No End in Sight

Argument in car results in
her beating him with phone book
and shooting him in genitals.

There is no end in sight. This is not meant as a pun, although you make think otherwise when you read this. As the Massa story has lost its interest, and as there is little else going on except speculation about health care, my semi-active mind has led me to think about trends in American culture. The trends I have in mind all seem clearly to lead in the same direction, to revealing more and more about everything. Think of an obvious example, women’s bathing attire. When I was a boy, women still dressed in almost full length bathing suits, then one-piece suits began to get smaller and more revealing and then, horrors of horrors, the bikini appeared. Now the bikinis have turned into thongs and become so small one wonders what can possibly happen next. It seems unlikely in this case that bikinis will be abandoned for full nudity (a possibility) because that would leave no mystery at all. Not that there is much of a mystery, everyone knows what is concealed. It’s true there are all nude beaches here and there but they seem not to have captured more an a few aficionados.

Consider also the case of ads for things like toothpaste, mouthwash, and such. They used to be mentioned by name but that was about all. Now, of course, we witness people actually brushing their teeth, gargling, singing about their dentures, shaving and perfuming their armpits, shaving their legs, removing their corns and bunions, and so on. Granted these are things people have done for a long time, it has been only recently that we have been so privy to observing them.
There are other, perhaps more serious acts, that never even used to be mentioned, let alone witnessed. Hemorrhoids, for example, formerly not even mentioned in polite company, are now commonly mentioned in ads for suppositories and things to alleviate the discomfort. We now see people on bicycles or sitting on benches moaning about the fact they did not use such and such a remedy. These ads get more and more revealing as time goes by. I fully expect it will not be long before we will be shown the particulars of how these things are supposed to be used, pictures of them being inserted and so on (hence the not intended pun). We also see now problems with the prostate, illustrated with pictures and explanations of urinary problems and etc. The same thing, I suspect, may also happen with tampons and other protective pads for women. Why should the directions for use not be shown in the ads for those too dimwitted to know how to use them? I recently saw an ad for condoms. The first such ad I have seen. I saw this on a program someone else was watching, so perhaps these ads are more common than I think, I just don’t know. The ad almost revealed exactly how one would use a condom, except that the details were obscured by an artificial sort of fog.

This, of course, leads to perhaps the most obvious place to look for more and more revealing ads, the artificial erection ads that now appear almost constantly. Not long ago such a topic would never have been mentioned, let alone widely publicized. It would have been someone’s guilty little secret. But now, with Viagra, Cialis, and other ads virtually dominating the airwaves, this is apparently a topic generally accepted by most everyone. At first these drugs were just mentioned in ads, then couples were hired to act in them, and then they became more and more suggestive, even leading her to the bedroom door. So what will come next? The obvious answer is to actually enter the bedroom, then perhaps a scene of disrobing and maybe even some foreplay, and then no doubt we will witness the actual act itself. You don’t think so? Don’t bet against it.

I see no reason not to believe these developments will be inevitable. We’ve already seen all of this in the movies and on television where nudity and sexual intercourse are quite commonplace. This is a far cry from that terrible moment when Rhett Butler uttered the absolutely shocking word “damn” at the end of the movie, Gone With the Wind. The Hays Office did everything they could to protect the public from just about everything but that, too, is gone with the wind. Now it appears that anything goes. We have not only sexually explicit scenes but scenes so bloody and gory and terrible it makes you wonder what it is about people that motivate to witness this stuff.
I do not bring this up to necessarily condemn these trends, merely to observe that they are occurring and it seems there will not be any turning back. I do believe there is far too much superfluous violence on television and in the movies, but as far as the rest goes, I’m willing to just wait and see where it ends. Maybe we’ll eventually get to see naked ladies thrown to the lions, or mating with giant slugs, or being beaten (sorry, we already have this), or performing “unnatural acts” (oh, yeah, we have those too if you know where to look). I’m certain my limited television viewing, and my hardly ever going to movies, has not allowed me to understand the full range of this stuff, but I do wonder where it all leads.

LKBIQ:
The cable TV sex channels don't expand our horizons, don't make us better people, and don't come in clearly enough.
Bill Maher

TILT:
An asparagus patch, properly planted and tended, can last for 20 years or more.