I was tickled to death to read this article by Caspar Walsh in The Guardian this morning. The man calls himself a 'recovering addict of sex addiction' and claims 'evidence of an epidemic' in the form of sex-related diseases, societal problems, marriage breakdowns and family dysfunction. Sex addiction is apparently a disease that no one's taking seriously. We prefer a 'stiff upper lip approach' according to Walsh, and to 'keep calm and carry on' in the face of a problem, which - and get this breaking news sensation - only gives us a lust for more.
Shocking. It certainly explains how I got so fucked up. I don't quite see where the stiff upper lip comes into it though, I must admit. Nor the keeping calm and carrying on. I'd say the upper lip was distinctly sweaty, and as for calmness....is that another word for 'exhaustion'?
Don't get me wrong. I really want to believe in Walsh's scary daemon, but am not yet convinced that it's anything but a bunch of bogus crap. As bogus crap goes, it is quite amusing though, so I must declare myself grateful to dingbats like Walsh for filling my world with things like this to chuckle out loud about, even in public.
I haven't seen the film Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, which puts this 'extraordinarily important issue' (McQueen 2012) 'on the media map' (Dingbat 2012), but will see it at the first opportunity, as it sounds quite sexy and perhaps promises the prospect of some juicy scenes to jerk off to. Hey, it might even convince me that sex addiction's a real disease.
But don't hold your breath. Walsh's so called evidence isn't worth shit. Marriage breakdown and 'family dysfunction', for example, strike me as evidence that monogamy is a straightjacket we're finally finding our way out of. They're only evidence of something negative if you buy into the old time God-fearing crap about sex being a sin and only blessed in marriage. Conjuring up the idea of sex as an addiction, a disease, a dysfunction, seems to be taking that silly Christian dogma a step further. It's like the concept of 'original sin' on crack cocaine. I wouldn't be surprised if this Walsh wasn't one of those door-to-door salvation salespeople.
As for the pornography argument, I would think that the very fact (I take Dingbat's word for it, that it is a fact) that '$89 per second is spent on porn' was evidence that it's harmless: It's enormously popular and widespread, and we're still here. 'I have yet to meet anyone who puts across a convincing argument for the safe and harmless use of porn,' moans Walsh. Try your own statistic, Dingbat. Of course, in a rational society, the burden of proof is on the other party: If you don't like porn and want it removed, you have to prove it's harmful. Just believing it's harmful, however doggedly or passionately, isn't enough. We don't have to buy into your evangelical agenda, whether it's Christian, feminist or both.
As for Steve McQueen, I guess a lot of water's flown under the bridge since he was jumping barbed wire on a motorcycle. "People saying that there is no such thing as sex addiction is like saying the world is flat," rants McQueen. I would rather think that the idea of sex as sinful and dangerous stems from a time when people really did think the world was flat.
I can't help but wonder whether sex addiction - real or spurious - can't be cured surgically. Sex hating manginas don't absolutely have to suffer inside their evil, sinful, nasty male bodies. Snip! Go on! Mummy would probably be proud of you.
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