For those of you who haven't seen the movie Kinsey, I wholeheartedly recommend seeing this flick. And not just for the full frontal nudity either.
Kinsey provides a perfect assessment of how far our nation has come in our discussions of sexuality and how a small minority of religious zealots would like nothing more than to suppress these discussions.
The movie deals with sexuality in a very straight forward and honest way, and it portrays a nation that in the 50's and that even now is still unable to have these kind of honest and forthright discussions. Yet at no other time in human history are these conversations most needed.
Last week as I visited with several straight friends in Pend Oreille County, this reality became very obvious. During the course of my visit, the subject of my blog came up. The essay I posted several weeks ago, featuring my grandmother and I seems to have been a bit unsettling for some. The story related one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, involving my grandmother, my roommate, a hateful VCR player and a spray bottle of Windex.
Most of the incident revolved around my grandmother's ill timed early morning trip to the bathroom and a VCR that wouldn't "pause" to save the life of me. I was dang near 38 years old at the time. But, despite my maturity, and my profound humiliation, I felt the story was worthy of posting. I couldn't be the only person "caught with my pants down" under such unfortunately circumstances. I knew others could relate. This situation had the universal mark of communal empathy.
If only folks could honestly talk about such things minus their shame. Lets just admit it. Even after all this media exposure, decades of "shocking" television and movie and print coverage, we still can't talk about sex. We can barely hint around about "it" but we can't openly acknowledge "it", and we certainly don't want our public officials to be engaged in "it" . Mayor Jim West's version of sexuality aside.
At first, as these friends debated the circumspect blog entry, I felt alone in the reasons why I posted it. Until finally someone else spoke up and also admitted they'd encountered a similar situation.
These last two days, this blog, has generated more response than anything I've ever written. The issue of Monogamy, Safer Sex, my own personal behavioral changes that occurred long ago, and the millions of different ways we define our relationships seems to have sparked a lot of thought.
To be honest I don't like writing about sexuality, outside of the most general terms. There is already more than enough porn, and overt sexual content out there on the web should you be so inclined. But how we define who we are, and sadly the way we are so shamed to discuss one of the most universal aspects of humanity, is somewhat unsettling. I've had to admit than in my local community where sexuality is downplayed, I've found balance, but I've also become a bit more conservative.
Still even in a rural place like this sex is nothing to be ashamed of. From the early teen years, it will factor into almost everyone's identity. Sexuality is not the domain of the puritans any more than its the sole playground of the most extreme fringe community. But wherever you land on the spectrum, its troubling that so many folks have such a problem with whatever two consenting adults decide is right for them. And it is really pathetic that something that is so elementary and basic to life itself, creates so much dysfunction, separation, and confusion.
Down below is a link to the very troubling blog of a teenager whose parents have recently forced to participate and attend a "Christian Reparitive Therapy Camp" outside Nashville. A camp not designed to reinforce the wonderful and unique young man God created in His image, but rather a camp that seeks to crush that spirit and which promotes a conformity so stifling that the potential for severe mental health issues originating out of this experience is very real. You have to wonder if when James Dobson and the rest of the whacked out extreme "Love Won Out" gang sing "Just as I Am"at their Altar Calls, if they are hard of hearing. This man actively preaches conditional love. He turns parents from their children, heaping both sides of equation with enough shame and guilt to keep therapists in business for generations.
Compare the Dobson approach with the science news out today in which study after scientific study has been compiled and the news points to an almost indisputable truth that sexual orientation is genetic. See the link below. But one thing the Love One Out gang is famous for is disregarding peer reviewed research. Their Reparitive therapy tactics have been shunned throughout the academic community. Their "results" don't produce healthy well adjusted people, but rather people who candidly admitted that they still long for same sex intimacy. Reparitive therapy only reinforces self hatred, rejection, and narrow conformity. Very few of their "success stories" remain successful. And if you challenge these groups and their methodology, they immediately claim the Christian Victim card and whine that science just doesn't understand God.
But could it be that maybe Dobson is so proud and arrogant, that he can't hear God?
The debate over sexual orientation will most likely rage long after I'm gone. Preachers will make fortunes off the rhetoric as advocacy groups fight for civil rights. The shame we have face over what comes most naturally to us will still be around as well. But at least, thanks to the pioneering work done by Kinsey, society has other voices that offer reasoned and spiritual answers. As long as these sorts of efforts exist, the magnetic pull that remains one of the strongest identifiers of our species, has a champion.
His name was Kinsey. He changed the world. And he finally put those who market shame on the defensive and blazed a trail for other competent pioneers to follow.
Prayer stuff...
That Zach in Tennessee will be OK and that no lasting harm is done to him...
For the family of Dorothy Hildohl who passed away yesterday. When my father was a young man this family took my father in and gave him shelter and were it not for their generosity it is questionable whether my father would have graduated from college.
For all the people associated with www.One.org
Today's dispatches from near and far...
...An urgent and scary story about Ex Gay treatment camps that leave lasting mental harm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/9/133641/8646
...Meanwhile Science continues to conclude the Sexual Orientation is completely genetic...
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1508092,00.html
...Canadian Military Unit celebrates first gay marriage...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20050614/ca_pr_on_na/military_same_sex;_ylt=ApKFjbUDu0.dJUJJoKyjSqWFM1IB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
...The Bush Administration shows continuing contempt for the judicial process...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/politics/16tobacco.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th
...China goes full speed ahead on AIDS prevention and treatment
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/international/asia/16aids.html?th&emc=th
...The Michelangelo Code intrigues the scientific community...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050616/lf_nm/arts_michelangelo_dc_3
...Internet, Risky Sex, and recent studies detail continuing dangerous trends...http://www.reuters.com/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp?type=technologyNews&localeKey=en_IN&storyID=8803759
...The Mayor without conscience continues his fight to retain power...
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=061505_west_emails
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=061505_west_commission
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=061505_recall
...Witness from the Circle contributor gets a blog. Mike is an excellent writer, you'll enjoy his thoughts.
http://40ozblog.blogspot.com
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