Political - Oh, don’t get me started…

What Do You Think About Porn? May 30, 2008

Filed under: Life, Money, Political - Oh, don't get me started... — Just another writer... @ 1:59 pm

Note: This photo is the opposite of what I am talking about here…

I’ve been wondering about the value of porn lately, especially after finding out about RedTube.com, which I am not going to link to here, because it is so very, very NSFW, and I don’t want to be responsible for any headlines in someone’s local paper.

Anyway, I was looking at that site, which is like a porno YouTube, and I realized that I could create my very own adult site just by typing in a fetish and then embedding the videos that come up with their convenient embedding code. There are thousands of videos on there, and they are all completely free to look at. Some of them are 20 minutes long. No, I did not look at ALL of them. And no, I will not be creating my own adult site. Just in case you’re wondering.

So porn is free to look at and free to share. What does this mean for the people making the porn sites? Less money? I would think so. Who would pay for “new pics” and video when this is available?

What does it mean for the actors in the videos? I’m quite sure they get paid little to nothing. Which leads me to the question of WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND put their nibbles and bits (and their face) on the internet for everyone to see? I mean, talk about a career killer. Also, personally, I would really hate to be in the local grocery store and find out that people were talking about how I style my pubic hair. People think that the Internet is totally anonymous, but it doesn’t always turn out that way, does it?

I think we can agree that porn itself has become devalued. By my logic, this means that participating in porn devalues people more than it did before. At least before, you could rationalize that people did it for the money. If someone is doing it for free, they are either doing it for the kicks (and those are some mighty risky thrills there) or they don’t care who sees them doing what with who. This bugs me. Don’t the thrill seekers realize that this is a little more high stakes than the Mile High Club?

Of course, if the person’s face is not showing, it is not as risky. If you look at who’s face shows, it is more often than not the woman’s. Why is this? What does it say about the respect that woman has for herself?

Of course, the really big issue I have with this new era of online porn is that it is so darn accessible. I wish online communities would police themselves better. Even requiring a credit card charge of one cent would keep out lots of underage folks.

Photo: Paulo Fehlauer

I have a story that I am ashamed to tell.

My computer is located in the family room, and my nine year old is always supervised on it. He is only allowed to go to specific sites that have been preapproved. Anyway, one morning, he woke me up and asked if he could play on the computer. I mumbled “yes” and turned over and went back to sleep for an hour.

The next week, I realized that the Google search bar had been used to search for “naked girls”. My son was eight at the time. Believe me, naked girls aren’t what they used to be. I was appalled, and I wanted to hit myself upside the head for letting him on it for even a moment unsupervised. I hadn’t thought that at age eight, I needed to worry about my son being curious about these things. Even worse, it turns out that a friend of his had told him how to find the pictures.

Net nanny software is not a cure-all, and it is fantasy to think that most children are supervised on the computer. They aren’t. I can say that my child won’t be unsupervised again, but that’s not the point. What do we do about kid’s ideas about sex becoming warped at such a young age? Personally, I want the government out of my computer, but it certainly doesn’t seem like self-policing on the part of parents or Internet porn sites is taking place. So what to do? It’s a problem I don’t see going away.

I hate that some of my students, who have problems seeing the beauty that the future could hold for them, may be the people in free porn videos someday.

I dunno. This one has me stumped.

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Crushing on Design and Stuff January 19, 2008

Filed under: Political - Oh, don't get me started... — Just another writer... @ 10:32 pm

I have a crush on The Unapologetic Mexican’s site. Homes has some mad design skillz, and he’s not afraid to use them. The content is provocative. If you want to step into the locasphere (yes, I jacked this word), I highly recommend it.

It came to my attention when he posted about this insanity. I know this guy’s family, and when I asked what I could do, he had no idea. I have felt helplessly enraged. I’ll see Neza’s brother today, but I don’t know if I’ll have the courage (stupidity?) to mention it.

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Things About Immigration You May Not Have Considered December 16, 2007

Filed under: Political - Oh, don't get me started..., You're Reading It Now — Just another writer... @ 4:02 pm

Photo by julioetchart

In my last post, I mentioned how my husband was deported. Whenever I tell this to most people, they are surprised. Lots of people believe that if you are married, then Immigration will not separate you, or that simply being married will give a person legal status in the United States.

This is definitely not true. Even once a couple has married, the paperwork typically takes two years, and during that time, the spouse who doesn’t not have legal papers should not be living in the country.

So why was my husband in the United States, when, after all, he knew good and well it was illegal?

He was brought over to the US by his mom when he was 12 years old. He didn’t have a choice. As an adult, he no longer had relatives in Mexico, and ironically, did not even have proof of citizenship for that country, since his mother had misplaced his birth certificate. So he was a citizen of no country, really.

When they sent him back, he had the clothes on his back and the money in his wallet. He didn’t have family there or any other support system. Being pregnant at the time, I wasn’t very happy about the situation. INS seemed sympathetic, but was still unhelpful.

He came back, though. It wasn’t as easy as people portray it to be. Crossing the border was a life-threatening experience for him. He missed seeing his son born by one day. This life, because of an economic choice that his mother made.

We forget that the kids in our schools may not have legal papers. If they don’t, all of the blah blah teachers tell them about graduating, going to college and getting a good job means nothing. They can be the valedictorian of their class and still not have any other opportunity here other than working illegally. Depressing, right? When people tell them to “go back”, it is likely that they have nothing to “go back” to.

I wrote this so people could see another perspective. Even having experienced this, I have mixed feelings about immigration. It didn’t work out, and one thing is for certain—illegal immigrants don’t pay child support.

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How Living in a Small Town Can Broaden Your Horizons December 9, 2007

Filed under: Life, Political - Oh, don't get me started... — Just another writer... @ 4:46 pm

There have been many days when I wonder what on earth possessed me to move back to my hometown, which boasts a population of 30,000 and is situated precisely in the middle of nowhere. The thing is, however, I’ve come to realize that this is ultimately a good thing, even if this realization is a bit belated.

Here are five ways that living in the boondocks can be a good thing:

1. You are exposed to different world views. In the Big City, it was very easy to find friends who thought almost exactly like me. We would get together and talk about things that were important to us, but I have to say that not much real debate ever took place. Here in the boonies, it’s another story. Hardly anyone thinks the way that I do, so unless I want to become a different person (not an option, although some have tried it), I am forced to listen to other, sometimes very disagreeable, perspectives and be civil. Sometimes I see a point that I had never seen before. Other times, someone may see mine. Most of the time, we just agree to disagree, and appreciate each other for who we are. I like living in a place where worth isn’t tied to a political viewpoint, but rather, contribution to the community.

2. You may find yourself doing things you otherwise would never do. Last year, I went to a monster truck rally. While it’s not something that will become a hobby, it gives me another way to relate to some of my students. As I mentioned earlier, there are some cultural events here that are related to the university. What this means is that I will be watching an international jazz performance next month, and in April, will be seeing a Chinese dance troope. In the Big City, it is likely that I would have stayed in my groove of haunting the salsa clubs and not done much else.

3. You have to look beyond the ordinary. Maybe I’m beating the entertainment thing into the ground, but when the only movie theater has a cracked screen and only shows popular, but horrible movies, you have got to look elsewhere. What this means for me and many others is that alternative forms of entertainment have been created. We have a roller derby, and we can go and watch our friends break their noses while skating into other girls wearing skimpy clothing. We go geocaching, which is especially fun when you live in a wooded area with lots of historical places. However, this doesn’t work for everyone. People who cannot look beyond the ordinary find themselves spending Saturdays in the SuperWalmart for entertainment.

4. There is lots of natural beauty. I live in some apartments that are situated on a hill. Behind me is a pasture with a variety of cows, featuring a picturesque fence and some ancient ramshackle wooden buildings. The front looks down on a wooded area that has beautiful fall reds and oranges and is often covered with a coating of fog in the mornings. In the city, this would be a million dollar view. Even driving to work, I see historic houses, charming streams and huge trees.

5. You rethink what it means to be wealthy. How wealthy we perceive ourselves to be typically is based on an unconscious system of comparison. Where I live, a majority of people live below the poverty line. There are no neighborhoods full of mansions for me to envy. The apartments I live in would be quite ordinary in The Big City, but here, they are the best in town. Even being a teacher puts me near the top of the heap, unlike in the Big City, where teachers are perceived as being poor, and perhaps a bit stupid for not getting a better paying job. Moving here was a way to at least partially check out of the rat race and simply enjoy life.

It’s not all roses. There are many downsides to living in a small town. I’ll post about them later. Perhaps I should call this the Small Town series?

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Wu Lihong, Fighter of Both Bacterial and Human Pond Scum October 16, 2007

Filed under: Political - Oh, don't get me started... — Just another writer... @ 2:57 am

He doesn’t worry about replacing his light bulbs. He doesn’t debate on blogs about whether or not bicycling to work would make a significant difference in carbon emissions. He can’t do either one of these things, since he is in jail.

Wu Lihong protested the degradation of his local lake, Lake Tai, for a dozen years before he was imprisoned. He’d been interrogated before for his words, so he knew the risks he was taking, and chose to take them anyway. How many of us can say the same? Not me.

Article here.

This story says more than anything I could possibly write for Blog Action Day. It’s inspiring, a reminder to work for what you believe in, no matter what.

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