irony
A month or two ago I got a message on flickr saying:
I was kind of confused because I didn't see how anyone could have possibly looked at any of my photos and thought, "yep, now that's healthy!" So I checked it out and found that the photo they wanted was in which [B] is giving [N] a massage on the massage table in the incredible penthouse apartment in Nob Hill - in the building where "Vertigo" was filmed - full of superexpensive furniture and art and a stunning view of the whole bay, where we somehow found ourselves, last January, thanks to the invitation of friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, partying with the San Francisco sex positive crowd. There were kama sutra books everything and futons in the bedrooms where people where practicing what they'd learned therein; there were bowls of little silver nitrous thingies (they were all empty, alas) and tons of booze and joints being passed all around and a consant stream of cokeheads in and out of the bathroom - and there was also an extravagantly tender hunk of roast beef (I heard it was delicious but didn't have much of an appetite myself); and there were people in masks and chaps and leather and lace and all that kind of stuff, and they were beating each other with whips in the hallway. So we were just standing there thinking, "how the fuck did we end up here?" and then we decided to take advantage of the massage table, at least, and I took this photo...and well, apparently it's "the picture of health."
I uploaded it as directed, and labelled it "massage at sex positive party." And a few weeks later I received an email saying that it was up on the website:
They had edited the caption to just: "massage." And written a little blurb about why massages are healthy. Not shocking, though sad, that they couldn't also have written also about why a sex positive attitude and lifestyle is healthy! (Not that I actually, in fact, think that, in this very subculturally specific sense of the term, it is**...but still, compared to the other attitudes about sex that are out there, I guess I have to sort of support it.)
And here's the funniest part...starting today, for a month, they're going to be broadcasting this and all the other photos on a 23-foot screen in Times Square. So if you happen to be there, look around for a few minutes; maybe you'll catch an erotically complicated image, captured by drug-addled me, of drug-addled [B] giving drug-addled [N] a massage in an obscenely expensive apartment in San Francisco in the midst of an orgiastic decadent druggy s/m freakshow spectacle (you have to image that part, but it's there)...glowing monstrously above Times Square on a billboard advertising a "healthy world" initiative sponsored by General Electric.
--
**I know it sounds weird and absurd that I'd be annoyed by the Sex Positive (sub)culture/movement. Why would I have a problem with a movement that holds that everyone should be able to have sex with whomever they want but should do so ethically and safely, that people shouldn't be persecuted legally or socially for their sexualities, that knowledge and education should be accurate and available, that sex in all its different formations should be celebrated and enjoyed rather than shamed and judged and hidden? Well, the thing is, like the Sex Positives, I think safety and education and information are all good and important, and I believe (perhaps more strongly than I believe anything else), that everyone should be able to have sex however, whenever, with any and as many partners as they (all mutually, obviously) want, but I just can't deal with people being so fucking happy about it. I can't deal with the Sex Positive take on sadomasochism, for example, that s/m is all about being "safe, sane, and consensual," all about communication and respect and pleasure. And toys and costumes. And ugly people. [M] and I have talked about how we're going to start the Sex Negative movement - we'd have to reclaim the term from Sex Positive takes on the sex-negativity of mainstream culture - which doesn't escape or avoid, or let the Christians and Republicans coopt, the uses and importance to sex of shame, silence, self-destructiveness, pain, sadness, failure, degradation, dislike, etc. Leo Bersani would be our patron saint, for his eloquent defense of "the inestimable value of sex as - at least in certain of its ineradicable aspects - anticommunal, antiegalitarian, antinurturning, antiloving." (That's from his essay "Is the Rectum a Grave?" which should you be interested - which you should be, it's really good and important - you can find in this book.)
Dear Flickr Member:
We saw [this photo] of yours and really love it!
We selected your photo based on its quality and subject matter, which we believe is ideal for our project, "Picture a Healthy World."
On February 14, 2006, GE Healthcare will launch a worldwide initiative to encourage people to share photos and stories of how they stay healthy.
Go to www.ge.com/health and add your photo by February 10, 2006 so your image can be displayed in Times Square in celebration of World Health Day.
Thanks for your help!
The GE Healthcare Team
I was kind of confused because I didn't see how anyone could have possibly looked at any of my photos and thought, "yep, now that's healthy!" So I checked it out and found that the photo they wanted was in which [B] is giving [N] a massage on the massage table in the incredible penthouse apartment in Nob Hill - in the building where "Vertigo" was filmed - full of superexpensive furniture and art and a stunning view of the whole bay, where we somehow found ourselves, last January, thanks to the invitation of friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, partying with the San Francisco sex positive crowd. There were kama sutra books everything and futons in the bedrooms where people where practicing what they'd learned therein; there were bowls of little silver nitrous thingies (they were all empty, alas) and tons of booze and joints being passed all around and a consant stream of cokeheads in and out of the bathroom - and there was also an extravagantly tender hunk of roast beef (I heard it was delicious but didn't have much of an appetite myself); and there were people in masks and chaps and leather and lace and all that kind of stuff, and they were beating each other with whips in the hallway. So we were just standing there thinking, "how the fuck did we end up here?" and then we decided to take advantage of the massage table, at least, and I took this photo...and well, apparently it's "the picture of health."
I uploaded it as directed, and labelled it "massage at sex positive party." And a few weeks later I received an email saying that it was up on the website:
They had edited the caption to just: "massage." And written a little blurb about why massages are healthy. Not shocking, though sad, that they couldn't also have written also about why a sex positive attitude and lifestyle is healthy! (Not that I actually, in fact, think that, in this very subculturally specific sense of the term, it is**...but still, compared to the other attitudes about sex that are out there, I guess I have to sort of support it.)
And here's the funniest part...starting today, for a month, they're going to be broadcasting this and all the other photos on a 23-foot screen in Times Square. So if you happen to be there, look around for a few minutes; maybe you'll catch an erotically complicated image, captured by drug-addled me, of drug-addled [B] giving drug-addled [N] a massage in an obscenely expensive apartment in San Francisco in the midst of an orgiastic decadent druggy s/m freakshow spectacle (you have to image that part, but it's there)...glowing monstrously above Times Square on a billboard advertising a "healthy world" initiative sponsored by General Electric.
--
**I know it sounds weird and absurd that I'd be annoyed by the Sex Positive (sub)culture/movement. Why would I have a problem with a movement that holds that everyone should be able to have sex with whomever they want but should do so ethically and safely, that people shouldn't be persecuted legally or socially for their sexualities, that knowledge and education should be accurate and available, that sex in all its different formations should be celebrated and enjoyed rather than shamed and judged and hidden? Well, the thing is, like the Sex Positives, I think safety and education and information are all good and important, and I believe (perhaps more strongly than I believe anything else), that everyone should be able to have sex however, whenever, with any and as many partners as they (all mutually, obviously) want, but I just can't deal with people being so fucking happy about it. I can't deal with the Sex Positive take on sadomasochism, for example, that s/m is all about being "safe, sane, and consensual," all about communication and respect and pleasure. And toys and costumes. And ugly people. [M] and I have talked about how we're going to start the Sex Negative movement - we'd have to reclaim the term from Sex Positive takes on the sex-negativity of mainstream culture - which doesn't escape or avoid, or let the Christians and Republicans coopt, the uses and importance to sex of shame, silence, self-destructiveness, pain, sadness, failure, degradation, dislike, etc. Leo Bersani would be our patron saint, for his eloquent defense of "the inestimable value of sex as - at least in certain of its ineradicable aspects - anticommunal, antiegalitarian, antinurturning, antiloving." (That's from his essay "Is the Rectum a Grave?" which should you be interested - which you should be, it's really good and important - you can find in this book.)
posted by Abigail at 7:17 PM
1 Comments:
http://www.sfist.com/archives/2006/04/25/go_team_fisters.php
it's not you, but it's where you may be!
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