MsKitka.com

One of my coworkers had his hair cut the other day and I asked if he went to the barber. He said that he went to the barber with his daughter and I inquired into what sort of magazines were sitting on the coffee table in the waiting area. He told me that the magazines were fashion and entertainment magazines.

How times have changed.

I remember going to the barber with my father when I was a little girl and really enjoying the atmosphere. There were men playing Italian card games in the waiting area and there were my favorite magazines piled on the coffee table. I don’t remember ever getting in trouble for seeing those magazines, there was nothing wrong with them… in fact, it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Playboy magazine before.

When I was about two years old I ventured into the basement of my parents’ home. I went into the back storage area and started pulling on a heavy box from a low shelf. The box fell on top of me and the contents spread all over the basement floor. When my parents came looking for me, I was happily covered in magazines browsing through the graphic images of sexy naked Playboy bunnies from the 1960s. [Perhaps this is why I have always loved my stuffed pink bunnies better than dolls or teddy bears…]

So, what is so wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. Playboy is hardly pornographic; it is a beautiful depiction of the glorious female figure.

Did Playboy magazine teach me anything? No, I had already seen my parents naked when they took showers with me as a child. Did the photos arouse me? No, if anything they intrigued me with their beauty. Did the photos make me feel bad about myself? No, the women always seemed quite natural to me and I figured that someday I would grow into a similar figure… which I did.

Why then, should we block all pornography from children? What is so bad about seeing nudity? We see ourselves and our parents naked during the course of our lives (hell, some of us have even walked in on our parents having sex…), but heaven forbid we should ever see naked strangers in magazines!

This week in the news, anti-porn advocates in Kansas are trying to impose a Sin Tax on pornography. House speaker Doug Mays explains that usually when you tax something, you get less of it and “It’d be nice to have less porn.” Mays is lumping pornography into the same basket as tobacco and alcohol. How is porn related to drug and alcohol abuse? Perhaps Mays has been taking his pastor’s message on porn addiction a little too far.

Addiction is defined as the “Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one’s voluntary control.” The difference with substance abuse and the ‘addiction’ of porn is that alcohol and drugs are mind/body altering substances. The reason heroine is so addictive is because the drug connects itself to the brain, locking into our cells like missing puzzle pieces, sending a rush of orgasmic euphoria through the body. Pornography has no such physical effect; in fact, it is not ingested or inserted into the body at all. The only mind/body effect from pornography is brought on by our own free will… our own venturing hands igniting masturbation and sex.

That said, have we not banished pornography enough already?

Unfortunately, the Theo-Cons will not sleep until pornography is completely wiped out. But, what can we do? The reason that fundamental Christians can push the rest of us around is because they are organized while we are not. I would suggest starting a coalition for the empowerment of pornography, but any such organization would be ridiculed and dismissed by the public.

The problem is that porn has always been taboo. Although my parents never scolded me for looking at my father’s old Playboys, most of society has always frowned upon the idea. Especially now… with the heavy surge Christian interest groups involved in the government.

At this point, even (former) Christian role model Jessica Simpson is being ridiculed for her latest video ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’. Apparently, the idiot founder of a militant Christian group called The Resistance accuses Simpson of joining acts like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera into being a “singing stripper”. The most idiotic part of the story is that news agencies are spreading word of the insults like wildfire without even knowing where the insults originally came from. It’s like playing broken telephone. The Resistance is actually a group of complete idiots posing as know-it-alls trying to cause trouble. Jessica Simpson (and Paris Hilton) is completely harmless.

We have to start putting these Theo-Cons into their place. There is nothing wrong with beautiful women washing cars in their bathing suits (hell, even First Lady Laura Bush watches Desperate Housewives!) and there is nothing wrong with beautiful women appearing naked in Playboy magazine. Gees, if anything… Playboy is probably one of the most Christian-friendly porn-mags on the market today.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Kitka, Censorship, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.