Thursday, April 25, 2013

Taboo in A Virginal World

After an arduous struggle, and what seemed a lifetime of never-ending appeals, TopTv has finally been given the go-ahead, to screen "Adult Entertainment" across the television platform, that is one of Dstv's biggest contenders nationally. A while ago, the appeal was rejected after the country went into a state of panic; parents fearing that the inception of adult entertainment, across such a massive platform would have negative effects on the social well-being of their 'presumed' innocent children, who irrespective, have access to even broader and far more comprehensive platforms on which to access pornography, and ardent moralists and conservative people alike, who feared the advent of pornography may hinder the morale, sensibility and sanity, of a nation already vying for enlightenment and release from an epidemic of crime and other injustices. These late night taboos, it was believed, would further perpetuate trends of violence and crime for South Africa, as pornography and violence have long been seen as relative factors, in the shaping of society. Especially, it seems, as many women-rights organizations and gender-based activists espouse, sex-related crimes are born out of psychological addictions to pornography or, 'the defiling of the opposite sex'- by which it is held, that men who have an affinity to pornography, also have an affinity to the sheer disregard of the female body. This can be judged subjectively, and though the idea doesn't need to be justified to be harbored and maintained as a value system of sorts, it's still tremendously ludicrous to be lulled into so believing.

The Adult Entertainment industry, like the Financial Industry and the Entertainment Industry, is in all respects just as much as an industry like its counterparts, and though it may not be suitable for all members of society, or loved nearly half as much, that doesn't make it any less of an industry. It's a quintessential business, or a marketing strategy, that as other fields do, acts on the specific and relative desires, impulses, and the needs of the consumer, who in this respect is a different kind of consumer. At least according to those who wish to make that dichotomy between consumers. It's nonsensical to plonk any given negative connotation abreast with the porn industry, and even so, to harbor contempt for those who take pride in it, support it, and don't seem to have an issue with it.

On the fears parents sustain where porn is concerned, there are far more troubling premises and interventions with which they may contend than the pornographic one, in the vie to be moralistic parents and fundamentalists of purity and abstinence. The widespread nature of pornography has infiltrated every facet of social media, and if a child has a BlackBerry or any other technological gadget in its palm, then his parents can barely do so much as but look away and say nothing against the rise of what, just a few porn channels on the television platform? It doesn't make any sense, and is rather dubious for one to advocate against something, but then indirectly be contributing to that, or unknowingly exacerbating it. If you're a parent and you're anti-pornography being screen late at night, then be similarly anti-technology, because if children aren't going to expose themselves to it there, they are going to do so on whichever devices they have at the tip of their fingers. It's a hypocritical stance many don't even realize they're poised against, and it can be challenging, since its inevitable to keep these unruly things hidden from those we aspire to protect and harness perfectly. The point might be to dissociate oneself from any illusions of purity and divinity, in a time where even those terms themselves can be relative to some of the most grimy and lurid prospects.

Now that the green light has been signaled, it's a major time of public dissidence, but while all that takes place, I'm going to just sit here and do what I do best, instead of expose myself to something I cannot bare to be exposed to, unlike all these people with their fears and anxieties.

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