Note: Apparently, I’ve angered some with this. Well, life is about discussions. I’d prefer it be about going out and leaping bounds, buildings or doing superhero acts, but at the end of the day, if we want to change things, we have to bring them up first.
I’ve been under the weather for a couple of days; the radiator’s vengeance was coupled with a nice case of stomach flu, (so sorry, Steve!) and so I found myself grousing around, needing a diversion. Darling Ivet suggested that I watch a funny movie, and, instead of going through my collection, I clicked on the flat idiot box, and settled down to watch “Hall Pass.”
The movie has an interesting premise: two couples are at odds within their relationships. The solution? The wives decide to give their husbands a “Hall Pass” – full sexual freedom for one week, no strings attached. Just keep it clean – don’t bring home any bugs.
It’s a far cry from “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.”
Our culture has sexually regressed. Youth is revered as the god of all. The 60s and 70s 
hailed the Sexual Revolution; the new Millenia can tout the Sexual Devolution, where sex has become little more than a handshake between consenting parties.
I found “Hall Pass” to be an abysmal attempt at humor. The film is completely lacking in panache. The two male protagonists are infantile man-children. Anal jokes abound; bad girls shit on the wall, and one character makes repeated references to “Fake Chow.” Most frat boys I know have more intelligence. It’s a train wreck of a film, but not in a good way, for in a good train wreck, you can’t turn away, and in “Hall Pass,” the desire is to just not watch. Or listen.
One part stuck out; I actually texted a friend about it. There’s an accident in a health club in the spa. Two naked men come to help the other guy out. One of the naked men is hugely endowed. We’re talking big. Shot after shot of this huge banana shaped penis with a bright cherry red tip on the end. Just there. In your face. And Owen Wilson’s.
“Is that thing real?” I texted. Pause.
“Sorry, I wouldn’t know,” was the reply.
Truly, I was curious. Still am. I’m fairly certain it was a prosthetic, but I really needed to know…
…for last week I was having a conversation with someone about “Nymphomaniac,” the new Lars Von Trier film, featuring Shia LaBoeuf and others allegedly engaging in actual intercourse. No simulation. Word has it that LaBoeuf sent tapes of his sexual escapades with his girlfriend as an audition. Of course, Stellan Skarsgard has thrown water on the rumor; however, LaBoeuf maintains that he’s doing it for reals.
So, the guy I was talking with leans in. “You know,” he said. “What happens if I find a girl, and ask her to come to this address, and for $5,000.00 she can have sex with me?”
“That’s prostitution,” I replied. “You’d get arrested.”
He held a finger up in the air. “Aha,” he said. “Not if I acquire permits and film it. “
What’s the fine line between prostitution and porno? The acquisition of a permit from Film L.A., Inc.
I am in no way a prude. I understand that society has changed. I understand that marriage is redefined, and I am not talking about the right for all to marry – which I support – but the definition of it in terms of reality. “Til death do us part” was fine and dandy when the average life span was 4o, but those statistics have changed, and people have to serve less time for second degree murder than they do in marriage these days.
That being said, we’ve gone through a pornification of our culture. Where children are dressed and 
treated as sexual toys. Where high school girls give boys wrist bands, each color signifying a different form of sexual recreation. Where men in their 30s, 40s and 50s on behave like gibbering horn toads, and where young women begin the road to plastic surgery in their early 20s. There’s nothing authentic about it; it’s like a form of mass societal masturbation with a branded dildo. Love-making is reduced to a clinical form of sexual Olympics, with each partner trying to outdo each other on their way to the gold. It’s competitive. It’s rehearsed, calculated and studied.
The internet has played a huge part in this. Internet porn – men watching women masturbate in front of a web cam. The result? A depersonalization of women – and people in general. People have what they consider “relationships” with their choice of porn, and, as porn is readily on the ‘net, people are emboldened to approach the rest of us without hesitation. They cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality. That their edit chip no longer works, that such boundaries are breached is most disconcerting. Objectification runs amok. Oh, yes. She’s never met you. But sure, she’ll go out with you, for she’s just an object you ran across on Facebook.
Porn has taken all the fun out of sex.
…and back to Shia LaBouef. Is this storytelling? Is this something that you want to see? I think LaBouef is a very nice young man, and is a good actor, but, I don’t know. I think I might pass.
Tom Hardy, on the other hand…
Now, go write.
HRH, Princess Scribe
Princess Scribe's Blog 
This is so depressing. I can’t even write a coherent response. Thank you for sharing? That’s all I can manage. I do appreciate your analysis, your articulate view. I’m gonna go write.
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I’m sorry this is depressing you so. I am a believer in the philosophy of “to fix a problem, we must acknowledge it,” so I see great value in such discussions. I think we have become a little bit numb to it all… but going numb hasn’t worked.
What’s next in film? Non-simulated rape? Murder?
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I agree with dehelen. This is depressing. I never saw Hall Pass but just to clarify something, I’m in my late 20’s and I don’t act like a horny 14 year old. Not everyone that age acts that way so please don’t put that stereotype on us. In fact, I don’t have any friends that act that way either. Also, not every female in there early 20’s get plastic surgery. At last not where I’m from. Maybe this is what’s in television and film but in the real world, there are people who are actually normal.
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Normal is as Normal does, Ian. It has become a societal norm for women in their 20s – or earlier – to seek plastic surgery. Breast enhancements, butt implants and even facelifts. Stats from the APA: “More than 8,500 breast augmentations were performed on 18-19-year-olds in 2010, up 3 percent from 2009.”
***
“”It’s not at all surprising that teenagers want plastic surgery in a world where plastic surgery is so common,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, Washington, D.C.
What’s surprising, she said, is that so many parents seem willing to pay for it.
Zuckerman, a psychologist who worked as a senior policy adviser to former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in a phone interview that “the belief has become so widespread that cosmetic surgery increases self-esteem.” But, she said, there is no data to support this.
She said she is alarmed by the fact that so many teenagers are turning to cosmetic surgery. “Teenagers will always want the quick fix — the quick, dramatic fix,” she said. “They don’t have the brain development to think ahead to how they will feel in the future.”
Zuckerman noted that “teens are vulnerable to peer pressure and virtually all teens feel self-conscious. Their desire to fix every imperfection is one that most will outgrow — if given the chance to do that.”
“Heidi Montag might not be anyone’s idea of a role model. But her face — the original one, and the new version — is familiar to many teens. Indeed, teens are bombarded with images of celebrities and others exalted for their seemingly flawless beauty.
“Everyone on television is beautiful,” noted Dr. Wendell Funk, a plastic surgeon who has offices in Lancaster, York and Camp Hill. “Television clearly has a lot to say about this, and not all for the best, either.”
Television and other media not only set standards of beauty — they give teenagers ideas about how to attain those standards. Plastic surgery, in particular, gets a lot of attention in American pop culture.” (source Lancaster online)
As what you act like, I do not know. I blog about life through the sometimes rose, sometimes other tinted glasses of the entertainment industry. If you have something to say about where you are, work in, etc, then why don’t you blog about your life? That would be very interesting to hear. As a matter of fact, I have a great friend setting up a cultural experiment with today’s youth… might be cool to look into.
What is the “real” world? Is that Americana of the 50s? That was a pipe dream that never existed. Hard working dad drank his way through lunch; mom took valium to deal with her forced labor. What is real?
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I hardly blog about my life because I don’t see the point in it. What is real to me is what I am surrounded by. My point is that even though I can’t argue with statistics, that doesn’t mean everyone is like that. I was just pointing out not to make a stereotype of people my age and not have a narrow minded view.
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I don’t think I do, Ian. I did not ever say “everyone.” I did report statistics and the rush to… and I think you have a great pov, and urge you to share your thoughts on your own site. So proactive. And, if you think I have a narrow-minded view, well…
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I apologize for saying you are narrow minded. I guess I just got angry and didn’t think as clearly as I should have. You do point to things I haven’t thought of us as much or maybe I just wasn’t as aware of them. Again, I’m really sorry.
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No reason to apologize… I applaud you for speaking up.. which is why I suggested you consider blogging, for it seems you have a great deal to say. Write on. Keep up the words its all good, but yeah, in the limited discourse of interwebs how much can we really know one another? I appreciate your feedback, you’ve made me think… and that is always a good thing, right? I don’t know you, either. So hello. My name is Anne. It is nice to meet you…
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I think your comments are spot on, Princess. Depressing, yes, and yet still spot on — because life can BE depressing and it can BE dark. Especially life on the Internet. With porn so readily available to every Tom, Dick and Pervy, I believe it emboldens SOME to carry over what might otherwise be inappropriate into other Internet relationships. I see it all the time on my news feed — memes that come within a single hair of being actual porn. And this on the facebook pages of married men. Really? As for teens/plastic surgery — look up Elizabeth Hurley’s new bathing suit line for children. Four year old babies in string bikinis, wearing saucy little “come hither” smiles. It’s sick. As to Nymphomania … I don’t believe it is story telling. I believe it’s an exercise in erotic art. It goes without saying that the two aren’t always one and the same. Going to write now — thanks for keeping it real, as always.
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