evolved enough of an immune system by now to rid its massive bloodstream of such petty misgivings against the human condition and such blatant misinterpretations of nature. But it clearly has not... We live in an era where the collected small-mindedness of a startling number of people pervades everything from politics to education like a putrid, toxic fart.
I'll explain...
As a politician, image is approximately 99.9% of your career. Like it or not, your political views, your revolutionary plans for positive world change, are secondary to how the public perceive you. The average person cares more about whether or not you'd be an enjoyable companion in the pub, or your status as a family man, than they do about your ability as a politician. If the News of the World happens to print, 'pon its sacred pages, a story which implies that you frequent web sites where men and women have carnal relations while wearing a variety of leather and zips and tassels, then you are fucked. Because this is viewed as immoral. No person who enjoys spectacles of this nature is fit to serve Queen and country on the political battlefield. But why? Why should this hypothetical politician's career end because of what he likes to do in the privacy of his own home. He doesn't choose to be attracted to such unusual sexual practices, and if he did, what business is that of mine? Or any body's?
As a heterosexual man I sometimes find my line of vision has, unnoticed by me, found its way to the bum of the woman standing in front of me in the queue in Tesco. What is it about said bum that I find worth looking at? It's not like I don't have my own. What is so great about someone else's bum? Likewise, why might I find one girl on the street extremely pretty and another utterly unexceptional? I honestly could not provide you with a solid reason. "Well she's just better looking..." doesn't cut it.
What is different about my conundrum? I sometimes look at something which I find attractive for mysterious reasons, for what I consider natural reasons, and our fictional politician is looking at something which he finds attractive for mysterious reasons, for what he must consider natural reasons (and I'm not certain I could argue with him...) ?
Why should anyone have to apologise for finding something attractive? Why is your sexuality something to be defended? It certainly shouldn't be. It's a testament to the prevailing ignorance and stubborn intolerance still present all over the world.
Onto education now...
Until very, very recently there has been little talk of teaching children about the whole spectrum of sexuality. The idea of teaching children about homosexuality has always seemed appalling. They might be encouraged to become raging queens and dungaree-wearing lesbians! Jee Willikers, wouldn't that be terrible!?!?! Instead they grow up believing that love and sex are things to be shared exclusively by a man and a woman, in that exact combination. When they discover that sometimes men have relationships with other men and women with other women they naturally see this as strange. If, as is often the case today, children are aware of these strange exceptions already, then when they do receive sex education it cements their belief that something just ain't right with them there queers.
I realize that the emphasis thus far has been on sexuality, and it's true that sexuality is a big part of this topic, but there are others.
Swearing. Swearing is bad. We all know it. We're taught this in school. It's dirty; it's vulgar; it's unnecessary. Wait, no it's not. Fuck. A four letter word, one syllable, one vowel, three consonants. That's all it is. The same as duck, last, sock, arch and hundreds of thousands more. The only reason that fuck is so terrible compared to these others is that we have given it its dirtiness, its vulgarity. We have deemed it unnecessary.
SHAKESPEARE IS UNNECESSARY!!! MOZART IS UNNECESSARY!!! CUSTARD CREAMS ARE UNNECESSARY!!!
Does anyone suggest that these are immoral? Every fucking thing under the sun is unnecessary. Unnecessary things like those above turn life from a bitter fight for survival against the elements into an experience to be enjoyed. Unnecessary things lend life its pleasure. Ah, but pleasure is bad. Pleasure is the devil's work. Pleasure leads us astray, into the wilderness of impurity.
This is all about perception. Society perceives certain sexual practices as immoral. It deems swearing immoral. It has decided that getting drunk, getting high, that crying, laughing, farting, belching, shitting, ejaculating, scratching one's arse, not shaving in the morning, rejecting God, embracing the devil, having an extra ginger nut biscuit with your tea, being fat, being thin, being stupid, being clever, being outspoken, being reserved, wearing clashing colours, wearing clothes normally associated with the opposite sex and generally being human, as immoral, as not being respectable.
Respectability. What is respect anyway? Respect is the approval of another. Approval? Do I need the approval of anyone? I like having the approval of friends, of family, of the people who are important to me. Do I need the approval of some tightly-wound Stepford wife without an anus? I do not. In fact, I dread the coming of the day when I have that approval.
Of course it is all too easy for this viewpoint to become one of anarchy, an opinion that law is only the imposition of respectability on natural desires and practices. But it shouldn't. Just because sexuality and the desire to experience the unnecessary for pleasure are natural and beautiful things, I can't go around doing just anything at the expense of others. Because certain things are immoral for good reason. Causing pain and suffering in others against their will, this will never be an acceptable practice, for instance.
Essentially, life is a pretty miserable thing if one does not partake of whatever gives one pleasure. If the reason for this is that to do so would hamper one's respectability then... well I'm not going to stop you. But I think you're making a mistake. If you're not hurting anyone with what you want to do then all I can say is that on your deathbed, the approval of a few sterile, faceless, but respectable individuals will be of little comfort. Respectability offers little solace when the flesh and mind decay having never experienced true enjoyment...
And I guarantee you will never regret just being human.
Jamie
P.S. Excuse my woolly liberalism. Such is the curse of being a shamelessly bohemian literature student with too much time on his filthy hands.
Pleasure. The word itself sounds dirty, sordid and sinful. From a young age we are encouraged to believe that pleasure is a bad thing. This is particularly true of pleasures of the flesh. These are the most abominable and unforgivable pleasures and to experience them is to sink backwards through the unmeasured depths of filth from which mankind has laboured ceaselessly to escape. Sexuality is still an extremely sensitive subject and any deviancy from the conventions dictated by nature will set you apart from the rest of the world, brand you as an outsider, despite sex being entirely natural and an inherent part of life. Drugs and alcohol are things frowned upon by respectable people who view them as poisons acting not only against the body of the individual, but the entire anatomy of society. These are all shameful things, aspects of one's life which one must conceal from wider society. Desires for these things are desires to be smothered, suffocated with the ample buttocks of morality and decency.
Why?
I would have thought that society, that civilization, had evolved enough of an immune system by now to rid its massive bloodstream of such petty misgivings against the human condition and such blatant misinterpretations of nature. But it clearly has not... We live in an era where the collected small-mindedness of a startling number of people pervades everything from politics to education like a putrid, toxic fart.
I'll explain...
As a politician, image is approximately 99.9% of your career. Like it or not, your political views, your revolutionary plans for positive world change, are secondary to how the public perceive you. The average person cares more about whether or not you'd be an enjoyable companion in the pub, or your status as a family man, than they do about your ability as a politician. If the News of the World happens to print, 'pon its sacred pages, a story which implies that you frequent web sites where men and women have carnal relations while wearing a variety of leather and zips and tassels, then you are fucked. Because this is viewed as immoral. No person who enjoys spectacles of this nature is fit to serve Queen and country on the political battlefield. But why? Why should this hypothetical politician's career end because of what he likes to do in the privacy of his own home. He doesn't choose to be attracted to such unusual sexual practices, and if he did, what business is that of mine? Or any body's?
As a heterosexual man I sometimes find my line of vision has, unnoticed by me, found its way to the bum of the woman standing in front of me in the queue in Tesco. What is it about said bum that I find worth looking at? It's not like I don't have my own. What is so great about someone else's bum? Likewise, why might I find one girl on the street extremely pretty and another utterly unexceptional? I honestly could not provide you with a solid reason. "Well she's just better looking..." doesn't cut it.
What is different about my conundrum? I sometimes look at something which I find attractive for mysterious reasons, for what I consider natural reasons, and our fictional politician is looking at something which he finds attractive for mysterious reasons, for what he must consider natural reasons (and I'm not certain I could argue with him...) ?
Why should anyone have to apologise for finding something attractive? Why is your sexuality something to be defended? It certainly shouldn't be. It's a testament to the prevailing ignorance and stubborn intolerance still present all over the world.
Onto education now...
Until very, very recently there has been little talk of teaching children about the whole spectrum of sexuality. The idea of teaching children about homosexuality has always seemed appalling. They might be encouraged to become raging queens and dungaree-wearing lesbians! Jee Willikers, wouldn't that be terrible!?!?! Instead they grow up believing that love and sex are things to be shared exclusively by a man and a woman, in that exact combination. When they discover that sometimes men have relationships with other men and women with other women they naturally see this as strange. If, as is often the case today, children are aware of these strange exceptions already, then when they do receive sex education it cements their belief that something just ain't right with them there queers.
I realize that the emphasis thus far has been on sexuality, and it's true that sexuality is a big part of this topic, but there are others.
Swearing. Swearing is bad. We all know it. We're taught this in school. It's dirty; it's vulgar; it's unnecessary. Wait, no it's not. Fuck. A four letter word, one syllable, one vowel, three consonants. That's all it is. The same as duck, last, sock, arch and hundreds of thousands more. The only reason that fuck is so terrible compared to these others is that we have given it its dirtiness, its vulgarity. We have deemed it unnecessary.
SHAKESPEARE IS UNNECESSARY!!! MOZART IS UNNECESSARY!!! CUSTARD CREAMS ARE UNNECESSARY!!!
Does anyone suggest that these are immoral? Every fucking thing under the sun is unnecessary. Unnecessary things like those above turn life from a bitter fight for survival against the elements into an experience to be enjoyed. Unnecessary things lend life its pleasure. Ah, but pleasure is bad. Pleasure is the devil's work. Pleasure leads us astray, into the wilderness of impurity.
This is all about perception. Society perceives certain sexual practices as immoral. It deems swearing immoral. It has decided that getting drunk, getting high, that crying, laughing, farting, belching, shitting, ejaculating, scratching one's arse, not shaving in the morning, rejecting God, embracing the devil, having an extra ginger nut biscuit with your tea, being fat, being thin, being stupid, being clever, being outspoken, being reserved, wearing clashing colours, wearing clothes normally associated with the opposite sex and generally being human, as immoral, as not being respectable.
Respectability. What is respect anyway? Respect is the approval of another. Approval? Do I need the approval of anyone? I like having the approval of friends, of family, of the people who are important to me. Do I need the approval of some tightly-wound Stepford wife without an anus? I do not. In fact, I dread the coming of the day when I have that approval.
Of course it is all too easy for this viewpoint to become one of anarchy, an opinion that law is only the imposition of respectability on natural desires and practices. But it shouldn't. Just because sexuality and the desire to experience the unnecessary for pleasure are natural and beautiful things, I can't go around doing just anything at the expense of others. Because certain things are immoral for good reason. Causing pain and suffering in others against their will, this will never be an acceptable practice, for instance.
Essentially, life is a pretty miserable thing if one does not partake of whatever gives one pleasure. If the reason for this is that to do so would hamper one's respectability then... well I'm not going to stop you. But I think you're making a mistake. If you're not hurting anyone with what you want to do then all I can say is that on your deathbed, the approval of a few sterile, faceless, but respectable individuals will be of little comfort. Respectability offers little solace when the flesh and mind decay having never experienced true enjoyment...
And I guarantee you will never regret just being human.
Jamie
P.S. Excuse my woolly liberalism. Such is the curse of being a shamelessly bohemian literature student with too much time on his filthy hands.
