Physical.
18 June 2008 @ 17:34 ; 0 CommentsI am finally done watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl starring Billie Piper. Yes, that Billie Piper- the one who unleashed the unfortunate tune "Because We Want To" (and some other guilty pleasures- i personally love "Day and Night"), married an old fogey about twice her age (and then divorced), starred in the revival of Doctor Who (and then left, before returning again for three episodes) and now this. It's sensational how her career path turned out, eh?
The show is, according to numerous web searches I come across, loosely based on a blog and, subsequently, two books by the secretive Belle Du Jour. In essence, it's a typical chick read adapted for media consumption. Pundits have called it the British equivalent of Sex and the City. While I do agree to a certain extent, the show's weakness (and perhaps strength) lies in the fact that it focuses - perhaps a tad too much for certain individuals - more on Belle's sexcapades and less so on the other aspects of her life. Hence it doesn't bring about the humanity and warmness that SATC was able to portray and bring across. The show feels a bit lopsided in that sense.
With the onslaught of shows bringing across the notion of sex onto our humble goggle boxes, it begs the question - how much, is too much? Sex is, and will always remain, one of the biggest taboo subjects that society doesn't really dare to bring up and talk about in public. Some will try to avoid the subject like a plague; while others simply turn a deaf ear and move on to other, seemingly less interesting topics to poach on. Is this how we view ourselves? We declare ourselves as people who are hip, trendy and are with the times but when it comes to matters like this, how quickly we clam up. And here I thought parents have already done their part to discuss about "the birds and the bees" once their children have reached that ripe age. Guess I was wrong.
As everyone becomes more in tune with technology, a lot of the subject matters that we deem improper to discuss in real life is made a lot easier to discover on the world wide web. This, of course, includes sex. Sex education has never been part and parcel in my life. My parents never really sat me down to talk about it, schools only emphasised on the dangers of unprotected sex, unwanted pregnancies and the virtues of waiting before doing it and the company that I often mix around with only poked fun of the matter and views the opposite sex predominantly as sex objects and nothing more. Is this how the youths of today are going to discover sex? Via mediums that we switch on every single day? Is it too "filthy" to broach until we have to rely on televisions and the Internet to open us up to that world before we deem enough is enough and really sit down to talk about it? Would it be too late by then? Would the damages had already been done?
I've always been in awe of people that were willing and daring to push the envelope and let certain stuff that other people think should be kept under their hats be let out in the open. Sure, they are setting themselves up for a witch hunt of some sorts but I applaud them. Mainly because they were brave to go down that route wherein others would normally shy away. We may be living in this new century but a lot of people are still too conservative to even want to talk about things that they know will eventually be stumbled upon and open up like Pandora's box. It's not that bad, is it? It's a facet of life. We shouldn't be ashamed of it. We should celebrate it! Of course, I'm not saying we should go out and screw the very first person we see but we should be free to talk about it.
Yes yes, talking about sex is too far off than talking about, say, shoes and relationships and life. But if we get ourselves used to the fact that sex is not something that we can simply dismiss and it will disappear and come back when we need it most, it will probably help us in the long run. Especially if you're still a virgin. Hey! I'm just saying. Knowledge is key.
