Let's Talk About Sex

I read a rather bothersome article earlier over at details.com the gist of which was that modern conventions like the internet and picture messaging in tandem with the over saturation and acceptance of pornography in youth society has fundamentally changed the sexual experience for young people. The article is called How Internet Porn is Changing Teen Sex and you can read it for yourself here. I don't really have much to say about it, but some of the things in it really got to me. In part because it is an exposition of how sad young people can be but also because it made me examine myself as a product of my own surroundings. I hesitate to say that what is examined in the article is the mistreatment of sex because, as a product of my environment, I'm torn between belief and disbelief in the conventions of taboo. One line that I found particularly striking was this one : "it's safe to say that the first purebred guinea pig to have grown up never knowing a world without fisting on demand is probably around 22 years old." By that estimation I am one of the cantankerous old men in the world, and reflecting on the article affirmed that for more.

The article looks at how both boys and girls are now approaching sex as a result of pornography. And while this can lead to many different conversations it reminded me distinctly of one of what I have found to be the more perverse couple pairing rituals I have seen in a few years. This summer a recent high school graduate who I was working with mentioned to me that her suntan tattoo was fading. After determining what a suntan tattoo was I asked her what hers was of. She told me it was of her new boyfriends name; that when she was on Spring Break in cancun she used stickers to spell out this boys name on her body (she did not mention where) and then got a tan so that once removed his name would show up in her lighter, untanned, skin. She told that then she took some pictures with her phone so that she could show him it and that later on that, when she was back home, they had started dating. The whole thing stuck me as incredibly odd but also something more than that. Something about the implication of ownership it makes and how regressive it seems feels inherently perverted to me. But then again, maybe thats just me being a cantankerous 20+ year old. But then again, maybe I only find it so perverted because of the perverted interest I in the practice I feel when ever I happen to think about it.

“It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.”