UNDERSTANDING PORNOGRAPHY IN AUSTRALIA

Australia has its very own Porn Report.  The Porn Report is based on a 3 year Australian government funded study called Understanding Pornography in Australia.

Is there anything wrong with having a passionate relationship with the X-rated ?

According to Alan McKee, Catharine Lumby and Katherine Albury, the authors of Understanding Pornography in Australia, “When it comes to consumers (the consumers of porn), the general approach in the public debate has been to portray them as sad old men or misogynist misfits, despite the fact that the most conservative estimates suggest that up to one-third of adult Australians consume pornography, and that a significant proportion are female.”  

Sex myths that are widespread in Western Society, like the myths that women are less sexual than men, men want orgasm whilst women prefer intimacy, and that a woman’s sexuality is “nicer” than a man’s are only serving to perpetuate the existence of these myths.

In private, behind closed doors more and more women are exposing the fallacy to the sex myths about female sexuality.

Shele & Michael.

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SEXUAL LIBERATION IN AUSTRALIAN WOMEN

Are we a society immersed in sexual imagery? 

There are some academics that see that the culture of pornography can be linked to the sexual liberation in women of Western Societies. 

In the words of Freud some 100 years ago, he described libido as being of a masculine nature, “whether it occurs in men or in women and irrespective of whether the object is a man or a woman.”

In the 1999 Roy Morgan survey, about 5 million Australians use some form of sexually explicit material, and according to the 2001 Australian Study of Sex, Health and Relationships, it is more likely for younger women to use it than older women.  These younger women are also more likely to disagree with statements made about today’s films being too sexually explicit.

Indicated by these surveys, it would seem that the younger generation are much more comfortable with aspects of sexuality, like visual, verbal, and of course the act of sex itself,  than their older counterparts.

Shele & Michael.

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INTIMATE SENSUAL VOYEURS AWAKEN THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY

Ryan McGinley is an artist to watch out for.  The buzz is building around this New York based award-winning photographer. “I photograph the things people do every day…with athletic gestures of Sports Illustrated, the landscape of a Patagonia catalogue and the sensuality of early 70’s porn.”

His often nude, voyeuristic portraits are a poetic expression of his unique creative spirit, capturing candid
and intimate moments of the people around him.

“I’m endlessly fascinated by nude photographs- it’s just one of those unexplained things,” says Ryan.

As we the watchers of the watched, voyeurs ourselves, relish in the impossible to overlook theme in Ryan’s artworks, we are enthralled by his ability to enlighten us and open our minds to the explicit beauty of nakedness.

Shele & Michael.

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SEMI-NAKED, SKINNY MODELS IN SEXUAL POSES DAMAGING TO TEENAGERS

Good heavens, teens sexuality is making headlines yet again.  This time the music industry’s quality control has been targeted as the leading delegate for pressing the little red button marked “self-identity annihilator.”

There are concerns for children and teens being exposed to sexualized imagery within their environment on a regular and consistent basis as having damaging consequences to these children and teens mental health.

Acting Prime Minister for Australia, Julia Gillard has stated that parents should take responsibility. “It always concerns me when the images of very young people or children are sexualized. I think a childhood should be a childhood that should be replicated in our media and in the way in which we live. We should let boys and girls grow up with all the special innocence that childhood has.”

Bollocks! Let’s take off the rose colored glasses and look at things clearly.

Media is portraying the way in which we live.  Childhood is big business with corporations making a killing financially by marketing sex to children and teenagers, and we the consumer, greedily lap it up and then go looking for more, fueling the very situation that is causing harm. Childhood innocence was compromised as soon as we, societies individuals bought into it.

This marketing strategy can be seen in childrens and teens fashion just as much as on the television screen.  Choices in girls summer shoes is getting slimmer as the heel heights keep elevating in younger and younger age brackets to the extent that a designer has created “death” heels for babies. Sure, they collapse under their weight as they stand, but think about it for a moment, is it really that cute?

We the people are clever, pragmatic and capable, yet as a society we prefer to keep passing the buck until it comes right back to us and gives us a slap in the face. Only at this point do we make a loud noise, and hover around in the background waiting for someone else to do something, anything, even a bandaid is suffice.

The problem with bandaids is, they fall off and expose the wound again and again until measures are taken to heal it. Instead of  expecting the bandaid to stick, lets get in and clean up the rotting mess that we, as individuals have created.  Yes, this sexual issue that is affecting our children and teens is one of them.

Shele & Michael.

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RELATIONSHIP ESCAPE SWEEPING JAPAN

What becomes of the broken-hearted when they are still clutching to the dream of that perfect relationship that just slipped through their fingers?

They have checked into one of Japan’s Heartbreak Hotels of course. 

Inclusive to the Heartbreak Hotel is maudlin obsessing over the love that ripped out your heart and then danced with spiked shoes all over it. They were just getting their point across, they didn’t really mean to hurt you. 

Young lovers holding out hope with their troubled paramours can get drunk enough to stumble onto one of the other venues, like The Crying Room, for some much needed broken heart mending.

So if you’re looking for a holiday that is Sensible and in No Way Self Destructive where you are amongst faceless friends and can convince yourself that linguistic skills are debatable, then, book a room in a Heartbreak Hotel, and spend your hard earned cash to clarify to yourself just how much love does hurt when you’ve been dumped.

Shele & Michael.

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