In an age of excess, when once sexual perversities – such as bondage, homosexuality, and three-some are slowly becoming a part of the main-stream American culture, it’s difficult for those outside the realm of the pop-mind-benders to understand how and why others are so fully and swiftly swayed by the seemingly sick twists of a civilization clearly lost in the sleazy glamour of its own decline. Using myself as an example, when I first walked into the Castro District of San Francisco in 1988, I was not prepared to delve into such abnormalities as BDSM or gang-bangs, yet, I had been somewhat primed for it: as a child of the great post-1960s sexual revelation, that saw its full flowering in the decadent disco era of the late-70s, sexual expression – of an even openly deviant type, was not shocking to me: I had grown up watching the often tasteless sex gags on “Three’s Company,” the constant jiggling on “Charlie’s Angels,” and the boundless celebration of hedonism with Hugh Hefner’s yearly ABC roller-skating and pajama party specials. That had laid the groundwork; on top – as a twisted, but consenting adult, more and more perversity entered my mind: usually in the form of porn, music, and an overall openness to all forms of sexuality. This can be hyper-realized in such progressive locals as New York City, Los Angeles and Hollywood, and San Francisco. Again, this is gradual – fortified in our heads by keeping like-minded company: dancing at clubs, attending main-stream films that push the boundaries (in my generation – this was epitomized by the success of “Basic Instinct) and parlaying our sexual visions into an all-encompassing political ideology. Suddenly, after a few years of this – nothing looks peculiar anymore; or off-limits. Then you are capable of accepting, and doing, almost anything. For, you have become immune, numbed, and rather shell-shocked. You have been traumatized, only – you don’t really know it; since the exposure to sexual material goes all the way back to childhood, it feels normal. Only, it’s affected you profoundly. Like myself – eventually, you find yourself doing things you never would have imagined.
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