2007-01-19 16:30:07昕桐
something crossed my mind
According to the question "is our society obsessed OR repressed about sex?"
Film “Kinsey” used an historical event to explore the attitude society hold about sex. In the time of Alfred Kinsey, variation in human sexuality was not acknowledged. Sexual behaviours such as masturbation, oral and anal sex, homosexuality and children sexual activity are cultural taboo. In the film Dr. Kinsey wanted to show that there are many to be discovered in this field. Not only because the ignorance of sexual activities among university students intrigued his scientist consciousness, but also he felt that sex is absolutely repressed in modern society.
He was trying to bring this off as a pure scientific project by doing the scale, analyzing the sample, and drawn a certain conclusion. This becomes more obvious in his confrontation with his wife Mac about the irrelevancy of infidelity and his newly discovered bisexuality. Surely, there are feelings attached to sex. It prevents people from being hurt, but on the other hand, discouraging certain behaviours can be thought as a way of repression. So are feeling and self-control the invisible hand in terms of repression?
Also, within the general content of repression, biases do exist. Dr. Kinsey’s big success on his first volume about male sexual behaviour didn’t lead to an equivalent satisfaction when it came to its counterpart of female sexual behaviour, that is, when it comes to repression itself, biases are present among genders, races and of course sexualities.
The pop culture’s crave about sex is rather an ambiguous, confidential and individual activity than something which is unquestionable, open to discuss and public interrelation. Thinking of excessive Internet pornography, when individual identity is well-hidden behind some abstract IP addresses and id you choose, sexual desire then become exposed and booming. In another case, thinking of the fully covered adult movie-renting place, it gives those who are inside a sense of security and confidentiality, while it remains a place of taboo to the outsider. It leads to an idea of inherent obsession versus external repression.
The attitude of obsession and repression are opposed to one another, yet still interrelated. We can say because the repression does exist and because it is an external force, as long as we kept the obsession internally, we can become as obsessed as we can regardless the degrees of repression. On the other hand, because of the existence of repression, society becomes more tolerant to obsession as long as it keeps a low profile and doesn’t become a threat to our moral values.
It also seems that repression and obsession are two opposite driving forces to remain the overall state neutral. In this sense, putting repression to an end is not necessarily an ideal outcome. Right after recognition and liberation of homosexuality, AIDS was diagnosed. Is it a consequence of liberation or just a random historical contingency that could happen at any time?
Also, by thinking obsession and repression as two opposite driving forces, it makes more sense that the more repression we got externally, the more obsession we will possessed within in order to keep the overall neutral state. Homosexuality are historically strongly prohibited and largely under-estimated. Even now, although LGBT rights become more sensitive and aware to certain social group, overall, it is still much more repressed than those of heterosexual. This gives us a sense of why sexual activities among homosexuals are more obsessed in terms of its frequency, availability, variation and lack of fidelity. When repression reaches a certain level, the obsession rises respectively.
Considering a lot of lesbians are also feminists, they are the activists and radicals who are disputing subjects such as domestic violence, sexual liberation for women, LGBT rights, and gay marriage etc. Their identity as female and lesbian let them fall into both categories that suffer more repression than others. If we come back to Dr. Kinsey’s case, his unpleasant childhood and unsuccessful sexual intercourse with Mac could be an indirect cause of his later role as a sex activist. The repression he got from the reality made him more aware of the issue, which intrigued him to look for an explanation to it. To put this into a more general context, the repression provokes individual consciousness come into being, by acquiring related knowledge, we are gradually capable of using a resisting force to even out the effect that regression put on us, which inevitably become obsession itself.
Film “Kinsey” used an historical event to explore the attitude society hold about sex. In the time of Alfred Kinsey, variation in human sexuality was not acknowledged. Sexual behaviours such as masturbation, oral and anal sex, homosexuality and children sexual activity are cultural taboo. In the film Dr. Kinsey wanted to show that there are many to be discovered in this field. Not only because the ignorance of sexual activities among university students intrigued his scientist consciousness, but also he felt that sex is absolutely repressed in modern society.
He was trying to bring this off as a pure scientific project by doing the scale, analyzing the sample, and drawn a certain conclusion. This becomes more obvious in his confrontation with his wife Mac about the irrelevancy of infidelity and his newly discovered bisexuality. Surely, there are feelings attached to sex. It prevents people from being hurt, but on the other hand, discouraging certain behaviours can be thought as a way of repression. So are feeling and self-control the invisible hand in terms of repression?
Also, within the general content of repression, biases do exist. Dr. Kinsey’s big success on his first volume about male sexual behaviour didn’t lead to an equivalent satisfaction when it came to its counterpart of female sexual behaviour, that is, when it comes to repression itself, biases are present among genders, races and of course sexualities.
The pop culture’s crave about sex is rather an ambiguous, confidential and individual activity than something which is unquestionable, open to discuss and public interrelation. Thinking of excessive Internet pornography, when individual identity is well-hidden behind some abstract IP addresses and id you choose, sexual desire then become exposed and booming. In another case, thinking of the fully covered adult movie-renting place, it gives those who are inside a sense of security and confidentiality, while it remains a place of taboo to the outsider. It leads to an idea of inherent obsession versus external repression.
The attitude of obsession and repression are opposed to one another, yet still interrelated. We can say because the repression does exist and because it is an external force, as long as we kept the obsession internally, we can become as obsessed as we can regardless the degrees of repression. On the other hand, because of the existence of repression, society becomes more tolerant to obsession as long as it keeps a low profile and doesn’t become a threat to our moral values.
It also seems that repression and obsession are two opposite driving forces to remain the overall state neutral. In this sense, putting repression to an end is not necessarily an ideal outcome. Right after recognition and liberation of homosexuality, AIDS was diagnosed. Is it a consequence of liberation or just a random historical contingency that could happen at any time?
Also, by thinking obsession and repression as two opposite driving forces, it makes more sense that the more repression we got externally, the more obsession we will possessed within in order to keep the overall neutral state. Homosexuality are historically strongly prohibited and largely under-estimated. Even now, although LGBT rights become more sensitive and aware to certain social group, overall, it is still much more repressed than those of heterosexual. This gives us a sense of why sexual activities among homosexuals are more obsessed in terms of its frequency, availability, variation and lack of fidelity. When repression reaches a certain level, the obsession rises respectively.
Considering a lot of lesbians are also feminists, they are the activists and radicals who are disputing subjects such as domestic violence, sexual liberation for women, LGBT rights, and gay marriage etc. Their identity as female and lesbian let them fall into both categories that suffer more repression than others. If we come back to Dr. Kinsey’s case, his unpleasant childhood and unsuccessful sexual intercourse with Mac could be an indirect cause of his later role as a sex activist. The repression he got from the reality made him more aware of the issue, which intrigued him to look for an explanation to it. To put this into a more general context, the repression provokes individual consciousness come into being, by acquiring related knowledge, we are gradually capable of using a resisting force to even out the effect that regression put on us, which inevitably become obsession itself.