Porn Flakes

The word is that Mitt Romney will eliminate pornography- America's Pastime- if elected president. He talked about this as much as he discussed Afghanistan at the recent GOP convention in Tampa. This is to say, he didn't mention it at all. But, I don't doubt that a guy who is a Bishop in his church might frown on fellas who polish their bishop...and use pornography for inspiration. I could imagine Rick Santorum getting some kind of position in his administration. Well, I wouldn't imagine him like that. Yikes.

As we've learned from the ladies, a government small enough to fit inside your uterus is a government large enough to control your whole life.

Could Mittens do this? Like it or not, pornography is protected by the first Amendment. It may not have been what the founders had in mind at the time but, neither were fully-automatic weapons when they wrote the Second Amendment.

There's a lot wrong with pornography. It can be very offensive, even to a jaded Ferrerman. It objectifies women, more often than not. It makes sex look ugly, painful and degrading. Some consider that it's good points. Certainly, with the advent of the internet, pornography has accelerated and is far more available to the masses than it was a generation ago. Without installed filters, any child who can log on to a computer can log on to thousands of porn sites. I don't equate Playboy magazine to pornography at all but, the quest to see mere pictures of naked women when I was ten or so was akin to the Lewis & Clark expedition. Oh yeah- we had to do some hunting and trail-blazing. (ironically there was no bush to blaze through then or now, but, I digress...) It was good, clean, youthful fun.

Not now. There is nothing left to the imagination. And, perhaps, nothing taboo short of on-camera homicide. I wonder how long that will hold... 

Even if young boys- and girls- finding out way more than they imagined about sex were not bad enough, the effects on grown men and women is also a concern. It's a question of what might be considered normal or mainstream now that just didn't used to be considered as such.

Back in the day, porn was kinda formulaic: Guy delivers pizza. Girl- or girls- is attracted to him. Clothes come off. There's some oral. Then some intercourse. Maybe that other kind of intercourse. Maybe not. Then, a money shot. Nice enough at the time but, tame. The faces and genitals changed but, the sex stayed pretty much the same for a long time. Sometimes the guy was a cable TV repairman maybe.

Life has accelerated this past generation. Everyone wants more. Look at boxing. There hasn't been a Muhammad Ali since Muhammad Ali and now his skill, grace and bravado has given way to the damn-near gladiatorial UFC. Elbows in the face are fine and respected even when the guy is down. Is that not pornographic in itself? Tons of violence on television but, show a woman's breast- even in the context of feeding a child- and there will be much gnashing of teeth. A very strange progression accompanied by an equally odd regression.

Republicans always seem to want to get extreme about extremes. Voter suppression as a result of microscopic voter *fraud*  is one example. Eliminating pornography would be another. There answer to killing is to arm more people. Yet there answer to porn proliferation would be to make it illegal.

I think much of porn does degrade society. You don't have to look at it but it may effect you just the same .If you are a woman, some men might treat you differently. A man might think a different way about all women when he see's how they are portrayed on the screen. "They're all sluts! Whores!" C-words. There is dirty talk and then there is degrading abuse. It is best to discuss these things beforehand. Many times with women I would change positions to the non-missionary one and be told in a suddenly, frightened voice: "I don't do that!" Well, I wasn't going to do that but, I learned that other men had and do without asking. That's just wrong. Right, fellas, take your own biggest fear about prison and bring it into the bedroom of a legal secretary you just met. Sheesh.

Well, I didn't set out to get graphic here. What adults do in private is their business, even if it's yucky and you wouldn't do it. If you don't like porn, don't watch it. I think Mitt and Santorum and others are missing  that simple fact and the thinking that should follow it. You cannot eliminate porn by abolishing it. You can, however, teach your children that it's rarely what sex or love is about. It is not generally how people should relate to each other. And, yes, ten year old Ferrerman, you would have been too young to look at it.

I'm really glad this technology was not available to my then-young, Ferrerman self. Air-brushed photos of blondes, brunettes and the occasional redhead were as it should be. There was imagination and then anticipation of the real deal and all it's glory. And, honestly, it was never disgusting.

If one is going to stand by the sanctity of the Second Amendment, you damn well must consider the sanctity of the one the founders saw fit to put first. It is the one that gives you the freedom to think, speak and feel and raise children free to do the same because it is the one that makes America great.

Educate- don't eradicate.