This is a public blog so I have to be careful on this one, but I'm frustrated right now and have to rant. I have a friend that is an ex. I don't know if any of you are familiar with that, but sometimes it's really difficult to maintain friendship with an ex, particularly when that ex still has feelings for you. It's been something like 2 years since we have been together, and during the course of the past 2 years we have had bouts of time when we would not speak to each other because things were just too hard, or my ex needed a little space. The last such bout lasted several months... to the point where I really thought our friendship had reached it's end.
Well that bout finally passed and we are now friends again, but I find that every time I consider moving on, or trying to date, the friendship gets rocky again. I know it's not fair to be one-sided about this, as my ex still has feelings and it's hard to see someone you care about moving on to someone else, but at what point do you just realize that things are what they are, we can't change them, and the best we can do is pick up the pieces of our lives that are still intact and keep on trucking?
So here's my situation. I have met someone and started dating. I think there is a possibility that it may become more serious down the road and would like to share this with my best friend. Yet my best friend has been feeling a little mopey, both from the Winter months dragging on and on, and with life in general. There has been expression that things are just hard right now, and so I feel I must be delicate about sharing my new-found joy. It's hard to have news that you wish you could share with your friends, but feel you can't because you know your friendship is conditional, and sharing that joy may end the friendship. Then again, if that is true, what kind of friendship is it really?
*sigh*
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Porn Industry
Okay, this rant is personal, because I just caught my 11 yr old son visiting a porn site which comes with it's own slew of rants, but for now I'm just going to address the porn industry itself.
I'm not a prude. I enjoy sex as much as the next person... I acknowledge that many people have different outlooks on their sexual preferences. Some people enjoy "missionary sex" others enjoy "bestiality" or more outlandish sexual encounters. I'm not really one to judge, and in my mind you can be into whatever you want to be into as long as it doesn't impact me.
The porn industry makes a lot of money from attracting the curious, the perverse, and often the innocent wanderer. It used to be that porn was more difficult to access. You could find the sites easily enough with a few simple keywords in a search, but the sites were often guarded with an entry screen which would in the least, have you click to confirm that you were of age. It seemed as though many site required a credit card to enter the site so that it could confirm that you were an adult. As the widespread of the internet continues to grow, rules and regulation seem to fade into the distant past. Porn sites are not only available through searches, but they spill over the web through web advertising, pop-up ads, and other invasive techniques. Not only are the sites not really protecting their content from minors, but the accessibility has become such that even a child can innocently find themselves in a dangerous place.
And then there is the porn itself. Most porn is not intended for the romantic. It's strictly sex, and of course generally skewed to male desires which are often degrading to women. (e.g. cum shots to the face, bondage, and various other practices) I know that pornography is intended to arouse, but where do we as a society draw the line?
It makes me sad to think that this is where things are going in the world, but when you look at just about anything, such as the video game industry, it's not hard to see that the notion that "sex sells" is just something I am going to have to learn to accept. I'm also going to have to accept that it's VERY accessible and if I want to protect my son, I'm going to have to invest in some serious parental controls and watch programs. I shouldn't have to do this, but I do have to and that is just the way of the world anymore. The responsibility falls entirely in your own lap as no one or no business is ever held accountable for their actions in this day and age.
So to the porn industry and my son's tainted and polluted mind thanks to you, I give you a big middle finger.
I'm not a prude. I enjoy sex as much as the next person... I acknowledge that many people have different outlooks on their sexual preferences. Some people enjoy "missionary sex" others enjoy "bestiality" or more outlandish sexual encounters. I'm not really one to judge, and in my mind you can be into whatever you want to be into as long as it doesn't impact me.
The porn industry makes a lot of money from attracting the curious, the perverse, and often the innocent wanderer. It used to be that porn was more difficult to access. You could find the sites easily enough with a few simple keywords in a search, but the sites were often guarded with an entry screen which would in the least, have you click to confirm that you were of age. It seemed as though many site required a credit card to enter the site so that it could confirm that you were an adult. As the widespread of the internet continues to grow, rules and regulation seem to fade into the distant past. Porn sites are not only available through searches, but they spill over the web through web advertising, pop-up ads, and other invasive techniques. Not only are the sites not really protecting their content from minors, but the accessibility has become such that even a child can innocently find themselves in a dangerous place.
And then there is the porn itself. Most porn is not intended for the romantic. It's strictly sex, and of course generally skewed to male desires which are often degrading to women. (e.g. cum shots to the face, bondage, and various other practices) I know that pornography is intended to arouse, but where do we as a society draw the line?
It makes me sad to think that this is where things are going in the world, but when you look at just about anything, such as the video game industry, it's not hard to see that the notion that "sex sells" is just something I am going to have to learn to accept. I'm also going to have to accept that it's VERY accessible and if I want to protect my son, I'm going to have to invest in some serious parental controls and watch programs. I shouldn't have to do this, but I do have to and that is just the way of the world anymore. The responsibility falls entirely in your own lap as no one or no business is ever held accountable for their actions in this day and age.
So to the porn industry and my son's tainted and polluted mind thanks to you, I give you a big middle finger.
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