On yet another video showing random people having sex…

I posted a version of this response on Stunner’s blog, but thought I’d put it here as well. Since I haven’t said much about this topic, I think this will do for now..

The popularity of this [not so] new form of sexual exploration and entertainment is a direct reflection of how sexually repressed this society still is.

The kids having sex are doing it BECAUSE they are forbidden to talk, learn, ask about and explore issues related to sex in a healthy, open way. And when there is little else that is rewarding or attention-getting in their lives, well, fucking on the steps, on the verandah, on the netball court, or what have you, that will do until they come up with something else equally unoriginal and risky.

The adults who are having sex can’t talk about what they do honestly, or even admit their lack of knowledge. The range of things that we can get pleasure from is constantly limited by judgmental attitudes and a culture that insists – at every level – that the less curious one is, the better off. Its the absence of healthy attitudes about sexuality that creates the market and the appetite for these videos, etc.

Listen to the conversations and opining [about the availability of these videos] and you can hear the tut-tutting and the moralizing about values, decency, responsibility, etc.  Even the Gleaner has gone so far as to print an article authored by a physician who has ‘diagnosed’ the problem, and consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (he didn’t say which one; volume five is currently being developed) in order to tell us the objective irrefutable facts of our current psychological existence.  The eminent Dr. Alverston Bailey has found that, lo and behold, we who have been looking at these tapes are, in a word, sickos!  What hogwash!

Therein lies the problem and why we will continue to run around in circles blaming everything else except looking at ourselves.

We are so busy hyperventilating about the problem of watching somebody else having sex that we can’t even recognize what it is about us that would lead us to look in the first place (and then look again – and then ask everyone else if they saw what we did – and then send them the picture) and to feel such emotion about an activity that really has nothing to do with us.  That is, unless we find ourselves gazing at our own performance…

Not everyone has seen the footage, but enough have and are talking about it, and even want to see it.  That tells you something — we’re still looking to find something that we’re curious about and to make us feel better in this violent-crazed time, and hopefully the next video will deliver.  So far, they haven’t, and a highly user-friendly technology is able to do what it always does in this LCD (lowest common denominator) world ie. simply create multiple versions of the same thing that everyone is consuming and which satisfies the most basic tastes for flesh.  That is, until someone improves on the product.  And there’s a lot of improvement that needs to happen.

Here’s the thing. The stuff on these videos – I’ve seen enough of them – is so boring. It is the worst of vanilla sex, which, frankly, demonstrates a complete lack of sexual imagination on the part of the participants. College students in my time were far more creative than what I’m seeing! If [these videos are] a reflection of what Jamaicans know and are doing in private, no wonder the consumption of porn and sexual services is inching up! A little variety please!

If sex remains this thing that only some people are supposed to have knowledge about or to be able to talk about without being labelled in some pejorative way, then performing sexual activity – even the boring, unoriginal versions – will remain a status symbol of sorts. And people who feel left out or are looking for a way in will continue to undermine the value of that status symbol in these public ways – and sending it via cellphone and satellite for the sex-starved among us to gaze at.   I’m tempted to say twitter me, babeee!  But what we really need to do is start having serious conversations about sex in ways that can use the same technology that is passing around porn like nobody’s business.

Straight Pride?? Save us from our selves…

You see how we haunted? It’s summer in America, so I guess it’s time for this year’s round of insanity with the dancehall flavour of the month.

This time, a “Straight Pride Parade” is scheduled to be held on Eastern Parkway in late August this year. From what I gather from the newsbits, this showdown was originally conceived to show support for dancehall reggae artists who have been under fire for several years now because of their odious lyrics and stances regarding same-sex sexuality. The latest casualty is Stapler and his song “Hit Them Hard.” However, somehow, these folks, under the auspices of TCOOO Productions, have decided that the best way to show such support and to protest what they see as unfair treatment, is to take up the mantle for all the oppressed heterosexuals everywhere in the US who have been unable to stave off the worldwide dominion of the sodomitic ones.

The march is being promoted as a precursor to the West Indian Parade and a wake-up call for all heterosexuals who clearly don’t know they are under seige.  According to Jango Fresh, “when “Hit them hard” by my label mate Stapler can be banned just because it stresses the importance of a male and a female in every family, it is a sign that heterosexuals need to wake up.” Just because…there is a whole lot going on in those two words.

The press release goes on to say that the event is “a chance for Heterosexuals to gather and proudly embrace their sexuality [...] Adults are encouraged to bring their children along for the celebrations, as the event will be family oriented. Yardflex claims that the press release also stated that “Gay friends and gay relatives must be left at home or worse kept in the closet.” In a really fucked up way, they do recognize that we are a part of the family and friendship networks of the dancehall fans who are being invited to this special event, even if they would prefer that our families burn us at the stake. I wonder what will happen to those straight dancehall fans who choose not to follow their advice?

There is much I could say about this ridiculous waste of time and effort, but I will bite my tongue for a second.

I really really do think this is a joke. It has to be. I mean, really, people. March for Straight Pride? Who thought this was a great idea? Is this yet another one of those moments when that peculiar version of arrogance exhibited by many Jamaican men trumps common sense? I didn’t realize that we -well, they – had special insight into the plight, perils and possibilities of the heterosexual, and are uniquely positioned to define a straight identity, and to mobilize straight people around it?  I guess I haven’t been listening to enough dancehall music to recognize that the songs and performances are not only anthems to heterosexuality, but should be considered as doctrine too.

Seriously, is heterosexuality really the problem here, or these blasted artists’ insane obsession with where some men put their dicks and who’s eating whose pussy? Is there really nothing else to talk about?

At best, this is a brilliant PR move on the part of TCOOO Productions. Yep, use the power of the internet to generate controversy, get people to download the music, get all kinds of folks worked up in a lather about whether such songs, this song, should be banned, etc. etc. etc. Make Stapler a household name. There’s your entertainment for the summer, folks!

Lawd áv his mercy pon we….