I just watched a YouTube video of a 30-ish year old woman reacting to Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love, purportedly hearing it for the first time ever. When it finished, her eyes went wide and she stood up from her chair. "I gotta go talk to my husband for a minute, I'll be right back." Then she sat back down, "No wonder my mom had five kids."
If you haven't heard the song, it's basically Robert Plant having an orgasm.
It got me thinking about the media messages about sex I grew up with. Lot's of media was very suggestive, and my teen years were full of movies that were full of T&A. But at the same time, there was always this undercurrent of shame to it, as if it said, "we know you like this, but you shouldn't."
I wasn't raised in a conservative or religious home, but both parts of that message sunk in and really took. For a long time, I was ashamed to admit what I liked and wanted, and the girls I was with were in the same boat. Even when we were doing things, it was as if we couldn't admiit we were doing it, or liked it, or wanted to do it and like it, and we certainly couldn't talk about it. We both had to pretend like it was happening without intention, spontaneously, we couldn't help ourselves. Or maybe it was mostly just me.
The messages are different now, mostly because of the internet. But I still think both messages are getting through, just in a different way. What was shame in my day has transformed into defiant attitudes, but I think it is mostly the same root cause.
A lot of what I write here is working out those old ghosts, often in the form of having characters who are what I think properly adjusted about it.
If you haven't heard the song, it's basically Robert Plant having an orgasm.
It got me thinking about the media messages about sex I grew up with. Lot's of media was very suggestive, and my teen years were full of movies that were full of T&A. But at the same time, there was always this undercurrent of shame to it, as if it said, "we know you like this, but you shouldn't."
I wasn't raised in a conservative or religious home, but both parts of that message sunk in and really took. For a long time, I was ashamed to admit what I liked and wanted, and the girls I was with were in the same boat. Even when we were doing things, it was as if we couldn't admiit we were doing it, or liked it, or wanted to do it and like it, and we certainly couldn't talk about it. We both had to pretend like it was happening without intention, spontaneously, we couldn't help ourselves. Or maybe it was mostly just me.
The messages are different now, mostly because of the internet. But I still think both messages are getting through, just in a different way. What was shame in my day has transformed into defiant attitudes, but I think it is mostly the same root cause.
A lot of what I write here is working out those old ghosts, often in the form of having characters who are what I think properly adjusted about it.
