Pynchme

"What stops you from selling your body for someone else's use?"

I've never considered that possibility. Is this a life choice that you often consider?

"If you choose to grovel for sex then you're choosing to hand power over yourself to someone else."

Exactly... One of the reasons that I have little respect for sleazy blokes is the way that they strut like big alpha males yet, when you see them around women, they crawl after them like hungry puppies.

Pelican

"What is liberation? Liberation could easily be argued as complete freedom to do anything you want without the scrutiny and scorn of social norms. No judgement, just the pursuit of pleasure. We are all socialised to the extent of what we think is desirable behaviours or morally justified."

One of the major criticisms of raunch culture is that one set of social pressures has been replaced with another. The current generation of young women are under pressure to have this highly assertive sexuality that just doesn't suit many young women.

benk

"One of the major criticisms of raunch culture is that one set of social pressures has been replaced with another. The current generation of young women are under pressure to have this highly assertive sexuality that just doesn't suit many young women."

benk you have described it well. Commercially raunch is in - it is big money - but socially we still see criticism towards sexually liberated women that Gaga portrays. The slut website is one good example of the contradictions and hypocrisies that young people have to rationalise.

Those raising teens know all about the pressures on kids and their friends to conform to this pop culture. Even young kids are raunching up although they don't really understand the implications or the significance of gyrating in a sexy outfit, but this is not IMO what childhood should be about.

Houlley
Thinking again about Sesame Street, one could be forgiven for thinking that this scenario is actually encouraging ingratitude and rudeness. A reciprocal kindness would be my preference.

There is nothing wrong in GENTLY introducing concepts to children such as environmental awareness, humanitarian awareness or building self confidence, but not to the point where kids become fretful or over-anxious.

A child we know is almost fearful about climate change - she is seven. Some subjects should be introduced when age/maturity appropriate, when kids have also developed some critical reasoning powers. How do you inform older kids about climate change (for example) without increasing anxiety.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/dark-clouds-on-a-clear-day-20091111-ia0i.html

I've gone a bit off topic but raunch culture is not age appropriate for pre-pubescents. I agree with benk's last statement, all we have is replaced one social pressure with another. Parents will soldier on as they always do dealing with the fallout and striving to balance and put into perspective all those opposing social contradictions.

Benk, you might not have read the exchange leading up to that. Earlier Houellebecq said that women can sell their bodies for, "... protection, security, food. It's an avenue the downtrodden men don't have access to."

My questioning intended to evoke some empathy in place of vagina-envy.

Although the demand might not be as high, it is quite possible for a bloke to sell sexual favours (mainly to other men).

I was therefore pointing out that if someone thinks that women get a good deal in exchanging sex for basic necessities such as safety, security and food; there is nothing stopping them from making the same deal for themselves. If they reflect on what's involved in allowing someone else to use one's body, they might be less cavalier about insisting that others make the choice easily.

I am not an advocate of any type of human meat-mart; but am less concerned about people genuinely CHOOSING to sell themselves when they have access to alternative ways of obtaining basic necessities (ie: that it's a genuine choice) and that they can also choose to leave and do something else to make a living.

Btw: Not all prostitution is about sex. Although many customers are revolting in one way or another, for some of them it's their only form of human contact. I know of some people who go to sex workers just to be cuddled and held and have someone treat them kindly.

Pynchme

All very true, but my comment was just a joke.

Sorry Benk I missed it but s'ok mate. A summary of the exchange was about due anyway.

pynch

Pelican

"Commercially raunch is in - it is big money - but socially we still see criticism towards sexually liberated women that Gaga portrays"

My point was that women are under the same amount of social pressure than they have always been under. Pressure to adopt a highly confident sexuality that doesn't suit all women. Therefore, Gaga isn't "liberated" at all, her persona stopped being non-conformist a long time ago.

"The slut website is one good example of the contradictions and hypocrisies that young people have to rationalise."

Good point.

Pynchme

Good summary