Life is this thing we live everyday. We feel/think things moment by moment. Some people think hundreds of thoughts in a given hour, which can easily kill sleep and peace. Others, like myself, have the ability to shut everything off at will. A willfull tune out...
Snap. Lights out...yeah, it's almost never that easy.
We're living, breathing, 24/7 operating sponges. The battery never goes out, unless we go out. Lights off - forever - at least on this horizontal plain.
I was watching something recently that hurt my eyes (lots of things hurt my eyes). Familiar images we see everyday, whether on tv, in print or on screen with mammoth surround sound.
This image in particular rattled me. Picture it:
A stage is set, sparkly, twinkly, almost showy. Spotlight ready on command, judges take the first row. As the roar of the music soars, a line of girls hit the dance floor, dressed in barely there spandex and lace, face full of makeup, lip gloss - cherry red. Eyes dead-set, hooked on you, they dance, strutting, humping the air.
Did I mention these are 5-7 year old girls.
Just when did this madness begin? Whether 5 - 15 - 25 - 35. Is it okay to see her this way? Should we sound the alarm? There should be no harm...right?
Not at first sight.
It's very normal to see a scantily dressed female. We see her this way everyday in print, on commercials, in music videos and on film. She's the talented starlet on a glossy magazine, you just watched her in that film on the weekend, the movie grossed 110 million, but there she is, barely covered in boxer briefs, a man's shirt tied provocatively, giving you "make love to the camera" eyes. She's also running across the beach in a skimpy bikini, holding hands with a fully dressed man, showing you what a vacation should be. She's in numerous music videos, almost naked, surrounded by impeccably, fully, dressed men, there to be "whatever or wherever" your imagination travels.
And she's again, on stage, just 6 years old. There to feed whom? What 6 year old is able to comprehend the situation at large. But perhaps it starts then. The conditioning, for all sexes.
Or have we as a culture come to a place where such sights and images blur into our reality or normalcy. Where a nude female, at whatever age, is nothing but "whatever".
Will this cycle of violence ever stop?
And it is violent. Not the way war is violent, but violent in a manner that is silent and multi-generational. A slow rape of morality and purity, for both women and men. Purity is an often misused word. It has less to do with sex and more to do with action and thought.
Everyone wants to be treated well, fairly and with respect. Only when motives are pure can that be the result. If we only consider "our own end" then motivation becomes impure. Respect and fairness hit the skids.
In regards to women, and men, the unseen/unspoken world of equally violated men and boys, how does one fix this...
Is it about power? Who cooks the books? Decides and approves the print, commercials, videos and film that will delights our senses? Images that continue to teach us what is "natural". But then again, that is an entirely different rabbit hole. Kinda.
The failure to see people, all people, as Human: living-breathing-feeling, having been born from the whom, with a soul and conscience, sharing and experiencing all the pain and joy life can bring will always escape the mind of a perpetrator.
An innocent infant/child, a teenage girl/boy, a young woman/man, a mature woman/man, your grandmother/father. There are no lines drawn in the sand when it comes to valuing human life: emotional, physical, mental, spiritual.
When you assault (rape, steal, kill) without consent, you are a perpetrator. Silence, getting into someone's car or stepping into someone's home does not signify agreement. There's no rationalizing. If your motives are impure, only to self-gratify at whatever expense, you're a Big Ugly Perp.
And titles mean nothing: Frat boy. Preacher. Teacher. Hollywood Elite. World Elite. Political Elite. Mom. Dad. Grandpa/ma. Sister. Brother. The list is endless. If you've taken to gratify your physical needs - You A Big Ugly Perp.
And if you are a BUP, and you believe no one is watching...
Someone is always watching.
Someone already knows.
And that Picture it image of the strutting six year old girls? Replace them with 6 year old boys, dressed in speedos, dancing like Chippendale dancers. How natural is that?
