I am genuinely surprised (this post contains talk about sex)...

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

I am genuinely surprised (this post contains talk about sex)…

…by how many people on tumblr post nudity and/or sexually explicit images/text/whatever to their pages.

Like, it doesn’t bother me, and I don’t feel as if the moral fabric of civilization is fraying or whatever, but it’s interesting to see sexually explicit imagery move so far into the mainstream that people are willing to use it in public discussions of their sexual lives and proclivities. (i.e., when I was in college, one would talk abstractly about being gay or straight or bi or whatever, and one might even talk abstractly about what one was ‘into,’ but it’s hard to imagine any of my college friends posting a gif that would end up on my dash showcasing what they were into, let alone posting revealing and/or nude photographs of themselves, all of which seems to be de rigeur on tumblr.)

In general, by the way, I guess this is good news. People feel a lot of shame about sex, and they shouldn’t, although of course it is important to remember that images posted to the Internet are permanent, and may be seen by your children and their children etc., in addition to your employer and whomever else. (I realize that on some level that’s equivalent to saying to someone 30 years ago, “Don’t come out of the closet because you might lose your job,” but being gay is not quite the same thing as choosing to post naked pictures of yourself.)

I’m also of the unfashionable opinion that people shouldn’t start sexualizing themselves or the world around them until/unless they want to, but I think normalizing sex instead of treating it as This Terrible Secret Dirty Thing ends up making for healthier relationships between people and their bodies.

I feel awkward even saying this, but presumably anyone reading this is aware the traditional barrier between Porn and Not Porn is breaking down.

(It belatedly occurs to me that if you swap every mention of sex or sexuality in this post with the words “Doctor Who,” it is still mostly accurate. Like, I am genuinely surprised by how much Doctor Who content is posted to tumblr, and I do think it’s wonderful that the people who post such content feel no shame or embarrassment about it, but of course they should be mindful that future employers may discover they have a Known Whovian on the payroll.)